Women writers, like women activists, have always done a considerable amount of the intellectual heavy lifting required for innovation. And yet try to find many of these women in bookstores: Kay Boyle, Grace Paley, Janet Flanner, Laurie Colwin, Meredith Tax, Dawn Powell, Meridel LeSeur, Colette, Nella Larsen, Paule Marshall, Dorothy West, Mina Loy, Josephine Herbst, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, Helen Adam, Alcott’s non-fiction, etc. How much of their work is in print? Often, if it is still available, we have independent presses or university presses to thank. (I do know that some of the women listed have titles available from some of the Big Five.)
Over at Lit Hub, Lucy Kogler has written about the struggle to keep important women writers on bookstore shelves and a part of publishers’ active backlists.
