The Perils of Girlhood: A Memoir in Essays by Melissa Fraterrigo

Join us in welcoming Melissa Fraterrigo for an event in conversation with Michele Morano to celebrate the release of The Perils of Girlhood: A Memoir in Essays.

Please note: This event is free to attend, but registration is required.

Like many girls growing up in the eighties and nineties, Melissa Fraterrigo leaned on popular culture to transition from childhood to adolescence and beyond. Judy Blume told stories about girls embracing their imperfections; Madonna encouraged bold moves. But Fraterrigo’s experiences with dating and attempts to refashion her body through diet and exercise left her feeling far from empowered. It wasn’t until Fraterrigo became a mother to twin daughters and they began their own self-criticisms that she questioned how she might help them navigate their own girlhoods.A handsome swim coach’s advances, an anxious daughter soothing her father’s temper, the history of Mace, and the joy of female friendship: these are some of the memories that shape Fraterrigo’s worldview as an adult. Written with lyricism and insight, The Perils of Girlhood provides a reckoning and a reclamation. And while these personal narratives developed from Fraterrigo’s desire to guide her daughters, their universal truths compel us to consider how best to bring all of our daughters into the future.

Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the memoir in essays, The Perils of Girlhood (University of Nebraska Press, September 2025) and also the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press), and the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies and has been a finalist for awards from Glimmer Train on multiple occasions, twice nominated for Pushcart Awards, and was the winner of the Sam Adams/Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Contest. She teaches creative writing at Purdue University and in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Butler University in Indianapolis. She also offers instruction on the art and craft of writing at the Lafayette Writers’ Studio in Lafayette, Indiana. Visit her website at http://www.melissafraterrigo.com.

Michele Morano is the author of the essay collections Like Love and Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain. Her recent essays appear in The Sun and The Overturning, an anthology of writers responding to the end of Roe v. Wade. She teaches essay, memoir, and travel writing in the graduate and undergraduate programs at DePaul University in Chicago.

Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email [email protected] by no later than 14 days before the event. For scholarship tickets or other access needs please email .

Host or Publisher Women & Children First