Joni Mitchell Inspires and Unsettles a Memoirist’s Life
Reverence for Joni Mitchell is clear in Paul Lisicky’s memoir. So, too, is an artistic courage that both inspires and unsettles him.
Megan Volpert
Megan Volpert is author or editor of over a dozen books on pop culture, including a Georgia Author of the Year winner and two Lambda Literary Award finalists. Her newest work is Why Alanis Morissette Matters (University of Texas Press, 2025) and she has edited anthologies of philosophical essays on the music of Tom Petty and the television series RuPaul’s Drag Race. In addition to her integrative medicine practice, Volpert's other gigs include teaching at Kennesaw State University and Reinhardt University, and a fellowship at the American Institute for Philosophical and Cultural Thought.
Women in 1990s Rock Music Are Far from Dead
Tanya Pearson’s Pretend We’re Dead is both hopeful and challenging, and proves that the spirit of 1990s women in rock music is still alive and fighting.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Academia/Books/Culture/Economics/Film/History/Music/Performing Arts/Politics/Reviews
Punk Is a Virus That’s Infected Everything
Tracing punk’s mutations, Iain Ellis’ Punk Beyond the Music is a robust and kaleidoscopic survey of this once-outsider subculture’s continuing, pervasive influence.
Alanis Morissette and the Division and Commodification of Women in 1990s Rock (excerpt)
This excerpt from the forthcoming book, Why Alanis Morissette Matters leaves a most righteous “trail of carnage” in its wake.
‘How Women Made Music’ Paints a Large, Colorful Canvas
From the contributors of NPR’s Turning the Tables series, How Women Made Music paints a large, colorful canvas from years of research and dialogue.
Naomi Novik’s Fantastical Feminist Worlds
Award-winning speculative fiction writer Naomi Novik’s short stories are collected in Buried Deep, revealing the range of her fantastical feminist worlds.
Books/Comics/Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/History/Internet/Media/Politics/PopMatters Picks/Reviews/Technology
The Art of Psychological Warfare
From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.
When Silence Roars: Rock Widows on When the Music Stops
The interviews of rock widows in I Can’t Remember If I Cried reveal life for these women when their husbands exit the stage, the music stops, and the silence roars
This Lesbian Fashion History Is a Perfectly Tailored Fit
With Unsuitable, lesbian fashion historian Eleanor Medhurst stitches fashion, gender, and sexuality into a perfectly tailored, comprehensive and inclusive book.
‘Dirty Dancing’ in Pre-Roe v. Wade America
Andrea Warner’s book on Dirty Dancing in pre- Roe v. Wade America, The Time of My Life, is the deep dive into the film we need in these times.
‘Suffering Sappho!’ Unghosts the Lesbian in Lesbian Camp
Lesbian camp is not a thing of the past. It evolves and remains relevant to subsequent generations. Suffering Sappho! Unghosts the lesbian in lesbian camp.
‘Tokens’ Pays Attention to the Moneyish Side of Things
Tokens is about all those things that are moneyish—monetary-like exchanges that are tracked and programmable, shady and social, hard coded and beyond borders.