Bio/Contact
Is an author and editor with experience writing compelling books, articles, and reviews. Her second book released in January of 2019, American Advertising Cookbooks-How Corporations Taught Us To Love, Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O earned positive notice from Florence Fabricant in the New York Times, Christopher Kimball of Milk Street Radio, and numerous other journalists and readers. Her 2017 publication, Preservation-The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation, and Dehydration, explores the history and science of food preservation while sharing 100 fool-proof recipes that make the science real. She is a contributor to Serious Eats, Edible Milwaukee, The Wall Street Journal, The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, Remedy Quarterly, and Runcible Spoon magazines.
Christina, despite a Lucy Ricardo-esque klutziness, is often found in classrooms and community kitchens with sharp knives and spilling vinegar into unsuspecting handbags while wildly gesticulating as she teaches folks how to make perfect pickles. She makes regular guest food expert on Fox6 News Real Milwaukee television program and on public radio stations across the United States delighting in ‘working blue’ before 8 am.
Christina can trace her Milwaukee and Wisconsin roots to the early 1800s. Her love of history comes from her father, who instilled the idea that we are all manifestations of our ancestors. Her love of cooking comes from her mother, who was a terrible cook, which inspired her to learn how to cook for herself and her siblings. She prides herself on having a hungry mind interested in learning about people, the foods they eat, and the stories that arise from that convergence.
̌
I tell the stories of who we are and who we want to be through our shared food history.
Christina Ward is an author, editor, and seeker. She is also the Vice President and Editor of Feral House, a publisher noted for their books on outré topics. She had the distinct pleasure of riding around town in the Wienermobile with Padma Lakshmi on the hottest day in July of 2019 for “Taste the Nation.” Her current book, Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat—An American History (September 26, 2023).
Her previous book, American Advertising Cookbooks-How Corporations Taught Us To Love, Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O, earned positive notice from Florence Fabricant in the New York Times, Christopher Kimball of Milk Street Radio, and numerous other journalists and readers.
Her 2017 book, Preservation-The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation, and Dehydration, explores the history and science of food preservation while sharing 100 fool-proof recipes that make the science real. She is a contributor to Serious Eats, Edible Milwaukee, The Wall Street Journal, The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, Remedy Quarterly, and Runcible Spoon magazines. Christina makes regular guest expert on Milwaukee television programs and public radio stations across the United States, delighting in ‘working blue’ before 8 am.
She contributed to and edited the 2021 book Bawdy Tales & Trifles of Devilries for Ladies and Gentlemen of Experience under her nom d’amour, Lady Fanny Woodcock. She has guided, edited, contributed to, and in a few (unnamed) instances, rewritten, over fifty books. She has an interest in the lives of forgotten “difficult women” and bringing their stories to readers. Christina regularly contributes to academic and educational conferences on the topic of transgressive art. In her spare time, she is the certified Master Food Preserver for Southeast Wisconsin and always picks up the phone to answer pressing questions about jelly that won’t set and soft pickles.
Christina can trace her Milwaukee and Wisconsin roots to the early 1800s. Her love of history comes from her father, who instilled the idea that we are all manifestations of our ancestors. Her interest in cooking began out of childhood necessity to feed herself and her siblings while her father worked in a factory. She prides herself on having a hungry mind interested in learning about people, the foods they eat, and the stories that arise from that convergence.
If you asked 8-year-old me what I wanted to be when I grew up—my answer was always the same—a writer.
How was lunch?
Christina Ward Authory | christina@feralhouse.com | Social media:
Some selected accolades
Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan on my project, Good Time Party Girl—The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell, 1886-1969 by Helen Cromwell. “Ward has done a superb job, compelling local writer Martin Billheimer to rightly call the book, “A slightly mad version of ‘Sister Carrie'.”
Ward has added enlightening footnotes and a deeply informative afterword, noting that “the Helen we come to know is savvy and kind-hearted while recognizing her weakness for good-looking men and fine clothing. We suspect that’s she’s an unreliable narrator, but personal accounts and press reports readily corroborate her adventures.”
Minneapolis St Paul Magazine’s Michangelo Matos spoke to me about our November 2019 book, Four White Horses and a Brass Band—True Confessions from the World of Medicine Shows, Pitchmen, Suckers, Fixers, and Shills by Violet McNeal. “How much of it is a con and how much is it her telling of her story?” says Ward. “I really enjoy hearing the stories of unreliable narrators.”
McNeal—who spent her later years traveling around the Pacific Northwest—told stories till the end. “She would show up at a grocery store, and alight anywhere with a box of books, and start talking to people,” says Ward. “She was not going to wait for any kind of bookstore. She never stopped the hustle up until the time she died.”
Florence Fabricant of the New York Times said this of my book, American Advertising Cookbooks—How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O, “A photograph of a luncheon-meat salad mold is scarcely more horrifying than the details that led to the creation of the dish. There is much to learn in this book.”