Nasty Women – the book: 'Trump and Piers Morgan are top of the list to get a copy'
A collection of essays on women’s lives published by 404Ink steals from the president for its title, and has been endorsed by Margaret Atwood
The day Trump’s Muslim ban began in January, publisher Laura Jones was editing an essay by Zeba Talkhani about being a good Muslim. She reached the part where Talkhani, who lives in the UK, recounted being told by a man: “When Trump’s in power he’s going to ban you from entering the US.” “I just thought: ‘Oh my God; that happened today,’” Jones says. “That actually happened.”
You may not have heard of Talkhani, or Jen McGregor, Mel Reeve or Katie Muriel. They’re all “nasty women”: some of the 20 writers making their debut in a new collection of essays looking at what it is to be a woman today. They may be young and unknown, but none of the writers hold back, tackling topics as heavy and complex as contraception, sexual assault, weight, class and race. Some are furious, like Ren Aldridge’s fierce deconstruction of sexism in punk (an essay called “Touch me again and I will fucking kill you”); others are sad, like Reeve’s reflections on the aftermath of rape, or McGregor’s essay about developing osteopenia from Depo-Provera, the contraception injection.
