What does 'crazy' really mean? MANIC-DEPRESSIVE PIXIE DREAM GIRL is an off-beat collection of stories, essays, and poems inspired by the author's own journeys in and out of love, sanity, and everything in between. This book takes the trope of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl--quirky-yet-troubled love interest of countless Sad Boy protagonists--and turns it inside out, breathing life into a formerly tired and empty plot device. The result is a harsh examination of media representation's effects on the way society handles mental illness and gender-based violence. With equal parts humor, sincerity, and blistering social commentary, this book will change your perspective on womanhood, the American mental health system, and, ultimately, what it means to be well-adjusted to a sick society.

In this incredible collection, Katya Zinn unwinds like an old cassette tape and constructs ball gowns from the mess of ribbon on the oor. An ode to the importance of sadness, this book serves as a necessary script decoding the dierences between honesty and truth. roughout these poems, Zinn is the teacher we didn't know we needed and also the mirrored surface we didn't know we had.--Ilyus Evander, author of Heavier than Wait

We need this book. Thank you, Katya, for the reminder of the importance of choosing to be alive for ourselves and ourselves alone.--Maya Williams, Portland, Maine poet laureate

Poetry. Hybrid. LGBTQ+ Studies. Women's Studies.