Chick-lit’s unprecedented success has proven its popularity with readers... but not with critics, or the literary fiction writers critics love. It’s been called “frivolous” and “bubble gum,” accused of a preoccupation with fancy cocktails and overpriced shoes, and indicted for its supposed lack of intelligence and literary merit. Tired of being the literary underclass, chick-lit writers are finally fighting back—in style.

Welcome to chick-lit’s coming-out party. Here, eighteen of today’s hottest authors set out to prove that chick is lit—that fiction by, about, and for women is as meaningful, as rewarding, and as worthy of respect as any other writing out there.

THIS IS CHICK-LIT celebrates what it means to write chick-lit and to read it—and shows once and for all that you shouldn’t judge a book by its pastel cover.