Fat Girl Dancing

Fat child, self-denying adolescent, hungry young woman. A body now burgeoning uncontrolled into middle age. Kris Kneen has borne the usual indignities: the clothes that won’t fasten, the mirror that affronts, the stranger whose gaze judges and dismisses. This is the story of how Kris learned to look unblinkingly at their recalcitrant body, and ultimately found the courage to carry it to freedom. Fat Girl Dancing is a frank, beautiful and triumphant ode to self-respect from one of Australia’s most original and acclaimed writers. Kris Kneen is the award-winning author of memoir—Affection and The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen—and fiction: An Uncertain Grace, Steeplechase, Triptych, The Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine, Wintering, as well as the Thomas Shapcott Award-winning poetry collection Eating My Grandmother. They have written and directed broadcast documentaries for SBS and ABC Television. ‘Muscular, dexterous, and superbly inventive, Fat Girl Dancing is an extraordinary investigation - and expression - of the self.’ Sarah Krasnostein ‘Insightful and poetic, Fat Girl Dancing is a triumph. I am better for having read it, perhaps even a little more human. This book may be Kneen's specific story, but it is for every mind and every body.’ Bri Lee ‘A prism of a book, relighting the world around us, page by page.’ Chloe Hooper 'A story of love that questions perceptions and presumptions with gentle heart, unflinching introspection and lyrical ferocity. Exquisitely shaped and personally provocative.’ Ashley Hay

It's the summer of drinking and driving, disco and diets, fake IDs and fat 17 year old Char is coming of age. She learns to accept her own body and sexual identity in this coming out story.

An unfulfilled life, the search for the perfect comfort food, a road rage incident, a quest for a summer job, and four psychotic yuppies bring two unlikely souls into sync to dance on the very edge of the Great Lie that at once binds them in the dark and keeps them apart. This disturbing tale of personal wonder, societal malevolence, and individual striving emerges from the dark hidden corners of a repressed world to become a riveting story of spiritual ascendance against all material odds, and against all of mankind's many gods. Fat Girl Dancing is the first volume of the Dancing on The Edge trilogy.

This is the story of my journey from a university psychology department to public mental health and private practice, and on to being a psychologist in Indian land. It includes, of course, the many interesting people, novel experiences, and challenging ideas I encountered along the way. It is a story of expanding spiritual awareness and growth as a human being and the part played in that by the Chippewa/Ojibwa Indians, whose own practice of faith clearly embodies Jesus teachings on how to live with reverence, gratitude, humility, and grace. The discovery of their faith was an immense surprise and an unexpected joy. Eventually I was called in dreams to Sundance in Canada, a calling that also included dancing in other ceremonies which, like the Sundance, required four days of fasting and prayer. I attempt to convey to the reader some of the learning and growth that are inevitable when one dances in a sacred arbor filled with kind souls and the Creators unconditional loveand yet I know full well that words merely hint at what can be learned only through experience. When I answered the call to Sundance, who could have known that as a dancer, helper, and eventual leader I would spend the next eighteen years of my life in those sacred arbors? I was fifty-two when I first danced and a couple of weeks shy of seventy when last I dragged the buffalo skulls. My dear wife pursued her own calling to teach children, and wound up teaching many years in a nearby Indian school. She made this journey ours by her loving constancy, faith, courage, and support. She was the first and best of the joy-filled surprises the Creator had for me when He moved me out of the university world.

Blending theatre, storytelling and killer moves, spoken word artist Maria Ferguson explores her relationship with the F-word (food) with the help of her first love (dance). Questioning how we all look at size, Fat Girls Don't Dance takes us in to the world of performance, where three meals a day is up for compromise and skinny sells well. NB: There will be cake

Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize Longlisted for the 2017 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Longlisted for the 2018 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks—even though her best friend Mel says she’s the pretty one. She starts dating guys online, but she’s afraid to send pictures, even when her skinny friend China does her makeup: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She fights her way into coveted dresses. She grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror. But no matter how much she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl? In her brilliant, hilarious, and at times shocking debut, Mona Awad simultaneously skewers the body image-obsessed culture that tells women they have no value outside their physical appearance, and delivers a tender and moving depiction of a lovably difficult young woman whose life is hijacked by her struggle to conform. As caustically funny as it is heartbreaking, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl introduces a vital new voice in fiction.

“Finally—a fitness book for the rest of us! . . . [Big Fit Girl] is sure to usher in a new generation of tough, curvy athletes.” —Jessamyn Stanley, author of Every Body Yoga In Big Fit Girl, Louise Green describes how the fitness industry fails to meet the needs of plus-size women and thus prevents them from improving their health and fitness. By telling her own story of how she stopped dieting, got off the couch, and unleashed her inner athlete—as well as showcasing similar stories from other women—Green inspires other plus-size women to do the same. Green also provides concrete advice, based on the latest research, about how to get started, how to establish a support team, how to choose an activity, what kind of clothing and gear work best for the plus-size athlete, how to set goals, and how to improve one’s relationship with food. And she stresses the importance of paying it forward—for it is only by seeing plus-size women in leadership roles that other plus-size women will be motivated to stop trying to lose weight and get fit instead. “Big Fit Girl impressed me tremendously. Green combines compelling storytelling with practical tips—true to what we know about science—in a unique way that will get you moving.” —Linda Bacon, PhD, scientist, and author of Health at Every Size “Inspiring and empowering.” —Taryn Brumfitt, producer and director, founder of the Body Image Movement “I’m thrilled to live in a world where Big Fit Girl will be part of the health section. Thank you Louise—it’s time for every person of every size to have access to this information!” —Jes Baker, The Militant Baker

Dancers create 'civic culture' as performances for public consumption, but also as vernaculars connecting individuals who may have little in common. Examining performance and the construction of culturally diverse communities the book suggests that amateur and concert dance can teach us how to live and work productively together.