Female Writers

This week is supposed to be full of green and four leaf clovers but the storm that dropped feet of snow in Colorado paid us a visit a day later in Minnesota. Temperatures dropped again and the snow fell late into the night. How am I supposed to find my pot of gold with snow covering everything? Like many other Minnesotans, I’m looking forward to the end of the week and highs that are supposed to be closer to 60. Now, the debate is whether or not to put away the winter boots and coat.

Enough said of my weekly weather talk.  Let’s get back to the topic of writing. I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post on food writing.  Speaking of food, my frig is full of ingredients for mom’s corned beef and cabbage.  Thinking about food and culture of the Irish, my mind turned to all the famous poets and writers from this small island.  Right away you think of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and WB Yeats but what about female authors?  There is Elizabeth Bowen, Kate O’Brien, Iris Murdoch, and romance author, Maeve Binchy.  Women are there but studying the classics can feel a little too masculine.  So, the next time your teacher recommends a read, remember to promote your fellow female writers. 

Taking a close look if you pull up the top 10 best selling authors of all time, most of list is men from a decade ago.  Classic female authors, such as Agatha Christie and Lucy Maud Montgomery still make the list but there’s only a few.  As many of us know, the reason is because getting published as a woman in earlier decades wasn’t easy.  We should thank them for pursuing their passion and sharing their stories even when it harder to be heard. 

Now, female authors, like JK Rowling, are dominating old lists all because she sat down at her table and listened to her voice.  She was out of a job worrying about how she was going to pay her bills when she had a moment of inspiration.  Think about how that moment changed her life and the lives of the readers.  One call to her a friend started her down the path of getting published.  This was far less likely to happen had she been born a decade earlier.  Hearing this story, should inspire authors to keep pushing their work and their limits as a writer.

Should gender, race, or anything of that nature really matter when it comes to telling and sharing a good story?  No, that was the point of female writers trying to get published.  The biggest tragedy in life as a writer, is thinking about all those stories that never get heard.  The true unspoken word that never gets told or put on paper.  Thinking back to Claudia Casper’s Ted, we should share the goal as writers.  Our only goal is to drain our brain every day until there’s nothing left.  Then, we start all over again the next day. 

Tomorrow is Limerick day! Follow as I post on my progress throughout the month and share the experience.

~Yoon Ju

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