Powerful truths in women's voices
Born a slave in Ulster County, New York around 1779, Sojourner Truth knew how power could be used for evil. She passed through the hands of numerous owners, many of them cruel, before she was given her freedom at age 30 when New York State abolished slavery in 1827. She then fought to free her …
“I WANT something to do.” This remark being addressed to the world in general, no one in particular felt it their duty to reply; so I repeated it to the smaller world about me, received the following suggestions, and settled the matter by answering my own inquiry, as people are apt to do when very …
~ It's Useless ~ “I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself” ― Simone de Beauvoir The French feminist and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. She …
"I wanted them to understand that the measure of any society is how it treats its women and girls." -Michelle Obama Michelle Obama is leaving the White House today. For the past eight years, she has served as first lady of our country with dignity and thoughtfulness. One of her main focuses has been on …
Happy Mother’s Day, Authors All writers are mothers. Our story germinates in the womb of our imaginations. It starts as a tug and a pull of invisible words and actions and visions that tear us away from what we should be doing and turn us inward. The premise sucks from our life stream to grow …
I think of myself as a storyteller, but I would not mind at all if someone were to think of me as a feminist writer... I'm very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that world view must somehow be part of my work." Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian born writer …
Continue reading "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Feminism as Baggage"
Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was recognized as a hero in her own day. An escaped slave, she repeatedly went back to the south and led other slaves to freedom, saving thousands. Outspoken and fearless, she was a passionate and influential speaker in both the abolitionist movement and in the fight for women's rights. It is very …
Continue reading "Harriet Tubman on Slavery is the Next Thing to Hell"
“I did not invent a method of education, I simply gave some little children a chance to live.” Maria Montessori Born in 1870 in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy, Maria Montessori refused to follow the expected path for girls of her time. Defying the prejudice of the time, Montessori became the first woman to attend …
"My Christmas wish for every writer: Give each other the gift of one nod or word of encouragement . . . find someone who believes . . . even if that person is you." Susan G. Weidener Former Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Susan G. Weidener runs the Women's Writing Circle. She is the author of …
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Sherley Anne Williams (American, 1944-1999) was a multi-talented writer who sought to bring the black experience to literature. Born into a poor family that lived by picking cotton and fruit, she became the first African American literature professor at the University of California, San Diego. She is known for her works of literary criticism, children's books, …
What would you do if you were named one of Time's 100 most influential people? For Ann Patchett the choice is to keep writing and run a bookstore - Parnassos Books in Nashville, Tennessee. "I'm never lonely around books," she has said about bookstores. "It's the world of endless possibility and opportunity to be …
What if you wrote a book, and then people said you didn't write it, and then people said you did, and then people said it doesn't really matter anyway. Meet Beryl Markham (1902-1986). Beryl Markham grew up on her father's horse farm in Kenya. She became the first licensed woman horse trainer in Kenya and …
Born in 1835 in Columbia, Georgia, Augusta Evans Wilson was the first American woman author to earn over $100,000 until Edith Wharton did so in the 1920s. She wrote the first of nine novels, Inez: A Story of the Alamo, at the age of fifteen, and her second novel, Beulah, written at eighteen, sold 22,000 copies …
Faye Kellerman is a best-selling writer of novels of mystery and suspense. Born in 1952 she has written over thirty novels. Trained as a mathematician and a dentist she choose instead to write, propelled she says, by "a desire for justice, a suspicious nature, an overactive imagination, and, of course, a penchant for the bizarre. " Her …
At the age of fifteen Frances Burney (17752-1840), despite the tears of her younger sister, tossed the plays, poems and first novel she had written on to a bonfire. Why? She was consumed with guilt. In 1767 women were not supposed to spend their time writing anything but private letters. Better they perform useful household …
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"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou Maya Angelou passed away on May 28th. A teacher, writer, poet, activist, and dancer she is best known for her series of autobiographical works detailing what life …
Continue reading "Maya Angelou on Being Aware of Being Aware"
Caroline Lee Hentz (1800-1856), one of America's most popular writers in the 1850s, sold over 93,000 copies of her more than fifteen novels and a multitude of short stories and poems. The Boston Library named her one of the top three writers of her day. Born in Massachusetts, she married a dashing French artist, writer, …
"Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't--and, in fact, you're not supposed to--know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it's finished developing. First you just point at what has your attention and take the picture. " Anne Lamont Bestselling author, Anne Lamont, has …
"Good women are rarely clever, and clever women are rarely good." Ada Issacs Menken Adah Issacs Menken (1835 to 1869) was a Civil War era actress, sex symbol, and pin-up girl. She was also a dedicated writer publishing 20 essays, 100 poems, and many newspaper articles. Menken may have been born Adelaide McCord in Chartrain …
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"[If] you want to live, you have to die;" Annie Dillard American author Annie Dillard has been called a mystic, a visionary, a naturalist and a modern Thoreau. Her writing is characterized as literary collage of the lyrical, the metaphoric and the richly descriptive. She has written over eleven books including poetry, novels, essays, memoirs, and books on …
Women, Words, and Wisdom 