Published in 2021
256 pages
Lauren Burke is a writer and podcaster from Chicago, Illinois. Her work focuses on women’s history, writing, and travel.
Hannah K. Chapman is a writer and podcaster living in Bristol, England. She co-hosts the podcast Bonnets at Dawn and is the founder of the award-nominated anthology series Comic Book Slumber Party.
Kaley Bales is an illustrator living on the California coast.
What is this book about?
In Why She Wrote, dive into the fascinating, unexpected, and inspiring stories behind the greatest women writers in the English language.
This compelling graphic collection features 18 women—including Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Anne Lister, and more—and asks a simple question: in a time when being a woman writer often meant being undervalued, overlooked, or pigeonholed, why did she write?
Why did Jane Austen struggle to write for five years before her first novel was ever published? How did Edith Maude Eaton’s writing change the narrative around Chinese immigrant workers in North America? Why did the Brontë sisters choose to write under male pennames, and Anne Lister write her personal diaries in code?
Learn about women writers from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, from familiar favorites to those who have undeservedly fallen into obscurity, and their often untold histories, including:
• The forgotten mother of the gothic genre
• The unexpected success of Little Women
• The diaries of the “first modern lesbian”
• The lawsuit to protect Little Lord Fauntleroy
• The personal account of a mastectomy in 1811
• Austen’s struggles with writer’s block
• And much, much more!
Why She Wrote highlights a significant moment from each writer’s life and retells it through engaging and accessible comics, along with biographical text, bibliographies, and fun facts. For aspiring writers, literary enthusiasts, and the Janeite who has everything, this new collection highlights these incredible women’s hardships, their influence, and the spark that called them to write.
