The Conclusion of Women’s History Month
As Women’s History month ends, here are two commemorative lists:
14 Totally Badass Female Authors
Though many truly badass women authors are alive and working today, their stories aren’t yet finished. So as Women’s History Month draws to a close, we wanted to look back on some of the incredible literary women from history and remember how both their work and their lives broke new ground.
Read why Huffington Post thinks these female authors were totally badass:
- Louisa May Alcott
- Mary McCarthy
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
- Nellie Bly
- Edith Wharton
- Zora Neale Hurston
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
- George Eliot
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Carson McCullers
- George Sand
- Hannah Arendt
- Harriet Ann Jacobs
- Katherine Anne Porter
The 10 Best Thrillers and Crime Writing By Women
Though James Patterson might be the one getting 17-book deals for millions, some of the best writers of crime, thrillers, and mysteries have been women. Here are some of the best examples of these genres from the past century that will keep you reading past your bedtime (and possibly unable to sleep forever).
Among the authors Jessica Grose recommends here are Agatha Christie, Ann Rule, Edna Buchanan, and Patricia Highsmith.
Addition:
Australia’s literary cranky ladies
Really? You’re Not in a Book Club?
“WHAT’S your book group reading?” I say to a friend encountered on the street. Not: “Are you in a book group?” I have no idea whether Clara is in a book group. We’ve never talked about it. All the same, I just know. Why? Because it’s a safe assumption to make these days.
By some estimates, five million Americans gather every few weeks in someone’s living room or in a bar or bookstore or local library to discuss the finer points of “Middlemarch” or “The Brothers Karamazov.” (A perfect number is hard to pin down because some people belong to two or three clubs, and of course, there’s no central registry of members.) Among them is Clara, whose book group even has a name: the Oracles. They’re reading “The Flamethrowers,” by Rachel Kushner.
James Atlas learns why book groups aren’t just a fixture of New York City.
Top Literary Cities in the U.S.
What determines a city as ‘literary?’ It’s not enough to have a large library, unique bookstores, or be the birthplace of a famous writer. Nor is it enough to be one of the top literate cities in the United States Most literary cities have a strong writing program at one of their numerous colleges and universities, as well as bookstores and institutions hosting event after event. If anything, a literary city is a blend of the historical, cultural, and modern parts of literature, encouraging and inspiring future generations to appreciate and take part in the literary world.
See what cities (other than New York City) Gabriella Tutino has chosen for this article in Highbrow Magazine.
On Literary Cravings and Aftertastes
In this unusual take on literary criticism, Allison K. Gibson describes her literary cravings during pregnancy:
While I was pregnant, I learned to follow my instincts — my hunger — to lead me to stories that would nourish me. And, as I learned from that first 3 a.m. craving for “The Night of the Curlews,” certain stories are meant to be savored so that the words continue to nourish long after the last sentence has been swallowed. The best stories leave an aftertaste.
10 Famous Writers Who Hated Writing
Writers are terrible procrastinators, and I’m pretty sure that’s because writing, although it can be exhilarating, is also just plain hard. Here author Bill Cotter, who has his own love-hate relationship with his profession, offers some (comforting?) remarks from writers including Kurt Vonnegut, Flannery O’Connor, and Virginia Woolf.
