Dying by suicide shortly after her novel, Love and Silence, was rejected for publication in 1963, Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat gained brief recognition when the book was finally published four years after her death. Discovering the novel in a Cairo market some 30 years later launched acclaimed Egyptian writer Iman Mersal on a decades-long, life…

An eyewitness to monumental moments in the 20th century, author Kay Boyle hung out with Left Bank artists and literary giants, chronicled the ravages of WWII, was blacklisted in the 1950s and was jailed for her Haight-Ashbury activism in the late 1960s. An intrepid modernist committed to a “Revolution of the Word,” this two-time O. Henry award-winn…

In this week’s episode Kim and Amy discuss the life and work of “Speranza,” a.k.a Lady Jane Wilde, a.k.a. Oscar Wilde’s mom! An outspoken, rabble-rousing poet who championed Irish independence, she stirred up members of the Young Ireland movement while writing for Dublin’s radical newspaper “The Nation” in the 1840s. Oscar may have inherited his mo…

In our first-ever "Game Show Edition" of the podcast, McNally Editions editor Lucy Scholes joins us for a lightning-round quiz pitting quotations from Elizabeth Taylor the actress vs. Elizabeth Taylor the author! Test your knowledge and join in the fun! For the full forty-minute episode in which we discuss the author Taylor's writing and also confa…

Get ready to fall hopelessly in love with Emilie Loring, a New England native whose prolific output of richly-detailed romance novels feature the sort of charming characters and snappy dialogue reminiscent of films like The Philadelphia Story and It Happened One Night. Loring’s 30 years of commercial success continued long after her death in 1950, …

Blogger, podcaster and consultant for the British Library Women Writers series Simon Thomas returns to the show to discuss Angela Milne’s 1942 novel One Year’s Time. The book follows a year in the life of a 1930s-era “bachelor girl” named Liza who lives in London. Milne, the niece of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, was a contributor to Punch mag…

A pioneer of the detective/mystery genre who began writing locked-room mystery novels a decade before Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells was a turn-of-the-twentieth century celebrity who counted Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and Mark Twain among her many famous friends and fans. Guest Rebecca Rego Barry, whose new book is The Vanishing of Carolyn …

Zelda Fitzgerald is known as “the first American flapper” and an icon of the Jazz Age, but you may be surprised to learn that beneath the glittering facade, there was substance—and literary talent. Her sole published novel, “Save Me the Waltz,” is a poignant blend of beauty and biography that draws on her complex personal narrative, including her c…

As Merchant Ivory super fans, we were surprised (and chagrined!) that we’d been unaware of Ismael Merchant and James Ivory’s longtime collaborator, novelist and Academy Award winning-screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Hollywood screenwriter Brigitte Hales joins us to discuss Jhabvala and her Booker Prize-winning 1975 novel, Heat and Dust. Discussed…

New full-length episodes beginning Jan. 30. Edna Ferber’s So Big was the top-selling novel of 1924 and it won a Pulitzer Prize, yet it’s little known now! Wildly popular in its day, So Big was adapted for film three times, the second of which (in 1932) starred Barbara Stanwyck and featured a young Bette Davis in one of her earliest roles. Join us f…

Published anonymously six years prior to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park—yet largely ignored for two centuries—the Regency-era epistolary novel The Woman of Colour: A Tale is the only one of its kind to feature a racially-conscious Black heroine at its center. Dr. Leigh-Michil George, a lecturer in the English Department at Geffen Academy at UCLA, joi…

New episodes beginning January 30. Ready for some Edwardian Era YA? Set in Minnesota at the turn of the 20th century, Maud Hart Lovelace’s delightful Besty-Tacy series is closely based on the author’s idyllic midwestern childhood. In this week’s episode we’re discussing the four books that span Betsy’s high school years (1906-1910): Heaven To Betsy…

Back with new episodes on January 30. Lucia Berlin has been called one of America's "best kept secrets.” We’ll be discussing Berlin’s engrossing short short story collection A Manual for Cleaning Women, published posthumously in 2015 and soon to be adapted for the screen by Pedro Almodovar. Joining us is a longtime friend of Berlin’s, the inimitabl…

We’re back January 30, 2024 with all new episodes. Did you know there was a controversial, now-forgotten 1888 novel written in response to George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda by a writer who has been described as “the Jewish Jane Austen?” Until recently, neither did we. Join us as we talk with Dr. Ann Kennedy Smith about author Amy Levy and her stunning,…

We’re back January 30, 2024 with all new episodes. Sisters Jane and Mary Findlater were literary celebrities in their day and counted the likes of Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Rudyard Kipling among their admirers. We’ll be discussing one of their joint efforts, Crossriggs, which is considered their finest work. Joining us are Hollywood screenwr…

We're back with all new episodes on Jan. 30, 2024. Join us for a wonderfully funny and poignant conversation about life, death, and motherhood with award-winning writer Hilma Wolitzer. Her short stories, most of them originally appearing in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s, were re-discovered by her daughter, bestselling author Meg Wolitzer, during…

Join us as we discuss Mary McCarthy’s best-known work, The Group, published in 1963. An instant hit, it remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years and follows eight friends over the course of seven years following their graduation from Vassar College in 1933. It was banned in Australia, Ireland, and Italy for its frank discussion …

In this week’s bonus episode, we dig into the poem “Thanksgiving” by lost lady Lydia Maria Child. AND we remain ever thankful for you, our listeners! Discussed in this episode: Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life by Lydia Moland “The Thanksgiving Poem” The Paul Curtis House The Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Child The Mother’s Book by Lydia…

Novelist and university professor Joy Castro returns to the show to discuss the 1952 novel Forbidden Notebook by Cuban-Italian writer Alba de Cespedes. In a New York Times review of a 1958 English edition of this novel, de Céspedes was called “one of the few distinguished women writers since Colette to grapple effectively with what it is to be a wo…

Last week, with guest Kathleen B. Jones, we discussed Christine de Pizan and her Book of the City of Ladies. Could a woman's hand have been behind any of the beautiful illustrations in this medieval work? Given what we know about women's involvement as artists in the medieval manuscript making process, it's certainly possible. Kathleen, the author …

A widow who turned to her pen to support herself and her family, Christine de Pizan was described by Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex as the first “woman to take up her pen in defense of her sex.” Published in 1405, The Book of the City of Ladies is Christine’s history of Western civilization from the point of view—and in praise of—women, showc…

Learn more about the feminist open source publisher cita press and An Immortal Book: Selected Writings of Sui Sin Far, a curated collection of short fiction and nonfiction by the pioneering writer, Sui Sin Far (also known as Edith Maude Eaton), one of our past "lost ladies." A journalist and writer of Chinese and British descent who moved to the U.…

Originally drafted in 1939, the Prohibition-era gangster novel The Girl by Meridel Le Sueur remained unpublished for nearly 40 years. Le Sueur used the intervening decades to transform her work into a beautifully-written, powerful narrative, focusing on the lives of marginalized women in Depression-era America. Joining us is Dr. Rosemary Hennessy, …

In this week’s mini, Amy shares some of the lesser-known spots she visited on her August trip to England (which included meetups with a few past guests from the show!). From Cotswolds beauty to bizarre curiosities—as well as a few lost ladies—you’ll be wishing she had packed you along in her suitcase! CORRECTION: Leonora Carrington originally met M…

Joining us to discuss Mary Wollstonecraft's extraordinary life and her seminal work, A Vindication on the Rights of Woman, is Dr. Susan J. Wolfson, a professor of English from Princeton University whose scholarship focuses on British Writers of the Romantic period. Her latest book, On Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was …

In this week’s mini, we’re sharing some of our favorite verbal faux pas and mondegreens. The term mondegreen, which was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 essay for Harper's Magazine, refers to instances where phrases are misheard or misinterpreted, giving them new and often humorous meanings. Amy challenges Kim to identify correct spellings and int…

Sylvia Townsend Warner's "Lolly Willowes” (1926) holds a coveted spot on The Guardian's list of the top 100 English language novels and acclaimed director Greta Gerwig is also a fan. Author Sarah Watling joins us to discuss how the novel critiques societal constraints placed on single women and its connection to Townsend Warner's activism. Watling'…

From Dark Academia trends inspired by Donna Tartt's “The Secret History” to other campus novels like Kingsley Amis' “Lucky Jim” and Philip Roth's “The Human Stain,” we delve into the quirks, challenges, and intrigues of university professor characters and campus settings for this week’s mini. We also touch on classics like Dorothy L. Sayers’ “Gaudy…

When 'Divorcing' was first published in 1969, the critic Hugh Kenner penned a review for the New York Times that dismissed its author, Susan Taubes, as 'a quick-change artist donning the garments of other writers.' Tragically, merely days after the review's publication, Taubes took her own life. However, in recent years, there has been a profound r…

In support of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, this week’s mini is focused on lost lady screenwriters. In the early days of Hollywood, more than half of all screenplays copyrighted were written by women, who were pioneers in this field. Discussed in this episode: Anita Loos Frances Marion June Mathis Go West, Young Women: The Rise of Earl…

Ismat Chughtai was one of the boldest and most outspoken writers of her day. Her cleverly-crafted short story “The Quilt” sparked a years-long obscenity trial, but it also helped establish her as a writer who wasn’t afraid to shine a light on taboo subjects and speak frankly about women’s experiences both in the traditional and modern Indian world.…

In this week’s mini episode, we’re talking about Anne Askew, a Tudor writer, poet, and Protestant preacher who was condemned as a heretic during the reign of Henry VIII. We’ll also explore the possible connection to Kim’s own family history. Support the show For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Discuss episodes on our Facebook Fo…

Set in 16th-century France and published in 1941, Janet Lewis’s “The Wife of Martin Guerre” revolves around one woman's struggle to reconcile cold facts with the truth in her heart. Inspired by a real historical incident, the novella delves into the trial of a woman who faces a predicament when her long-lost husband unexpectedly reappears. Our gues…

In this week’s mini we discuss Elspeth Barker, a Scottish writer raised in Drumtochty Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys. Barker was a close friend of last week’s lost lady, Elizabeth Smart despite the fact that Barker was married to the poet George Barker, Smart’s former lover and the father of her childr…

When Elizabeth Smart’s 1945 poetic prose novel “By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept” was reissued in 1966, Angela Carter called it "Madame Bovary blasted by lightning," and Morrissey has since credited Smart’s writing as having influenced his lyrics for The Smiths. This week’s guests are biographer Rosemary Sullivan and documentary filmmak…

Did you know that a woman wrote the very first novel ever? (We didn’t!) In this week’s mini, we learn more about Murasaki Shikibu's master work “The Tale of Genji.” The novel’s blend of passion, intrigue, and psychological depth has earned this ancient Japanese work comparisons to modern sensations like "Sex in the City" and "50 Shades of Grey," wh…

With the re-release of Winnifred Eaton's riveting 100 year-old novel CATTLE, we’re thrilled to be joined by Mary Chapman, director of the Winnifred Eaton Archive. Described as "a curious Canadian mixture of Hardy and Steinbeck” and set in the sweeping landscapes of Alberta, CATTLE is a love story with strong Western vibes. In this episode: You can …

In today’s mini, we look into the fascinating life of Mercy Otis Warren, a hidden wordsmith of American history and the first female reporter of the American revolution. Armed with a pen as her weapon, Warren wrote scathing satirical plays that ignited the revolution and documented the birth of a nation. Discussed in this episode: Mercy Otis Warren…

When Jane White’s gripping and unsettling debut novel Quarry was first published in 1967, a review in The Scotsman called it “the most frightening novel of the year.” Joining us is White’s daughter-in-law, Dr. Helen Hughes, of the University of Surrey, who wrote the afterword to the new Boiler House Press edition of Quarry. Discussed: Quarry by Jan…

In this week’s mini episode we uncover the hidden talents of famous writers who ventured into children's literature, including Ian Fleming's surprising connection to Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, Upton Sinclair's whimsical Gnome adventure, and James Joyce's peculiar cat tales. Discussed in this episode: Mental Floss article by Lucas Reilly (“12 Famous A…

In this week's episode, we are joined by critic and author Maud Newton as we delve into Theodora Keogh's enigmatic and haunting 1952 novel, "Street Music," which takes place in post-War Paris. As the granddaughter of an American icon, Keogh's writing possessed a subversive quality that defied easy classification, challenging readers and earning adm…

The gorgeous book Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life mines the life and musings of famous women authors on subjects such as finding your literary voice, conquering inner demons, dealing with rejection and how to deal with writer’s block. Joining us for this week’s mini is the book’s author, Nava Atlas. Support the show For episodes and show …

With her witty and self-deprecating takes on dating and the single life, the narrator of Miriam Karpilove’s Diary of a Lonely Girl: Or the Battle Against Free Love is the 1918 Yiddish precursor to Girls’ Hannah Horvath, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, and Bridget Jones. Guest Jessica Kirzane’s English translation of the novel was published by S…

Sometimes the most fraught journey is simply making it to adulthood. In this week’s mini, we talk about authors who survived unusual and/or traumatic childhoods and used their experiences to write engrossing, and often healing, works of art. Support the show For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Discuss episodes on our Facebook Fo…

Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is widely considered to be a masterpiece, yet were it not for a renewed push by author Alice Walker in the 1970s, Hurston and her legacy might well have been lost. We have Melissa Kiguwa, host of The Idealists podcast, joining us to discuss Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. Support t…

In this week’s mini, we discuss Nora Ephron’s 1983 autobiographical novel Heartburn, inspired by the breakdown of her marriage with journalist Carl Bernstein. Plus Amy tries out some of the book’s recipes on her unsuspecting family. Support the show For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Discuss episodes on our Facebook Forum. Foll…

This is the Jazz Age novel we should have read in high school! Ursula Parrott’s Ex-Wife was an instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, and it’s inspired by her own experience as a young divorcée and flapper in New York. Guest Marsha Gordon’s new biography of Parrott, Becoming the Ex-Wife, arrives in bookstores at the same time…

In this week’s mini, we take a look at British writer Jenny Diski and her relationship with famed novelist Doris Lessing, who took a teenaged Jenny into her home. Though Lessing never adopted Diski, they had a long and at times awkward pseudo-familial relationship that Diski explored in her writing. Links: Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?…

With its speculative plot including an expedition through the desert, a cryptic treasure map, secret chambers, and a run-in with an ancient sacred crocodile, Pauline E. Hopkins’ thrilling afrofuturist 1902 novel Of One Blood; or The Hidden Self calls to mind Black Panther’s Wakanda and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hopkins brings up a lot of questions a…

Did you know that novelist and iconic flapper Zelda Fitgerald was also an accomplished artist? In 1926, she began creating a series of paper dolls for her daughter, Scottie, and continued working on them for much of the rest of her life. Her granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan, saved and collected these paper dolls which were recently compiled into a be…