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The Incredible Shrinking Woman
A quiet retelling of a life in the background, Athena Dixon's debut essay collection, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, is a gentle unpacking of the roles she learned to inhabit, growing up as a Black woman in a small Midwestern town, to avoid disruption. But after the implosion of the life she'd always wanted, Dixon must explore the implications of her desire to hide as she rebuilds herself in a world that expects freedom to look boisterous. As Dixon presses the bruises of her invisibility, these essays glide between the pages of fan fiction, the rush of new panties, down the rabbit hole of depression, and reemerge on the other side, speaking with the lived authority of a voice that, even when shaking, is always crystal clear.
- GenresEssaysMemoirNonfiction
125 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2020
6 people are currently reading
615 people want to read
About the author
Athena Dixon
4 books61 followersBorn and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of the forthcoming essay collection The Loneliness Files (Tin House 2023), The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Split/Lip Press 2020) and No God In This Room (Winner of the Intersectional Midwest Chapbook Contest, Argus House Press 2018). Her work also appears in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Books) and Getting to the Truth: The Practice and Craft of Creative Nonfiction (Hippocampus Books 2021).
Athena’s work has appeared in various publications both online and in print. She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and creative nonfiction as well as a Best of the Net nomination for poetry. She is a fellow of Callaloo and V.O.N.A. as well as a Tin House Winter Workshop attendee. Additionally, she has presented at AWP, HippoCamp, and The Muse and the Marketplace among other panels and conferences across the nation. She has served as a Writer in Residence for the app Dipsea. Athena has been awarded a fellowship from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and a 2nd book residency from Tin House.
She was the Founder of Linden Avenue Literary Journal, which published from 2012-2021. Athena is a former co-host of the New Books in Poetry Podcast via the New Books Network.
She writes, edits, and resides in Philadelphia.
Athena’s work has appeared in various publications both online and in print. She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and creative nonfiction as well as a Best of the Net nomination for poetry. She is a fellow of Callaloo and V.O.N.A. as well as a Tin House Winter Workshop attendee. Additionally, she has presented at AWP, HippoCamp, and The Muse and the Marketplace among other panels and conferences across the nation. She has served as a Writer in Residence for the app Dipsea. Athena has been awarded a fellowship from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and a 2nd book residency from Tin House.
She was the Founder of Linden Avenue Literary Journal, which published from 2012-2021. Athena is a former co-host of the New Books in Poetry Podcast via the New Books Network.
She writes, edits, and resides in Philadelphia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 14, 2020
What does it mean to be a midwestern Black woman?
How do you let yourself be seen when your instinct is to shrink?
What does depression look like?
Where do you find hope?
Athena Dixon explores all of these issues and so much more in her essay collection The Incredible Shrinking Woman. The book is a nonlinear journey into and out of a marriage, but this is no ordinary story of lost love.
The book is filled with paradoxes, like how to become invisible when you’re six feet tall, or how to be seen as desirable when the world tells you otherwise. It offers cultural commentary on music, the role of technology in 21st-century connections, and how fan fiction can make you into a writer. We learn of Athena’s struggle to find her own version of “Black” as she studies family members and hip hop icons and we see her courageously reclaim the pejorative “fat Black woman” as a way of taking up the space she so deserves.
Each essay reads like a prose poem. They are filled with startling imagery that simultaneously delights and disturbs your senses as you peek behind her cardigans and Chuck Taylors. Athena’s essay “Depression is a Pair of Panties” offers a fresh, intimate take on struggle. In it, she shares not just the pain of depression, but how it’s the little things, like the right pair of panties or a favorite fork, that keep us alive.
With “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” we experience the silent burden she bears while reckoning with a fellow passenger’s insensitive behavior and the societal expectations that make her choose between remaining silent and becoming the “Angry Black Woman.”
The book is a fast and powerful read. I enjoyed it the first time, and I look forward to rereading it so I can savor both the individual stories and her beautiful sentences.
How do you let yourself be seen when your instinct is to shrink?
What does depression look like?
Where do you find hope?
Athena Dixon explores all of these issues and so much more in her essay collection The Incredible Shrinking Woman. The book is a nonlinear journey into and out of a marriage, but this is no ordinary story of lost love.
The book is filled with paradoxes, like how to become invisible when you’re six feet tall, or how to be seen as desirable when the world tells you otherwise. It offers cultural commentary on music, the role of technology in 21st-century connections, and how fan fiction can make you into a writer. We learn of Athena’s struggle to find her own version of “Black” as she studies family members and hip hop icons and we see her courageously reclaim the pejorative “fat Black woman” as a way of taking up the space she so deserves.
Each essay reads like a prose poem. They are filled with startling imagery that simultaneously delights and disturbs your senses as you peek behind her cardigans and Chuck Taylors. Athena’s essay “Depression is a Pair of Panties” offers a fresh, intimate take on struggle. In it, she shares not just the pain of depression, but how it’s the little things, like the right pair of panties or a favorite fork, that keep us alive.
With “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” we experience the silent burden she bears while reckoning with a fellow passenger’s insensitive behavior and the societal expectations that make her choose between remaining silent and becoming the “Angry Black Woman.”
The book is a fast and powerful read. I enjoyed it the first time, and I look forward to rereading it so I can savor both the individual stories and her beautiful sentences.
December 30, 2020
I felt an odd out of body experience reading this collection of essays by Athena Dixon. The collection is short but compacted with such beautiful prose and vivid recollections.
With 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙒𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣, I was reading a second self narrate her struggles with selfish men that cheat, college debt that weighs heavy on potential, stomach fat that’s only defined attractive or ugly by the stares of men, or even pointing mental fingers at loved ones who don’t understand what it’s like to be Y O U.
A favorite essay of mine, NATIVE TONGUE, was Kim from middle to high school listening to class mates pick a part why she talked the way she did. Cousins on my black side of my family, as well, seemed beautifully foreign and in sync with their own blackness. I felt like I lingered in some space of isolation because I was different. Being quiet, book smart, and liking any other music that wasn’t hip-hop was W E I R D. Why was being smart such a BAD THING then? Enter college, I (like Athena) started to grow into my own and the people that made fun of my “proper ass voice” were asking me to be friends so they can pass their general requirements as freshmen.
ONCE UPON AN AOL, my second favorite, pulled at my heart strings and made me feel a weird sense of deja vu as a hopeless romantic. Dixon expresses, “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥. 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 all 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦; 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘦” (62). I’ve always thought my life would be complete with love and the validation of my worth seen through men, but with maturity that type of love is a tale and that’s not the only story as a woman worth living/telling.
September 18, 2020
Elegant in its prose, the strength of “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” lies in its unflinching depiction of what it means to be Black, fat, and female in America. We follow Athena Dixon from small town to big city in a collection that expands the personal into the universal. Dixon’s haunting words will echo long after you close the final page, demanding to be fully seen, understood, and cherished.
January 9, 2024
Finished this book in a day-ish.
I love a good essay collection and Dixon delivers. With her short and poignant essays, she tells the story that i can relate to
One of being invisible and searching for love and the willingness to use your body before your heart. The fear of not belonging and the reality that that’s true.
I wish the essays were longer but everyone hit!
I love a good essay collection and Dixon delivers. With her short and poignant essays, she tells the story that i can relate to
One of being invisible and searching for love and the willingness to use your body before your heart. The fear of not belonging and the reality that that’s true.
I wish the essays were longer but everyone hit!
September 22, 2020
A profile in strength and courage.
February 6, 2021
A gloriously intimate collection of essays, presented out of chronological order, exploring facets of interior being. Dixon reflects on how her self-identity and understandings of family and romance were formed, moving from her adolescence to her twenties and thirties. Here's a passage from the essay about airplane travel that lends its title to the book:
"I wanted to ask her how I could shed the fear of rising, of inflating to all that I am, including the reasons I am traveling. In my shrinking, I have not just shrunken my body and its presence. I've collapsed down everything I am. On that plane, and in that seat, I have made myself so invisible that the destination is no longer important. It only matters that I am not too much of anything. Fat, black, or wide."This paperback is slim yet also full: it gift-wraps energy and wisdom.
November 18, 2020
Through a series of lyric essays, Athena Dixon takes her reader into time and place, coming of age as a poet who shrinks her fat, Black, female body and self in order to fit in. Both joyous and painful. For me, a slow, quiet read about a woman who is not where she thought she’d be, entering middle age, but is who she’s supposed to be.
March 19, 2022
This essay collection is amazing. You can tell Athena Dixon has a background in poetry because the language is so beautiful, while still being so raw and matter-of-fact. So many of these pieces made me feel seen and understood. I know this is a collection I’ll come back to time and time again.
Disclaimer: I am the Publicity & Reviews Manager for Split/Lip Press.
Disclaimer: I am the Publicity & Reviews Manager for Split/Lip Press.
February 8, 2021
"I've learned I can spiderweb across a man's life in equal parts love and regret. I'm not easily forgotten, but often left behind. [...] I'm never quite enough and yet always still way too much. Too loving. Too clingy. Too good. Too nice. Too hard to pin down. Too irresponsible. Too much off the mark. Too much of a prude. Sometimes these men get caught between what they seek and what they seek to lose and before long everything has crashed down around us, the dust and ruin of our collective lives now smoldering at our feet." ('A Goddess Makes Platanos', 12)
I love essay collections as it's become increasingly clear and this one did not disappoint. The writing was lyrical and vivid, every word feels intentional. I wasn't at all surprised to read that the author was also a poet. The essays can be read out of order but I enjoyed reading them front to back even though they aren't in chronological order, I felt like I gained a better understanding of Dixon's life in the fragments. My heart ached for Dixon multiple times, not because I pitied her but because I appreciated her raw vulnerability and I saw myself in many of her stories. She writes about a variety of topics, effortlessly depicting grief, sexual desire, online dating, friendship, living with a chronic illness. I was particularly struck by the essay regarding a suicide attempt ('An Imprint Instead of a Flash'), her reeling from her divorce and envying a white woman who seems content with her fatness (the titular essay). I don't have the mental capacity to write about 'An Imprint Instead of a Flash' but it broke me wide open and is an absolute must read. Throughout the collection Dixon writes what many of us fear to say or admit. In one of my favorite essays 'Native Tongue' she recalls, “I carried a stick of Teen Spirit deodorant in my backpack because one of the boys sniffed the air every time I entered the room and I was terrified to be the fat Black girl existing in a cloud of stench” ('Native Tongue', 26). I don't personally know the experience of being a fat Black girl but I could relate to middle school me probably thinking something like that about a classmate and also fearing that people thought the same about me. It's just one line but it conveyed so much and stayed with me. Beyond that one line 'Native Tongue' resonated with me for the evoking the constant out of place feelings I felt growing up as a Black girl who didn't fit the stereotypical image of Black girls held by mostly white classmates but some Black ones as well. I spoke differently, didn't know all the latest songs, Dixon sums up my existence in describing herself, "What I can remember now that I am solidly in middle age is that the intersection of popularity and Blackness was where I always got lost" ('Native Tongue', 26). I also really enjoyed 'Karaoke' an essay that made me ache for pre-pandemic life in a way that no other book has as she sums up the exhilaration of moving into a new city, being a millennial and feeling satisfied with life in that moment, "There is a small jolt of clarity that reminds me this is my life. One I've built and reshaped and shoulder all on my own. I think it's what I thought life would be when I moved to Philadelphia. Friends and Friday nights and laughter in a city I'd conquered. All of those things aren't true, but it's getting there." (81) With this passage she captures the emotional highs and lows of millennial life that are universal but particularly meaningful for young Black women.
Another favorite essay that made me immediately want to call my father was 'Ordinary History', in it Dixon describes her relationship with men including her father. It becomes evident that she's a daddy's girl, as am I. “For my entire life, I have known love between the folds of greeting cards, flower deliveries, hometown newspaper announcements, ruffles of my hair and pinches of my chin. My father still carries the tiny slip of paper the nurse handed him the night I was born, the measurements of my birth, tattered and adored in his wallet. He carries my beginnings like a prize. [...] I knew his expectations of education and success as much as I also knew he wanted me to be happy and loved outside of the confines of his shadow. He often reminds me that I am worthy" (21), my father doesn't carry that paper around but he constantly reminds me that I deserve the world and the very best treatment when it comes to men and he has always showered me with love. He's quietly been there to pick up the pieces so many times when I felt at my lowest, ugly and unwanted. I have obviously never been a father but I thought this line, "I knew his expectations of education and success as much as I also knew he wanted me to be happy and loved outside of the confines of his shadow" in particular was so beautiful and rang true. Additionally earlier in the essay she observes, "Perhaps it was my hunger for them to be a fraction of who my father is that drove me to forget myself and accept the scraps I was offered" (20) and I almost dropped the book because DRAG ME. I've often wondered if I self sabotage myself in that way but had never seen what I experienced so succinctly conveyed in one devastating line.
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN is an intense, soulful memoir-in-essays where Dixon willingly exposes herself to the reader. This exposure allows for the creation of a stunning collection of essays where Dixon meditates on growing up in a small town, being a fat Black woman, the quirks of being a Black Midwesterner, lover of hip-hop, all while grappling with a desire to be seen, and feeling like a misfit. I was surprised by how much of myself I was able to see in these essays especially with Dixon's 90s culture references. I was fairly young in the '90s but I was delighted by her inclusion of MASH, AOL chat rooms and MTV Raps. Similarity having grown up in Chicago/Chicagoland I can't completely identify with small town Black Midwestern life but I find myself nodding in familiarity with some of the cultural aspects of Black Midwesterners. The writing style is pithy and evocative. The essays sing from one story to the next. Each essay contains multiple lines that reverberate with the reader. My copy is heavily underlined and I know I'll be coming back to this crucial collection when I need to feel less alone.
I love essay collections as it's become increasingly clear and this one did not disappoint. The writing was lyrical and vivid, every word feels intentional. I wasn't at all surprised to read that the author was also a poet. The essays can be read out of order but I enjoyed reading them front to back even though they aren't in chronological order, I felt like I gained a better understanding of Dixon's life in the fragments. My heart ached for Dixon multiple times, not because I pitied her but because I appreciated her raw vulnerability and I saw myself in many of her stories. She writes about a variety of topics, effortlessly depicting grief, sexual desire, online dating, friendship, living with a chronic illness. I was particularly struck by the essay regarding a suicide attempt ('An Imprint Instead of a Flash'), her reeling from her divorce and envying a white woman who seems content with her fatness (the titular essay). I don't have the mental capacity to write about 'An Imprint Instead of a Flash' but it broke me wide open and is an absolute must read. Throughout the collection Dixon writes what many of us fear to say or admit. In one of my favorite essays 'Native Tongue' she recalls, “I carried a stick of Teen Spirit deodorant in my backpack because one of the boys sniffed the air every time I entered the room and I was terrified to be the fat Black girl existing in a cloud of stench” ('Native Tongue', 26). I don't personally know the experience of being a fat Black girl but I could relate to middle school me probably thinking something like that about a classmate and also fearing that people thought the same about me. It's just one line but it conveyed so much and stayed with me. Beyond that one line 'Native Tongue' resonated with me for the evoking the constant out of place feelings I felt growing up as a Black girl who didn't fit the stereotypical image of Black girls held by mostly white classmates but some Black ones as well. I spoke differently, didn't know all the latest songs, Dixon sums up my existence in describing herself, "What I can remember now that I am solidly in middle age is that the intersection of popularity and Blackness was where I always got lost" ('Native Tongue', 26). I also really enjoyed 'Karaoke' an essay that made me ache for pre-pandemic life in a way that no other book has as she sums up the exhilaration of moving into a new city, being a millennial and feeling satisfied with life in that moment, "There is a small jolt of clarity that reminds me this is my life. One I've built and reshaped and shoulder all on my own. I think it's what I thought life would be when I moved to Philadelphia. Friends and Friday nights and laughter in a city I'd conquered. All of those things aren't true, but it's getting there." (81) With this passage she captures the emotional highs and lows of millennial life that are universal but particularly meaningful for young Black women.
Another favorite essay that made me immediately want to call my father was 'Ordinary History', in it Dixon describes her relationship with men including her father. It becomes evident that she's a daddy's girl, as am I. “For my entire life, I have known love between the folds of greeting cards, flower deliveries, hometown newspaper announcements, ruffles of my hair and pinches of my chin. My father still carries the tiny slip of paper the nurse handed him the night I was born, the measurements of my birth, tattered and adored in his wallet. He carries my beginnings like a prize. [...] I knew his expectations of education and success as much as I also knew he wanted me to be happy and loved outside of the confines of his shadow. He often reminds me that I am worthy" (21), my father doesn't carry that paper around but he constantly reminds me that I deserve the world and the very best treatment when it comes to men and he has always showered me with love. He's quietly been there to pick up the pieces so many times when I felt at my lowest, ugly and unwanted. I have obviously never been a father but I thought this line, "I knew his expectations of education and success as much as I also knew he wanted me to be happy and loved outside of the confines of his shadow" in particular was so beautiful and rang true. Additionally earlier in the essay she observes, "Perhaps it was my hunger for them to be a fraction of who my father is that drove me to forget myself and accept the scraps I was offered" (20) and I almost dropped the book because DRAG ME. I've often wondered if I self sabotage myself in that way but had never seen what I experienced so succinctly conveyed in one devastating line.
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN is an intense, soulful memoir-in-essays where Dixon willingly exposes herself to the reader. This exposure allows for the creation of a stunning collection of essays where Dixon meditates on growing up in a small town, being a fat Black woman, the quirks of being a Black Midwesterner, lover of hip-hop, all while grappling with a desire to be seen, and feeling like a misfit. I was surprised by how much of myself I was able to see in these essays especially with Dixon's 90s culture references. I was fairly young in the '90s but I was delighted by her inclusion of MASH, AOL chat rooms and MTV Raps. Similarity having grown up in Chicago/Chicagoland I can't completely identify with small town Black Midwestern life but I find myself nodding in familiarity with some of the cultural aspects of Black Midwesterners. The writing style is pithy and evocative. The essays sing from one story to the next. Each essay contains multiple lines that reverberate with the reader. My copy is heavily underlined and I know I'll be coming back to this crucial collection when I need to feel less alone.
Read
March 16, 2021Checkout the interview I did with Athena Dixon on my blog:
http://introvertinterrupted.com/2021/...
http://introvertinterrupted.com/2021/...
December 29, 2022
book playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7x8...
Coming back to write more thoughts later but this book destroyed me. I was sobbing and honestly, I felt like the author’s story were so similar to mine at moments that I felt like she pulled thoughts / feelings / experiences out of my brain. Just incredible and needs so much more attention!
Back with more thoughts:
It’s taken me a really long time to write this review because words can’t seem to define how much this book meant for me. I picked it up on a whim (I saw one person on YouTube had it on their pink bookshelf) and thought the cover was cute. I actually used it as a decor piece on one of my shelves and figured I’d read it someday… and then I did.
This book felt like I walked into a random art gallery only to find pieces of my life carefully woven into each painting. To say this hit home would be an understatement. While I don’t necessarily have all of the exact same experiences as the author, I felt like so many of the sentences in this book were pulled from my brain. I love words and find language to be so beautiful but limiting for me especially since I’m not a writer. This book harmonized my thoughts and life experiences and gave me words I never thought I could have.
With that being said, I don’t think this a book for everyone. I think it needs to be treated with a lot of care and it will be especially helpful for those who identify with the author (Black, from the Midwest, etc). But even those who don’t identify may find themselves or pieces of themselves in this book.
Thank you so much Athena Dixon for writing this book. I’m so glad it found me. I look forward to reading your future work.
Coming back to write more thoughts later but this book destroyed me. I was sobbing and honestly, I felt like the author’s story were so similar to mine at moments that I felt like she pulled thoughts / feelings / experiences out of my brain. Just incredible and needs so much more attention!
Back with more thoughts:
It’s taken me a really long time to write this review because words can’t seem to define how much this book meant for me. I picked it up on a whim (I saw one person on YouTube had it on their pink bookshelf) and thought the cover was cute. I actually used it as a decor piece on one of my shelves and figured I’d read it someday… and then I did.
This book felt like I walked into a random art gallery only to find pieces of my life carefully woven into each painting. To say this hit home would be an understatement. While I don’t necessarily have all of the exact same experiences as the author, I felt like so many of the sentences in this book were pulled from my brain. I love words and find language to be so beautiful but limiting for me especially since I’m not a writer. This book harmonized my thoughts and life experiences and gave me words I never thought I could have.
With that being said, I don’t think this a book for everyone. I think it needs to be treated with a lot of care and it will be especially helpful for those who identify with the author (Black, from the Midwest, etc). But even those who don’t identify may find themselves or pieces of themselves in this book.
Thank you so much Athena Dixon for writing this book. I’m so glad it found me. I look forward to reading your future work.
September 3, 2025
Athena Dixon's book The Incredible Shrinking Woman changed my viewpoint of a lot of things. ONe of the major things was how I should treat people. Her story allowed me to experience her life as she grew up. I felt the respect and love she had for her father, the lessons she learned from her mother, and even the things she was the most insecure about. By reading her experiences and showing what an influence they had on her, Dixon taught me to treat others kindly, no matter the circumstance, because we never know what they are going through.
The writing style in the book is beautiful. Dixon uses beautiful phrasing, word choice, and story development to wrap the audience in the story and allow them to experience what is happening in the story. The simplicity and beauty of the writing made the story of Athena's father especially touching. I also enjoyed how she talked about the many versions of herself there were. This idea had a lot of meaning to me because I have experienced it in my own life. As I have grown and changed, I feel as though my personality has changed as well. In The Incredible Shrinking Woman, we watch these versions of Athena develop in this book and understand why they occurred as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and would highly recommend it to anyone. It was easy to read because of the beautiful writing and interesting storyline. I absolutely loved it.
The writing style in the book is beautiful. Dixon uses beautiful phrasing, word choice, and story development to wrap the audience in the story and allow them to experience what is happening in the story. The simplicity and beauty of the writing made the story of Athena's father especially touching. I also enjoyed how she talked about the many versions of herself there were. This idea had a lot of meaning to me because I have experienced it in my own life. As I have grown and changed, I feel as though my personality has changed as well. In The Incredible Shrinking Woman, we watch these versions of Athena develop in this book and understand why they occurred as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and would highly recommend it to anyone. It was easy to read because of the beautiful writing and interesting storyline. I absolutely loved it.
April 14, 2021
Athena Dixon is a phenomenal author and her story in The Incredible Shrinking Woman is inspiring. She uses strong diction and flowering imagery to paint the perfect picture of her life and experiences. Dixon writes in such a way that, regardless of your own personal life experience, you can relate to the emotions she portrays. The topics she chose for these amazing essays are so incredibly personal that you feel, as the reader, you seem to crawl into her skin, yet the topics feel so universally relatable that I, a girl who has very little in common with Athena Dixon, saw myself written upon her pages. For example, in her essay Once Upon An AOL she wrote “...the story got me here. It gets me to the place where I am standing on my own two feet in a life of my own design.” Dixon wrote these profound words in regards to the struggles that she had gone through, the heartbreaks, the disappointments, and the pains. These negative and occasionally overwhelming feelings are an excellent example of how her stories, though deeply personal, contain seeds of truths that everyone can relate to. Dixon writes about, not only, these profound negative feelings but also the joyous feelings shared by all. As an example of this here is a quote from Dixon’s essay Two Turntables and A Microphone: “Love makes everything all the richer.” Athena Dixon manages to create the enchanting feelings of first love within her readers. And thus it is.
April 15, 2021
“The Incredible Shrinking Woman,” by Athena Dixon is truly a gift to the world. Rarely can you see such a raw and honest depiction of what it is to be a Black woman, to face problems in love, to explore one’s sexuality, and so much more. Athena Dixon seems to have lived more life experiences than many could even imagine having, but each essay has a piece or experience that anyone could relate to. She depicts the ugly as well as the beautiful, and her writing flows across the page, making it feel like you’re ingesting a cold lemonade on a hot day.
Each essay flows seamlessly into the next, and by the time you finish this book, you’ll feel like you’ve lived her experiences yourself, and you’ll feel as if you’ve coped alongside her. It’s the most personal and raw book you’ll read this year.
How do you survive life when it moves faster than you can control? How do you love when it only results in hurt? How do you learn to forgive yourself? What is it to be a black woman in a world where you’re made to feel like you don’t belong? How do you come back from rock bottom?
These are just a few questions that you will find answered in this book. Some answers aren’t quite what you expect, but they are true and real above all. “The Incredible Shrinking Woman,” is for anyone that narrowly survived college frat parties, anyone that has met strangers online, and anyone that can’t help but feel annoyed when the person next to you on the plane takes up your space.
Each essay flows seamlessly into the next, and by the time you finish this book, you’ll feel like you’ve lived her experiences yourself, and you’ll feel as if you’ve coped alongside her. It’s the most personal and raw book you’ll read this year.
How do you survive life when it moves faster than you can control? How do you love when it only results in hurt? How do you learn to forgive yourself? What is it to be a black woman in a world where you’re made to feel like you don’t belong? How do you come back from rock bottom?
These are just a few questions that you will find answered in this book. Some answers aren’t quite what you expect, but they are true and real above all. “The Incredible Shrinking Woman,” is for anyone that narrowly survived college frat parties, anyone that has met strangers online, and anyone that can’t help but feel annoyed when the person next to you on the plane takes up your space.
April 9, 2021
Athena Dixon's depictions of being a big, black woman are thought-provoking and beautiful, yet she finds a way to bring her humor onto the page as well. She never tries to beat around the bush. Everything she writes is real, authentic, and straight forward. In fact, I heard that one essay she wrote in real time while an event was happening on a plane. She brings attention to social constructs that have affected her without explicitly saying what is wrong with society. Instead, she allows you to make up your own mind about these experiences based on both her shared experiences and your own. I think about the world differently since reading this book. I feel more comfortable in my skin, but even when I continue to struggle with taking up space, I am more aware of it now. I am constantly trying to better myself and find out why taking up space has been so hard for me. This book gave me a sense of other cultures and issues that I had never understood, along with a better sense of some of my own thoughts. She is an amazing writer and seems like an even more amazing person based on her work. I would recommend this book to anyone who struggles with taking up space or just being themselves (so I would recommend this book to just about everyone), or anyone who just needs an enjoyable, quick read.
September 11, 2020
This collection of essays is an authentic telling of what it feels like to be invisible, to have to shrink and mold yourself to fit into places that were not meant for you and how to navigate in a world that rarely ever sees the complete and most authentic you. Dixon addresses what Blackness looks like, what it is to be from the Mid-Western US, navigating love and heartbreak, depression, grief, fatness, and sex. Each essay in this collection touches on what it means to be human, navigating with expert writing the often complicated emotions that come with attempting to put yourself out there, knowing that you may not always be fully received.
I could not put this book down! I felt incredibly connected to each and every essay and I often saw myself reflected with frightening clarity. I laughed, I cried, I felt my own heart break. This book will hit home for the Black girls who didn't know where they belonged and became Black women who are still trying to figure out where they belong - holding on to some hope that one day we will find our place among our rightful tribe.
I could not put this book down! I felt incredibly connected to each and every essay and I often saw myself reflected with frightening clarity. I laughed, I cried, I felt my own heart break. This book will hit home for the Black girls who didn't know where they belonged and became Black women who are still trying to figure out where they belong - holding on to some hope that one day we will find our place among our rightful tribe.
August 27, 2021
In this collection of essays, Dixon delves into her Midwestern Blackness, and how it’s different from other kinds of Blackness; her search for love and love’s disappointments; her mental health and more. This collection is certainly vulnerable, and I appreciate how it doesn’t necessarily feel resolved. No one can solve the problem of their own depression in a single essay collection; Dixon knows that, and she’s at peace with it. She is remarkably kind to herself—that’s not something I always notice in other personal essays. Aside from our Midwestern roots, we don’t have similar backgrounds—yet I found myself relating to much of what she described. I really liked this collection; it proves that you don’t have to be brutal to be honest.
This review was originally published on my blog.
This review was originally published on my blog.
December 3, 2020
With a clear, powerful voice, Athena Dixon examines the transformation required of her to survive mistaken dreams and move forward into middle-age. There are lots of focal points here worthy of attention, particularly the experience of being Black in Midwestern America, but I personally connected most to essays around dating after divorce, depression, and an especially clear-eyed account of suicidal ideation in "An Imprint Instead of a Flash." As always, Split Lip Press has published another writer worthy of attention.
April 7, 2021
Gentle and tenderhearted, but also dark and powerful in places, particularly the essays at the end. Many essays in this book refer to various types of stories, and emphasize that this story is not like those stories. But they (and by extension the author) also aren't subversive in "ordinary" ways - they are their own thing. And I appreciate that. For example the author casually mentions writing Jake Sisko fanfic. I MEAN WHAT, five stars just for that.
October 25, 2020
Athena Dixon’s The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a collection of essays that reveal the author’s beating heart. She takes the reader on a journey that criss crosses her life through childhood memories, first love, heartbreak, & loss. Athena’s writing is lyrical and the essays flow. She doesn’t sugarcoat her experiences nor does she play the victim. This is a must-read!
November 3, 2020
Read in one night!
Dixon’s essays individually are stepping stones of her life, but together they breathe life into the pages, becoming more powerful by building on each other. I found myself reflected in her words, especially her frank discussions of body image and depression. Her words are poetry in prose form.
Dixon’s essays individually are stepping stones of her life, but together they breathe life into the pages, becoming more powerful by building on each other. I found myself reflected in her words, especially her frank discussions of body image and depression. Her words are poetry in prose form.
February 2, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. I have been into essays as of late and it did not disappoint. As a Black educated woman born and raised in the Midwest, a lot of them really resonated with me. I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends. They will be sure to enjoy it as much as I did.
February 3, 2021
Athena Dixon’s approach is refreshingly honest. The heart of her writing is thick and rapid. Each essay is poetic and poignant, traversing through layers of her life, from identity, loss, growth and renewal.
March 22, 2021
This is one of those books that don’t leave you even after you’ve finished the last page. One of the essays in this book made me weep from the deepest well in my soul and I cannot shake it. Athena’s words penetrate, hook, and heal you. A must read over and over again.
May 18, 2021
Love the content
I really enjoyed the book the stories were similar to some of the things I went through. It made it very relatable.
I really enjoyed the book the stories were similar to some of the things I went through. It made it very relatable.
December 3, 2021
An exquisite and compelling book about surviving the things that don't kill you, with grace, humor, and an open heart. Just beautiful.
Read
December 10, 2020This is a beautifully crafted essay collection with a tender heart that you can almost feel beating as you turn the pages. The author writes eloquently of her love of her father and of music, her spirit as a soft-spoken young Midwestern girl with a yearning to be seen and heard, and her continuing journey as a Black woman to find and define herself in a world that seeks to place her into boxes. The author's voice is lyrical yet also packs a punch. When a boyfriend witnesses her grief over an old flame she writes, “I am sure he believes taking my heart back from a ghost is impossible… He’s started his own disappearing. In some ways he will never become solid again.” Regarding a game outdoors in the dark during college she says “We found ourselves on the low bleachers again, the steam rising from our shoulders like spirits to heaven.” Of an inaccessible lover, she writes “I did my best to ignore all he never offered me, like the keys to the inner circle of his life.” The author has a penchant for articulating the unseen and the shapeless in a way that is tactile. If you've ever felt alone or misunderstood, nostalgic over your girlhood, or wanting to lose yourself in a love of music or a longing for romance, this book is your best companion.
January 8, 2022
Very interesting book. It was intimate and personal without feeling like Dixon was giving us her whole self, which is good. Everyone’s entitled to hold something back for themselves. The two that resonated with me the most were, “An Imprint Instead of a Flash” and “Depression is a Pair of Panties.” First discovered her through an episode of the Creative Nonfiction Podcast, Athena Dixon is inspirational for us writer’s holding down non-writing jobs.
April 15, 2021
Thought-provoking
It gave a lot to think about. I enjoyed it thoroughly, one would think that because the book is so short it would take a short time to complete but each essay gives you something to think about and as such take your time with it and allow it to evoke those thoughts and feelings that we sometimes mask.
It gave a lot to think about. I enjoyed it thoroughly, one would think that because the book is so short it would take a short time to complete but each essay gives you something to think about and as such take your time with it and allow it to evoke those thoughts and feelings that we sometimes mask.
February 21, 2024
Beautiful, short essays about shrinking yet wanting to be seen - how do we show up for the love we want vs. the love we get? Dixon beautifully chronicles interior struggle.
"I don't think we wish for those days again. I think we simply want to remember them, maybe even long for a bit of that magic to linger in our daily lives." (51)
"I don't think we wish for those days again. I think we simply want to remember them, maybe even long for a bit of that magic to linger in our daily lives." (51)
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