Laura Goode

Laura Goode writes about intersectional feminism, female friendship, motherhood, gender, and race in culture, TV, film, and literature. She currently serves as Associate Director for Student Programs for the Public Humanities Initiative at Stanford University, where she teaches in the English department and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

Since 2019, she has led the Public Humanities’ flagship speaker series “What Is A Public Intellectual Today",” hosting authors including Jia Tolentino, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Alexander Chee, Anne Helen Petersen, Wesley Morris, and Maggie Nelson. With her friend and colleague Adrian Daub, and the support of the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research, she co-hosts the podcast The Feminist Present; guest interviews have included Judith Butler, Angela Garbes, Melissa Febos, Jeanette Winterson, Merve Emre, Susan Stryker, Evette Dionne, and Cheryl Strayed.

Her nonfiction craft book PITCH CRAFT: The Writer’s Guide to Getting Agented, Published, and Paid is forthcoming from Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, in fall 2025. Her nonfiction has appeared widely in BuzzFeed, ELLE, Catapult, Glamour, InStyle, Publishers Weekly, Longreads, The Cut, Refinery29, New Republic, and many other publications. Her nonfiction work has also received funding support from the 2018-2019 Steinbeck Fellowship at San José State University and the 2019 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College.

Her collection of poems BECOME A NAME was released by Fathom Books in October 2016. "This collection," wrote the poet Harmony Holiday, "possesses the fugitive elegance of all well-behaved rebels who know how to breach the pattern from within it, who rename themselves again and again, against the myth of finitude."

Her feature film FARAH GOES BANG premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2013, where it won the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize from Tribeca and Vogue. She co-wrote the film with director Meera Menon, and produced it. FGB follows three recent college graduates who go on the road in 2004 to campaign for John Kerry and get laid, and raised $81,160 on Kickstarter in 2012. During its run at 18 other national and international film festivals, FGB was honored with three Best Narrative Feature awards, among other accolades. FGB was released on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vimeo, and Seed&Spark in April 2015.

Her novel for young adults SISTER MISCHIEF was released by Candlewick Press on July 12, 2011. Elissa Schappell wrote of SM in Vanity Fair's Hot Type, "You can’t help but cheer as Goode’s crew—starring Esme, a Jewish lesbian songwriter who goes by “M.C. Ferocious”; D.J. SheStorm, a badass breeder; and M.C. Rohini, a hot desi chick and Ferocious’s love interest—take over a pep rally, read Diane di Prima, and throw down rhymes." The American Library Association included Sister Mischief in two of its annual honor lists: the Amelia Bloomer Project, recognizing excellence in feminist YA literature, and the Rainbow List (Top Ten selection), recognizing excellence in GLBTQ YA. Sister Mischief was also a 2012 Best of The Bay pick by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Her cross-genre work has appeared in anthologies including Starry Eyed: 16 Stories That Steal The Spotlight, Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets for the Next Generation, and SCRATCH: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living. From 2017 to 2023 she proudly served on the Board of Directors for San Francisco Women Against Rape, a historic center for over 50 years of both both rape crisis services and women of color leadership principles.

She was raised in Edina, MN, and received her BA in English and Comparative Literature and MFA in Writing from Columbia University.

Here are some photos of Laura sitting on chairs: