Author: Gina Barreca, author
Hailed as “smart and funny” by “People” magazine and “Very, very funny. For a woman,” by Dave Barry, Gina Barreca was deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine. Novelist Wally Lamb said, “Barreca’s prose, in equal measures, is hilarious and humane."
Author of ten books and editor of eleven others, her works have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Fast Funny Women (edited by Gina Barreca) is a collection of seventy-five flash nonfiction pieces written by internationally celebrated women authors and dazzlingly hilarious newcomers. They provide a feast of insights, generously garnished with wit, spice and an exhilarating attention to craft. The women gathered here in Gina's new book have all the answers, especially if the questions are “Do women have a sense of humor?” and “What do women want?” Their responses might surprise you; they will inspire you; and you’ll find the world a funnier place.
Gina Barreca has appeared, often as a repeat guest, on CNN, PBS, the BBC, 20/20, 48 Hours, the Today Show, NPR and Oprah—as well as just having been interviewed on camera as for the forthcoming “American Masters” series on Mae West-- as an expert on women, humor, and cultural politics.
One of the first women to graduate from Dartmouth College in its early years of coeducation, she was the first woman to be named Alumni scholar by that college; her papers have been requested by Dartmouth’s special collections library. She was a Reynolds’s Fellow at New Hall (now Murray Edwards) College at Cambridge University and received her Ph.D. at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
The only full-time female academic to be a member of the Friar’s Club, Gina’s also an honoree of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. She’s been awarded four honorary degrees and is a sought-after speaker for both the academic and non-academic groups. Her writing has appeared the “New York Times,” “The Independent” of London, “The Chronicle of Higher Education,” “Cosmopolitan” and the “Harvard Business Review.” She lives with her husband Michael in Storrs, CT. She keeps busy.
Little Old Lady Comedy 