Watch author and historian Michelle Duster, the great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, discuss her ancestor’s lasting legacy.
Women’s History Month Resources
WOMEN’S history Month
Celebrate the impact of women writers and their work!
March is Women’s History Month and we have a number of resources available to help you discover, celebrate, and honor the vast contributions of women writers, both past and present.
Spend some time with our vast array of resources to honor the work of women writers during Women’s History Month.
- Explore virtual exhibits like Pauli Murray: Survival With Dignity, focused on the life and legacy of Pauli Murray, a hugely influential yet often overlooked poet, lawyer, priest, civil rights activist and more.
- Watch past program videos with leading contemporary authors like Sandra Cisneros, Jacqueline Woodson, Glory Edim and more.
- Listen to informative podcasts about influential writers of the past like Toni Morrison, Shirley Jackson, Louisa May Alcott, and more.
- Take your class on a Women’s History Month guided exploration of the AWM with a focus on women writers and their work.
Women’s History Month Events
Join us for these special events honoring women writers!
Get (Chick) Lit: Women Writers
At our monthly happy hour series, Get Lit, we are celebrating women writers in March with a book swap, scavenger hunt, Poems While You Wait, and refreshing adult beverages as you explore all of the AWM’s exhibits! Tickets include two drinks.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Agatha Award-winning mystery novelist Amanda Flower discusses her new book, the first in a series, Because I Could Not Stop for Death: An Emily Dickinson Mystery. Hear how Flower was able to find inspiration for a mystery novel from Dickinson’s work.
Trailblazing Women Writers Tour
Take a tour of the AWM with a focus on the accomplishments and contributions of women writers who changed the course of history with their words. Included with museum admission, these 15-minute tours take place daily at 3 pm when the AWM is open (Thurs-Mon).
Explore Online Exhibits
Plus, you can take a virtual guided tour focused on Trailblazing Women Writers with a group or classroom! Learn more and book a tour.
Hisaye Yamamoto: An American Story
Discover the personal story of Hisaye Yamamoto, a powerful, but perhaps underappreciated, writer who defined a generation of Japanese Americans as she also sought to expose injustices and give voice to the voiceless. Yamamoto and her family were imprisoned by the United States government in a concentration camp during World War II. Learn how writing helped Yamamoto get through that time and how that experience impacted her writing and activism later on.
Pauli Murray: Survival With Dignity
Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a poet, a lawyer, a priest, a freight hopper, Eleanor Roosevelt’s friend, arrested for refusing to comply with bus segregation laws, a closeted member of the LBGTQ+ community, a professor, and so much more. Their work has influenced Supreme Court decisions, the Civil Rights movement, and countless individual people. Get to know the life and work of Pauli Murray and see how they used writing to fight for justice for all oppressed communities.
American Voices
In the online adaptation of our physical exhibit American Voices, you can delve into more than 400 years of American writing. Learn more about barrier-breakers like Phillis Wheatley, who at the age of 20 became the first published African-American author in 1773. Or learn about Modernism-era writers like Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, and more. Explore themes like “Identity” and “Promise” and see how women writers have helped shaped these throughout American history.
READING RECOMMENDATIONS
In August 2020, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment when women finally secured the right to vote, we put together a list of books to read. From histories to autobiographies to poetry collections to essays, picture books and more, this list celebrates the impact of women writers and how they have been able to change—and continue to change—the course of history with their words.
BOOKS FOR WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY
WATCH
Over on our YouTube channel we’ve put together a Women’s History Month playlist for your viewing pleasure.
- Editors Nina Bennett and Marie Bennett discuss uncovering and reprinting 1920s author Gertrude Beasley’s banned memoir My First Thirty Years.
- Writer and editor Glory Edim, founder of the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club, appreciates the Black women who have guided her life and work.
- Pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong discusses her fascinating book When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today.
LISTEN
Check out and subscribe to our podcast Nation of Writers if you are interested in hearing writers and scholars discuss prominent writers of the past and their legacies.
- Nikki Giovanni and Glory Edim get together to chat about their friend and mentor Maya Angelou.
- Ecologist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber discusses the continued relevance of her idol marine biologist and nature writer Rachel Carson.
- Learn about the life and work of Zitkála-Šá—an accomplished writer, musician, and Indigenous rights activist—with scholar Dr. P. Jane Hafen.
READ
Hit the American Writers Museum blog for even more Women’s History Month content.
- Learn more about influential writers like Tillie Olsen (pictured above) and Willa Cather. Explore more in our exhibit American Voices, both online and in-person.
- Adapted from our Tools of the Trade exhibit, read about the typewriters used by famous writers like Mae West, Gwendolyn Brooks, and even Helen Keller’s braille writer.
- Check out past Q&As with leading women writers like historian Deborah Blum, novelist R. O. Kwon, and many more.
