Melissa Febos
AUTHOR

Melissa Febos

Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Melissa Febos is the national bestselling author of five books, including Whip Smart, Abandon Me, Girlhood—which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative. Her fifth book, The Dry Season, is forthcoming on June 3, 2025 from Alfred A. Knopf. Her awards and fellowships include those from the Guggenheim Foundation, LAMBDA Literary, the National Endowment for the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The British Library, The Black Mountain Institute, MacDowell, the Bogliasco Foundation, The Barbara Deming Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, The American Library in Paris, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Sun, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Essays, Vogue, and New York Review of Books. Febos is a full professor at the University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City with her wife, the poet Donika Kelly.
Read more Read less
You're getting a free audiobook


You're getting a free audiobook.

$14.95 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Abandon Me

Most popular
View Details

Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time


All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.

Best Sellers

Product List
  • Regular price: $19.63 or 1 credit

    Sale price: $19.63 or 1 credit

    • The Radical Power of Personal Narrative
    • By: Melissa Febos
    • Narrated by: Melissa Febos
    • Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
    • Release date: 03-15-22
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 115 ratings

    Regular price: $17.19 or 1 credit

    Sale price: $17.19 or 1 credit

    Included in Plus membership
  • Regular price: $18.59 or 1 credit

    Sale price: $18.59 or 1 credit

    • A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex
    • By: Melissa Febos
    • Length: 9 hrs
    • Release date: 06-03-25
    • Language: English
    • Not rated yet

    Regular price: $18.20 or 1 credit

    Sale price: $18.20 or 1 credit

    • The True Story of a Secret Life
    • By: Melissa Febos
    • Narrated by: Melissa Febos
    • Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
    • Release date: 12-07-21
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 60 ratings

    Regular price: $21.49 or 1 credit

    Sale price: $21.49 or 1 credit

  • Regular price: $19.45 or 1 credit

    Sale price: $19.45 or 1 credit

Are you an author?

Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.