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

Renee M. Powers (she/her)
Founder and CEO
Feminist Book Club is inspired by Renee’s academic background in feminist theory and her penchant for being an early adopter of subscription services, podcasts, and online communities. She combined these interests with her love of reading, her passion for toppling the kyriarchy, and the desire to lead a team of people much smarter than her. Now Feminist Book Club is the premier online hub for intersectional readers around the world.
Renee M. Powers 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.
She graduated from Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, IN) with a degree in Women’s Studies in 2008 at the height of a recession. Young, scrappy, and hungry, she began a career in politics and held positions with a number of members of Congress and a U.S. Senator. Burning out after just a couple years, she went back to school with aspirations to be an academic. Renee 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. Entrepreneurship has always gnawed at her so in 2018 she took the leap and bought this URL.
Renee loves memoirs, airports, iced coffee, bold lipstick, and Lady Gaga. When not working on Feminist Book Club, she can be found trying new breweries and coffee shops, cheering on Notre Dame women’s basketball, playing Pokémon Go, or trying and failing to teach her retired racing greyhound how to fetch. Or reading. Obviously.

Rah Hernandez (they/them)Captain of Commerce

Marvellous Ogunsola (she/her)Summer 2023 Intern

Natalia Santana-Pollard (she/her/ella) Word Wizard/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.

Niba (at)NotesByNiba (she/her)
Niba is a science content creator based in San Francisco, CA. She makes videos for Feminist Book Club and loves to read high fantasy, sci-fi, science, and queer romance books. In her free time, she pets cats (whether they belong to her or not), enjoys unique chip flavors, comics, and adding to her plant collection. www.notesbyniba.com
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

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
Florida born and raised. Jordy began her professional career as an officer in the Coast Guard but has recently transitioned to the civilian world. When she is not obsessing over her fur babies you can find her at the beach reading, or staying up late to watch the latest true crime docuseries while embroidering.

Lillie Gardner
she/her
Lillie Gardner is a writer of prose and screenplays in St. Paul, Minnesota. She loves literary fiction and memoir—both to read and to write—and is particularly excited about quirky Midwestern stories and women’s history. When she’s not writing or reading, she’s probably teaching piano, taking her cat Ava Gardner for a stroll, or chasing after the newest vegan eats in the Twin Cities.
Lillie is also one of our discussion moderators!

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.

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.

Sally Mercedes
she/her

Sam Paul
she/her

Simha Haddad
she/her

Steph Auteri
she/her
Steph Auteri is a journalist who has been published in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Pacific Standard, Rewire News Group, and elsewhere. Her more literary work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Creative Nonfiction, Under the Gum Tree, and other publications. Her essay, “The Fear That Lives Next to My Heart,” published in Southwest Review, was listed as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2021. She is the author of A Dirty Word and the founder of Guerrilla Sex Ed. You can learn more at stephauteri.com and follow her on Instagram at @stephauteri.

Taiwana Shambley
she/her
A Black transgender woman with disabilities, Taiwana Shambley (she/her) is an abolitionist fiction writer & teaching artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She writes stories, she teaches stories, she shifts stories, all to empower marginalized youth in Minnesota. A Sunspot Literary Journal semi-finalist, her fiction has been recognized with grants from the Loft Literary Center, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, and the Metropolitan
Regional Arts Council, and her work as an educator was honored with the 2022
PEN/Faulkner Teaching Fellowship. Author of the zine One Good Argument for Youth Prison Abolition, her writing is published by the Minnesota Women’s Press, Belt Publishing, and the
Academy of American Poets. Alongside her community-based performances, workshops, residencies, & classes, Taiwana teaches full time at PiM Arts High School. You might find her hanging out at local coffee shops and bookstores, eating out, or occasionally clubbing with
her homegirls. Feel free to subscribe to updates on her first novel at taiwanashambley.com.

Tara Swiger
she/her
Tara is located in Appalachia and is a writer, podcaster, and cheerleader for women-owned creative businesses. In 2009 she quit her day job to make yarn full-time (right?!) and in 2012 she wrote a marketing book for makers (Market Yourself). In 2020, she became the mom to four kids overnight via foster care and adoption and promptly stopped doing anything else. Now you’ll find her marketing women-owned businesses, planting in her garden, reading, or, ideally, reading in the garden. Favorite genres: mysteries, feminist thrillers, funny sci-fi, trauma-informed parenting, and pretty gardening books.

Tayler Simon
she/her
South Carolinian. Allergic to caffeine, so please be patient with her. Big fan of snail mail and would happily write you a letter full of Toni Morrison quotes. Depending on her mood, she’s watching Avatar: The Last Airbender or Lost. Fun fact: She has six tattoos from six different states.
Tayler is also one of our discussion moderators!

Thien-Kim Lam
she/her
Thien-Kim Lam writes stories about Vietnamese characters who smash stereotypes and find their happy endings. A recovering Type-Asian, she guzzles cà phê sữa đá, makes art, and bakes her feelings to stay sane. Her debut book Happy Endings was a Washington Post Romance Novel of the Year. Her Mardi Gras romance Full Exposure is a love letter to her Vietnamese community in Louisiana.
Thien-Kim coaches writers of color and is the founder of Bawdy Bookworms, a subscription box that pairs sexy romances with erotic toys. She’s been featured on Jezebel, Bustle, Entertainment Weekly, and Oprah Daily.

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, the natural light in her apartment, 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: hang out with teenagers, plan 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