Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, illustrator, film director, and children’s book author. She is best known for her graphic novel Persepolis, which provide an insight into life in Iran during the Iranian Revolution of the early 80’s. Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran and grew up in Tehran. Her parents …
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer. She is best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is widely thought of as the first science fiction novel. Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1797 in Somers Town, London to Mary …
Harriet Taylor (also known as Harriet Taylor Mill) was a philosopher and women’s rights advocate. Taylor was born in 1807 in Walworth, south London to Thomas Hardy, a London surgeon, and his wife Harriet Hurst. She was educated at home, and showed a keen interest in poetry. At the age of 18, Taylor married the …
Katherine Murray “Kate” Millett is an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She is an acknowledged leader of the modern women’s movement. Millett was born in 1934 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to James Albert and Helen Feely Millett. The family’s background was Irish Catholic, and Kate attended several parochial schools. Her father was an …
Kelly Sue DeConnick is an American comic book writer and editor and English-language adapter of manga. She is best known for Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble, PRETTY DEADLY, co-created with Emma Ríos, and BITCH PLANET, co-created with Valentine De Landro. DeConnick was born in Ohio in 1970. Her father served in the United States Air Force, …
Maya Angelou was an American award-winning author, poet, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her acclaimed memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and her numerous poetry and essay collections. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was briefly raised in St. Louis until her parents …
Jane Austen was an English Georgian era novelist whose books, set among the English middle and upper classes, are notable for their wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th century women. Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire in 1775. She was the seventh child and second daughter of Cassandra and George …
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, blogger, and commentator. She is a 2015 winner of PEN USA’s Freedom to Write award for her demonstration of exceptional courage in the defence of free expression. Gay was born in Nebraska to Haitian parents. Her family moved several times during her childhood and as Gay was …
Janet Mock is an American best-selling author, transgender rights activist, sought-after speaker and the founder of #GirlsLikeUs, a social media project that empowers trans women. Mock was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1983. She grew up in Hawaii and Oakland, California. Mock knew at an early age that she wanted to become a writer, and …
Toni Morrison was a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. She was the first Black Woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio to George and Ramah Wofford. Her parents had moved to Ohio to escape southern racism and taught their children about …