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Samantha Irby

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"Sam Irby" redirects here. For Samuel Irby, Louisiana kidnapping victim, see List of kidnappings § 1900–1949.
Samantha Irby
BornFebruary 13, 1980 Edit this on Wikidata
Occupation
Awards
Websitehttps://www.samanthairby.com/ Edit this on Wikidata

Samantha McKiver Irby (born February 13, 1980) is an American comedian, essayist, blogger, and television writer.[1][2] She is the creator and author of the blog bitches gotta eat, where she writes humorous observations about her own life and modern society more broadly.[3] Her books We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Wow, No Thank You. were both New York Times best-sellers. She is a recipient of the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for bisexual nonfiction.[4]

She has been a writer and/or co-producer for TV shows including HBO's reboot of Sex and the City, Work in Progress, Shrill, and Tuca & Bertie.[5] In 2016, FX announced that it had purchased the television rights to Irby's 2013 memoir Meaty and her blog, with the intent to adapt them into a series.[6]

Early life

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Samantha McKiver Irby's middle name is her maternal grandmother's maiden name.[7] She was born on February 13, 1980,[8] and grew up in Evanston, Illinois.[9] She attended Evanston Township High School.[10] Her mother was a nurse.[7]

In several interviews and books, Irby has discussed caring for her mother, who had multiple sclerosis, as a teenager. Irby attended Northern Illinois University, but dropped out after her mother's death.[11] Her father was in and out of her life. His death—from hypothermia after suffering multiple heart attacks and strokes—happened six months before her mother's death.[12] Irby began writing in the late 2000s when she started a Myspace blog.[13]

Work

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In her blog bitches gotta eat, Irby offers an unvarnished and humorous accounting of challenges she has faced in her personal life and discusses various topics, including her sex life and battles with Crohn's disease. She began the blog in 2009.[14]

Irby also co-hosted the live lit show Guts and Glory in Chicago with Keith Ecker until 2015, when the show ended its run.[15]

She has co-hosted The Sunday Night Sex Show, performed in several shows, including The Paper Machete and Story Club, and her work has appeared in The Rumpus, In Our Words, and Jezebel.[16][17][18]

Irby has published five books: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life; Meaty; New Year, Same Trash; Wow, No Thank You; and Quietly Hostile.

Meaty was published by Curbside Splendor Publishing in 2013, then republished in 2018 by Vintage Books. It is in development for adaptation as a television show on FX called Guts and Glory, with comedian Abbi Jacobson and writer Jessi Klein.[19]

In 2017, Irby's second book, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, was published by Vintage Books. It made The New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction.[20][21]

The fourth collection of essays, Wow, No Thank You, was released in March 2020.[22][23] Irby stated on her social media pages that her book tour would be online due to COVID-19.[24] The book debuted in the New York Times best-seller list's number one spot for Paperback Nonfiction.[25]

In 2018, Irby wrote the fourth episode, "Pool", of the first season of Shrill. It was released on March 15, 2019.[26]

In February 2021, Irby was announced as a co-producer and writer on And Just Like That..., the HBO reboot of Sex and the City.[27] She was the lead writer of Season 1 Episode 5, "Tragically Hip."[28]

Her essay collection Wow, No Thank You. won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Non-Fiction at the 33rd Lambda Literary Awards in 2021.[29]

In July 2021, Irby wrote an episode for the second season of Tuca & Bertie, "Vibe Check".[30]

Personal life

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Irby married in 2016. Her wife is Kirsten Jennings. She now lives and works in Kalamazoo, Michigan.[31]

Irby has been open about her struggles with Crohn's disease, degenerative arthritis, and depression, often discussing her experiences in her writing.[31] She is friends with writers Roxane Gay and Lindy West.[32]

Publications

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  • Meaty (2013, Curbside Splendor Publishing: ISBN 9780988825864: 2018, Vintage)[33][34]
  • New Year, Same Trash: Resolutions I Absolutely Did Not Keep (2017, Vintage, e-book: ISBN 9780525435150)
  • We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (2017, Vintage: ISBN 9781101912195)[35][36][37][38][39]
  • "Country Crock" in Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America (eds. Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, 2017, Picador: ISBN 9781250155504)[40]
  • Wow, No Thank You.: Essays, (March 2020, Vintage, ISBN 978-0525563488)
  • Quietly Hostile (May 2023, Penguin Random House, ISBN 9780593315699)

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ "The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Samantha Irby". The Rumpus. June 21, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  2. ^ "Samantha Irby on Writing Honestly And Avoiding Loose Change". WBEZ. June 20, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  3. ^ "Seriously, Everything Is Funny to Samantha Irby". Elle. June 1, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  4. ^ "2021 Winners". Lambda Literary. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  5. ^ "Samantha Irby". IMDb. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  6. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (September 29, 2016). "FX Developing 'Meaty' Comedy From Jessi Klein, Samantha Irby & Abbi Jacobson". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  7. ^ a b Irby, Samantha (2018). Meaty. Vintage Books. pp. 12–13.
  8. ^ Irby, Samantha (2018). Meaty. Vintage Books. p. 7.
  9. ^ Irby, Samantha. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. Vintage Books, 2017. p. 5
  10. ^ "Quietly Hostile: A Conversation with Samantha Irby". FAN. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  11. ^ Irby, Samantha. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. Vintage Books, 2017
  12. ^ "The World's Loudest Inner Monologue". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
  13. ^ "Samantha Irby Is Coming Out—Again". INTO. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  14. ^ Irby, Samantha. "bitches gotta eat". Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  15. ^ "Live Lit Series Guts & Glory Will End After Tonight's Show". Chicago. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  16. ^ "Posts by Samantha Irby". The Rumpus. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  17. ^ Irby, Samantha (January 10, 2014). "Hide Your Good Snacks and Other Rules for How to Have Casual Sex". Jezebel. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  18. ^ "Tag Archives: Samantha Irby". In Our Words: Salon for Queers & Co. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  19. ^ "Sam Irby on her new essay collection, parenting and her forthcoming pilot with Abbi Jacobson". Time Out. May 30, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  20. ^ Maslin, Janet (May 25, 2017). "Books to Breeze Through This Summer". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  21. ^ "Paperback Nonfiction". The New York Times. June 18, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  22. ^ Sehgal, Parul (April 1, 2020). "The Wildly Funny Samantha Irby Is Back, Not a Moment Too Soon". New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2020. Print version, April 2, 2020, p. C6.
  23. ^ "Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby: 9780525563488 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  24. ^ "samantha irby's Instagram video: "ok would you want me to read to you or should i get bent or what"". Instagram. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  25. ^ "Paperback Nonfiction Books - Best Sellers - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  26. ^ Romero, Ariana (March 9, 2019). "This Is Exactly How Shrill's Mindblowing Fat Babe Pool Party Episode Came To Be". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  27. ^ Low, Elaine (February 5, 2021). "'Sex and the City' Revival Assembles Writers' Room, Adds Samantha Irby, Rachna Fruchbom, Keli Goff". Variety. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  28. ^ Legardye, Quinci (July 11, 2021), "Samantha Sort of Returned on And Just Like That...", Harpers Bazaar, retrieved January 14, 2022
  29. ^ Jane Henderson, "Lambda Literary Awards announce winners". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 1, 2021.
  30. ^ Long, Aaron; Merryman, Peter (July 11, 2021), Vibe Check, Tuca & Bertie, retrieved October 12, 2021
  31. ^ a b Nico, Nico (August 17, 2017). "Samantha Irby Is Coming Out–Again". Into. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018.
  32. ^ Bolonik, Kera (May 30, 2017). "The Acerbic, Unflinching Writing of Samantha Irby". New York. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  33. ^ Nicholson, Renée K. (May 23, 2014). "Book Review: Meaty by Samantha Irby". The Los Angeles Review. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  34. ^ "Samantha Irby Needs to Talk About Some Sh*t". Literary Hub. May 31, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  35. ^ Tang, Estelle (June 1, 2017). "Seriously, Everything Is Funny to Samantha Irby". Elle. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  36. ^ Hernandez, Jen Hamilton (August 7, 2017). "Book review: Irby writes about real life realistically". Mysa. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  37. ^ "Powell's Q&A: Samantha Irby, Author of 'We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.' by Samantha Irby". Powell's Books. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  38. ^ "Megan Stielstra interviewing Samantha Irby: The right way to meet in real life". Chicago Reader. July 26, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  39. ^ Honey, Minda (June 2, 2017). "'Getting Worse/Better': Samantha Irby on Her New Book". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  40. ^ Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America. OCLC 1000527000 – via WorldCat.

Works cited

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  • Irby, Samantha (2018). Meaty. Vintage Books.
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