Category: Women Writers
Literary Sex Change, Using a Male Pseudonym
Rosemary Friedman has published more than 26 titles, initially under a male pseudonym. She explains to WWWB what made her decide to do so. Literary Sex Change, Using a Male Pseudonym On the 13th of November 1956, having tentatively sent my first novel, No White Coat, to mainstream publisher Hodder & Stoughton I received the following […]
How to Write YA When You Don’t Read YA
I’ve spent most of my writing life treading through the muck of dirty realism—the kind of stories popularized by Raymond Carver that focus on crumbling marriages, disaffected children, and a fair amount of alcohol abuse. My short stories are slow, introspective, and often do not contain an easy resolution—you know, just what the youths like […]
You’re a Writer. Now Act Like One!
My entire life had been in a single large city. I loved the important hustle of the daytime and the somewhat dangerous excitement of the night. Art and fabulous food fed my deeper cravings. Still, I always felt that my forever life was waiting for me somewhere drastically different. On impulse, I moved to San Diego, […]
Why Women Write: Part One of Two
We asked, “Why do you write?” To persuade? To inform? To change the world? In 1946, George Orwell wrote an essay called, “Why I Write.” This popular piece explained who he was, and why he decided to become a writer. What were his motives? What were his desires? We at Women Writers, Women Books, however, […]
I’m Not a Feminist, but….
By writing this I am effectively grabbing my big pink, shiny can-opener (the one made especially for girls) and brandishing it at one of the biggest can of worms there is, so if the F-word offends you, stop reading now. There’s a feeling that you have to be part of an intellectual elite to talk […]
A Writer’s Journey
It all started during a trip to New Zealand six years ago. My husband and I flew from London to Auckland and then drove from the North Island to the South and back again. The trip lasted six weeks and we lodged in homestays, the Kiwis’ version of B&Bs but much more homely. Not wanting to […]
Molluscs and Me, a Slow Process
It was a long slow painful process to move from writing textbooks about care to writing stories that would grip a reader. I spent 15 years writing expertly without emotion to engage students in academic debate. But I did collect case studies to show how it feels to be on the receiving end of care. […]
Farewell From Assistant Editor Victoria Shockley
“When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we’re capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness. I’m trying for that.” – Maya Angelou Roughly five months ago, I had a conversation with Anora McGaha, founder […]
Interview with Canadian Writer Bolaji Williams
We met Bolaji Williams on Twitter. She responded to one of our tweets. We read a recent blog post and loved the clarity of her writing and topic, so we invited her to do something with us. Voila, an interview with writer Bolaji Williams. When did you first know you loved to write? To be completely honest, […]
Book Review: Chimamanda Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck
In The Thing Around Your Neck, a collection of short stories written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the reader is exposed to characters that are many things, including a surprise to those who have been limited to a Western literary interpretation of Nigerian culture. Adichie insists on considering the wide variety of Nigerian stories to be […]
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