"[Harding] is ambitious, taking on topics that others avoid, in life and in writing, and then fluidly providing us with not answers but beautiful explications of an unending question."
-Jo Ann Beard
ABOUT
Kate Harding is the author of Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture, a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and one of LitHub's "new feminist classics." With Samhita Mukhopadhyay, she is co-editor of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America and co-host of the 12-episode podcast “Feminasty.” Previously, she collaborated with Anna Holmes and Amanda Hess on the feminist humor encyclopedia The Book of Jezebel and with Marianne Kirby on Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere. She was the founding editor of Shapely Prose (2007-2010) and has published creative and critical work in Sonora Review, Dalhousie Review, Indiana Review, Electric Literature, The Millions, Room, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, among others.
Kate has been Distinguished Visiting Writer at Cornell College; Assistant Director of the Women's
Resource Center at Cornell University; a sought-after college speaker on body image and sexual violence; a small press editor; and a community creative writing teacher. A graduate of University of Toronto and the M.F.A. in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, she succesfully defended her dissertation in Creative Nonfiction at Bath Spa University in May 2019. Her next book, VICTIM COMPLEX: ON SNOWFLAKES, WITCH HUNTS, AND THE CULT OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, will be published by St. Martin's Press.
BOOKS
TEACHING
Writing the Hermit Crab Essay (online), StoryStudio Chicago, 2018
Live Lit: The Personal Is Political, Cornell College, 2017
Starting the Personal Essay, The Loft, 2016
Writing Grief in Lyric and Narrative (team taught with poet Paula Cisewski), The Loft, 2015
The Contemporary Personal Essay, StoryStudio Chicago, 2012
Creative Non-fiction Workshop, StoryStudio Chicago, 2012
Starting the Story, StoryStudio Chicago, 2011
Blogging for Business and Pleasure StoryStudio Chicago, 2010
Developing a Mind for Dialogue, Northwestern Summer Writers' Workshop, 2011
The Writer’s Online Presence, Northwestern Summer Writers' Workshop, 2010
The Writer in Cyberspace, Northwestern Summer Writers' Workshop, 2009
SPEAKING
2019
Celebration: Women Write the World
2018
UntitledTown Book and Author Festival
Slippery Rock University
University of New Hampshire
2017
Miami Book Fair
Texas Book Festival
UntitledTown Book and Author Festival
Cornell University
University of New Mexico
Alma College
2016
Tulane University
Wake Forest University
Purdue University
Manchester University
Cornell University
Luther College
If you're interested in booking Kate for a speaking engagement, please contact Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.
WRITING
Electric Literature: A Master Class in Women's Rage
Electric Literature: Forget ‘Handmaid’s Tale’: ‘Red Clocks’ is the Reproductive Dystopia We Need To Read Right Now
Huffington Post: Stop Asking Powerful Women to Fix Bad Men
NBC News: The Intergenerational Feminist Divide Over #MeToo is Both Painful and Necessary
The Guardian: What Does the U.S. Election Result Say About Misogyny?
Mic: 101 Reasons Why White Women Might Have Voted for Donald Trump
U.S. News: A Reason to Thank Trump
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: So Misunderstood
MEDIA
VIDEO
AUDIO
hosted by Kate Harding and Samhita Mukhopadhyay
PRAISE
"It may seem counterintuitive to describe a 259-page book about rape as funny, uplifting, enlightening, gender-inclusive, and sex-positive. But those who have followed Kate Harding over her decade-long career — first as the founder of her own blog, Shapely Prose, then through her work at Jezebel and Salon.com’s Broadsheet — know her for her fierce wit and her ability to dive into complex social issues and emerge with simple, sane, humane truths."
-Amy Benfer, Barnes and Noble Review
"There are good books, well-worn and dog-eared, that you pass around among your friends with a single-line review: 'You have to read this.' And then there are important books. Books that capture a cultural moment. Books that have the power to change attitudes and influence thinking. Kate Harding's Asking For It is both kinds of book."
-Winnipeg Free Press
"Accented by snark, punctuated by profanity, and sprinkled with pop culture and literary references, Harding’s writing is accessible in addition to being weighty and informative."
-Rewire.News
Paste Magazine, 20 Best Nonfiction Books of 2017
Finalist, Minnesota Book Award
ALA Feminist Task Force's Amelia Bloomer List