Jennifer Baumgardner – Jill Grinberg Literary Management

Jennifer Baumgardner

Jennifer Baumgardner is a journalist, filmmaker, lecturer, and author of numerous books about contemporary feminism, including Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism (co-authored with Amy Richards), F’em!: Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls, and Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics. With Richards, she is also the cofounder of the speaker’s bureau Soapbox Inc, and was formerly Executive Director at The Feminist Press. She is founder and editor-in-chief of Dottir Press, whose mission is passing on and building upon feminist intellectual and creative legacies. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Agent

Jill Grinberg

Manifesta (20th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Updated with a New Preface): Young Women, Feminism, and the Future

The twentieth anniversary release of a groundbreaking feminist text: a powerful indictment of the current state of feminism, and a passionate call to arms

Today, people of all genders strive to uphold the goals of feminism and proudly embrace the term, but the movement itself is often beset with confusion and questions. Does personal empowerment happen at the expense of politics? Is feminism for the few — or does it speak to the many as they bump up against daily injustices? What does it mean to say “the future is female”?

In 2000, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards’s Manifesta set out to chronicle the feminism of their generation. They brilliantly revealed the snags in various hubs of the movement — from antipathy to the term itself to the hyped hatred of feminism’s imperfect spokespeople — and showed that these snags had not imperiled the feminist cause. The book went on to inspire a new generation of readers and has become a classic of contemporary feminist literature.

In the decades since Manifesta was published, the world has changed in ways both promising and terrifying. This twentieth anniversary edition of Manifesta features an updated bibliography, timeline, and resources, as well as a new introduction by the authors. Expertly unpacking both early women’s history and the Third Wave feminism that seeded the active righteous intersectionality we see today, Manifesta remains an urgent and necessary tool to make sense of our past, present, and future.

Praise for Manifesta

“[The authors] have sorted out the fruits of this wave of feminism—intended and unintended, media mess and truth—for a new generation. With wit and honesty, Manifesta shows us the building blocks of the future of this longest revolution.” ―Gloria Steinem

“Complete with appendixes to teach novices the nuts-and-bolts of community organizing, this book is a reasoned and passionate call to action and an exciting how-to guide for both burgeoning and seasoned Third Wave feminists. Recommended for all high school, college, and public libraries.” –Library Journal

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date

March 10, 2020

Age Category

Adult

Genre

Nonfiction/Feminism

Rights

FSG

F'em! Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls

These days, what does a feminist look like? With trademark wit and intelligence, Jennifer Baumgardner examines what it means to be a complex person in a culture of contradictions. Through personal essays and interviews with feminists close to her heart—from Riot Grrrls’ Kathleen Hanna and Bust-founder Debbie Stoller to Ani DiFranco and Shelby Knox—Baumgardner trains her gimlet eye on sexuality, procreation, patriarchy, and purity. Funny and smart, F’em! Contends that the biggest liberation movement in history matters. To those who don’t agree? Baumgardner says, “F’em!”

Praise for F’em

“This new collection of essays and interviews by the fearlessly intelligent Jennifer Baumgardner is the book you want to give your sister, your best friend, the college roommate who invited you to your first Take Back the Night and your brother who has two teenage daughters. I hope someone gives it to Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Sarah Palin. The book is called F ’em, but the writing gets an A+.”–Veronica Chambers, journalist and author of Kickboxing Geishas and The Joy of Doing Things Badly

Publisher

Seal Press/Hachette

Publication Date

September 27, 2011

Age Category

Adult

Genre

Nonfiction/Feminism

Rights

Hachette

Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics

In a society supposedly grown more open and accepting in the wake of Stonewall, women’s liberation, and AIDS activism, what can it mean that bisexuality continues to be marginalized by both gay and straight cultures and dismissed as either a phase or, worse, a cop-out? With intimacy and humor, the acclaimed author and activist Jennifer Baumgardner discusses her own experience as a bisexual and the struggle she has undergone to reconcile the privilege she has garnered as a women who is perceived as straight with the empowerment and satisfaction she’s derived from her relationships with women. Part memoir, part pop-culture study, part feminist theory, Look Both Ways is a compelling and current examination of bisexual lives lived secretly and openly and an exploration of the lessons learned by writers, artists, an activists who have refused the either/or paradigm defended by both the gay and straight communities.

Praise for Look Both Ways

“Part memoir, part pop-culture study, part analysis of a bisexual community (including Anne Heche, even), this significant contribution to sociosexual and gender studies helps build bridges from feminism to the gay rights movement.” –Booklist

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date

February 20, 2007

Age Category

Adult

Genre

Nonfiction/Gender & Sexuality

Rights

FSG

Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism

“What can I do to help?” A perennial concern to many, this question became the mantra repeated coast to coast in the wake of 9/11; and while it rang loud, it most often went unanswered. Grassroots is Manifesta co-authors Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner’s reply. Passionate activists who’ve traveled the globe from Green Bay to Havana in their efforts to raise awareness, Jennifer and Amy know that whether you are concerned about the environment, human-rights violations in Tibet, the WTO, sweatshop labor, or the ongoing repercussions of the war in Iraq, we all possess tools to make a difference.

Based on the authors’ own experiences and those of the large number of everyday activists with whom they work on a regular basis, Grassroots shows us how to move beyond passive activism such as monetary donation and writing congresspeople to make a far-reaching impact from a personal vantage point.

Drawing heavily on individual stories as examples, Grassroots brims with clear guidelines and models for activism that illustrate how to set realistic goals and follow up by identifying and focusing on the resources most readily available to you—be it at the office copier of the family living room. Whether you are a student of a stay-at-home mom, an artist or a corporate professional, Grassroots illustrates how anyone, no matter how much or little they believe they can offer, can become involved, and shows that even small efforts have the potential to produce a sea change in our lives.

Praise for Grassroots

“To that nice young woman in Liberty, Missouri, who asked me how she could become a world-changing activist: Read Grassroots!” ―Barbara Ehrenreich

“A booster shot of inspiration, Grassroots reaches out to activists of all generations. Jennifer and Amy have not only shared the secrets of their and others’ success but just as importantly, they’ve recorded the mistakes they’ve all made. I related to so much of it—especially the mistakes—and by showing the fits and starts of real life activism, Grassroots will help readers to both sustain their enthusiasm for social justice work and be more effective as a result.” ―Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date

January 12, 2005

Age Category

Adult

Genre

Nonfiction/Activism

Rights

FSG