Michelle Bowdler is a non-fiction writer whose work has been seen in The New York Times, Gertrude Press, Psychology Today, Literary Hub, Ms. Magazine, Hippocampus, the Rumpus, and other literary magazines. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is the recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Award for Non-Fiction 2017. Bowdler also has anthology pieces in We Rise to Resist - Voices from a New Era of Political Action (McFarland) and Anatomy of Silence (Red Press, UK).
Bowdler's memoir, Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, An Investigation, and A Manifesto (2020, Flatiron Books) was longlisted for the National Book Award. The book is an interrogation into our society's response to cases of sexual assault interwoven with Bowdler's own story of violence, recovery, and activism. It begs the question, with justice so often delayed or denied to rape victims and rape being the only major felony with such staggeringly low report, prosecution, and conviction rates: do we actually treat it as a crime?
