Rad Families: A Celebration honors the messy, the painful, the playful, the beautiful, the myriad ways we create families. This is not an anthology of experts, or how-to articles on perfect parenting; it often doesn’t even try to provide answers. Instead, the writers strive to be honest and vulnerable in sharing their stories and experiences, their failures and their regrets.
Gathering parents and writers from diverse communities, it explores the process of getting pregnant from trans birth to adoption, grapples with issues of racism and police brutality, probes raising feminists and feminist parenting. It plumbs the depths of empty nesting and letting go.
Some contributors are recognizable authors and activists but most are everyday parents working and loving and trying to build a better world one diaper change at a time. It’s a book that reminds us all that we are not alone, that community can help us get through the difficulties, can, in fact, make us better people. It’s a celebration, join us!
Contributors include Jonas Cannon, Ian MacKaye, Burke Stansbury, Danny Goot, Simon Knaphus, Artnoose, Welch Canavan, Daniel Muro LaMere, Jennifer Lewis, Zach Ellis, Alicia Dornadic, Jesse Palmer, Mindi J., Carla Bergman, Tasnim Nathoo, Rachel Galindo, Robert Liu-Trujillo, Dawn Caprice, Shawn Taylor, D.A. Begay, Philana Dollin, Airial Clark, Allison Wolfe, Roger Porter, cubbie rowland-storm, Annakai & Rob Geshlider, Jeremy Adam Smith, Frances Hardinge, Jonathan Shipley, Bronwyn Davies Glover, Amy Abugo Ongiri, Mike Araujo, Craig Elliott, Eleanor Wohlfeiler, Scott Hoshida, Plinio Hernandez, Madison Young, Nathan Torp, Sasha Vodnik, Jessie Susannah, Krista Lee Hanson, Carvell Wallace, Dani Burlison, Brian Whitman, scott winn, Kermit Playfoot, Chris Crass, and Zora Moniz.
What People Are Saying
“Rad dads, rad families, rad children. These stories show us that we are not alone. That we don’t have all the answers. That we are all learning.”
—Nikki McClure, illustrator, author, parent
“Rad Families is the collection for all families.”
—Innosanto Nagara, author/illustrator of A Is for Activist
“This collection takes the anaesthetized myth of parenting and reminds us what intimacy looks like. . . . The contributors describe the contours of family in a way that resonates.”
—Virgie Tovar, editor of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion
“Want a thriving family raising magical kids, building beloved community, and rooted in a vision of liberation that frees us all of white supremacist hetero-patriarchy? Read this book.”
—Chris Crass, author of Towards Collective Liberation
“I love this book! Wonderfully written, tenderly honest, unabashedly hilarious, deeply important stories from the messy beautiful world of real-life parenting. Thank goodness it exists.”
—Michelle Tea, author of How to Grow Up
About the Contributors
Tomas Moniz is the founder and editor of the award winning zine Rad Dad. He has helped raise three children and has been making zines since the late nineties. He teaches basic skills classes and creative writing at Berkeley City College. He is cofounder and cohost of the successful monthly reading series Lyrics and Dirges as well as the more rambunctious open mic, Saturday Night Special. His latest novella is Bellies and Buffalos.
Ariel Gore is an award-winning editor, memoirist, journalist, fiction writer, and former publisher of Hip Mama.