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BIG

Stories about Life in Plus-Sized Bodies

Edited by Christina Myers

BC BESTSELLER

Finally a book about the diverse and intimate experience of being large in a culture obsessed with thinness. 

Pop culture stereotypes, shopping frustrations, fat jokes, and misconceptions about health are all ways society systemically rejects large bodies. BIG is a collection of personal and intimate experiences of plus size women, non-binary and trans people in a society obsessed with thinness. Revealing insights that are both funny and traumatic, surprising and challenging, familiar and unexpected, 26 writers explore themes as diverse as self perception, body image, fashion, fat activism, food, sexuality, diet culture, motherhood and more. These stories offer a closer look at what it means to navigate a world designed to fit bodies of a certain size (sometimes literally) and, in turn, invites readers to ask questions about—and ultimately reconsider—our collective and individual obsession with women’s bodies.

Contributors include Dr. Rohini Bannerjee, Amanda Scriver, Cassie Stocks, Jo Jefferson, Layla Cameron, Rabbit Richards, Sonja Boon, Simone Blais, Tracy Manrell and other writers from across Canada, the US, and the UK.

“A book long overdue, expressing perspectives often ignored, by voices that will no longer be silenced!”
—Candy Palmater LLB
Orator, Writer, Humourist

“Accepting yourself at every size? That means rejecting all the whispered edicts of Eurowestern society and the out-loud abuse of strangers. That’s a BIG project. And one worth documenting. As a BIG girl myself, I NEEDED all the stories in this collection, from the sad-stark-raging to the joyful-triumphant-funny.”
—Ariel Gordon, editor of GUSH: menstrual manifestos for our age

Read “Precipitation” by Rabbit Richards in The Tyee

Read a section of “Learning to Live, Large” by Tracy Manrell in VICE Canada

Toronto Lit Up was to host the Toronto launch of BIG in-person on March 17, 2020, which was postponed due to COVID-19. In the meantime, check out this video compilation of readings from the book, by its editor, Christina Myers, and some of the Toronto-based contributors (Emily Allan, Shadoe Ball, Tara Mandarano and Amanda Scriver):

Contents

Introduction – Christina Myers (Vancouver, BC)
Eugenics – Layla Cameron (Vancouver, BC)
Precipitation – Rabbit Richards (Vancouver, BC)
Easy Out – Simone Blais (Okanagan, BC)
The Swimsuit – Jo Jefferson (Toronto, ON)
Barbra Streisand or Bust! – Dr. Rohini Bannerjee (Halifax, NS)
Loving the Bigger Fat – Cate Root (New Orleans, LA, USA)
Reflections – Sally Quon (Okanagan, BC)
Learning to Live, Large – Tracy Manrell (Vancouver, BC)
Encircled – Jen Arbo (New Westminster, BC)
The Toxic Fat Train – Lynne Jones (Wales, UK)
Fifty Shades of Black Fat: An Inventory – Sonja Boon (St. Johns, NL)
Super Plus Size Me – Jessie Blair (Vancouver, BC)
Size Me Up – Heather van Mil (Vancouver, BC)
5FB – Cassie Stocks (Eston, SK)
The Weight of Motherhood – Jennifer Pownall (Coquitlam, BC)
B-Words and F-Words: Safety, Sex and the Circle – Caroline Many (Vancouver, BC)
Stranger Words – Shadoe Ball (Toronto, ON)
Navigating Radical Self Love and Body Neutrality – Amanda Scriver (Toronto, ON)
For the Love of Sasquatch – Katy Weicker (Victoria, BC)
10 Things I Love About Being Fat – Emily Allan (Toronto, ON)
My Super Power is Invisibility – Heather M. Jones (Toronto, ON)
The Fat Girl’s Guide to Eating and Drinking – Christina Myers (Vancouver, BC)
Taming the Wild Tummy – Andrea Hansell (Maryland, USA)
Facades of Fat – Elizabeth Cook (Toronto, ON)
A Body’s Civil War – Tara Mandarano (Canada)
Eat My Words – Susan Alexander (Bowen Island, BC)

Livestream Online
April 21, 2020
4:30 pm PDT / 7:30pm EDT
Free, via Crowdcast
» event details

Port Coquitlam, BC—POSTPONED
March 25, 2020
in partnership with Words in the ‘Burbs & Western Sky Books
» event details

Victoria, BC—POSTPONED
March 20, 2020
in partnership with Munro’s Books & Bodacious Lifestyles
» RSVP on Eventbrite

Toronto, ON—POSTPONED
March 17, 2020
in partnership with Toronto Lit Up
» event details

Vancouver, BC
March 3, 2020
Tiki Bar at the Waldorf
» event details