A colorful celebration of female writer trailblazers who changed the world
Author Lauren Marino will discuss how some of the world’s most beloved authors overcame countless obstacles and prejudice to produce much of our most groundbreaking and beloved books that have changed how we see the world
Available for Interview is Lauren Marino, longtime book editor and publisher and the author of BOOKISH BROADS: WOMEN WHO WROTE THEMSELVES INTO HISTORY (Abrams Image, on sale March 2021, $19.99, hardcover)
If a well read woman is a dangerous creature, what does that make a woman writer? From Murasaki Shikibu to Jane Austen and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie women have fought to make their voices heard and radically reshaped the opportunities available to women. Bookish Broads collects and connects more than sixty of these storyteller’s legacies, reframing the canon that has long failed to recognize them and revealing a history of the female experience.
Some interesting facts from the book:
If you google “World’s Greatest Books” or go to the website GreatestBooks.org, which uses an algorithm to create a master list based on how many times a book shows up in 129 “best of” book lists from the top newspapers, literary magazines and other credible, well established sources. I went through the list and counted. 14 of the top 100 were by women, as a book publisher I know that 70-80% of books are bought by women so I couldn’t understand why more weren’t included in these important lists.
Mary Shelley, Jane Austen and even Virginia Woolf did not have formal educations or university education but they were huge readers and self-taught and wrote some of the world’s most beloved books
When Margaret Atwood sat down to write her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale she had two rules for herself: she would not include anything in the book that had not already been done at some place or time in history or for which the technology did not already exist
Judy Blume is one of the most censored and banned writers
Nuns in medieval times were some of the very first female writers
Many scholars believe that a woman wrote much of Shakespeare’s works
The novel was invented in 11th century Japan by a woman
Women created a Renaissance in children’s book at the close of the 20th century and continue to revive it today
The LOWE-Down!
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