num_pages: 190
description: Roller derby is an odd place to strike a balance in life, but Sammi straps on her skates, adjusts her spandex, tests her center of gravity, and scores points with her no-punches-pulled memoir.'Sammi Jones's rollicking memoir takes us into the fast-paced, hard-hitting world of women's flat track roller derby. With comedic prose (think Mindy Kaling, Haven Kimmell, Jenny Lawson, and Amy Poehler), Jones, through a series of experimental vignettes (including text messages, instructional illustrations, lists, a glossary of Derby-ness...even a Shakespearian sonnet!), takes us along on her journey from 'fresh meat' recruit to seasoned jammer, with stops along the way for field sobriety tests, emergency rooms, failing personal relationships, and lost weekends. Battered and bruised, Jones realizes her life is askew. Roller derby was Jones's salvation, forcing her to confront personal demons that hounded her around the flat track of life, and by the end of the memoir, we are cheering her on, as she jams her way to victory.' Thom Tammaro, author of 23 Poems, 31 Mornings in December and Holding on for Dear Life,'In Derby Girl, Sammi Jones has written a raw, brave coming out memoir that's also a primer...at times comic, at times painful...on the complexities and pleasures of roller derby in the upper Midwest, the courage it takes to climb on the wagon and face one's own life, and the choices we make along the way.' Alan Davis, author of So Bravely Vegetative and Alone with the Owl.
language: English
title: Derby Girl: A Memoir
publisher: North Dakota State University Press