WINNER
2025 PEN Open Book Award
2025 ASALH Book Prize
Vengeance Feminism: The Power of Black Women’s Fury in Lawless Times is an enthralling account centering unsung Black women who fought racism and sexism with axes, pistols, hatchets, and fists. Gross digs deep into the archives to unearth remarkable stories of Black women who lied, cheated, stole, and hit back to defend their honor and demand justice that no one else would offer them. Gross marshals an impressive array of historical evidence, from arrest records to reportage from the Black presses, to render twentieth-century Philadelphia, its seedy back alleys, thriving juke joints, and parks bursting with picnics. At once humorous, provocative, and riveting, Vengeance Feminism writes into the gaps left by histories of the Black Women’s Club Movement and poor Black women often viewed as its passive beneficiaries. A rare page-turning history, the book leans into the elements of story, scene, dialogue, and plot, to bring its subjects to vibrant life. Gross offers a magnificent example of the necessity of reclaiming forms of resistance deemed disreputable and even dangerous, as well as a blueprint for grounding such stories in rich contexts to allow for empathy and respect for subjects. Gross’s elegant, eye-opening tour de force reminds us that Black women need not always “go high,” and that history shows they’ve always been on the frontlines defending their livelihoods, their bodies, and their honor, with a knife in hand. — PEN America judges’ citation