Shannon Squire

Two of our staff members are huge fans of our April HerStory recipient, Maureen Johnson, and that is due, not only to her prowess with pen and ink, but to the kind of person she is, and how she shows up in the world. We thought we’d check in with them about what made them recommend Johnson for HerStory this year, here are their thoughts, paraphrased a bit, with other random bits and bobs we found thrown in…

Johnson’s books are delightful for their humor and how relatable the characters are. She writes mostly YA, but under that umbrella, her writings run the gamut from supernatural to romance to mysteries and thrillers. Her books combine elements of mystery and modern coming of age stories and are very very fantastical. 

She’s very active on Twitter, and has been for almost as long as Twitter’s been around. She engages with fans, makes them feel like friends, and she relentlessly speaks truth to power. She’s a trans ally, speaking up against famed TERF JKR and her attacks on trans folks. She’s pro union, supporting the worker strike at her publisher. She’s been very vocally against banning books, and works to support folks who have been displaced around the globe due to natural disasters. 

Johnson does a lot of work and advocacy surrounding supporting diversity in YA books and spaces, respectful treatments of identity and love, and broadening definitions and descriptions of writing that falls under “genre fiction” umbrellas. She edited an anthology called How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation in 2018, and was active in getting out the youth vote during Obama’s first presidential election. She co-created a podcast in response to the turmoil of the 2016 election, and still hosts the podcast, which, although focusing on the news of the week, is also super random and engaging.

Our April colorway, We Can Work With That, is one of Johnson’s catchphrases from her podcast, Says Who?, and we mixed the colors to reflect images of her lovely office we’ve seen online: a soft pink with plenty of houseplants sprinkled throughout. Our projects will surely come into being while listening to her podcast or the audio of one of her compelling books; how about you?

Books by Maureen Johnson:

• Truly Devious
• Nine Liars
• 13 Little Blue Envelopes
• The Name of the Star

Want more like this? Here are some other authors we suggest you read/listen to:

• Holly Jackson
• Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
• Tahereh Mafi
• Rainbow Rowell
• Jenny Han

When you think of science fiction writing, and particularly female science fiction authors, one of the first to pop into most people’s minds is Octavia Butler. So much of what she wrote is deep in the thread of modern fiction, and her influence is so broad, that we couldn’t possibly NOT feature her this year. And it must be said that, even though she is considered to be a science fiction writer by many, she herself didn’t necessarily agree; Butler resisted being pigeonholed as a genre writer, and claimed to have three loyal audiences: black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists.

Butler was raised by her mother and grandmother, having lost her father at a young age. She was a shy kid who found solace in the local library, and her mother encouraged her reading and writing. Butler read the heck out of the sci-fi available at the time, but continually found herself disappointed and frustrated by the lack of representation to be found in the works available to her. As her writing career began to take shape, she made conscious efforts to center protagonists that reflected her own life experiences, which was baffling to many editors at the time. A Black woman, centered in a science fiction work? Who would read that? (Sound familiar, friends? It seems like this is what all of our HerStory recipients hear at some time in their journey: since you aren’t centering those that have always been centered, your work has less intrinsic value and interest. GEESH!)

Particularly in these recent times, when the dangers of a lot of what was traditionally reserved for science fiction works look more and more likely to actually come to pass, reading Octavia Butler and her no-holds-barred view of the downfalls of society becomes both more important and more difficult. She doesn’t shy away from the ugliness that can be at the heart of modern society, and the dangers of continuing on a path informed by white supremacy and capitalism. Even through that, there is a thread of hope and redemption that runs through her works, and keeps her on to-read lists everywhere.

The Xenogensis trilogy, also known as Lilith’s Brood, is one of Octavia Butler’s most popular and enduring work, and we’ve used a particularly vibrant version of the cover of book three as our colorway inspiration this month. 

Books by Octavia Butler:

• Kindred
• Parable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents
• The Patternist Series
• The Xenogenesis Trilogy

Want more like this? Here are some other authors we suggest you read/listen to:

• Nnedi Okorafor
• Marie Lu
• Nalo Hopkinson
• Rebecca Roanhorse
• Fonda Lee
• Janelle Monae

We hope you enjoy this HerStory Book Club as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. We envision an open-ended Book Club, with folks reading or listening to whichever book they’d like from each author’s If you’d like a spoiler of all of the authors we’ll be showcasing this year, check out our website: https://knittedwit.com/herstory-2022-authors/