I am beyond grateful to Marianne and Kate for writing a book that helped me stop feeling ashamed and guilty and confused. Health at every size, peace of mind at every size, happiness at any size–that’s what this book advocates, explains and encourages.

Books have always changed my life in ways big and small—but before Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere, no book brought me dates, fabulous friends, and a new way of seeing myself and the world.

My heart just grew three sizes. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Craig Lassig for the NYT

So, this picture was taken the day after my wedding reception, when I could barely walk, was so tired I wanted to die, and — stupidly not having anticipated either of those eventualities — had to give a reading. And then had to meet up with a photographer for the New York Times right before that. Best planning ever. But at least this one picture turned out surprisingly well!

In case you’re wondering, the giant, black-and-white finger growing out of my left shoulder belongs to a model in the Victoria’s Secret window display behind me. (The juxtaposition of her and me was supposed to be all deep and shit, but then the lighting didn’t really work out.)

Anyway. That photo, by the lovely Craig Lassig, accompanied this Thursday Styles piece by Mandy Katz, which was a sidebar to this article. Two mentions of the book in the NYT in one day! I am beside myself! And also beside a giant, black-and-white finger.

In other fancy media news, Lee Randall wrote a terrifically flattering column about Shapely Prose in the Scotsman yesterday. And then the following conversation took place on Twitter.

KateHarding @randallwrites Just saw it now! Thank you so much!!

randallwrites @KateHarding no, thank you. i need such regular boots up the jaxsie to keep me relatively sane.

KateHarding @randallwrites I will be the boot up your jaxsie any time. Though I’m only guessing what a jaxsie is.

Lee kindly confirmed that a jaxsie is exactly what I suspected it was.

Also, I just set up an interview with Never Say Diet over at iVillage, and in the course of that up-setting (uh, wait…), I discovered that Linda Vongkhamchanh wrote the most fantastic review of Lessons there, over a month ago! WAY TO FAIL ME, GOOGLE ALERTS. Anyway, check this out:

Harding and Kirby, both self-proclaimed fat girls, have founded the ultimate fat girl’s bible, with lessons of positive body image, healthy living, and most importantly loving yourself and being healthy in your current body and at your current weight. It’s possible to be fat and healthy, just as it is possible for someone to be slim and unhealthy. Interesting concept, right? It totally goes against society’s view of women, where skinny is in and fat is just not all that. We love us some revolutionary non-diet literature! And, not to mention, their witty firsthand accounts that go along with the life lessons for the rotund reader make them all the more trustworthy.

Love!

Photo by Elizabeth Jochum, from the Vive la Femme book launch/anniversary party on May 15. Oh, hello there, left boob!

Reading in Philly

Unbelievably, the book tour is already half over! Philly (left), Boston, and the Chicago launch at Vive la Femme all went fantastically well — thanks so much to everyone who came out!

If you missed me in Chicago, you’ll get another chance to see me on June 11, at Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, starting at 7:30 p.m.

If you’re in Brooklyn next Friday night, June 5, please come out to Re/Dress and see both Marianne and me! There will also be awesome vintage plus-size shopping and a DJ/dance party once we’re done reading! 

Finally, the last confirmed date on our tour is June 28 in Minneapolis, at Magers & Quinn, starting at 6 p.m.  We’ll both be there for that, as it’s the day after my belated wedding reception/6-month anniversary party. Right now, I’m not-so-patiently awaiting the custom Jane BonBon dress I ordered for that, which is only slightly less important to me than the book. Or, you know, the marriage. 

I’m still trying to figure out a date to hit St. Louis in July, but as soon as I do, the internet will be the first to know. Beyond that, we’re trying to set up some college appearances in the fall — if you have any pull with the folks who bring in speakers at a college, please let us know!

Today is International No Diet Day, and by a happy coincidence, Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body is currently the #2 bestseller on Powells.com. First, we want to offer UNBELIEVABLY HUGE THANKS to everyone who’s already bought it. But to everyone who hasn’t — how awesome would it be if we could get the book up to #1 in celebration of International No Diet Day? If you were planning to buy it anyway, please consider ordering it from Powell’s today!

Update: We did it!

The book is out. THE BOOK IS OUT!

Despite my issues with Amazon, I just ordered it for my Kindle. Because it’s too early to go to a bookstore, and any given store might not have it in stock anyway, but I needed to celebrate the whole “It is really, truly available for purchase today!” thing. (By spending money on something I A] already have multiple free copies of, B] have already read about 400 times, and C] still have in Word files on my computer. Shut up.) It is ON MY KINDLE, y’all! Pre-ordering has given way to ordering! It’s real!

Which means now we get to start hearing how much it sucks. Anyway.

As I said to the Aussies and Kiwis yesterday, if you see the book in a store and have the technology handy to send me a picture (katesblog at gmail dot com), I would love that. If you like the book and have the time and energy to review it on Amazon, Powell’s, Good Reads, or your own blog, I would love that, too! If you don’t like the book, I would love it if you kept your mouth shut about it. I AM FULL OF LOVE TODAY.

And I’m sure at least half of you right now are like, “You know what I’d love? If you’d quit plugging your goddamned book and go back to writing real posts. WE GET IT. YOU CO-WROTE A BOOK. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. EVERYONE WHO CARES ALREADY KNOWS.” To those people I say… Did you know I co-wrote a book? And it’s available for purchase today? Tell your friends!

Oh, all right. If you really want something else to talk about today, check out my boyfriend Paul Campos’s piece in The Daily Beast about the fat hate and sexism being leveled at some of the candidates to replace Souter on the Supreme Court.

So what’s the real motivation for all the anxiety about the bodies that house two such apparently distinguished legal minds? A glance at the comments at a site such as Abovethelaw.com, which features a number of vicious attacks on Kagan’s appearance, provides one clue. For some men, the only thing more intolerable than the sight of a powerful woman is the sight of a powerful woman they don’t want to sleep with.

Emphasis mine. Quote of the fucking year, right there.

Also, check out the Q&A Marianne and I did with Damsel, a newish blog aimed at women in their twenties. Later today, there should be an interview with me up on Broadsheet as well — I’ll come back and link that when it’s up.

Also, THE BOOK IS OUT!!!

• Do you have anything in your house that’s… throne-like?
• What kind of pink fruity drinks do you like?
• Would you consider wearing a tiara?

(Answers: No; fruity-tinis and champagne cocktails; I would consider it, but that doesn’t mean I’ll do it.)

So we set up a shoot at Vive la Femme, because that is where a fat girl in Chicago goes when she needs to be photographed wearing a cocktail dress she doesn’t own, holding a glass of “champagne” (ginger ale), on a black couch with leopard print pillows and a faux-fur throw, in front of a bright pink wall. Stephanie even did a quick “alteration” with paper clips to make the dress fit better through the bust, then helpfully kept reminding me to keep my arm in front of the fucking paper clips for the photos. They are running one FULL-SERVICE OPERATION over there, I’ll tell you what.

Anyway. I can’t get the photo scanned until later, but in the meantime, Fillyjonk’s whipped up a piece of art to give you the general idea. (This is a picture of my first trial run for hair and make-up for the upcoming wedding reception. I say first trial run, because I felt like such a clown done up like this, I scrambled to find another salon to try before I left Minneapolis, and I’ll be going with the second. Keep in mind that in photos, the 90 lbs. of black eyeliner and purple eyeshadow actually look MORE SUBTLE.) All hail the queen. (And no, it was not remotely my idea to title myself “Queen of the Fat-o-sphere,” for the record, but I do find it hilarious.)

Obesity becoming U.S. civil rights issue for some

Launching an anti-dieting blog called Shapely Prose, Harding and other fat-acceptance advocates online — calling themselves the fat-o-sphere — are also educating one another about how to improve overweight people’s health.

She and other bloggers with names like FatChicksRule and Big Liberty say society’s “war on obesity” makes overweight people hate their bodies and suffer from low self-esteem.

“Being fat doesn’t make me lazy or stupid or morally suspect,” said Harding, 34, of Chicago, who also has written a book, “Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere.“

“The message we’re promoting is health at every size.”

I really wish she’d noted that I co-wrote the book with Marianne Kirby, instead of implying that I was the sole author, but otherwise, pretty good article.