Author Archive: Women Writers Women Books
Dutch by birth and serial emigrant, Barbara currently lives with her husband and daughter in a tiny village in Galicia, Spain, as basic and simple as can be. W Barbara's website.
Inspiration for THE PRECIOUS JULES
Even as a young child, I knew Rosewood was a horrid place. The Rosewood Center, formerly known as The Maryland State Asylum and Training School for the Feeble Minded, was the kind of place you drove past in the family wagon and held your breath to ward off a curse. It was the insult you […]
The Inspiration behind THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN
Sarah McCraw Crow Years ago, when I arrived at Dartmouth College, in small-town New Hampshire, I was a fish out of water, a Southern girl encountering northern New England for the first time. I was enchanted by the unfamiliar landscape—sugar maples, granite outcroppings, distant mountains, the snow—and by almost everything about Dartmouth. I loved my […]
The Inspiration Behind THE CHILD FROM UKRAINE
Between the ages of 7 and 18, I lived with my Ukrainian grandmother Yulia, and I exclusively spoke Ukrainian with her, as she did not speak much English. We had mornings together, we had afternoons after school together when she would talk to me about gathering mushrooms in the local forest… we would watch soap […]
Writing High Flyers: 15 Inspiring Women Aviators and Astronauts
Powerful Stories for Women of Power By Ann McCallum Staats They did what? They went where? I didn’t write about humdrum women. There is nothing boring about the subjects I chose to include in my latest book, High Flyers: 15 Inspiring Women Aviators and Astronauts. Instead, I interviewed and researched exceptional leaders, doers and risk-takers, […]
Women With Attitude: How ‘80s New Wave Music Fueled Feminism
By Suzanne Mattaboni When I set out to write my novel Once in a Lifetime, I wanted to focus on female friendships, and on a young woman’s struggle to find her place in the world. That said, I made the decision to set the story in the 1980s. Little did I know at the time […]
A Flash of Joy and a Little bit of Wonder
A few years ago while I was writing my first novel, on my way home from hot yoga, my husband informed me that he saw the purple flash during Shavasana. “It was incredible. Magical even, if you believe in that,” he said. “I was totally centered and grounded but felt this lightness of being.” He […]
Where Does Your Inspiration Come From?
I’m often asked where I get the ideas for my novels. It isn’t an easy question to answer because for most authors, me included, ideas come from the oddest places. Once, it was seeing an old, historic wall being repaired. The workers were sanding the brick and dust was swirling around them. I was taken […]
WAR AND ME: A Memoir by Faleeha Hassan: Excerpt
A nominee for both the Pulitzer and Pushcart Prizes, Faleeha Hassan is known the world over as “the Maya Angelou of Iraq” (Oprah.com), her poems having been translated into twenty-one languages. Through verse, she was able to process the horrors of life during wartime; she was able to give voice to her faith, family and […]
Meaningful Consent
Meaningful Consent “Is it okay if I include this in my book?” I asked Owen Rivers this question dozens of times during the two-and-a-half years it took me to write my book, “The Memory Thief and the Secrets Behind How We Remember – A Medical Mystery.” Of course, I asked everyone else I spoke with […]
When the Writing Itself is a Dialogue
When the Writing Itself is a Dialogue by Jan Cohen-Cruz and Rad Pereira Our collaboration as co-authors of Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance 1965–2020 By Those Who Lived It, across racial, age, gender-identity, and nationality—was a core aspect of the work of this book. As we observed a great many people retreating into the […]
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