Author, humorist is special guest for luncheon

TORRINGTON » Gina Barreca, academic, humorist and author will be the guest speaker at the annual luncheon fundraiser for The Women & Girls Fund, a fund of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation. Following lunch and Barecca’s humorous and insightful remarks, shewill be available to answer questions and sign copies of her books.

The luncheon on Saturday, Oct. 21, begins at 12 p.m. with check in at 11:30 a.m. and will be held at Chatterly’s Banquet Hall, Pinewoods Road, Torrington. Tickets are $40 per person; sponsorship opportunities and tickets are available at northwestcf.org. Tickets will be sold until Oct. 13.

Barreca is the author of “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse? Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women,” which was an ELLE Reader’s Prize selection and excerpted in Reader’s Digest. Her earlier books include “It’s Not That I’m Bitter, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World,” “They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women’s Strategic Use of Humor,” and “Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League.”

Translated into Chinese, Spanish, German, Japanese and other languages, these and the 16 books she’s edited have made her one of the world’s leading experts on why humor is one of life’s greatest survival strategies.

Barecca has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, the BBC, Dr. Phil, NPR and Oprah, often as a regular guest, to discuss politics, popular culture, education, literature and why women hate The Three Stooges. People magazine called her “smart and funny” and Dave Barry said Gina is “Very, very funny. For a woman.”

Deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine, Wally Lamb said “Barreca’s prose, in equal measures, is both hilarious and humane.” Gina’s popular weekly column for The Hartford Courant is now syndicated worldwide by the Tribune.

A professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Barecca won UConn’s highest award for excellence in teaching. One of the first women to graduate from Dartmouth College, she went on to become a Reynolds Fellow at Cambridge University and got her Ph.D. from the City University of New York. She was honored by The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame and is the only fulltime academic to be a member of The Friars’ Club. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives with her husband in Storrs.

Established as a giving circle in 1999 by a small group of women who shared a concern for the real-life needs of local women and girls, the Women & Girls Fund, which now has 200 ardent supporters, has awarded more than $60,000 to organizations that serve women and girls in the development of economic selfsufficiency by means of education, financial literacy and social services.

The Fund has awarded grants to support childcare scholarships for working mothers, assisted unemployed women to enter the workforce, provided transportation to working women, enhanced economic opportunities and promoted self-sufficiency for women leaving abusive relationships, and funded leadership and assertiveness workshops for girls. For more information about The Women & Girls Fund or to learn how you can support its mission, visit www. northwestcf.org/womenandgirls