By Lynne Weiss | On October 21, 2022 | Updated June 15, 2026 | Comments (0)
How can writers reconcile the demands of the social and political moment with the demands of their craft? Caribbean women writers of color offer some models in the way they explore the rich intersection of concerns with gender, race, and colonialism through their work.
Anglophone writers with links to African and indigenous Caribbean cultures as well as to the United States or the United Kingdom (or both) express those connections with language, story, and rhythm.
Following are brief introductions to several classic Caribbean women writers, listed in order of their dates of birth — Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall (shown above), Georgina Herrera, Michelle Cliff, Mahadai Das, and Jean “Binta” Breeze. Read More→
By Lynne Weiss | On October 2, 2022 | Updated April 5, 2024 | Comments (0)
What is it that makes us long to see what the writers we love once saw? To stand in their footsteps? Do we imagine that some fairy dust will fall from nearby trees or rise from abandoned floorboards to bring us the wisdom or the art that flowed from their fingers to their manuscripts, whether through pens or pencils, typewriter keys, or pixels?
That’s what was on my mind on a visit to Cornwall, England, when I was determined to get to Godrevy Light, the lighthouse that inspired Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 27, 2022 | Updated September 4, 2024 | Comments (0)
When it comes to friendships between writers, common strivings and struggles have always benefited from mutual support. Some rivalry is often involved, though, since writers can be an envious lot.
This type of camaraderie has always had its delights as well as its complications — no matter the pairing or the writers’ genders (think: Hemingway and Fitzgerald). Friendships between women writers now considered classic authors were no exception.
There are few templates for friendships between writers, especially after either or both achieves some measure of success. Yes, there’s mutual support. And yes, a measure of envy and rivalry often exists as well. Here are some writerly pairings, some famous, others not so well known, all fascinating. Read More→
By Elodie Barnes | On August 16, 2022 | Updated March 15, 2025 | Comments (2)
Literary mythology has often portrayed Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield as bitter rivals, but they were close friends and, for the most part, mutually supportive writing colleagues.
The rivalry between the two brilliant writers served as inspiration to both, a spur to do better. Virginia said of Katherine, “I was jealous of her writing. The only writing I have ever been jealous of.”
In October 1917, Virginia Woolf recorded in her diary her first, decidedly mixed impressions of fellow writer Katherine Mansfield. Katherine “stinks like a civet cat that had taken to street walking,” she wrote. “In truth, I’m a little shocked by her commonness at first sight; lines so hard & cheap. However, when this diminishes, she is so intelligent & inscrutable that she repays friendship.” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 2, 2022 | Updated August 2, 2024 | Comments (0)
While the writers highlighted here may not be obscure or totally forgotten (with the possible exception of Vera Caspary), they also may not leap to mind as the authors of our next great read. Let’s revisit these fascinating mid-20th century women novelists.
Midcentury is loosely defined here as 1940s and 1950s, and this is but a small sampling of writers of that era that I find fascinating — there are always others to discover and rediscover. Read More→
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