Melissa Febos is an American writer and professor.[1] She is the author of the memoirsWhip Smart (2010)[2][3] andThe Dry Season (2025)[4] and the essay collectionsAbandon Me (2017),Girlhood (2021), andBody Work (2022).
Febos grew up inFalmouth, Massachusetts. Her father was a sea captain, and her mother a therapist. She left home at 16 after passing theGED, moved toBoston, and worked at an assortment of jobs including as a boatyard hand and as achambermaid. She attended night courses atHarvard Extension School, then enrolled inThe New School and moved toNew York City in August 1999. She later earned anMFA atSarah Lawrence College.[3]
Febos is the author ofWhip Smart (St Martin's Press 2010), amemoir of her work as a professionaldominatrix while she was studying atThe New School.[2][5][6][7]Her second book, the lyric essay collectionAbandon Me, was published byBloomsbury Publishing on February 28, 2017.[8]Abandon Me was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist and a Publishing Triangle Award finalist,[9] and one of the best reviewed books of 2017.[10] Her third book and second essay collection,Girlhood, was published byBloomsbury Publishing on March 30, 2021.[11][12] It was a national bestseller.[13] DescribingGirlhood,The New York Times wrote, "The aim of this book, though, is not simply to tell about her own life, but to listen to the pulses of many others’...This solidarity puts “Girlhood” in a feminist canon that includes Febos’s idol,Adrienne Rich, andMaggie Nelson’s theory-minded masterpieces: smart, radical company, and not ordinary at all."[14] A craft book,Body Work, was published by Catapult in 2022.[15]
Febos was the co-curator, with Rebecca Keith, of the monthly Mixer Reading and Music series on theLower East Side for ten years.[16] A four-timeMacDowell Colony fellow, she has received fellowships fromVirginia Center for the Creative Arts,Vermont Studio Center, and theBread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her essays have won awards fromPrairie Schooner andStoryQuarterly, and for five years she was on the Board of Directors ofVida: Women in Literary Arts. Febos has contributed to publications such asThe New York Times,The Paris Review,Salon,Bomb,Hunger Mountain,Prairie Schooner,The Kenyon Review,Tin House,Granta,Post Road,Dissent,Vogue,The Believer,The Sewanee Review,Bitch Magazine andThe Chronicle of Higher Education.[3]
Febos has taught atSUNY Purchase College, theGotham Writers' Workshop,The New School,Sarah Lawrence College,New York University, andUtica College. Until 2020, she was an Associate Professor and MFA Director atMonmouth University.[17] Febos currently works as a Full Professor at theUniversity of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.[18]
Whip Smart resulted in a front-page appearance on the cover of theNew York Post, a feature interview onNPR's radio programFresh Air withTerry Gross, a guest appearance onAnderson Cooper's talk show, and an appearance onCNN'sDr. Drew show.
Abandon Me was one of the best reviewed essay collections of 2017 and aLambda Literary Award finalist.[10]The New Yorker called it "mesmerizing" and wrote that "the sheer fearlessness of the narrative is captivating."[19]
Girlhood was featured onMorning Joe onMSNBC,[20] and on multipleNPR programs.Girlhood won the 2021National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism.[21]
Her fourth book,Body Work, was a national bestseller andLos Angeles Times Bestseller.[22]
Febos isqueer. She lives in Iowa with her wife, the poetDonika Kelly.[23]
She spoke at House of SpeakEasy's Seriously Entertaining program about her childhood and rethinking often-normalized experiences of bullying.[24]
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