Heather

Radke

Nonfiction Author

Audio Journalist & Teacher

Travels from: Chicago, IL

“Whip-smart. . . Marked by Radke’s vivacious writing, candid self-reflections, and sophisticated cultural analyses, this is an essential study of ‘ideas and prejudices’ about the female body.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Heather Radke is a writer, audio producer, and teacher whose work blends personal narrative, history, and cultural criticism. Her first book, Butts: A Backstory (Avid Reader Press, 2022), was named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Esquire, and Publishers Weekly, and was one of Amazon’s Top 20 Books of 2022. It was nominated for the Krause Essay Prize and is currently in development as a documentary with Union Editorial. Her writing has appeared in The Believer, The Paris Review Daily, Time, Longreads, The American Scholar, Slate, AFAR, and elsewhere. Her second book, Juvenalia (forthcoming, Random House), blends memoir, history, and reportage to examine the forgotten wildness of preadolescent girlhood, drawing on archaeology, folklore, and developmental psychology.

Radke is a Contributing Editor and reporter at WNYC’s Radiolab, one of public radio’s most celebrated documentary programs, where she has produced and reported on a wide range of stories at the intersection of science, culture, and human experience. Her Radiolab work spans topics as varied as the menopause mystery, the psychology of self-esteem, the hidden history of a forgotten vaccine pioneer, and an annual race in rural Wales that pits humans against horses.

She has taught nonfiction writing at a variety of institutions, including Columbia University, where she founded the Columbia School of the Arts Incarcerated Writers Initiative. She also founded and runs Nonfiction Night, a recurring professional gathering for writers and journalists in Chicago and New York. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University and a BA in History from the University of Michigan, and is based in Chicago.

Before becoming a writer, Radke worked as a curator at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, where she collaborated with artists, activists, historians, and community members to create award-winning exhibitions on subjects ranging from radical home economics and the history of play to the politics of public space.

Heather's Featured Titles

Butts: A Backstory

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster |

November 29, 2022

Nonfiction

“Lively and thorough, Butts is the best kind of nonfiction.” —Esquire

A “carefully researched and reported work of cultural history” (The New York Times) that explores how one body part has influenced the female—and human—experience for centuries, and what that obsession reveals about our lives today.

Whether we love them or hate them, think they’re sexy, think they’re strange, consider them too big, too small, or anywhere in between, humans have a complicated relationship with butts. It is a body part unique to humans, critical to our evolution and survival, and yet it has come to signify so much more: sex, desire, comedy, shame. A woman’s butt, in particular, is forever being assessed, criticized, and objectified, from anxious self-examinations trying on jeans in department store dressing rooms to enduring crass remarks while walking down a street or high school hallways. But why? In Butts: A Backstory, reporter, essayist, and RadioLab contributing editor Heather Radke is determined to find out.

Spanning nearly two centuries, this “whip-smart” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) cultural history takes us from the performance halls of 19th-century London to the aerobics studios of the 1980s, the music video set of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and the mountains of Arizona, where every year humans and horses race in a feat of gluteal endurance. Along the way, she meets evolutionary biologists who study how butts first developed; models whose measurements have defined jean sizing for millions of women; and the fitness gurus who created fads like “Buns of Steel.” She also examines the central importance of race through figures like Sarah Bartmann, once known as the “Venus Hottentot,” Josephine Baker, Jennifer Lopez, and other women of color whose butts have been idolized, envied, and despised.

Part deep dive reportage, part personal journey, part cabinet of curiosities, Butts is an entertaining, illuminating, and thoughtful examination of why certain silhouettes come in and out of fashion—and how larger ideas about race, control, liberation, and power affect our most private feelings about ourselves and others.

Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Women’s Health

The Case for the Small

On how close observation and everyday details can reveal large cultural truths, drawing from both personal essays and audio storytelling.

From Research to Radiolab

A workshop and talk for academics on how to translate scholarly work for public audiences, including pitching, structure, and voice.

Butts in Art History

A cultural and visual exploration of how the butt has been represented across art movements and what those depictions reveal about beauty, race, power, and desire.

Writing the Hybrid Memoir

A conversation about blending research, memory, and analysis in personal nonfiction.

“Heather Radke’s workshop was the single best professional development session I’ve ever attended—practical, clear, enjoyable, and unbelievably helpful.” — Faculty participant, Oberlin College

“After attending Heather’s workshop, I was inspired to write and submit an op-ed for a public audience. I’m grateful for the clarity and motivation it provided.” — Workshop participant, Oberlin College

“I’ve attended many similar presentations, both at Oberlin and elsewhere, but none have been as clear, helpful, and enjoyable as Heather Radke’s.” — Faculty participant, Oberlin College

“Heather has an obvious and enviable talent for getting an audience to go on a journey of ideas with her, full of twists and turns and moments where you just can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen. She gives everyone in the room a deep curiosity about things they’ve only just heard about.” — Faculty member, Case Western

“Heather is an enthralling speaker, whose work touches on heavy issues- gender, race, human psychology, science, and the haunting spectres of history. These are weighty themes, but she is able to deftly engage everyone with exuberance, cultivating our curiosity and desire to know more. Her talks make you thrilled by the weird and fascinating aspects of the everyday, and empower us to see the world and one another in new ways.” — Lisa Yun Lee, Executive Director, National Public Housing Museum

“Radke thoughtfully, and without judgment, addresses the complexities and contradictions that this body part evokes and delves into some surprising topics that may spark further curiosity in readers. Her captivating writing and witty approach to a taboo topic will appeal to a variety of nonfiction readers, particularly those interested in cultural history and gender studies. . . A fun, fascinating, and surprisingly empowering exploration of the history and cultural significance of the butt.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“Fascinating and frank… [with] top- notch reportage, assured and respectful voice and invitation to butt-centric contemplation… [Radke] guides readers on an impressively well-researched tour of butts throughout history, beginning with a functional analysis (hominids and horses take center stage) and ultimately alighting in the present (twerking, social media and celebrity butts).” — BookPage (starred review)

“This crackling cultural history melds scholarship and pop culture to arrive at a comprehensive taxonomy of the female bottom… Radke leaves no stone unturned… Lively and thorough, BUTTS is the best kind of nonfiction — the kind that forces you to see something ordinary through completely new eyes.” — Esquire

“Engaging, personal… Don’t be fooled by the cheeky peach emoji.” — NYT Book Review

“Deeply reported and wildly entertaining.” — Time

“It is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. I could go on and on and on about it. . . . It’s astounding to me, the stuff that I learned.” — Liberty Hardy, BookRiot’s All the Books Podcast

“An ambitious mash-up of pop culture, science, and history, this breakout debut from Radiolab reporter Radke tracks the evolution of attitudes toward women’s butts from the “Hottentot Venus” to Miley Cyrus. Along the way, Radke delves into eugenics, hip-hop aesthetics, the physiology of posteriors, and more. It adds up to one of the year’s most ingenious and eye-opening cultural studies.” — Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2022

Heather’s Substack

Heather’s Selected Works

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Amazon’s Top 20 books in 2022 – Butts
Best Book of the Month Pick – Butts
One of Audible’s best audiobooks of 2022
Butts was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by: Esquire, Time & Publisher’s Weekly
Esquire Book Club Pick – Butts
Nominated for the Krause Essay Prize – Butts