On this episode my guest is Dr. Raechel Anne Jolie, author of the critically-acclaimed memoirRust Belt Femme, which was the winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award in LGBTQ Nonfiction, an NPR Favorite Book of 2020, and a runner-up for the Heartland Bookseller’s Award. Our conversation centers around this book, but also branches into feminist and queer theory, political activism, the complicated ways that identity categories intersect, the role that music plays in politics and identity construction, contemporary witchcraft practices, and MORE (really!).
Jolie’s work explores radical social movements, theories of and toward liberation, queerness, class, pop culture, healing justice, and more. Their essays, criticism, and reporting have appeared in The Baffler, Bitch Magazine, In These Times, Ravishly, Mask Magazine, Teen Vogue, Scarleteen, among others. She has been published in a variety of academic journals, and has presented at numerous national conferences. During an awarded residency stay at The Future Minneapolis, she co-wrote, edited, and published The Prison Arcana Tarot Zine. The zine was created in collaboration with the incarcerated writer c.l. Young and incarcerated artist Jamie Diaz.
Jolie has been a featured keynote speaker at conferences and symposia at The University of Kentucky, Bloomsburg University, Western Oregon University, and Whitman College. She has been a faculty member at Merrimack College, Tufts University, and Normandale College, and taught writing at The Loft Literary Center. They hold a PhD from the University of Minnesota and an MA and BA from DePaul University. They live in Cleveland Heights, Ohio on Erie and Mississauga land.
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