Women Writers

March 30, 2003 1:07 PM

A Celebration of Women Writers. 'Women have written almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies, travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific works... '
'All too often, works by women, and resources about women writers, are hard to find. We attempt to provide easy access to available on-line information. ' Categorised by country, century and ethnicity; with links to some interesting specialty collections :- 19th century African-American writers (including slave narratives); school stories (covers and links); children's book illustrators; travel writers; early Japanese poets and poet-painters; sci fi, and more.
posted by plep (9 comments total)

Who told them they were allowed to write?

Back in the kitchen, or I'll walk around the bed 3 times.
posted by askheaves at 1:08 PM on March 30, 2003

There are a number of more specialized etext collections devoted to women writers, including the Victorian Women Writers Project at Indiana University (center of all things Victorian in the US); the Bluestocking Archive (eighteenth-century and Romantic), hosted by Prof. Elizabeth Fay of the University of Massachusetts--Boston; and British Women Romantic Poets, based on the holdings at the University of California, Davis.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:14 PM on March 30, 2003

The first novel was written by a Japanese woman named Murasaki Shikibu (Don Quixote be damned!)
posted by four panels at 1:55 PM on March 30, 2003

And don't forget Aphra Behn who was the first professional writer in the English language and one of the earliest writers who used an omniscient narrative voice, another early novelist.
posted by jessamyn at 1:56 PM on March 30, 2003

I think it's great that women have put their violent past behind them and are now accepted in wider society.
posted by holloway at 2:20 PM on March 30, 2003

The children's book illustrator's link is wonderful! Hell, the whole post is wonderful.
posted by iconomy at 4:18 PM on March 30, 2003

*applauds plep, gets ready to read each lovely link...*
posted by Lynsey at 10:37 PM on March 30, 2003

Wowie - great and very rich post, plep - what a mother lode! The specialty collections you pointed out are great and there are so many more - Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement including the infamous Scum Manifest by Valerie Solanis, most noteworthy for having shot Andy Warhol; Women in Viet Nam and Women Come to the Front about women journalists in WWII; Literary Women of the Left Bank ...good lord, I could go on, there are so many great resources. Thanks, plep - seems I am always in your debt for my best links.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:40 PM on March 30, 2003

I, for one, welcome our female overladies.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:57 PM on March 30, 2003