Each month I will feature a little-known woman writer of the past in my newsletter, which I have retitled "The Bluestocking Bulletin." Check it out here and, if you like it, you can subscribe at the bottom. This first issue features the writer Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867), who was a famous early American novelist (as famous as James Fenimore Cooper, but sadly forgotten).…
Today my review of Lady Byron and Her Daughters, by Julia Markus, appeared at the Los Angeles Review of Books. In it I address what it means to write the biography of a woman overshadowed by a famous man. "Writers of such biographies face the challenge of convincing readers that their subjects deserve biographical treatment for their own sake, not simply because they were the…
The BBC has 10 books it would like you to consider reading this month. I couldn't be more thrilled that one of them is mine: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160129-ten-books-to-read-in-february. It was a happy night last night when I opened my Facebook and Twitter accounts to see a flurry of posts and tweets spreading the news, courtesy of the article's author, Jane Ciabattari. Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist will…
I'm offering a free sneak peek of Constance Fenimore Woolson's Miss Grief and Other Stories, to be published by W. W. Norton on February 29, to subscribers of my newsletter. You can read my Introduction and the short story "Solomon" before the book hits bookshelves by subscribing to "The Woolson and Alcott Chronicles" here. Woolson (1840-1894) was the most critically acclaimed American woman writer of her era.…
Publication day (Feb. 29) is six and a half weeks away. The pre-publication reviews are in, and now I sit and wait. Or not. I'm not very good at sitting and waiting. So I'm working on getting a few things going. First, another (final) Goodreads giveaway is in progress. If you would like a free copy (not a galley this time) of Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait…
One of the new experiences for me as a trade author is the process of getting reviews. When I published my first two book with an academic press, it took a year or more for reviews to start coming in. This time around, as Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist and Miss Grief and Other Stories get ready for publication on February 29, reviews have…
Here, finally, is my list of female Bildugsromane to read this year as part of the Classics Club's Women's Classic Literature Event 2016. I have only read the first before, and I'm reading the rest as part of my research for a chapter in the book I am writing, tentatively titled Reading Little Women: The History of an American Classic. Many of these are books…
It's been an amazing year in my writing, teaching, and reading lives, and I can't wait for 2016. In fact, for a while now, I've been writing 2016 when I write down the date. That's how much I'm looking forward to it. But first, a look back at 2015. I have been busy completing two books as well as writing four online pieces and…
Claire Vaye Watkins’s essay “On Pandering,” about how much her writing has been influenced by a desire for the approval of the “white male lit establishment,” caused such a frenzy that it crashed Tin House’s website. Responses rapidly appeared at Salon, Jezebel, Flavorwire, Slate, and the LA Times, with more to come, surely. . . Thus begins an essay I wrote for The…
A couple of months ago I received an email from Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture contributor, asking me to participate in a poll of non-UK critics to determine our views on the best British novels of all time. As an American Studies Ph.D. and American literature professor, I must admit my opinions about British literature are pretty subjective. I love reading it but haven't had the…