Discover the Lives of Women Authors


  • Gary, Amy
    In the great green room : the brilliant and bold life of Margaret Wise Brown
    Summary:Captures the exceptional life, imagination, and passion of the author of "Goodnight Moon," drawing on unpublished manuscripts, songs, personal letters, and diaries that the author discovered in the attic of Margaret Wise Brown’s sister.,"The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children’s classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny comes alive in this fascinating biography of Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret’s books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children’s book publishing revolution. Her whimsy and imagination fueled a steady stream of stories, songs, and poems, and she was renowned for her prolific writing and business savvy, as well as her stunning beauty and endless thirst for adventure. "–Dust jacket.


  • Grande, Reyna
    The distance between us
    Summary:"At the age of 8, Reyna Grande made the dangerous and illegal trek across the border from Mexico to the United States, and discovered that the American Dream is much more complicated than it seemed."–Provided by publisher.


  • Shields, Charles J.
    I am Scout : the biography of Harper Lee
    Summary:This biography tells the story of how Harper Lee struggled to become an author and created one of the most popular novels of the 20th century.


  • Daugherty, Tracy
    The last love song : a biography of Joan Didion
    Summary:Explores the life of the distinguished American author and journalist, following Didion’s life as a young woman in Sacramento to her adult life as a writer interviewing those who know and knew her personally.


  • Veevers, Marian
    Jane and Dorothy : a true tale of sense and sensibility : the lives of Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth
    Summary:"An intimate portrait of Jane Austen, Dorothy Wordsworth, and their world– two women torn between revolutionary ideas and fierce conservatism, artistic creativity and emotional upheavals."–Front jacket flap.


  • Moser, Benjamin
    Sontag
    Summary:"Benjamin Moser’s Sontag, a biography of Susan Sontag, is a portrait of the iconoclastic and prolific essayist, novelist, and critic and her role in the history of American intellectualism."

  • Bagge, Peter
    Fire!! : the Zora Neale Hurston story
    Summary:"Peter Bagge has defied the expectations of the comics industry by changing gears from his famous slacker hero Buddy Bradley to documenting the life and times of historical 20th century trailblazers. If Bagge had not already had a New York Times bestseller with his biography of Margaret Sanger, his newest biography, Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story, would seem to be an unfathomable pairing of author and subject. Yet through Bagge’s skilled cartooning, he turns what could be a rote biography into a bold and dazzling graphic novel, creating a story as brilliant as the life itself. Hurston challenged the norms of what was expected of an African American woman in early 20th century society. The fifth of eight kids from a Baptist family in Alabama, Hurston’s writing prowess blossomed at Howard University, and then Barnard College, where she was the sole black student. She arrived in NYC at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and quickly found herself surrounded by peers such as Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. Hurston went on to become a noted folklorist and critically acclaimed novelist, including her most provocative work Their Eyes Were Watching God. Despite these landmark achievements, personal tragedies and shifting political winds in the midcentury rendered her almost forgotten by the end of her life. With admiration and respect, Bagge reconstructs her vivid life in resounding full-color."


  • Franklin, Ruth
    Shirley Jackson : a rather haunted life
    Summary:"Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remains curiously absent from the American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author behind such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Placing Jackson within an American Gothic tradition of Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on "domestic horror" drawn from an era hostile to women. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, Shirley Jackson, with its exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaged childhood and a troubled marriage to literary critic Stanley Hyman, becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant."


  • Martinetti, Anne
    Agatha : the real life of Agatha Christie
    Summary:The life of Agatha Christie was as mysterious and eventful as her fiction. This beautifully illustrated graphic novel traces the life of the Queen of Whodunnit from her childhood in Torquay, England, through a career filled with success, mischief, and adventure, to her later years as Dame Agatha. Revealing a side to Christie that will surprise and delight many readers, Agatha introduces us to a free-spirited and thoroughly modern woman who, among other things, enjoyed flying, travel, and surfing.


  • Lahiri, Jhumpa
    In other words
    Summary:"A series of reflections on the author’s experiences learning a new language and living abroad, in a dual-language edition."


  • Tan, Amy
    Where the past begins : a writer’s memoir
    Summary:“From New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, a memoir on her life as a writer, her childhood, and the symbiotic relationship between fiction and emotional memory.”


  • Kröger, Lisa.
    Monster, she wrote : the women who pioneered horror & speculative fiction
    Summary:"Horror and speculative fiction wouldn’t exist without the women who created it. From forgotten visionaries like Margaret ‘Mad Madge’ Cavendish, to literary icons like Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson, to modern-era marvels such as Anne Rice and Helen Oyeyemi, women authors have always been at the vanguard of frightening fiction. And their life stories are as intriguing as the novels, short stories, and novellas they crafted. Part biography, part reader’s guide, Monster, She Wrote will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spine-tingling tales. Frankenstein was just the beginning… meet even more terrifying monsters and the women who unleashed them."– back cover.