This week we’re talking about form with yet another memoirist who defied conventions to create something unique and beautiful. Guest Danielle Bainbridge’s new book of personal essays, Dandelion, covers many topics—mental health, race, body, feminism, and so much more. Myriam Gurba calls her work “kaleidoscopic” and we ruminate on what that means in the context of form. This is a conversation on following the threads of your inspiration, writing the book you want to write, finding a publisher who gets it and allows you to do what you want to do. And in the trend, we talk about the death of the mass market paperback. Never a dull moment in book publishing!

Danielle Bainbridge is Assistant Professor of Theatre, Black Studies, and Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Her first academic book, Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive, is forthcoming in 2025 from NYU Press. Danielle has received scholarships and residencies from Tin House, the Adirondack Center for Writing, and the Banff Centre in Canada. Her web series and media work have been nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards and one NAACP Image Award. She lives and loves in Chicago with her partner and two naughty cats.

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