By Taylor Jasmine | On August 30, 2025 | Updated July 19, 2026 | Comments (0)
This roundup of intriguing personal essays celebrates Jane Austen’s life and legacy, and the unique place she holds in literary history.
In 2025, the year of Jane Austen‘s 250th birthday, her influence and talent have been recognized far and wide. Unusually for a woman of her time (she was born in 1775) her talent was recognized early on and taken seriously by her entire family.
Despite the popular portrayal of her as all charm and modesty, Jane was a writer and observer in full mastery of her gifts. She cared deeply about getting published and being read, despite myths to the contrary. Six exquisite novels crafted with compassion, humor, and insight into the travails of the sexes and social classes assured her lofty position in literary history.
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By Angelica Shirley Carpenter | On August 28, 2025 | Updated August 29, 2025 | Comments (0)
In 1838, Sarah and Angelina Grimké were likely the best-known — and most hated — women in the United States. Both published extensively, including essays and pamphlets promoting abolition and women’s rights.
Arm in Arm: The Grimké Sisters’ Fight for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Angelica Shirley Carpenter (Zest Books, 2025), introduces these fascinating figures to middle grade through high school readers, but can be enjoyed by all ages.
Sarah Grimké (1792 – 1873), the more reserved sister, preferred writing, while Angelina Grimké (1805 – 1879) loved the spotlight. Her spirited speeches often left audiences in tears. Read More→
By Elodie Barnes | On June 19, 2025 | Updated June 15, 2026 | Comments (0)
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, 1931 – 2019) is celebrated for her groundbreaking novels and nonfiction that examine the Black experience in America.
Her writings have reached millions of readers, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for the “visionary force and poetic import” of her work. [above right, Toni Morrison’s author photo on The Bluest Eye, 1970; photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]
Following is an overview of her career as an editor and publisher, which isn’t as widely known despite being hugely influential in the contemporary realm of Black literature and the publishing world. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On May 26, 2025 | Updated August 10, 2026 | Comments (0)
Who would have ever imagined that librarians would become targets in contemporary culture wars? Most of today’s battles are over banning and censorship, as we know. (Shown at right, Belle da Costa Greene)
And though book banning is nothing new, it wasn’t the primary concern of the librarians highlight here today. They were blazing trails in other ways (you’ll frequently see “the first” here). All of these professionals were visionaries who elevated the role of libraries as cultural hearts of communities.
These librarians proudly built diversity and cultural awareness into the fabric of what has evolved into the contemporary library. And that’s something that can’t be unraveled. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On May 8, 2025 | Updated August 16, 2025 | Comments (0)
If you love learning about fascinating women of the past, but aren’t inclined to read full-scale biographies that take you from the second they were born (or earlier) to the minute they died, another fantastic route into their lives is via novelizations, also known as biofiction.
This type of novel usually focuses on a particularly interesting portion of a fascinating real-life person’s journey. This seems to be a growing genre, and when done well, as in the small sampling following, is entertaining as well as illuminating.
To create these novelizations successfully requires a delicate balance involving deep research and creative license. Here’s a small sampling. Read More→
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