Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture (Harper Perennial Olive Editions) - Softcover

Gay, Roxane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0063459779 ISBN 13: 9780063459779

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2025

Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller

"This is a devastating book, heartbreaking in how familiar and relatable each story is--yet there's power and solidarity in it, too."--Shondaland

Edited and with an introduction by Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling and deeply beloved author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, an anthology of powerful first-person essays from writers including Gabrielle Union, Brandon Taylor, and Lyz Lenz fearlessly that unapologetically tackles sensitive topics of rape, assault, and harassment--now available as a special Harper Perennial Olive Edition.

In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied" for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics, including actor Ally Sheedy and writers Amy Jo Burns, Booker Prize-nominated Brandon Taylor, and Lyz Lenz.

Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. Like Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me, Not That Bad will resonate with every reader, saying "something in totality that we cannot say alone."

Harper Perennial Olive Editions are exclusive small-format editions of some of our bestselling and celebrated titles, and feature unique hand-drawn cover illustrations. All Olive Editions are available for a limited time only.

About this title

About the Author

Roxane Gay is the author of the New York Times bestselling essay collection Bad Feminist; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the New York Times bestselling memoir Hunger; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, for which she also writes the "Work Friend" column, she has written for Time, McSweeney's, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harper's Bazaar, Tin House, and Oxford American, among many other publications. Her work has also been selected for numerous Best anthologies, including Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018 and Best American Mystery Stories 2014. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. In 2018 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and holds the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University's Institute for Women's Leadership.

From the Back Cover

In this valuable and timely anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay has collected original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, and bullied" for speaking out.

Highlighting the stories of well-known actors, writers, and experts, as well as new voices being published for the first time, Not That Bad covers a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation and street harassment.

Often deeply personal and always unflinchingly honest, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that "not that bad" must no longer be good enough.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0063459779
• ISBN 13: 9780063459779
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304