UPFRONT ENCORE
‘Wow, No Thank You’
Samantha Irby’s new book serves up lighter tone by
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amantha Irby is a funny person, but she’ll tell you she’s not a happy one. Even though her success is growing, she’s nervous about paychecks. Her work was published in The New Yorker’s Jan. 27 edition, but she wants to manage expectations. “Not everything I do will be New Yorker quality,” she cautions. “I mean, enjoy the ride until you unfollow me in protest.” She chuckles, musing that her readers and The New Yorker’s might not have previously overlapped. Irby, a comedian and author who began the blog bitchesgottaeat in 2009, is known for her blunt candor about her body, her health (emotional and physical), and sex with men and women. She has a social media following on Twitter and Instagram that tops 114,000, and her third book of essays, Wow, No Thank You, was released last month on the heels of 2017’s bestselling We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. Irby’s first book, Meaty, was published in 2013. Of Wow, No Thank You, she says, “I think it’s better-written than the first two. I’m a tiny bit smarter. You can tell I’ve read more books.” We Are Never Meeting in Real Life chronicles the start of a relationship that resulted in her marriage to school social worker Kirsten Jennings and a move to Kalamazoo in 2016. The book became a
Ted Beranis
Comedian, blogger, author and fairly recent Kalamazoo resident Samantha Irby released her third book, Wow, No Thank You, last month.
14 | ENCORE APRIL 2020