I really enjoyed this format! It provided great explanations of female writers throughout time in a very easily digestible format. I definitely plan to return to this piece whenever I get the chance!!

Why She Wrote by Hannah K. Chapman and Lauren Burke with illustrations by Kaley Bales is a wonderfully illustrated and education text about female writers of history. Comics, history, and feminism are all passions of mine and it was wonderful to see them all come together in a work like this. I can tell that care and time was put in to selecting who to represent, the layout of the text, and the cohesive art style. I very much enjoyed this.

I absolutely love books like this—illustrated mini-biographies of female writers/artists/whatever. Quite a few of them have popped up in the last few years and this is another beautiful example of one. Each author has a little one-page biography followed by a few pages of a comic usually detailing an important moment or theme in their life. The comic parts are very pretty and easy to follow, and the biographies are short and sweet. This has a pretty interesting collection of women in it, including some of my personal favourites like Austen, both Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley and more, but I do wish there was a little more diversity but I suppose they're limited somewhat by choosing classic authors with enough information about to create a comic.

Anyway, this would make a beautiful gift for someone interesting in classic literature and female authors or for someone looking for a bit of inspiration for their own writing.

Esta es una reseña un tanto complicada de hacer porque no se trata de una novela al uso, es decir, es una novela ilustrada en su mayor parte, prácticamente tipo cómic, y como ya sabéis no suelo hacer reseñas ni comentarios de novelas gráficas, ilustradas o este tipo de obras, más que nada porque no suelen llamar mi atención, aunque con esta he hecho una excepción. El motivo principal por el que quise leer Why she wrote? inicialmente fue que me gustan las biografías, cuando me gusta en especial algún autor o autora me interesa leer su biografía, tengo esta costumbre desde hace tiempo y, como en esta obra se relata la vida de, ni más ni menos, que dieciocho autoras (entre ellas algunas que me gustan mucho) quise darle una oportunidad, a pesar de, como ya dije, ser ilustrado.

Why she wrote? está escrito en ingles, y desconozco si estará en castellano en algún momento, pero resulta ser muy accesible y cómodo, por lo que aunque tu nivel de inglés no sea muy alto podrás leerlo sin problemas. Sigue una división en seis bloques, agrupando autoras según ciertas características comunes, los bloques son:


- The horror of everyday
- Finding their voice
- Activism as art
- Private lives
- Public identities
- Protection and profit

Al inicio de cada apartado se relata una breve historia acerca del motivo que impulsó a dicha autora a escribir, es decir, cuál fue el caldo de cultivo que dio pie a que fuesen creadas grandes obras de la literatura como Frankenstein, Orgullo y prejuicio o Cumbres borrascosas, novelas de las que todos hemos oído hablar pero cuyo trasfondo quizá no conozcamos tan bien. Tras esta pequeña introducción tenemos una ilustración con una cita de dicha autora y, a continuación, las propias viñetas que cuentan la historia de la escritora en profundidad. Por último hace una pequeña recopilación de las obras de cada una de ellas para que el lector pueda buscar más información o leer alguna de sus novelas, si le ha parecido interesante.
Es cierto que la organización y el propio contenido es muy sencillo, no tiene grandes aspiraciones aunque, a mi parecer, no las necesita. Es una obra que cumple su función: la de ser un recopilatorio biográfico de grandes nombres femeninos de la literatura universal. Es amena, entretenida, las ilustraciones son muy bonitas y se nota que están muy cuidadas y, al menos a mí, me ha gustado conocer algunas de las historias que hay detrás de ciertas obras, incluso aquellas que ya conocía me han parecido interesantes porque el formato es diferente y resulta una lectura muy agradable.

Why She Wrote is a great book filled with well-known and lost not so much known, at least for me, women writers. I loved that I've learned about women I did not previously have knowledge of. It's amazing that it is not filled only with the most famous ones such as Marry Shelley, Jane Eyre, Virginia Woolf etc. As an English literature major, I was excited to recall things I know as well as found out more interesting things and this book gave that to me since we did not always discuss every author's life.

The book is divided into six sections, each debates an issue/a topic uniting the female writers discussed afterwards. There is a total of 18 authors "whose experience with publishing were at once relatable and remarkable, and whose stories still resonate today".

There is a pretty and cute illustrated portrait of each author plus a short informative text about each followed by a short comic which always relates to the text, tying it up with a list of selected works and a few words.
The book yet again filled me with thankfulness to these incredible female writers, thinkers, essayists, activists, feminists and more for what we, women, have now, even thought the fight for equality is never over. It reminded me to cherish literature and every woman who ever put her pen down to paper.

The comics are well drawn and a very refreshing part of the book. I love these dramatized brief biographies.

So if you are interested in female writers, go dive into it. Overall, it is interesting and informative, yet not long and tiresome. Overall, the form is very pleasant.


.

I enjoyed this a lot. I AM a woman writer and there was so much I didn't know about these woman writers. After reading this, I want to add at least one work from each of their backlists to my TBR.

I enjoyed how the authors chose writers they could weave together to create a moving picture of history. One woman influenced the next who influenced the next. I went to an all-girls school and could totally see this being taught in a lit class. The diversity was good, in race, sexual orientation, and type of writer.

I liked how the introductions to each woman gave us their history, why writing was important to them, and then led us into the events of the comic strip. The book blends media well and I love when works combine things artistic elements. I think it makes the overall product richer.

"These stories will tell you who she was, what she wanted, and why she wrote." It was academic but in an accessible way.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

This was a very cute graphic novel that gave a quick glimpse at famous female writers, mainly classic authors. It was very enjoyable and I thought the illustrations were stunning.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really loved the sweet art in this graphic novel and I enjoyed the simple but poignant snapshots of each author's life. I was happy to read more about authors that I know and love as well as some that I have never heard of before. I would highly suggest this book to anyone who likes historical feminist stories.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I found this one incredibly interesting. I loved the brief biographies. The graphic storytelling angle added even more enjoyment and was beautiful. Again, not the best book to read on a tablet. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think these types of books are better in physical form. In fact, I think this one would make a most excellent coffee-table book.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

A wonderful graphic novel about a lot of trailblazing female authors I was not aware of. It is a wonderful addition to our library collection!

My reading has always been haphazard, ever since I was little. Before Goodreads, I struggled to keep track of authors, both renowned and not, since I have trouble remembering names. I hardly even sound them out. This basically means that most of the content of this book was new to me, as it would be to anyone who has not followed older classical authors.
The chapters are divided into the predominant reason that the female authors were different from the others, the reasons they wrote and their lifestyles. Each chapter focussed on three authors, starting with a summary of their life. This is followed by a few pages with illustrated panels providing us with a brief narrative into an event of their life.
It was interesting and well done; the love that the authors of this book had for these earlier authors comes through. I enjoyed the graphic novel sections as well. I am not sure how much this book would appeal to those who know the backgrounds of those mentioned here, but for others like me, this is a good place to start!
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Unfortunately I did not finish this, which is odd because I really loved what it was about. I thought it was well written and I was enjoying learning about these famous women writers. However, I had a hard time staying invested because the fact that the book kept changing between written and graphic novel sections really interrupted my reading flow. I'm not sure if others would experience this, but for some reason I found this format very distracting. Thanks for the chance to review!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this!
It was so informative and I loved the art style, I wish there were more illustrations.
I also wish I had a physical copy because it was kind of hard to read on my laptop.

i couldn’t finished this book, not because it was bad, but because i found it boring. i’m sure lots of people love reading and learning about historical figures, nevertheless, i can’t make myself read it. i’m sorry. i liked the art style though.

Brevi ma intense biografie di scrittrici, che ricostruendo il loro background esplorano il bisogno di comunicare con la scrittura - bisogno che ha regalato al mondo alcuni dei libri più belli della letteratura.
Bellissimo.

Most often profiles of famous or influential people focus on the facts of their achievements. That's certainly an element here. We have to understand what makes this person important in history. Once those facts are established, though, Burke and Chapman turn to their real focus - motivations. This is a compelling and unique approach. Most of the motivations are what we expect: paying bills, grasping for freedom, exorcising personal demons, secret keeping. A few are more challenging and stand out from the rest. These are women who fought to protect their investments and their property. Sometimes to make more money but mostly because it was theirs. If these were men their fights would be expected. In women at the time it was considered in poor taste. We can certainly admire women who did what was right for them with little regard for how it would be perceived. Each profile is accompanied by comic strip pages that illustrate the motivation. While not entirely necessary, they are well designed and support the message well.

What a sweet little nonfiction! I truly can never get enough of historical women. I really loved the breadth of women featured- including many I had never heard of, let alone read from. I think the categorization of the ladies was a clever way to break up the book, and I also loved that we had prose to set the scene of their lives before diving into a "slice of life" moment with the graphic novel pages. The art style was quite cute and I learned a lot! I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in history, feminism, and literature!

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers by Lauren Burke, Hannah K. Chapman, and Kaley Bales is an interesting book highlighting female authors presented in an original way.

Eighteen authors are showcased including well-known figures like the Brontes, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Louisa May Alcott, as well as more obscure writers like Elizabeth Gaskell, Frances E.W. Harper, Edith Maude Eaton, and others.

Grouped into sets of three, the text explores six themes that loosely tie each of the three together. Short biographies are provided, followed by a few pages of a graphic novelization of an event or turning point in the author’s life.

While the biographies are necessarily short and cursory, they are a fine jumping off point for those interested in these writers and an encouragement to seek out more. The graphic history portions provide vignettes that help to fix the information in the reader’s mind and individualize the women.

Bibliographies are given for each author and there is also a list of resources for further reading.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel showcasing the lives of women authors we all know and love, with insight into their lives and struggles!

When I received this book from NETGALLEY, I was very surprised to see the way the book was divided. I think it had the perfect mix of words and elements of a graphic novel. Each author was placed in a thematic category an a brief description was given of them and once that was completed, the graphic novel representation of a piece in their career was showcased.

I ultimately loved this book. I felt so empowered and supported knowing that these famous female authors went through things I did even though they lived hundreds of years ago. I would recommend purchasing this book for a library because it is a great resource as well as a fun read.