Feminist Book Club puts feminist theory into feminist action.
Our Feminism
Our feminism is radically inclusive and intersectional. We prioritize voices from marginalized populations whenever and wherever we can. We believe Black lives matter, trans women are women, water is life, science is real, abolition is necessary, no human is illegal, and healthcare is a human right. We seek to dismantle the kyriarchy on an individual and structural level, one book, one conversation, and one movement at a time.
Our Community
Our online community is the coolest, safest place online to learn, grow, and connect. Plus there’s an app to take your new feminist friends on the go (and it’s NOT Facebook – ew)! Our community is where we do the real educating, activating, and organizing. We discuss our books in forums and/or on Zoom, host exclusive discussions with our featured authors, plus workshops with expert scholars, activists, and artists! Each week, you’ll find exclusive content, interviews with fellow members, and new giveaways… and maybe your new bookish bff.
Our Books
Choose between fiction and non-fiction titles each month and we’ll send it to you in the mail or via audiobook (thanks to our friends at Libro.fm!). In true non-hierarchical feminist fashion, members have the opportunity to suggest titles for our upcoming themes. We then vote on these suggestions to determine which book will be our next pick. Have you already read the book of the month? You can always swap for another book in our ever-changing and expertly-curated library. We read across genre, so you’ll always find something you love… or expand your horizons!
Award-winning media
In 2023, Feminist Book Club won the Vision Award in the Next Challenge for Media & Journalism, awarded to a media startup with a bold vision to change the media in the next decade. So don’t take it from us… the Glen Nelson Center and American Public Media think we’re great! We’ve assembled the ultimate team of writers, creators, creatives, and podcasters to bring you the best of the best feminist content. Whether you’re a podcast listener, a blog reader, or a TikTok consumer, Feminist Book Club will help you diversify your bookshelf one episode, post, or video at a time!
Giving Back
We donate a portion of all sales to a different social justice organization each month, with an emphasis on smaller non-profits where our money can make a big impact. Previous beneficiaries include the Trans Women of Color Collective, Reviving Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, Soul Fire Farm, Safe BAE, Rights4Girls, and more.
Special thanks to Lunar Startups
Feminist Book Club is proud to be an alumnus of Lunar Startups, a St. Paul-based accelerator dedicated to providing equitable opportunities for entrepreneurs. We join an elite community of founders who are improving the world through entrepreneurship.
Need a bookseller for your event?
Feminist Book Club is available to book for your next festival, book tour stop, or literary or professional event! We’ve got the pop-up bookshop down to a science and will happily take it on the road. You’ve seen us at the NWSA Annual Convention, LA Times Festival of Books, Twin Cities Pride Festival, Art-a-Whirl, and more!
MEET THE FBC TEAM
Sally Mercedes (she/her) Executive Director
Sally is a queer Dominican New Yorker currently living in Oklahoma on land entrusted to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She loves Broadway, road trips, long walks, and cold brew, and she’s on a mission to reclaim all things as radically sacred, especially her self. You can usually find her listening to an audiobook while baking, working on a jigsaw puzzle, or learning how to embroider. Sally is also one of our discussion moderators!
Rah Hernandez (they/them) Captain of Commerce
Texas born. Minnesota made. Hailing from the restaurant industry, Rah joined the Feminist Book Club team in 2021. Rah is a non-binary latine queer who is here for all the learning and unlearning. When they’re not chaotically reading 8 books at once, you can find them over analyzing reality TV, snuggling their two cats, and promoting a booze free lifestyle.
Natalia Santana-Pollard (she/her/ella) Blog Editor-in-Chief
Natalia Santana-Pollard never thought she’d be a writer of anything besides Twitter threads, much less the Editor in Chief of the Feminist Book Club blog, but life has a funny way of making people take the roads they never expected to traveled. In her day-to-day life she contains multitudes; a student of Public Administration and Emergency Management (#GoKnights), a newly minted federal employee, and a gun violence prevention volunteer.
Passionate about the way that education shapes responses people have to a variety of things, Natalia is intensely curious and is always learning more about, well, everything because you never know what might be useful later on. This personality trait manifests itself in being an excellent trivia night partner, and also in trying to find innovative ways to connect disparate ideas and making it work.
A fan of reading and the written word, she reads voraciously and is often found up far too late into the early morning hours… even when she has a paper due and probably should be reading her textbooks. She also spends time with her children playing Mario Kart (Rainbow Road forever), with her husband trying all the food, or with her dog Lyla cuddling on the couch while embroidering anything.
Renee M. Powers (she/her) Podcast Producer
Renee is lifelong Midwesterner, an Aries, an ISFJ, a 3 on the enneagram, and a former theatre kid. Honestly, that’s a pretty good overview of what she’s like. She’s been obsessed with feminist theory and feminist literature since her first Women’s Studies class in 2005 so she founded Feminist Book Club in 2018.
She graduated from Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, IN) with a degree in Women’s Studies in 2008. She earned her M.A. in Communication from Northern Illinois University and spent six years in a Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Renee loves memoirs, airports, iced coffee, bold lipstick, and Sara Bareilles. When not working on Feminist Book Club, she can be found singing in her choir, trying new breweries and coffee shops, cheering on Notre Dame women’s basketball, cross stitching something snarky, or trying and failing to teach her retired racing greyhound how to fetch. Or reading. Obviously.
Contributors
Alana Amore
she/they
Alana Amore is a multi-instrumentalist, educator, and literary activist. Most of her work revolves around women of color and their overlapping relationship with history via literature and music. Alana is currently pursuing a MA in composition with the hopes of achieving her PHD. In her time outside of studying women in history Alana is usually reading, teaching guitar, climbing out of some yoga pose, or craving a cup of coffee.
Alana is also one of our discussion moderators!
Ashley Paul
she/her
Californian. When not reading, she’s baking. Would likely split a plate of enchiladas with you. In a different life, she was a lion. Fun fact: Her favorite author is playwright, essayist, novelist, poet, and activist Pearl Cleage.
Ashley is also one of our discussion moderators!
Caroline Watson
she/her
Caroline is a Chicago-based actor, poet, and educator. She was born and raised in Texas and is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Caroline is the producer and host of Grandma’s House, an award winning monthly poetry show and open mic. She thrives on caring for plants, creating theatre for young audiences, celebrating other’s art, gushing about books, and looking at photos of dogs in cowboy hats. Learn more at carolinemwatson.com.
Favorite genres: narrative nonfiction, poetry, multi-POV literary fiction, graphic memoirs, anti-adultist children’s literature.
Jacquelyn Gray
she/her
Jacquelyn Gray is a staff writer for CrimeOnline.com who has also written for Marie Claire, Investigation Discovery, and Bustle. When she is not writing or reading she enjoys playing Animal Crossing and Fallout. Favorite Genres: historical nonfiction, memoir, and true crime (of course)
Jordy Macbeth
she/her
Mariquita Guerrera
she/her
The family lore around Mariquita is that she started reading at age 2 and hasn’t been without a book since, baffling her family of very occasional readers. Whether historically accurate or not, it is undisputed that she is always in the middle of a minimum of three titles, at least one of which she is just dying to talk about with you. Originally from the Midwest, Mariquita is now contentedly at home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where one of her major regrets is that she cannot find good Mexican food that reminds her of home. Or maybe she’s just using that as an excuse to buy more cookbooks.
Mhairie Robb
she/her
Mhairie Robb is a British immigrant to the San Francisco bay area. She loves to read horror and anything witchy. Professionally she has explored many career paths, often simultaneously but currently she works as a project engineer and a gardener. When not working Mhairie is usually found knitting, exploring new places or hanging out with her cats.
Niba (at)NotesByNiba
she/her
Read Bio
Niba is a science video host and producer based in San Francisco, CA. Her channel, @NotesByNiba explores plant science in makeup, skincare, and new research. One of Niba’s favourite videos blends her Indian heritage with the science of how henna body art functions. Niba also hosts for SciShow, Feminist Book Club and Seeker. Her recent show with PBS, Hungry Planet, is now available on YouTube.
She received degrees in Genetics, Toxicology, and Diversity Studies at UC Davis, where she also researched the effects of climate change on crops. She received her Genetics M.S. from Duke, where she researched the genetics, form, and function of plant roots. Currently, she is a freelance multimedia science communicator, working for places like SciShow and The Leakey Foundation.
In her free time she enjoy petting cats (whether they belong to her or not), weird chip flavors, comics, and adding to her plant collection. www.notesbyniba.org
Nina Garcia
she/her
Nox Quiroz
she/her
Nox is a reader and educator who loves sharing stories. When she’s not reading or talking about books, she’s playing TTRPGs with her friends, trying to learn something new, or cuddling with her cat.
Sam Paul
she/her
Steph Auteri
she/her
Taiwana Shambley
she/her
Tara Swiger
she/her
Thien-Kim Lam
she/her
Yasi Agah
she/her
San Franciscan. Becoming by Michelle Obama makes her cry. When not writing, she’s rollerskating and listening to Blink 182. Will happily swap Friends references with you. In a different life, she was a kangaroo. Fun fact: She’s visited 27 countries and counting.
discussion moderators
Ariana C.
she/her
Caryn D.
she/her
Atlantan, lawyer by trade, and a proud (but shy) poet. I have a chubby hound named Ellie and a love for fostering community. If I’m not outside or wishing that I was outside, then I’m probably consuming large amounts of media in any genre. Fun fact: former USA Amateur Boxer.
Casey B.
she/her
Casey is a voracious and eclectic reader of all the things! She reads whatever seems interesting and there is NO SHAME WHATSOEVER in DNFing. Coffee and feminism for life!
Keegan B.
she/her
Kenesma J.
she/her
Mariah B.
she/her
Mariah is a Boston-born, Orlando-raised, St. Louis-living lover of books, podcasts, being outside, blankets, hiking, dancing, and ice cream. Her penchant for reading began with novels as a kid (shoutout to Amelia’s Notebooks fans everywhere), but her interests have expanded to include poetry, essay collections, and even the academic works she was assigned during her joint MSW/MBA but now reads for fun. Mariah feels so grateful to get paid to do what she loves: support local nonprofits, attend storytelling events, and–now–moderate a book club.
Myers E.
she/her
Originally from South Carolina, now living and studying in Memphis. PhD student at the University of Memphis where I specialize in representations of witches in contemporary American literature. When not reading for school, you can find me reading for fun or going on walks with my dog and husband.
Nora L.
she/her
Nora is a human who likes other humans and thinks that dogs are humans, too. She is Canadian who can’t seem to stop crashing her mountain bike. Taking international relations personally she lives in the UK half the time and thinks their tea is perfectly paired with her favourite feminist dystopian novels.
Shoshana F.
she/her
Shoshana Frank is an academic Librarian and community activist, in the suburbs of Chicago. An avid romance reader and audiophile, Shoshana loves bringing new listeners into the audiophile family! Outside of reviewing for professional journals and judging national book awards, Shoshana enjoys going on adventures around the world and plans to visit all seven continents.