Dialogue Books is publishing Poor Little Sick Girls, Ione Gamble’s debut non-fiction book about “what it’s like to be at the centre of a feminist movement that has no real place for you”.
Gamble is the founder and editor of the feminist and queer independent zine Polyester. In Poor Little Sick Girls, slated for summer 2022, she turns her “sharp, pop-culture obsessed eye” to “our current fixation on identity politics, personal branding, productivity, and #LivingYourBestLife” in a collection of essays.
The book’s synopsis reads: “From her complex relationship with self-care to our fetishisation of the right kind of female illness (thin, pale, white, submissive), to the dark side of coping mechanisms and why it is in fact okay to spend a lot of time in bed… Poor Little Sick Girls picks apart the apparently benign threads of a very troubled cultural moment and charts the history of how we got there.”
Publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in the book from literary agent Kate Evans at PFD.
Gamble, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, said: “Having the opportunity to tell my story as a chronically ill woman but also provide my perspectives of modern feminism is an absolute dream. I hope Poor Little Sick Girls will be a bible for all those unable to fit within our optimisation obsessed world, searching to find their place within it. I am so thrilled to be working with Dialogue Books, their relentless support of marginalised talent makes them the perfect publisher for this book, and feels completely aligned with my publication, Polyester.”
Lovegrove commented: “I’ve been following Ione’s journey for a while and have been captivated by her ability to tell her truths and break through the noise of normal and create a space that is inclusive, inspiring and individual. Ione is a real talent and generous in bringing women together to explore sexuality, identity, class, illness and broaden the notions of success. Poor Little Sick Girls promises to give the next generation a different feminist perspective while asking the questions of how we got here. As an activist imprint, Ione’s voice is a perfect match for Dialogue and I am proud to be her publisher.”
