Carolina Weatherall

On Thursday, Melissa Febos, author and professor in the nonfiction creative writing program at the University of Iowa, joined a packed room of students, faculty and community members to read two excerpts, including one from her new book, “The Dry Season.” Part of the 2024 Maine Lit Fest put on by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Febos’s talk at Bowdoin was one of over a dozen talks and events throughout the state from October 3 to 13.

In her hour-long talk, Febos started by reading an essay titled “Thesmophoria.” Only a few sentences in, Febos interrupted herself to share an anecdote she had to cut from the essay, inciting laughs from the audience. Similarly, after reading the beginning of her second excerpt that includes a comical interaction in the London airport, Febos promised the audience that the story was true.

Writing memoirs came naturally to Febos, she said, but it wasn’t until graduate school that she started writing nonfiction. After experimenting with poetry and fiction, Febos found that her own life stories were the ones she learned from the most.

Since publishing her first book, “Whip Smart: A Memoir,” in 2010, Febos has written four more books that all touch on what she describes as “hot-to-touch” topics. The most critically acclaimed of her writings is “Girlhood,” which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism.

Febos’s work is being taught in a handful of classes this semester, including in both of Professor of English Brock Clarke’s classes. After inviting Febos to campus in the spring, Clarke made the decision to teach “Girlhood” in both of his fall semester classes: Fact & Fiction and Introductory Fiction Workshop.

Assistant Professor of Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies Irina Popescu was introduced to Febos’s work a few years ago and immediately read “Girlhood” from cover to cover.

“‘Girlhood’ is really hard to read but at times can be cathartically funny,” Popescu said. “She has a really interesting voice to break the stark realism and to give you [the reader] a little bit of levity.”

Popescu said that the author’s voice makes the heavy topics of the book easily accessible to a wide audience.

“Though it is very difficult material, I find her very accessible,” Popescu said. “Especially ‘Girlhood,’ it is almost a book that is meant to be taught. I don’t teach creative writing, but I even feel that stylistically it is a great book to teach others how to write.”

Assistant Professor of English Jordan Kisner also praised Febos’s writing style.

“[Febos] is really a giant in the field of creative nonfiction right now,” Kisner said. “I think some of the most powerful work she’s done is in writing personal essay and in writing about what a powerful, creative and a political act the personal essay can be.”

A published writer herself, Kisner was enthusiastic to have Febos on campus for all interested students.

“Just to see an example of someone for whom this is their job—it’s not something you always see on career day,” Kisner said. “But there are people for whom writing is their job and I think that’s important to know and to see represented.”

After reading her two excerpts, Febos opened up the floor to any questions from the audience, many of which regarded advice for writers.

“The advice I wish I could have listened to when I was a younger writer is to take my time,” Febos said. “To be rigorous and to focus on the practice, but to not be in a hurry. Writing is very very slow—it’s not an immediate gratification.”

Even now, Febos continues to focus on her process, not the outcomes.

“I remind myself, ‘You’re right on time’,” she said.

Febos’s sixth book, “The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex,” will be released on June 3, 2025. The book focuses on Febos’s transformative year of celibacy in her mid-thirties.