from author’s website

I WRITE ARTICLES, ESSAYS, AND BOOKS; TEACH PERSONAL ESSAY WRITING; DO MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATION AND COACHING ON ESSAYS, FICTION AND NON-FICTION ARTICLES AND BOOK PROPOSALS; DO FREELANCE EDITING FOR WEBSITES AND MAGAZINES; AND OTHERWISE HELP PEOPLE WITH WORDS. SHOOT ME AN EMAIL IF YOU WANT TO TALK WORK, OR YOU’D LIKE ME TO VISIT COLLEGE CLASS, BOOKSTORE, CONFERENCE OR OTHER EVENT. BOOKCLUBS, I WELCOME YOU! CLICK HERE.

Here’s some scintillating background information: 

After growing up in various northeastern and southwestern college towns, I moved to New York City when I was 21 and had no idea what to do with my degree in experimental feminist video (good thing I went to college for free).

My brother offered me a room in his East Village hovel, and my first career was in film/TV (here are some props I made when I worked at Blue’s Clues), but I was always obsessed with the relationship between the built environment and emotional experience: I wanted to know how architecture could help form community. So I enrolled first in a Ph.D. program in environmental psychology. Then, fearing that I’d get another degree like the one in experimental feminist video, I transferred to a masters in urban planning program.

Then one night my brother sat me down on his roof and said, “If you want to be a writer, why are you going to urban planning school?” So I became a writer, now of two novels and about 600 essays and articles about film and travel and the environment and real estate and parenting, for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Yahoo, and many other publications. My first non-fiction book, TOMBOY: The Surprising History and Future of Girls* Who Dare to Be Different, releases August 11, 2020!

ABOUT TOMBOY:

A heartfelt celebration and exploration of the tomboy phenomenon and the future of girlhood, based on the author’s viral New York Times op-ed.
We are in the middle of a cultural revolution, where the spectrum of gender and sexual identities is seemingly unlimited. So when author and journalist Lisa Selin Davis‘s six-year-old daughter first called herself a “tomboy,” Davis was hesitant. Her child favored sweatpants and T-shirts over anything pink or princess-themed, just like the sporty, skinned-kneed girls Davis had played with as a kid. But “tomboy” seemed like an outdated word–why use a word with “boy” in it for such girls at all? So was it outdated? In an era where some are throwing elaborate gender reveal parties and others are embracing they/them pronouns, Davis set out to answer that question, and to find out where tomboys fit into our changing understandings of gender.

In Tomboy, Davis explores the evolution of tomboyism from a Victorian ideal to a twenty-first century fashion statement, honoring the girls and women–and those who identify otherwise–who stomp all over archaic gender norms. She highlights the forces that have shifted what we think of as masculine and feminine, delving into everything from clothing to psychology, history to neuroscience, and the connection between tomboyism, gender identity, and sexuality. Above all else, Davis’s comprehensive deep-dive inspires us to better appreciate those who defy traditional gender boundaries, and the incredible people they become.

Whether you’re a grown-up tomboy or raising a gender-rebel of your own, Tomboy is the perfect companion for navigating our cultural shift. It is a celebration of both diversity and those who dare to be different, ultimately revealing how gender nonconformity is a gift.

PRAISE FOR TOMBOY:

“Hooray for gender rebels!”―Peggy Orenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Girls & Sex

“[A] thorough and engrossing investigation… Davis’s persuasive and deeply personal argument for moving beyond the gender binary will resonate with those curious about child rearing free of normative expectations.”―Publishers Weekly, starred review

Tomboy is a revelation, an impassioned and empathic consideration of how gender is manufactured and sold, and how it can both oppress and empower. This is way more than a book for parents navigating how to raise individuals in a world of stubborn binaries; it’s for all of us who want to understand that world, and how we might become our true selves within it.”―Lauren Sandler, author of This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home and One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One

“As I read this book, I felt at turns challenged and surprised and at turns comforted-as a tomboy in the 80s, I saw myself on the pages and understood where I had come from and the forces that shaped me. As someone who currently teaches gender inclusion at schools across the country, I can’t wait to use this book in the presentations I give. It will really help teachers and parents understand not just tomboys but gender. But it isn’t just an informative and useful book; it’s exciting and compelling as well.”―Alex Myers, author of Revolutionary and Continental Divide

“Lisa Selin Davis uses TOMBOY as a launch pad for a thought-provoking and enlightening exploration of the troubled pink and blue waters of gender categories-and the words that can be life rafts to help us float above them or stones pulling us in deeper.”―Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and author of You Just Don’t UnderstandYou’re Wearing THAT?, and You’re the Only One I Can Tell

“This book will surprise, delight, and challenge everything you think you know about gender. Davis’s writing is lively and lucid; a sage and compassionate guide on this rocky terrain. Every parent needs to read this book.”―Jennifer Block, author of Everything Below the Waist

“A thoughtful, thorough examination and celebration of gender non-conformity, and a crucial contribution to our cultural understanding of this moment, and how we got here.”―Liz Plank, author of FOR THE LOVE OF MEN

Tomboy tackles a unique, contradictory moment in history: male and female binaries are exploding yet childhood has become more hyper-gendered than ever. How did we get here? What does it mean? I picked up this book expecting to read a few pages; hours later I was still riveted, underlining paragraphs, scribbling margin notes and rethinking all my assumptions about boys, girls and everyone along or beyond that spectrum. Hooray for gender rebels!”―Peggy Orenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Girls & Sex

“An informative jumping-off point for further investigation.”―Kirkus

AUTHOR VISITS:

Author visits with Lisa Selin Davis are available via NovelNetwork.com.