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Girls Can Kiss Now (Atria Books)
Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a funny, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices today.
Jill Gutowitz’s life—for better and worse—has always been on a collision course with pop culture. There’s the time the FBI showed up at her door because of something she tweeted about Game of Thrones. The pop songs that have been the soundtrack to the worst moments of her life. And of course, the pivotal day when Orange Is the New Black hit the airwaves and broke down the door to Jill’s own sexuality. In these honest examinations of identity, desire, and self-worth, Jill explores perhaps the most monumental cultural shift of our lifetimes: the mainstreaming of lesbian culture. Dusting off her own personal traumas and artifacts of her not-so-distant youth she examines how pop culture acts as a fun house mirror reflecting and refracting our values—always teaching, distracting, disappointing, and revealing us.
Girls Can Kiss Now is a fresh and intoxicating blend of personal stories, sharp observations, and laugh-out-loud humor. This timely collection of essays helps us make sense of our collective pop-culture past even as it points the way toward a joyous, uproarious, near—and very queer—future.
Jill Gutowitz is a writer from New Jersey. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vulture and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner and a very small cat. Learn more at www.jillgutowitz.com and follow her on Twitter @jillboard.
Gabrielle Korn is a journalist, digital media expert, and the former editor-in-chief of Nylon Media, an international lifestyle publication focused on emerging culture. Under her editorial leadership, Nylon became a fully digital brand with an ever-growing audience and original, politically-driven, thought-provoking beauty, fashion, music, and entertainment content. She spent three years working on Nylon’s digital presence before her promotion to editor-in-chief, working across platforms and growing traffic. Prior to that, she was an editor at Refinery29, overseeing beauty content during a period of explosive traffic growth and working to expand the brand’s concept of what beauty means to the millennial reader. She graduated from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2011 with a concentration in feminist/queer theory and writing. She lives in Brooklyn and is the author of Everybody (Else) is Perfect.
Praise for Girls Can Kiss Now -
“Ever-hilarious and insightful...Gutowitz explores how lesbianism went mainstream.” —Bustle, The Most Anticipated Books Of 2022
“Hilarious…Girls Can Kiss Now is going to be one of the most important accessories of 2022.” —Glamour, Most Anticipated Books of 2022
“Hilarious…Jill Gutowitz explores how pop culture has shaped society's perception of lesbianism, how it's impacted her own life, and, ultimately, what we can expect from a very queer future that's in store for us.” —Marie Claire, 2022 Book Releases to Get Excited About
"A laugh-out-loud look at the mainstreaming of queer culture...Gutowitz’s book is perhaps the definitive authority on what it means to be gay and a little too online.” —Harper's Bazaar, The Best, Buzziest New Books of 2022
“Irreverent and insightful…[a] heartfelt celebration and defense of the importance of pop culture in helping queer people feel seen.” —Buzzfeed, 19 Hot LGBTQ+ Books From The First Half Of 2022
“Wickedly funny and heartstoppingly vulnerable…every page twinkles with brilliance.” —Refinery29
"Incisive and funny…Gutowitz blends candid reflections on the experience of being closeted with witty analysis on how the media affects one’s perception of the world. Fans of the personal essay will be eager to see what Gutowitz does next.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Shines with humor, vulnerability, and poignancy...formally inventive and searingly personal...A witty essay collection about pop culture and queerness.” —Kirkus Reviews
"Readers who recall where they were – because these iconic moments were lifechanging – when Orange is the New Black debuted or when paparazzi pictures of Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson arguing were published will relish re-living their importance with Gutowitz." —Booklist
"Every single sentence glitters, quivers, and shakes with a kind of unhinged lesbian brilliance that is both wickedly funny and deeply self-aware. GIRLS CAN KISS NOW is not only the gayest book of essays I’ve ever read — it’s one of the best." —Gabrielle Korn, author of Everybody (Else) is Perfect
"Jill Gutowitz's brain is full of lightning bolts. I loved every word of this hilarious and heartfelt book." —Diablo Cody, award-winning screenwriter and author of Candy Girl
“GIRLS CAN KISS NOW snaps, crackles and pops with sharp one-liners and biting wit. But when Gutowitz deftly uses her encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture to interrogate her own personal history and relationship to her queerness, her prose reaches a level of depth and tenderness that left me reeling with emotion. 10/10. You must read this book if you're gay, human, or both.” —Ryan O'Connell, author of I'm Special and Just by Looking at Him
