A gripping, centuries-spanning visual history and exploration of books by female authors who have been banned or silenced.
When it comes to censoring women's writing, everything old becomes new again. Women Writing Dangerously is an astonishing, colorful exploration of the consequences women writers have faced when their books became controversial, honoring those who fought the system by using their pens and typewriters as weapons.
Books by women have long been targeted, from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) and The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (1928) to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970) and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1983), with more titles being challenged each year. Women Writing Dangerously explores the fascinating stories of literary trailblazers who first dared to bring sexuality, gender identity, race, immigration, and other controversial topics to reading audiences-even if it meant facing backlash and silencing.
Filled with historical ephemera, covers from forgotten books, and original illustrations, this dynamic volume shares not only the facts and figures, but the passion that went into creating these books and the heartbreak around their banning. Today's censorship frenzy doesn't exist in a vacuum, nor is it going away any time soon; but through Nava Atlas's in-depth research and storytelling, readers will walk away with a more enriched literary history emboldened by the past to fight for a future that ensures freedom of expression.
Autorentext
Nava Atlas is the creator and editor of Literary Ladies Guide, a platform that explores and archives women's classic literature with a dedicated following and millions of views logged. Her twenty trade books published span the culinary world and the visually driven non-fiction genres. Nava is also an acclaimed text-based artist with art and limited-edition texts in the libraries of The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. A permanent archive of her papers is housed at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University. Her work spans the commercial and artistic and she has developed a honed voice that has been carried on national and local media.