THE RIGHT VOICE TO TELL THIS STORY: Not only is Nona a successful journalist with years of experience writing about sex, love, and feminism (in outlets like Teen Vogue, where she a columnist, as well as The New York Times, The Cut, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic among others), but she also has done a ton of research for this book, including full access to the archives of her mother, Ellen Willis, a famed feminist and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning critic.



MEMOIR MEETS CULTURAL CRITICISM: While Nona’s fascinating and honest personal story will attract memoir fans, this is also a book with a culturally relevant point of view, as it looks at the Second Wave feminist movement, where we are today, and where we should be going.



FEMINIST NONFICTION CONTINUES TO SUCCEED: Today’s contemporary feminist criticism continues to sell well, with examples like Rebecca Solnit’s Recollections of My Nonexistence and the explosive success of Three Women, and we are excited for Nona to join these voices with her fresh and essential take on the conversation.

Nona Willis Aronowitz is the sex and love columnist for Teen Vogue. Her work has been published in the New York Times, The Cut, Elle, VICE, The Washington Post, and Playboy, among many others. She is the co-author of Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism (Seal Press, 2009). She is also the editor of an award-winning anthology of Ellen Willis’s rock criticism, called Out of the Vinyl Deeps (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2011), as well as a comprehensive collection of her mother’s work, The Essential Ellen Willis (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2014), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.



Author Residence: New York, NY

Author Hometown: New York, NY

“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About 'Bad Sex’ but Were Afraid to Ask. . . . [this history is] critical, and fascinating, as a framework to interpret society’s views on love and sex in the present.”
—Jessica Bennett, New York Times

"Cultural criticism, memoir, and social history collide in Aronowitz’s no-nonsense investigation of all that ails young lovers, like questions about desire, consent, and patriarchy. It’s a revealing read bound to expand your thinking."
—Esquire, The 20 Best Books of Summer 2022

“Within Bad Sex, Aronowitz introduces readers to fervent sluts and ambiguous wives, radical lesbians and liberationist lovers, all to discover how we reconcile ourselves and our desires in this time when both are under assault.”
—The Millions

“Part memoir, part history of pioneering feminist figures, Bad Sex is an attempt to make sense of feminism’s failure to, as the singer Self Esteem puts it, prioritize pleasure … Aronowitz is exceedingly well-read, and her book is stuffed with wisdom gleaned from her elders … These historical sections are unfailingly illuminating.”
—The Atlantic

“Bad Sex does what more sexuality books should do: prove that our politics can be horny as hell.”
—Hazlitt

"Everybody's always talking about sex, but Nona Willis Aronowitz is truly saying something about it in Bad Sex. More than the act, this book touches on our conflicting narratives around pleasure, fear, hope, honesty, and at times, family. Aronowitz invites the reader into a conversation we may want to shy away from, but does so with so much enthusiasm and curiosity of her own we can't help but follow down another rabbit hole or into another memory. All roads are littered with jewels in this gorgeous exploration of humanity and desire."
—Ashley C. Ford, author of New York Times bestseller Somebody's Daughter

“Bad Sex is Nona Willis Aronowitz's deft exploration of the triumphs and the unfinished work of both feminism and the sexual revolution. Deeply informed by intellectual and familial history, Bad Sex is intimate, thoughtful, and accessible to anyone struggling with the persistent, maddening inequities of contemporary sex. Willis Aronowitz looks to the groundbreaking work of her mother for insight, yet has written a book that will surely inspire and enlighten the next generation of politically and sexually aroused feminist thinkers.”
—Rebecca Traister, author of New York Times bestseller Good and Mad

“Aronowitz’s chatty tone and corpuscular language explodes myths in ways that will help readers clearly recognize the lies they’ve been fed. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal (starred)

“…an exquisitely researched, joyfully conversational take on sexual oppression and sexual revolutions throughout history, as well as a deeply heartfelt memoir… This genuine and generousemotional offering is sure to make readers feel seen and heard, too.”
—Booklist (starred)

"Courageously frank."
—Kirkus

“An intelligent and disarmingly honest book about sex, love, marriage, radical feminism, the yearnings that echo across generations, and the true meaning of sexual liberation.”
—Amia Srinivasan, bestselling author of The Right to Sex

"As a writer, and editor and a chronicler of modern life, Nona Willis Aronowitz has charted a distinctive space for herself and her work. With her new book Bad Sex, she explored her own life and family history and delved into the past to create a comprehensive work about what sexual freedom can mean and the contradictions that complicate it."
—InsideHook

“A revealing personal and historical exploration of the disappointments, rewards, and ambivalence women experience when they explore sexual desires and relationships that challenge societal expectations about gender, race, class, and love. Well-researched, candid, and at times painfully perceptive.”
—Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s

“With Bad Sex, Nona re-centers sexual agency in feminist history—and in her own life. This is not only a brilliant and evocative personal memoir, it also examines the critical goal of sexual liberation since long before the feminist second wave.”
—Susie Bright

“Fascinating.”
—Erica Jong