Natsuo Kirino’s novels are not for the faint-hearted, nor are they for westerners loath to abandon the cultural stereotype of the Japanese woman as a delicate and beautiful “oriental flower”. Wendy Nakanishi explores the role of women in Japanese culture and society through Kirino’s popular works of crime and suspense.
Elsa Dorfman describes life as a creative female among writers of the Beat Generation and beyond, and gives a bit of advice to creative women now.
“It was just one of those things,” says living (and still writing, performing) Beat generation poet, ruth weiss, of her first readings of jazz-inspired poetry set to jazz music in 1949. She always knew that things would come together at the right time and place. Always a poet, the true poetry of her life continues to unfold.
“‘Sacrifice everything’ we would write on our apartment walls…” wrote Diane di Prima, prolific Beat Generation writer. What was life like for female writers and artists who joined a movement to rebel against conformity in the 1950s golden era of female domesticity? Lourdes Acevedo begins a new series on women of the Beat generation.
In our culture, “witches” are often friendly and cartoonish, but in different times and distant countries, to be a witch has meant that one is distinctly Other, and dangerous. When the ‘Five Witches’ of Croatia were publicly derided for speaking out against the nationalist state, they refused to be silenced.
Lourdes Acevedo writes about Musine Kokalari and the fear surrounding freedom to write. Who was Musine Kokalari, and what made her so powerful that she was bound, even after she was dead? Reading her story, if not her banned works, reminds us of the power of our written voices.
Irmtraud Morgner began her career as a writer in the late fifties with works which were inspired by this genre, but she would ultimately confound the state’s expectations and embark upon journeys of exploration into the surreal, the fantastical and the magical.
Maxie Wander is, in several respects, an exception in the context of this series. One of the things which sets her apart from the other featured writers is the fact that she migrated to the German Democratic Republic from Vienna, Austria, where she had been born in 1933.
The female writer most closely associated with the German Democratic Republic in the public imagination is probably Christa Wolf. Christa interacted with the regime as its antagonist and its enabler, as an ideologue and an artist.
by Shannon K. Winston I write To shout To live You write To shout To live But who will silence The shouting between us? -Habiba Muhammadi, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi Habiba Muhammadi was born in Algeria and attended the University of Algiers where she studied philosophy. She then moved to Egypt where she earned a degree [...]
Natsuo Kirino’s novels are not for the faint-hearted, nor are they for westerners loath to abandon the cultural stereotype of the Japanese woman as a delicate and beautiful “oriental flower”. Wendy Nakanishi explores the role of women in Japanese culture and society through Kirino’s popular works of crime and suspense.
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In this podcast, cultural anthropologist Gina Athena Ulysse read from her poetry and discusses the narratives of her homeland Haiti, and how she strives to develop new stories in spoken word and performance poetry.
Marina DelVecchio brings up an older text, published in 1971, that introduces readers to ten obscure and famous women circa the 1800′s. Eve Merriam’s Growing Up Female in America: Ten Lives depicts the authentic first-person voices of women who "found the will to trudge forward into colleges and acquire degrees that went beyond ‘MPM — Mistress of Pudding Making — and RW — Respectable Wife’" (13).
Maya Angelou’s Empowered …: Marina DelVecchio discusses the empowered nature of Maya Angelou's girlhood... 
Alice Walker and Zora Nea…:
Sometimes friendships just happen when we meet someone. An instant spar... 
Susan B. Anthony and Eliz…:
On Valentine's Day, people are often wrapped up in gifts, dedications, ... 
The Help: Perpetuating th…: Mayra David writes about The Help and the history of the Mammy stereotype i... 
Squash Pie: a short story…: Part 1 of "Squash Pie," the story that is the culmination of Melissa Corlis... 
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