Social outlaws, good time party girls, and radical poets
Dear Listeners,
From a “girl reporter” who covered corruption in San Francisco’s Chinatown to one of America’s first female foreign correspondents, we have some incredible women and their novels, poetry, and memoirs to discuss with you this fall.
If you’d like to read along with us, here’s a look at some of our upcoming full-length episodes:
NEW TODAY: Miriam Michelson — The Superwoman with Lori Harrison-Kahan. Kahan is a professor in the English department at Boston College and editor of The Superwoman and Other Writings by Miriam Michelson, which won the 2021 Best Book Edition Award from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Michelson was a West Coast celebrity “girl reporter” who covered crime and social justice issues before becoming a popular fiction writer. Listen here.
September 20: “Dirty” Helen Cromwell — Good Time Party Girl with Christina Ward. Cromwell was a call girl-turned madame, bootlegger, and speakeasy owner who wrote the unabashedly fun memoir Good Time Party Girl: The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell 1886-1969. Ward is vice president of Feral House, the publishing imprint which reintroduced the world to Helen Cromwell’s memoir in 2019.
October 4: Lola Ridge — Anything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge, Radical Poet with Terese Svoboda. Ridge was considered one of the pre-eminent poets in early 20th-century America and guest Terese Svoboda, author of the 2018 biography Anything That Burns You, is herself a poet, having published eight collections of poetry in addition to being a novelist, memoirist, short story writer, translator, and videographer.
October 11: Anne Hampton Brewster — St. Martin’s Summer with Etta Madden. Etta Madden, author of Engaging Italy: American Women’s Utopian Visions and Transnational Networks, joins us to talk about Anne Hampton Brewster, one of the fascinating women featured in her book. Brewster, dubbed a “social outlaw,” was one of America’s first female foreign correspondents and also wrote novels, poems, and short stories.
As always, thank you so much for listening!
Our very best,
Kim & Amy