HerStory

HerStory July 2023: Talia Hibbert

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We’ve been waiting for this one! Talia Hibbert, our July HerStory recipient, is so good, y’all! Her books are definitely steamy, so if you don’t enjoy spice, they might not be for you. But if you do, and if you love witty banter and lots of representation, oh wow, are these books for you (and, she just published her first YA book, so if you are not a spice lover, check out Highly Suspicious and Fairly Cute, which is just the sweetest and cutest book ever!)

Talia Hibbert herself identifies across multiple spectrums of marginalization: she’s a Black woman, queer, disabled, and on the autism spectrum, so her books and characters are filled with representation and inclusion. As she said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly when Get a Life, Chloe Brown was coming out (fyi, the main character in this book is Black, fat, and has fibromyalgia, and thus chronic pain):

“Who you choose to star in your romance novels and the happy ending that you give them and the love that you show them being worthy of can be very political. Especially because I write about Black women. Black women are often dehumanized and shown as unworthy of love, unworthy of care and delicacy – we’re presented as the ones who care for everyone else, so I do think it’s very political and an act of resistance to center black women and femininity in romance novels.”

The tagline on Hibbert’s website is “Sexy, Diverse, Romance,” and we can attest to the fact that this is the case. In each of her Brown Sisters books, themes such as neurodiversity, chronic pain, sexuality, mental health, and body positivity are all part and parcel of who the main characters are. Hibbert works hard to create worlds in which deeply real characters, fully formed and realized, get their Happily Ever Afters with fully formed and realized partners that love and respect them, not in spite of these things, but because, added up, they create an amazing person. 

Our colorway honoring Talia Hibbert is called Take a Hint, which is the name of book 2 in the Brown Sisters series (Lorajean’s favorite for sure!). We hope you’ll take a hint from us and deep-dive into Hibbert’s wonderful writing. 

Books by Talia Hibbert:

  • The Brown Sisters books (Get a Life, Chloe Brown; Take a Hint, Dani Brown; Act Your Age, Eve Brown)
  • The Ravenswood books
  • The Princess Trap
  • Highly Suspicious and Fairly Cute

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

  • Kennedy Ryan
  • Rebekah Witherspoon
  • Tia Williams
  • Denise Williams
  • Farrah Rochon
  • Alexa Martin

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-2023-authors/

HerStory June 2023: Alison Bechdel

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Most of us have heard of the Bechdel Test, which is a measure of the representation of women in film and other works of art/media. The test evaluates whether or not a work of fiction portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. To pass the Bechdel test, there are three rules: the work must feature at least two women; these women must talk to each other; and their conversation must concern something other than a man. Many pieces of modern media fail this test miserably. This way of measuring a work’s patriarchal inclinations was created by famed lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who is our HerStory recipient for June.

Alison Bechdel began penning the comics that would become her most famous and long-running series, Dykes to Watch Out For, in her early 20s, while living in NYC, trying to find her place in the world. She was encouraged by friends to send a piece to a feminist magazine, WomaNews, which gave her a regular spread in the magazine. This was in the early 1980s, and her comics gave people an unprecedented look into the life of the urban modern lesbian woman. Bechdel has said, about her comics, that “the secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings“. In many ways, we are still hard at work trying to make that case, 40 years later (gulp). 

The Bechdel Test itself is a great way to test our own tolerances to sexist norms. So many of us rarely think too deeply about whether the media we consume supports a more equitable worldview, and, although more films, TV shows, and books are being produced and supported that attempt to break out of these sexist norms our society has become mired in, there are still too few works that pass this test. The Bechdel test has also inspired other takes on it; using the criteria but substituting people of color for women gives us an even smaller pool of fiction to choose from. This article from a blog that doesn’t appear to be updated anymore lays out the case (and case studies) for a race-based Bechdel test: http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/09/01/the-bechdel-test-and-race-in-popular-fiction/. Looking critically at the media we consume, and thinking about the representations and motivations of the makers can only have a positive impact on our own worldviews. The more we can see the world from the perspective of folks that are different from us, the broader our world will become, and, honestly, the better it will be. 

Our colorway, Passing the Test, was inspired by a rainbow created from an image from Dykes to Watch Out For, because a rainbow would certainly pass our test.

Books by Alison Bechdel:

  • Dykes to Watch Out For
  • Fun House
  • Are You My Mother?
  • The Secret to Superhuman Strength

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

  • Rachel Pollack
  • Kelly Sue Deconnick (she proposed the “Sexy Lamp Rule:” if a lamp can take the place of a female character in a story & it still works, a rewrite is in order)
  • Kabi Nagata

HerStory May 2023: Jane Austen

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Jane Austen‘s influence on literature cannot be overstated. As Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote in 1870: “Miss Austen understood the smallness of life to perfection. She was a great artist, equal in her small sphere to Shakespeare…” Her 6 novels, none of which gained huge popularity during her lifetime, have inspired countless books and movies, and the themes central to her works continue to inspire and intrigue. She influenced how novels would come to be written, modernizing them by streamlining plot lines, adding realistic dialogue, and cutting down on the overly descriptive language that was a hallmark of fiction at the time.

More than almost any other writer, Jane Austen’s works have stood the test of time. It’s been over 200 years since she wrote those 6 books, and every year, books, movies, and TV series are written and released that are inspired by them. So much about her writing was groundbreaking for her time; the focus on the female main character was unprecedented, as was the theme of marriage for love, not station. She critiqued social roles and explored the role of  and limitations placed on women in society. Plus, her books are just plain funny, in an often biting and even acerbic way. Women are centered, in a way that still seems groundbreaking; every scene revolves around women and their needs, feelings, and stressors. 

“I am going to take a heroine whom nobody but myself will much like,” she said when setting out to write Emma, and that seems to be a thread that carries through many of her books; the female lead character is uninterested in bowing to the conventions and expectations of the time. Women considered to be “unlikeable” by the patriarchal society at large are given the space to realize their full potential, and are liberated in that way. 

As you can tell, we love Jane Austen here at Knitted Wit, and we especially love two very special pieces of art inspired by her works. The Raje family series by Sonali Dev has a very special place in our hearts, and in fact, we featured her last year for HerStory. And, the 2005 film, Pride and Prejudice, is Lorajean’s comfort watch. Our HerStory colorway this month, Very Fond of Walking, is part of a larger homage to this film. Check out our Pride & Palettes color collection and our LYS Day colorway, Painted Peacocks, to see the rest of our very fun deep-dive. 

Books by Jane Austen:

  • Pride & Prejudice
  • Sense & Sensibility
  • Emma
  • Persuasion 
  • Mansfield Park
  • Northanger Abbey

Want more books inspired by Jane Austen? Here is a smattering:

  • Sonali Dev’s Raje Family series
  • Pride by Ibi Zoboi
  • Pride & Protest by Nikki Payne
  • Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

HerStory April 2023: Maureen Johnson

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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

HerStory March 2023: Tarana Burke

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Tarana Burke’s memoir, Unbound, begins with her reaction to the Me Too Movement going viral after a high-profile man in the entertainment industry was accused of serial sexual violence and harassment. At first, it was overwhelming to see something she had created and fostered being taken over by mostly white women, and she felt like she was in a daze for days. The movement was founded in 2006 to support young women of color who experienced sexual assault, and was and is centered around uplifting the survivors in their paths to healing and forming and providing community to those survivors. “Empowerment through empathy” is the driving force behind all of Burke’s activism, and leading the Me Too Movement as it grew (and grew), she knew that the narrative needed to encompass not only the high-profile cases, but those that take place in more ordinary spaces as well.

Burke, who was already deep in a lifestyle and career that was all about organizing and activism centering Black girls and women created “Me Too” to help victims of sexual violence realize they are not alone, and to help speak truth to power. Inspired by an interaction with a young woman at a youth organization she was involved with, Burke realized how many young Black and brown girls and women were quietly living with histories of sexual violence and assault. One of the most pervasive truths in regards to sexual violence, particularly for young Black girls and women, is the secrecy and shame that surrounds it. There’s not a lot of space and safety for victims to speak out, especially when perpetrators are powerful members of a community. Burke set out to change that, creating spaces of safety for those who felt they had none, and in the process, changed the world. Her work has always been about increasing access to resources and support for impacted communities, including but not limited to the Me Too Movement, and her other initiatives around racial discrimination, housing inequality, and economic justice center those same marginalized communities. 

Our Unbound colorway, based on the gorgeous art on the cover of her memoir, was created to pay homage to the work she has done and continues to do. Her work has inspired so many people to speak truth to power in large and small ways, and we are grateful to her for being such a force for good in the world. 

Books by Tarana Burke:

  • Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement
  • You Are Your Best Thing

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

  • Angela Davis
  • Audre Lorde
  • Ida B. Wells
  • Shirley Chisolm
  • Ntozake Shange
  • Patrisse Cullors

HerStory 2023 February: Octavia Butler

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a skein of red, pink, black yarn

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/

HerStory January 2023: Mia Birdsong

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Mia Birdsong, b. 1973

​​For our second year of HerStory Book Club, we are starting in much the same way we finished 2022. Our final theme for 2022 was breaking the burnout cycle many of us find ourselves in, and our first theme for 2023 is building community to feed our souls. Starting and ending with hope and purpose seem like good ways to bookend our club, and we hope you find January’s book and author as inspiring as we have.

We are starting our New Year off with hope and love as we feature Mia Birdsong and her transformative book, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community. This book discusses how building community and fostering deep personal relationships with others enhances our own lives, and how modern American society, so steeped in its particular brand of individualism and white supremacy, leans away from deep connection instead of toward it. The particular focus of this book is on communities that encompass marginalized folks, such as Black and brown people, the LGBTQIA+ community, poor, displaced, and houseless communities, and single mothers, to name a few. The way the people and communities that Birdsong interviewed for this book show up for each other is a lesson to be learned for all of us longing for belonging in our disconnected age.

This book is hopeful and beautiful and inspiring. It’s hard to listen to and hard to put down, all at once. It inspires us to hold a mirror to our own lives and think more deeply about how we are working on our own communities, and how much more we have to gain from deepening those communities than from building more walls around our own places in the world.

Mia Birdsong is a writer, advocate, speaker, community member, mother, partner, friend, and thinker. Her work centers the marginalized and explores what is possible if community was centered more in our lives. Her communities are many and wide-ranging, and through them, she has found deep meaning and love and support. We could all learn a thing or two from her work and her example. Our colorway, How We Show Up, was inspired by the lovely interconnectedness of the book cover, and we hope to knit our communities together using this yarn during this first month of 2023.

Books by Mia Birdsong:

  • How We Show Up 
  • Many TED talks and articles
  • More Than Enough podcast for The Nation

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

  • Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Patrisse Khan-Cullors
  • Adrienne Maree Brown
  • Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

HerStory December 2022: Emily and Amelia Nagoski

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One of the things we’ve been making sure to do the last several years is to try to end the year with intention and as much calm energy as is possible during this often-stressful time. As we created our HerStory list, we knew we wanted to showcase a book that we’ve read and found helpful, and we hope you do, too.

Burnout, by twin sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski, is the how-to-move- forward-in-a-difficult-world-with-all-of-the-expectations-of-being-a- person-in-that-world manual we all need. The book’s goal is not only to explain the primary cause of emotional exhaustion, but to provide useful and accessible tools to actually process and deal with it. Stressors are an inescapable part of life, and we think it’s safe to say that we all know that existing within a state of stress for long periods will lead to over- exhaustion and a laundry list of problems. Knowing how to break through those cycles is a coping mechanism most of us could use. The sisters provide accessible information and many different paths toward what is the ultimate goal: completing the stress cycle.

We experience emotions in our brains, yes, but we also experience emotions in our body. Even if we feel that we’ve “dealt” with our stress, if we haven’t found a way to exorcise it physically, it’s still there. And it can express itself through all manner of symptoms, both emotional and physical. This book explains how that stress manifests itself, using real-life examples from mostly women in the author’s lives (including themselves), and then provides different ways to, as they say time and time again, complete those cycles. Y’all really should read or listen to the book, because there are so many light bulb moments, but we’ll share a few of our favorite things that these sisters recommend to complete stress cycles: a good cry; a bit of exercise; a 20-second (or longer) hug with a loved one.

As we brainstormed our colorway for Burnout, of course we considered the inspiration of the book cover. It’s vibrant and fun and bright. But then we thought about the goal of all of us reading this book, and it’s to achieve the opposite of burnout. It’s to achieve something cool and comfortable and soothing. So, we decided to dive into the opposite of what the book cover tells us. We used our giggling technique to softly blend blues and teals and greens and whites into a cool and soothing colorway, perfect for the crafting projects you’ll tackle after you’ve completed a stress cycle.

Books by the Nagoski sisters:

• Come as You Are (Emily Nagoski) 

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

• Glennon Doyle

• Tarana Burke

• Brene Brown

We hope you have enjoyed this year of the HerStory Book Club as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. We are busy working on our 2023 author list (because we can’t just do a Book Club for one year!), so keep your eyes peeled and make some space on your TBR (to be read) list! 

HerStory November 2022: Robin Wall Kimmerer

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b. 1953

This month’s HerStory recipient was the first one we chose as we compiled our list. It’s also maybe the most difficult of them all to write, because we could literally write an entire book on how much we love Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writings and theories and entire person. It feels like a big responsibility to talk about her and the effect her writing has had on our hearts and souls, and if this is your first introduction to her, we find ourselves jealous that you get to experience her for the first time.

Lorajean likes to say that Braiding Sweetgrass feels like sacred text. It is a foray into the most beautiful relationship with nature and the natural world you’ve maybe ever read. Kimmerer is a botanist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and her writings effortlessly fuse these two perspectives into a new/old way of communing with, learning from, and being in nature. Each story in Braiding Sweetgrass and her earlier book, Gathering Moss takes you into a different part of Kimmerer’s life and work, both of which are beautifully intertwined. Reciprocity is the belief that underlies all of her work; not only feeling connected to the natural world in a way that sometimes seems almost out of reach in our modern society, but communing with, sharing with, and giving back to nature in a way that it feels like our current society, based in white supremacy and deeply steeped in capitalism, actively revolts against. 

We recommend listening to Kimmerer’s books, as her voice has a soothing cadence, and you can feel the connection to nature in her voice and stories. You might find yourself tearing up, or texting your bestie as you hear her stories. You may find yourself regaling your family with summaries at dinner, hugging your loved ones a bit tighter, planning more outdoor time and trips to clean up the natural world around you. You might start plotting your vegetable garden for next Spring, you might squat down to gaze at the mosses surrounding you a bit more. And, as we face a future in which our climate is in peril, you may find yourself caring a bit more about the natural world and working to incorporate that care more and more into your daily life. 

Our Braiding Sweetgrass colorway was created to echo the aesthetics, not only of the book cover, but of the sweetgrass itself the book centers its story around. Our hope for you is that you enjoy this colorway, and the project you make from it, as you listen to the soothing sounds and beautiful stories that make up Robin Wall Kimmmerer’s writing and speaking. Search out some of her online lectures, too, if you can. You won’t be sorry, that we can guarantee.

Books by Robin Wall Kimmerer:

  • Braiding Sweetgrass
  • Gathering Moss

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

  • Joy Harjo
  • Beth Piatote
  • Shonda Buchanan
  • Dina Gilio-Whitaker
  • Suzanne Simard
  • Susan Hand Shetterly

HerStory October 2022: Roxanne Dubar-Ortiz

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We are taking a journey through history with our October author, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, but not the white-washed, settler-focused history most of us were taught in school. October’s author is an Indigenous activist and writer whose goal is to share history from the perspective of Indigenous peoples.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz began her foray into activism in 1968 as the founder of a second-wave feminist organization called Cell 16, which was a women’s liberation movement that advocated its members “separate from men who are not consciously working for female liberation”. She began her work in the American Indian Movement (AIM) shortly after, and it has been her devotion to Indigenous people’s rights that has guided her activism in the decades since.  

Her works mostly center on Indigenous rights in the United States, but in the 1980s, she traveled to Nicaragua frequently to assist the Miskito Indians in a land dispute with the government. This indigenous group ended up being collateral damage in the Contra  war that the US had become involved in with the Sandinistas. She wrote two books about her experiences there, and the damage inflicted on the Miskitos that she witnessed. As a disturbing aside, the land rights of the Miskito Indians are still, to this day, being trampled on by settlers, mostly in the service to capitalism (a trend we see in the entire history of the United States as well).

She’s written some of the most respected texts on the United States and its treatment of Indigenous people, including An Indigenous People’s History of the United States and Not a Nation of Immigrants. She advocates for self-determination for Indigenous peoples, and for a more honest approach to this nation’s origin story. Her work shines a light on the fact that Indigenous history has been all but written out of our history books, and what is taught is often sanitized to within an inch of its life.

We used the cover of her book, Roots of Resistance, as our colorway inspiration (and its name). The book discusses the history of Indigenous land tenure in New Mexico, which has a convoluted settler history and many indigenous peoples who are still trying to retain autonomy and cultural connection to their native lands.

Books by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz:

  • An Indigenous People’s History of the United States
  • Not a Nation of Immigrants
  • All the Real Indians Died Off and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans
  • Roots of Resistance
  • Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

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

  • Malala Yousafzai
  • Angela Y. Davis
  • Gloria Steinem
  • Rigoberta Menchú Tum
  • Winona LaDuke

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/