Whip Smart: The True Story of a Secret Life

Written by Melissa Febos

Narrated by Melissa Febos

A dark, wild, powerful memoir about a young woman's transformation from college student to professional dominatrix.

While a college student at The New School, Melissa Febos spent four years working as a dominatrix in a midtown dungeon. In poetic, nuanced prose she charts in Whip Smart how unchecked risk-taking eventually gave way to a course of self-destruction. But as she recounts crossing over the very boundaries that she set for her own safety, she never plays the victim. In fact, the glory of this memoir is Melissa's ability to illuminate the strange and powerful truths that she learned as she found her way out of a hell of her own making. Rest assured; the reader will emerge from the journey more or less unscathed.

Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666145540

Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart, the essay collection, Abandon Me, and a craft book, Body Work. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, she is also the inaugural winner of the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary and the recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The BAU Institute, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and others. Her essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, McSweeney's Quarterly, Granta, Sewanee Review, Tin House, The Sun, and The New York Times. She is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.

Reviews for Whip Smart

[breanne umphress · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Melissa’s later work is more vulnerable and heartfelt (as good writers inevitably become great writers with time), but I gotta say— I was stoked when I saw she finally released an audiobook for Whipsmart. So I pulled my copy from the shelf, pressed play and was delighted to hear the author’s voice narrating the book. I can’t wait for her new book Body Work coming out next month.