Stop everything and read this brave and tender book.' -O, The Oprah Magazine “Gurba’s 'queer art of being mean' is a triumph of deadpan humor in a timely and thrilling voice. “ P ortrayals of ideas like home and safety are presented realistically and with complexity.” -Remezcla “ Mean will make you LOL and break your heart.” -The Millions “ voice is irreverent, lyrical, and sharply observant, even as her book offers dark commentary on what it means to be a woman in American society.” - Library Journal, starred review “She tackles everything from sexual violence to racism with humour and directness.” -ELLE UK “With unconstrained, inventive, stop-you-in-your-tracks writing, Gurba asserts that there is glee, freedom, and, perhaps most of all, truth in meanness.” -Booklist “With its icy wit, edgy wedding of lyricism and prose, and unflinching look at personal and public demons, Gurba’s introspective memoir is brave and significant.” -Kirkus “ dark humor isn’t used for shock value alone, offering instead a striking image of deflection and coping in the face of real pain and terror.” -Publishers Weekly The Riveter, “The Riveter’s Top Ten Books of 2017” Remezcla, “These Were the Best Books From Latin American & Latino Authors in 2017” Nylon, “Our Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2017”īook Riot, “The Best Genre Bending Fiction of 2017”īuzzFeed, “The 19 Best Nonfiction Books Of 2017”Īutostraddle, “The Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2017” To purchase this title for use with a screen reader please call (612) 338-0125 or email us at for Meanįinalist for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Nonfictionįinalist for the Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian NonfictionĢ018 ALA-GLBTRT Over the Rainbow Top 10 Book Thanks to a 2013 ADA Access Improvement Grant administered by VSA Minnesota for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, this title is also formatted for screen readers which make text accessible to the blind and visually impaired.

Wildflowers, compliments, and cash make her happy. She teaches high school, writes, and makes “art.” NBC described her short story collection Painting Their Portraits in Winter as “edgy, thought-provoking, and funny.” She has written for Time, KCET, and the Rumpus. Myriam Gurba lives in California and loves it. This is a confident, intoxicating, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously. Blending radical formal fluidity and caustic humor, Gurba takes on sexual violence, small towns, and race, turning what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy. True crime, memoir, and ghost story, Mean is the bold and hilarious tale of Myriam Gurba’s coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana.

Her story is a revelation, a delight, and an eye-opener.

978-1-56689-491-3 Gurba grows up queer, Chicana, and take no prisoners.

Mean by Myriam Gurba