Portrait of a Feminist

A Memoir in Essays

Published Copy

Genres

Women's Nonfiction, Multicultural Nonfiction, Mothers, Feminism, Memoir, Debut, and Essays

Trigger Warnings

Sex, Abuse, and Rape

Type of Ending

Series

First in series

Author Prefers A Review On

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Publication Date

Jul 30, 2025

Page Length

266 pages

Available Formats

ePub and PDF

Portrait of a Feminist

A Memoir in Essays

Published Copy

Blurb

A Fierce, Lyrical Memoir of Identity and Resistance

Through braided memories that flash against the present day, Portrait of a Feminist depicts the evolution of Marianna Marlowe’s identity as a biracial and multicultural woman—from her childhood in California, Peru, and Ecuador to her adulthood as an academic, a wife, and a mother.

How does the inner life of a feminist develop? How does a writer observe the world around her and kindle, from her earliest memories, a flame attuned to the unjust?

With writing that is simultaneously wise and shimmering, nuanced and direct, Marlowe confronts her own experiences with the hallmarks of patriarchy. Interweaving stories of life as the child of a Catholic Peruvian mother and an atheist American father in a family that lived many years abroad, she examines realities familiar to so many of us—unequal marriages, class structures, misogynist literature, and patriarchal religion.

Portrait of a Feminist explores the essential questions of feminism in our time: What does it look like to live in defense of feminism? How should feminism be evolving today?

Details