Melissa Febos - The Dry Season: Finding Pleasure in a Year Without Sex | Wednesday 25 June, 6.30pm

Melissa Febos is a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author and Professor of Non-Fiction at Iowa. In the US, she has been a Fellow of the National Endowment of the Arts, served as a National Book Award judge, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship to write The Dry Season - her latest book that we are delighted to be welcoming her to Collected to discuss!

PRE-ORDER your copy of the book here - published 05 June 2025

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In the wake of a disastrous two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break - for three months she would abstain from dating, relationships and sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Melissa, it was.

Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship or another. It was time to focus on herself and examine the lifelong patterns that had got her to this point. When those three months ended, she decided to extend her celibate period, fearing that she had not yet gained the clarity she was searching for. She knew she was taking on a challenge but had no idea that this year would become the most fulfilling and sensual of her life.

No longer defined by her romantic pursuits, Melissa learned to relish the delights of solitude, the thrill of living on her own terms, the pleasures unmediated by lovers and the freedom to pursue her ideals without distraction or guilt. She began to see her life and her self-worth in a radical new way. Her year of divestment transformed her relationships with friends and peers, her work, creativity - and most of all her relationship to herself.

The Dry Season is a memoir of Melissa's year of celibacy, and a profound exploration of independence, sexuality and deep self-knowledge.