Unexpected Passion: Our Literary Grannies, Aunties and Older Sisters

It wasn't a passion I expected.  It started with a challenge and turned into something much bigger.  For a long time I have actively sought quotes from women because I discovered how infrequently women were quoted as compared to men.

My blood started heating up because many women writers even today didn't use their given feminine names for their writing because "boys won't read books by women." I remember as a teen feeling bothered that S.E. Hinton who wrote The Outsiders was actually Susan Eloise Hinton. She didn't enjoy "girl books" so instead, she wrote a novel heavy in male characters and using an ungendered identity.

I realized women and girls needed role models from our literary history. I realized American girls and women needed to search for the American Woman writing voice. Yes, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters are phenomenal, but who were their American contemporaries?

I have barely scratched the surface but now that I have, I can't research enough.

It got hot and heavy in April. I decided to participate in the A-Z in April Blog Challenge. I decided this year – since I failed miserably the year before – I would use a theme. It stirred up such a passion for me all surrounding Women in Literary History.

I had such a blast I surprised even myself.

I want to print all 26 blog posts and the ones I have written since then. I wrote my first in a long time yesterday about poet Alice Corbin Henderson. I specialize in 19^th and early 20^th century writers, though I have been known to go higher and lower.

Two women I plan to include in 2013 were Courtesan Poets between the 8^th and 11^th century. I just never know where my adventures will take me. Oh, I have a women writer with a “Z” name. I use given names, not surnames because those were often passed along to women via marriage. The most difficult in English is X.

I am currently creating  my list for 2013 and am looking for women writers named Xochitl or Xantha or anything at all with an X.

So there you have it… and hey, if you want to check out any of my women in literary history, check out one (or more) of these:

Lucy Larcom, Mill Girl & Writer

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Social Reformer & Writer

Ina Coolbrith, First Poet Laureate of California

Kate Chopin: Novelist, Short Story Writer (with her Children)

 Thank you for the visit!

Writing at Ina Coolbrith Park

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

 

 

This is my twenty first post (of 31!) for the January Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing Tips and General Life Tips and Essays.