Reviews and Press
Bestselling author Ottessa Moshfegh in the New York Times Book Review:
“NYT: What books are on your nightstand?
Ottessa Moshfegh: “Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute.”
LitHub.com: "The Great Booksellers Fall 2016 Preview"
"Not only for Bay Area history buffs, Alice will enlighten all readers to early shifts in gender roles and societal correlations today."
San Francisco Chronicle: "Memoirs of a Woman of the Night in SF 100 Years Ago."
Evan Karp, Executive Director of Quiet Lightning and founder of Litseen.com features Alice in his Chronicle literary column.
San Francisco Magazine: "100 Years Ago Today, Sex Workers Marched for their rights in San Francisco" by Lamar Anderson
"A century later, 'there is still no such thing as accepted sex workers’ rights,' says Ivy Anderson, who is the editor, with Devon Angus, of the book Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute... 'In the early ’70s you see the first real sex workers’ rights organization form, COYOTE, which stood for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics,' says Anderson. Since 1917, the main thing that has changed—absent any actual rights gained—'is the visibility of a sex workers’ rights movement."
Golden Gate XPress: "Lost History of Barbary Coast Prostitute Unearthed by SF State Alums"
Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus were interviewed by a Golden Gate Xpress reporter after hosting their first Barbary Coast Walking Tour, sponsored by City Lights Booksellers and Publishers.
Carol Leigh, multidisciplinary artist and activist who brought the term "sex worker" to the public, reviews Alice:
"With its unflinching honesty, the political relevance of Alice's story and analysis resonates today. By speaking out from 'the underground,' Alice's narrative predicts contemporary San Francisco sex worker discourse, motivating political action against all odds. An important book."
Gretchen Soderlund, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Oregon, and Author of Sex Trafficking, Scandal, and the Transformation of Journalism, 1885-1917 reviews Alice:
“Skillfully contextualized by the editors, Alice demonstrates the power of the press in the Progressive era to rouse diverse communities into public sphere debate and political activism....Should be essential reading for anyone interested in the rich history of sexual commerce in the United States.”