Bookish Broads: Women Who Wrote Themselves Into History

Available February 2021

A colorful, illustrated celebration of literary history’s bold and courageous female trailblazers

If a well-read woman is a dangerous creature, what does that make a woman writer? Throughout history, female writers have had to over-come countless obstacles, from lack of legal rights and access to education to prejudice and criticism that forced many to publish in secret. Yet they’ve produced much of our most groundbreaking and beloved literature, books that have changed how we see the world.

From Murasaki Shikibu, who invented the novel in tenth-century Japan, to Jane Austen, whose fiercely independent heroines introduced a new kind of woman, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who taught us we should all be feminists, all of them made their voices heard and radically reshaped the opportunities available to women. Bookish Broads collects and connects more than sixty of these storytellers’ legacies, reframing the canon that has long failed to recognize them and revealing a history of the female experience.

About the Illustrator: Alexandra Kilburn is a painter, muralist, illustrator, and designer, living and working in the French Quarter. She works in a variety of painting media including oil, acrylic, gouache, and house paint, and her painting style varies widely according to the chosen media. Her work emphasizes the strength of femininity and nature. You can follower her on Instagram at @kilburnstudio.