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With fierce new works from writers you know by heart — New York Times’ bestselling novelist Caroline Leavitt, NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, award-winning poet Phillis Levin, stand-up comic Leighann Lord, Founder and Director of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop Teri Rizvi, playwright Beth Blatt, screenwriter Pamela Katz, activist and author Leslie Morgan Steiner, Rabbi Marisa Elana James, Pastor Jamie Spriggs, activist and teacher Ebony Murphy-Root — alongside other familiar and emerging authors whose original pieces were commissioned, Fast Fierce Women  (Woodhall Press, 2022) exemplifies how strength, focus, passion, wit, resilience, rage, loyalty, talent and love are all aspects of ferocity.

“A fierce woman is fierce in belief, in joy, in compassion, in commitment, in intelligence, in wit, and in community,” editor Gina Barreca writes in the introduction. “She’s capable of not only finding her own way but of creating a path for others; she doesn’t just break down doors, she tears down walls.”

Barreca has written 10 books and edited 11 others. Hailed as “smart and funny” by People magazine and “Very, very funny. For a woman,” by Dave Barry, Gina Barreca was deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine. Novelist Wally Lamb said, “Barreca’s prose, in equal measures, is hilarious and humane."

The essays of at least 10 writers affiliated with the Erma Bombeck Workshop are included in the collection: Amy Hartl Sherman, Leighann Lord, Suzette Martinez Standring, Patricia Wynn Brown, Cindy Eastman, Lisa Smith Molinari, Bonnie Jean Feldkamp, Barbara Cooley, Yvonne Ransel and Teri Rizvi.

Barreca will be part of the faculty at the Oct. 20-22 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, where she and the contributors will sign books. Order the book here. For those interested in attending the workshop, you may register here.