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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

Book cover for 100 Times
Book cover for 100 Times

Shirley Jackson Award-winning author and three-time Lambda Finalist, Chavisa Woods presents one hundred true stories of sexism, harassment, discrimination, and assault.

Recounting her experiences with sexist discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence—beginning in childhood, through the present—Woods lays out clear and unflinching personal vignettes that build in intensity as the number of times grows. Individually, and especially taken as a whole, these stories amount to powerful proof that sexual violence and discrimination are never just one-time occurrences, but part of a constant battle all women face every day.

In these extraordinary pages, sexual violence and sexist discrimination occur regardless of age, in all spheres of society, in rural and urban areas alike, in the US and abroad, from Woods' youth through adulthood. Demonstrating how often people are conditioned to endure sexism and harassment, and how thoroughly men feel entitled to women’s spaces and bodies,100 Times forces the reader to witness the myriad ways in which sexism and misogyny continuously shape women’s lives, and are built-in facets of our society.

Book cover for 100 Times
Book cover for 100 Times

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“Yes, it's hard to be female. Woods's fierce, honest memoir illustrates this fact. Illuminating the ways in which sexism targets women and infects the society at large, Woods shares her experiences with daring openness. In clear, precise prose, 100 Times is interesting, educational, dramatic and emotional. A must read.”

“In 100 Times, Chavisa Woods tells a linear but fragmented personal story of growing up and coming of age in a misogynist culture ... The chronological arrangement and pared-down writing style underscore the injustice of each of these incidents, which include bullying, sexual harassment, assault, and rape ... By articulating the full range of her own experiences, Woods stresses the need for a dramatic shift in societal attitudes if we ever want to live in a culture in which rape and sexist discrimination are no longer routine.”

“Like a brilliant performance artist putting her body on the line, Chavisa Woods has dared to use her own life, starting at age five, to interrogate the horror, banality, absurdity, and all-around deadening impact of being the object of sexist mistreatment. Her deceptively plain method makes for a powerful double portrait: on one hand, we trace the hulking outlines of a distorted social order; on the other, we grow deeply absorbed in the story of a young queer artist’s courageous self-making. I was touched and thrilled by the activist passion behind this memoir, which belongs on the shelf with feminist classics like Judy Grahn’s 'The Common Women Poems' and Audre Lorde’s Zami.”

“By bravely sharing her own story, Chavisa Woods demands an end to routine and relentless gender-based violence and a fundamental accounting of how misogyny impacts social norms at the personal and structural level.”

“'All my life when I’ve tried to talk to men about sexism,' Woods writes, 'my main obstacle has been trying to convince them, quite simply, that it exists.' Incident by incident, this memoir makes the case in stark personal terms.”

“Brilliant and simple, this is sure to advance understanding of a topic of intense national reckoning. Much of the sexism Woods experienced took place before her twenty-first birthday; teen readers will find validation and solidarity.”

Chavisa Woods

Brooklyn-based writer Chavisa Woods is the author of the short story collection Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country (Seven Stories Press, 2017), about which Booklist, in a starred review, wrote, “This book is tight, intelligent, and important, and sure to secure Woods a seat in the pantheon of critical 21st century voices;” the novel The Albino Album (Seven Stories Press, 2013); and the story collection Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind (Fly by Night Press, 2009). Woods was the recipient of the 2014 Cobalt Prize for fiction and was a finalist in 2009, 2014, and 2018 for the Lambda Literary Award for fiction. In 2018 Woods was the recipient of the Kathy Acker Award for Writing and the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette. Woods has appeared as a featured author at such notable venues as the Whitney Museum of American Art, City Lights Bookstore, Town Hall Seattle, the Brecht Forum, the Cervantes Institute, and St. Mark’s Poetry Project.