Women of the Written Word

(Photo by Mark Homan)

Rita Mae Brown (1944 - )

Rita Mae Brown is a novelist, poet, and activist who was born in Pennsylvania in 1944. She is the author of the acclaimed coming-of-age autobiographical novel Rubyfruit Jungle (1973). Brown was deeply engaged in activism during the 1960s and 1970s, and was critical of lesbian marginalization within feminist organizations. A prolific author, Brown is known for her bestselling serial novels such as the “Mrs. Murphy” mystery series, and the “Sister Jane” foxhunting mysteries, and has received a number of awards, including the Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement from the Lambda Literary Awards in 2015.

After being expelled from the University of Florida in 1964 for participating in the civil rights movement, Brown hitchhiked to New York City to attend NYU, where she earned a BA in English and classics. Although initially involved with the National Organization for Women (NOW), she resigned over comments by Betty Friedan seen by some as anti-lesbian and by the NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. Brown co-founded the Student Homophile League and was instrumental in establishing The Furies, a lesbian feminist collective. The group published The Furies: Lesbian/Feminist Monthly, a magazine that featured some of Brown's early poetry. Her poetry collections, including The Hand That Cradles the Rock (1971) and Songs to a Handsome Woman (1973), reflect her radical feminist ideology and enduring commitment to social change.

Listen to an interview with Brown here.

(Photo by Bettye Lane, 1973)

Bertha Harris (1937 - 2005)

Bertha Harris was an American novelist who was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In an interview with the Village Voice decades later, Harris said that she had moved to New York after college in 1959 “to find lesbians,” before ending up in a brief heterosexual marriage and having a daughter. She worked as an editor and proofreader to support herself and her daughter before returning to North Carolina to receive her M.F.A. As part of her degree requirements, Harris wrote her first novel, Catching Saradove (1969), a semi-autobiographical work that shifts between the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Saradove’s childhood in the South. Harris had remarked on her two obsessions: music (especially opera) and the South – themes which defined her second novel, Confessions of Cherubino (1972), described as an “ultra-violent comedy” by the New Yorker. 

Lover, Harris’ third and perhaps most well-known novel, was first published in 1976 by Vermont-based independent publisher Daughters, Inc., a small publisher of women's fiction. Harris described Lover as being written "straight from the libido, while I was madly in love, and liberated by the lesbian cultural movement of the mid-1970s." In the introduction of the 1993 reissue, Harris wrote that "Lover should be absorbed as if it were a theatrical performance. There's tap dancing and singing, disguise, sleights of hand, mirror illusions, quick-change acts, and drag.”

Harris was outspoken about her hope that lesbian fiction would evolve into an entirely new and elegant genre, diverging from the cliched style that seem to typify the romances and detective fiction of the 1990s. She died in New York City on May 22, 2005, at the age of 67. At the time of her death, she was completing her fourth novel, Mi Contra Fa.

Listen to an interview with Harris here.

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Marge Piercy (1936 - )

Marge Piercy is a distinguished poet, novelist, and essayist whose work seamlessly weaves together themes of politics, feminism, and working-class experiences, all deeply rooted in Jewish culture and spirituality. Raised in a working-class Jewish household in Detroit, Michigan by her mother and Orthodox Jewish maternal grandmother, Piercy’s upbringing significantly shaped her literary voice and the subjects she explored. Her writing often examines the intersections of personal identity, social justice, and collective struggle, celebrating resilience and defiance, particularly among women. Piercy is the author of more than seventeen volumes of poetry, including The Moon Is Always Female (1980), a feminist classic celebrated for its profound exploration of women’s experiences and empowerment, and The Art of Blessing the Day (1999), which draws heavily on Jewish themes and traditions. 

In addition to her poetry, Piercy has published fifteen novels, such as Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) and He, She and It (1991), both of which are considered seminal works in feminist speculative science fiction. All of her books feature strong, complex female protagonists navigating societal and systemic challenges. Piercy has also ventured into theater, co-authoring the play The Last White Class (1979) with her third and current husband, Ira Wood. 

Listen to an interview with Piercy here.

(Image from The Bretzman Collection, Indiana Historical Society.)

Mari Evans (1919 - 2017)

Poet, playwright, and activist Mari Evans was born in Toledo, Ohio, on July 16, 1923. She studied fashion design at the University of Toledo before focusing on poetry. A major figure in the Black Arts Movement, Evans ​​explored the nature of community and the power of language in her poetry. Her poetry collections include Where Is All the Music? (1968); I Am a Black Woman (1970), which won the Black Academy of Arts and Letters poetry award; Nightstar: 1973–1978 (1981); A Dark and Splendid Mass (1992); and Continuum: New and Selected Poems (2007, revised and expanded in 2015). In addition to her poetry, Evans produced and narrated The Black Experience, a television program “by and about black people,” which appeared from 1968 to 1973. She also wrote a number of books for children, as well as several plays and musicals.

Evans once wrote, “the only insurmountable obstacle I’ve faced is being a Black writer,” noting that her race made her struggles for recognition as an artist much more difficult than did her sex. An activist for the Black community, Evans was involved with and served as a chairperson for the Black Educational Coalition in 1976. She fought for prison reform, community organizing, and efforts to end capital punishment.

Among Evans’s honors are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the John Hay Whitney Foundation, as well as an honorary doctorate from Marian College. She taught at Spelman College, Purdue University, and Cornell University. 

Listen to Evans speaking at a workshop for Black Women in the Arts here.

(Photo by Maher Attar)

Marilyn Hacker (1942 - )

Marilyn Hacker is an award-winning poet best known for formal poems that mix high culture and colloquial speech. Over a career spanning nearly 50 years, Hacker has established herself as a preeminent voice in the tradition of Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich. Summarizing Hacker’s work in Feminist Writers, contributor Renee Curry noted that “Much of Hacker’s life work has been to frame the nameless inside the names, to work on providing forms for the formless.” Hacker’s significance to modern poetry, Curry added, “is synonymous with her persistent contribution of her own life experiences and her own life’s wisdom to the feminist lesbian canon.”

Born in New York City on November 27, 1942, Marilyn Hacker was the only child of a working-class Jewish couple, each the first in their families to attend college. Hacker attended the Bronx High School of Science before enrolling at New York University, where she received a BA in Romance languages in 1964.  In 1961 she married the science-fiction writer Samuel R. Delany; though Delany was gay, the couple remained married for 13 years and had one daughter. In the 1970s, Hacker spent much of her time living in London, England and working as a book dealer. She returned to the United States in 1976 but has continued to divide her time between the United States and France, editing literary periodicals such as Ploughshares and the Kenyon Review, and teaching at a number of colleges and universities. Openly lesbian since the late 1970s, Hacker has created a poetry that is feminist, political, and intimate at once.

Listen to poetry readings by Hacker here.

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Carolyn M. Rodgers (1940 - 2010)

Carolyn M. Rodgers was a groundbreaking poet, critic, and publisher, and a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement. Born in Chicago in 1940, Rodgers earned degrees from Roosevelt University and the University of Chicago. Her literary journey was deeply influenced by her involvement with the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), a group that sought to elevate African American art and literature. Under the mentorship of Gwendolyn Brooks, Rodgers developed her distinctive voice, blending themes of race, gender, and identity with experimental forms and rhythms.

Rodgers co-founded Third World Press in 1967 alongside Haki Madhubuti and Johari Amini, helping to amplify the voices of Black writers. Third World Press remains the largest independent Black-owned press in the United States.Her poetry collections, including Paper Soul (1968) and Songs of a Black Bird (1969), captured the complexities of Black experiences, blending critique of societal structures with introspective explorations of Black womanhood. Though her later work shifted towards a more spiritual tone, her early writings, bold and confrontational, remain a testament to her role in challenging societal norms and redefining Black literature​.

Rodgers' work extended beyond poetry; she was a teacher, lecturer, and a cultural advocate. Her contributions to literature and the empowerment of marginalized voices secured her legacy as one of the era's most influential literary figures.

Listen to Rodgers speaking at a workshop for Black Women in the Arts here.

(Image from Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America)

Margaret Walker (1915 - 1998)

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 7, 1915, poet and novelist Margaret Walker was reading and writing by the time she was five years old. At the age of 11, she began reading the poetry of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Walker met Hughes in 1932, and he encouraged her to continue writing poetry. Her first poem was published in 1934, still one year before she had graduated from Northwestern University. Not even ten years later, for her work in her first book of poetry, For My People (1942), she became the first Black woman to receive the Yale University Younger Poets Award.Walker’s first novel, Jubilee (1966), is considered the first truly historical black American novel by preeminent African American Literary Criticism scholar and Temple University English Professor Dr. Joyce A. Joyce, and was also the first work by a black writer to speak out for the liberation of the black woman.

Of For My People, Eugenia Collier wrote, in an essay for Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, “Using ... the language of the grass-roots people, Walker spins yarns of folk heroes and heroines: those who, faced with the terrible obstacles which haunt Black people’s very existence, not only survive but prevail—with style.” Unprecedented demand for the book required its publishers to authorize three printings. Jubilee, a historical novel about a slave family during and after the Civil War, is the other cornerstone of Walker’s literary legacy. The book was written over the course of 30 years, during which Walker also married a disabled veteran, raised four children, taught full time at Jackson State College in Mississippi, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.

Listen to Walker speaking at a workshop for Black Women in the Arts here.

(Photo by Bettye Lane)

Myrna Lamb (1930 - 2017)

Myrna Lamb was a feminist playwright whose works captured the complexities of women’s lives and systemic gender inequities with humor, insight, and sharp social critique. Born in New Jersey, Lamb became a significant voice in the feminist theater movement of the 1960s and 1970s, using the stage as a platform to explore issues of identity, oppression, and liberation. Beyond her artistic achievements, Lamb was a staunch advocate for women’s representation in the arts, consistently striving to amplify female voices in a traditionally male-dominated field.

One of her most notable works, Mod Donna (1970), was a groundbreaking second-wave feminist musical staged at the Public Theater and later at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Composed by Susan Hulsman Bingham and produced by Joseph Papp, founder of the Public Theater, Mod Donna was celebrated for its bold depiction of women’s sexual liberation and its avant-garde approach to storytelling. The musical propelled Lamb into the mainstream and cemented her reputation as a pioneering voice in feminist theater. Its exploration of gender, sexuality, and liberation was considered revolutionary for its time.  

Listen to an interview with Lamb here.

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The Deadly Nightshade: Anne Bowen, Pamela Brandt & Helen Hooke

The Deadly Nightshade was a groundbreaking feminist rock trio that emerged during the 1970s. As one of the first all-women rock groups signed to a major label and early members of the women’s music movement, The Deadly Nightshade paved the way for future generations of women and queer artists in the male-dominated rock industry. 

Anne Bowen played guitar and washboard for the group, and was the one to bright part of her all-girl band, Ariel, out of retirement to play an event in 1972. Response was so positive that Bowen, along with Pamela Brandt and Helen Hooke, began a new career as the Deadly Nightshade, Deadlies or DNS. After the group retired, Bowen went to work for the Women’s Action Alliance, a part of the Ms. Magazine group of agencies. There she worked for the National Women’s Agenda project, a lobbying coalition of traditional women’s organizations. Pamela Brandt, the band’s bassist and lyricist, brought a sharp wit and an unapologetically feminist perspective to the group’s music. Her lyrics explored themes of empowerment, resistance, and individuality, challenging societal expectations of women and the patriarchal norms of both the music industry and society at large. Brandt later became a writer and editor, contributing to publications that supported feminist discourse and LGBTQ+ visibility. Helen Hooke, the group’s guitarist and vocalist, brought a virtuosity and emotional resonance to the band’s music. Hooke’s instrumental expertise and powerful voice helped The Deadly Nightshade stand out in an era when women were marginalized in rock. Beyond her musical contributions, Hooke was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and queer liberation. 

Together, they helped define the band’s unique sound and ethos, blending folk, rock, country, and jazz influences with deeply political lyrics that championed women’s liberation. The Deadly Nightshade’s music was ahead of its time and their two albums, The Deadly Nightshade (1975) and F&W (1976), remain cult classics within the cannon of women’s music history.

Listen to an interview with Brandt and Hooke here.