A great introduction to some incredible women who made literary history. While the content was great, I had trouble following the graphics at times, and felt the construction was a bit clunky. I was especially glad, though, to see some women in this book I hadn't heard of yet, and to learn some more about the women I had already read.

This was so interesting. I love how the 18 ladies were divided in 6 chapters, the table of contents is so logical! I loved the concept of biography meets graphic novel! The illustrator did a fantastic job! I enjoyed this, I learned things about these wonderful authors of the past.

Thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for this free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Why She Wrote by Lauren Burke and Hannah K. Chapman offers a snapshot into 18 badass women authors throughout history and, as title states, gives insight into why they wrote. Each author has an introduction which is followed by a very mini graphic novel-esque representation (illustrated by Kaley Bales) of an important period in that author's life. A brief wrap-up is then provided, along with a bibliography of the author's works.

I thought this was an interesting and creative way to present information about these women. I was a little jarred at first when the introduction to the first author went straight into the illustrated section--primarily because I wasn't sure what that section was supposed to be about at first. I had to go back and forth between the author introduction and the illustrated section to understand that the "graphic novel" aspect was elaborating on information given in the introduction. Once I caught on, however, I found it enjoyable. Some of the information was familiar to me--particularly concerning Mary Shelley and Jane Austen, but a lot was new! Why She Wrote is laid out in such a way that you can spent an afternoon consuming these brief histories, or read about a new author each time you pick it up. Many of the authors discussed I have either never read anything by, or read a long time ago, and my interest has definitely been piqued! I'm a fan of biographies and when I was younger, I read and reread a biography of Louisa May Alcott that was adapted for younger readers. I loved it, and when I reached the chapter about her, I found myself thinking back to that biography and wanting to perhaps read a grown-up biography on Alcott. Thankfully, Burke and Chapman have provided a solid sources/further reading list at the end of this book. In true English major fashion, I am excited to extend my knowledge!

If you are a fan of knowing random facts and/or are interested in learning more about classic women authors but don't want to jump into exhaustive biographies just yet, this would be a great one to start with! I also think this would be an excellent book to have in a classroom library and I plan on including a copy in mine.

I have stated my love for a good Coffee Table Book before. I have stated my love for beautifully illustrated books before. I have stated my love for female authors before. So is it really a surprise that I will now state my love for Why She Wrote and its authors and illustrator? It shouldn't be. Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to make sure we got the whole blurb in there despite its strength for what it highlights and what it leaves a secret in its promise of 'much, much more'. Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and the Bronte sisters are always the first go to's when it comes to selling books like these. They are the benchmarks, seemingly, at this point. My real question, then, when going into Why She Wrote was whether Chapman and Burke would go beyond. I went in with relative faith, however, since their podcast, Bonnets at Dawn, has become a recent favourite. I knew Chapman and Burke could go above and beyond and I do believe they did. From famous suffragettes and abolitionist Alice Dunbar Nelson to Edith Maude Eaton (Sui Sin Far), the undercover, Asian-Canadian journalist who chronicled the struggles of the Asian-Canadian community against (institutional) racism.

The book is split into six thematic chapters looking at 'The Horror of the Everyday', 'Finding Their Voice', 'Activism as Art', 'Private Lives', 'Public Identities' and 'Protection and Profit'. While I'm not going to spoil which three authors pop up in which chapter, some can probably be guessed. The chapters start with a general introduction of the authors and the theme, before splitting into separate mini-chapters. Each author gets their own introduction, after which there is a graphic representation of key moments in the author's life. These graphic stories run for quite a number of pages and I found myself utterly engrossed in them. The way the authors' works were woven into their own stories, how we saw their strength, their loss, and their dignity. What I also really liked about this division into thematic chapters is that just the overview of them shows you how important these female authors have been. These chapters show us that these women were struggling through everyday aggressions, trying to speak out, using their voices for progress and elevating it into art, finding the balance between their private and public lives, and using their own success to secure themselves and those that followed them. Especially the authors in the chapters on activism, protection and profit have had major impact on our current world and it is high time that this is acknowledged as well. We owe Beatrix Potter for more than "just" heart-warming children's stories!

Like I mentioned above, I was somewhat familiar with Chapman and Burke before Why She Wrote because of their podcast Bonnets at Dawn and I was aware they worked within the graphic novel/comics industry. I was intrigued to see how the shift between biographical material and graphic novel would work within Why She Wrote, if it would be too much of a tonal shift, but I found it very smooth. I really enjoyed Kaley Bales' style and the trio picked great moments to represent. They brought a lot of pathos to these women, who can feel like unapproachable giants when you focus only on the biographical information. There is a more human side to them in Why She Wrote, a side that allows you to see their doubts, fears, bravery, joy, losses and victories. Chapman and Burke bring their clear passion and love for these women to every single word and Why She Wrote is therefore a very joyful read. Whether you're already familiar with these female authors or if you're new to them, after Why She Wrote you will have a strong understanding of them and a deep appreciation.

Why She Wrote, in many ways, was bound to be a book I adored. It has everything, from beautiful illustration to badass women, that a reader could ask for. It also highlights the work of these women that has been pushed aside in favour of an easier narrative and for that I am also grateful.

This book was so learning and beautiful. I loved the style very much and also the way the theme the authors took it and in a few vignettes explained it to us so beautifully. I cried I got proud and loved these beautiful and meaningful and powerful womens. There were some that I didn’t knew and now I’m glad. So thank you very much to the publisher and netgalley for giving me this golden opportunity. I’ll definitely be looking for read the works of all this women and also from the authors themselves.

Unlike similar biography collections, this book did not overwhelm readers with information, nor did it provide so little as to be equivalent to “about the author” paragraphs. Inclusion of graphic novelization portions will allow a wider range of readers to enjoy this fascinating discussion of female authors and the impact of their work.

I really liked the premise of it but this book went past my expectations for it. The book goes through the lives and publication stories of famous authors. It was so interesting! If you’re like me and really into authors lives and their backstory, this is the book for you. I now have a list of authors I hadn’t even heard about before because their stories were so good! I can’t wait for publication because I’m for sure buying physical copy’s for my sisters (who love graphic novels). The illustrations were really good too, I loved the art style! 4/5 from me, read this!

This graphic novel was exceptional. I loved learning about all of the amazing women that were featured in this graphic novel. There were 18 women in this book. Most of them I had heard of either in passing or more in depth. There were definitely a few that I didn't know as well. I loved learning about all of them and getting to read the short stories about each of them. I learned a lot and had fun while doing it. I would recommend that anyone pick up this book and read about these extraordinary women.

I loved this!
Short biographies (1/2 pages) folllowed by a few pages of illustrated novel for a part of each writer's lives, both really well done. I love the head subchapters' illustrations in this! This book serves as a small intro and give ways to further your knowledge!
“The connections between these women tell us so much—the similarities between their careers; the way they explored the same themes; how they inspired one another; and the overlap with our modern-day experiences of writer’s block, financial insecurity, and fights for equality.”
The 18 writers chosen are known in classic literature (some more than others), that you'll enjoy reading about even if you (like me) don't know their works. I found their stories really interesting, each with a different and inspiring life story to tell! - also because you have writers with different backgrounds, featuring women of colour and queer women!
Organizing it by theme (3 writers in each) was also a brilliant way to do it; showing how they link to one another (sometimes in their social lives) or what and how much of an impact they had in the world around them/us.

Thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun and informational read! I really liked how this included so many diverse classic women’s writers. However, some of them were not very interesting to read about. I liked maybe half of the stories and drawings, but the other half were not entertaining in my opinion. I do think this was a great idea, and recommend it to fans of classics!

A charming introduction to some great writers, complete with plenty of pictures to make the learning go down much easier.

Why She Wrote is a lovely and enlightening collection of short biographies (1 or 2 pages) of 18 Anglophone woman writers (18th to 20th century). Each biography is paired with a comic depicting a key moment in the respective writer's life that influenced her career and prompted her to write a certain work. 

Note: I loved how the authors' note mirrored this book by explaining why (and how) the authors decided to write it!

The structure was very interesting. The biographies were written beautifully and recounted the important events of each writer's life and career in a way that conveyed how each aspect influenced the other. They also gave me an appreciation of how each writer's work impacted the literary world at the time and the huge challenges she had to face in a patriarchal society and, for some of the featured authors, a society that was strongly prejudiced against people of color. Each biography was concluded with a list of prominent works, many of which were immediately added to my TBR list. 

The collection included some of the big names I expected to find, like Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters but I also discovered, with pleasure and curiosity, many names I never heard before and others whose works I read a while ago.  

My only complaint is that the comics were rather on the short side. They were like peepholes overlooking a particular event that prompted the author to write a certain work. I wish they were longer or included a few panels explaining why every writer decided to start writing <i>for the first time</i> (which was what I expected when I requested this book).

This book was sent to me as an ARC on Netgalley. However, all opinions are of my own.
I was apprehensive about going into this book as books about history I don’t find I connect well with them. Whereas, I found it very interesting! I thought the way it was put together was very clever and I loved the graphics which were included!

This was such a fun and informative way to learn about these incredible female writers who’ve changed and shaped the way women were viewed and accepted as more than meek baby-makers.
Every woman we learn about faced their own struggles in life and writing, while others jumped outside the bounds of what was excepted in society.

Each chapter starts with a brief introduction as to the subject we explore, then we get a 1-page biography on the woman being featured, and the most interesting part- the graphic novel bit, which I found really brought to life each woman and made it much easier to separate these women from mere fact or what we know about their writings and books- they became much less historical figures of the past and modern women fighting for the right to earn their own living off of their intellectual property, fighting for the right to participate in society and be treated as the intelligent women they were, ready to crush social norms and be treated as man’s equal.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about these women, and the accompanying dramatized illustration to go along with them.

I would highly recommend it, especially to young teens, and everyone really.

4.5 stars

**ARC provided by Chronicle Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

As someone who loves learning in an engaging way, this was a fantastic read. Each author has a page long biography followed by pages of graphics detailing a point in the author’s life. I thought that the information was provided in an informational yet entertaining way that gave me insight into some of the most beloved female writers of the classics we all love.

DNF at 15%. To me this felt very sluggish and hard to get through. I thought it was entirely graphic novel format and it was not. The text portions were long and read very much textbook and not engaging non-fiction, and the graphic novel sections were short and not very engaging.

I’ve already recommended this to a coworker. While each author section is short, they pack a lot of information in the bio write up and comic pages. Additionally each section is organized well with three authors at a time. They also detail authors influencing each other which is really cool

I loved this book! I enjoy any type of literary history and the format of this book made the stories and biographies entertaining and accessible. Even without prior knowledge of the author’s discussed, this book would be found enjoyable. I enjoyed that this book didn’t focus on an exhaustive history, but instead illustrated vignettes of the authors lives that gave a deeper understanding of the lives of these women and why they produced the work they did.

Lately I've noticed an influx of graphic fiction and nonfiction about classic women writers, and I am loving it. Why She Wrote is a great addition to the genre. The book covers eighteen British and American writers from the 18th through the early 20th century. For each author, there is a brief biographical overview with a discussion of her influences and a short comic depicting scenes from her life. Even though many read Peter Rabbit and The Secret Garden as children or Jane Eyre and Frankenstein in high school, we usually don't learn much about the authors themselves. This book is a fun way to learn a bit about their lives. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety included; I thought most of the information would be things I already knew, but I was quite wrong. There are some of the typical authors you expect: the Brontës, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Louisa May Alcott, etc. But they also include lesser known writers who don't usually get as much attention, like Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, and Frances Hodgson Burnett. There were even some I'd never heard of who I now need to check out.

Bales' art is, of course, the highlight of the whole work. She gives each of the authors a distinct look and draws on real life depictions of them. They are immediately recognizable as themselves, and she didn't try to make them more beautiful or elegant than they actually were. And every panel is lovely. I did feel there was a bit of a range of quality for the actual stories within the comics. Some I adored, particularly Beatrix Potter's and Frances Hodgson's Burnett's; their comics focus on the issues they had copyrighting their books. Frances Burney's about her struggle with breast cancer is also excellent. However, others felt quite short or not especially deep. I wanted a bit more from the comics on Ann Radcliffe and Sui Sin Far.

The organization was an interesting choice that I liked in some ways and disliked in others. Instead of organizing it chronologically, Burke and Chapman did it thematically. The book is broken into six sections with three authors in each. Some of the titles are "The Horror of the Everyday," "Activism as Art," and "Protection and Profit." On one hand, I love that this allows the authors and readers to make connections between writers who are on different ends of time or who write in different genres. I would never have thought to make any connection between the lives of Sui Sin Far, George Eliot, and Anne Brontë on my own. However, it does feel a little disjointed at times because it jumps back and forth in the timeline, and each author's section is so short that it contributes to that feeling.

Overall, Why She Wrote is an enjoyable and fun way to learn more about some of the world's most famous women writers. I'm not sure what Burke, Chapman, and Bales intend, but I would love to see this made into a series. There are so many women writers to go!

Why She Wrote
A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers
by Hannah K. Chapman and Lauren Burke, Illustrated by Kaley Bales
Chronicle Books
Biographies & Memoirs | Comics & Graphic Novels | History
Pub Date 20 Apr 2021


I am reviewing a copy of Why She Wrote through Chronicle books and Netgalley:


Horace Walpole may have invented the gothic novel,genre with his novel The Castle of Otranto, but it was Ann Radcliffe who became the mother of the Gothic novel influencing authors such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters with novels such as The Mysteries of Udolpho.


Mary Shelley became a legend, A woman who was so goth, she carried around her dead husband heart until the day he died and created a monster named Frankenstein as well as a whole new literary genre. Before she became a brand though she was a budding writer living in the shadow of her famous parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Mary never knew her Mother, she had died giving birth to Mary, but she got to know her Mother through the pages of the books her Mother had written. Mary did not receive a formal education but was tutored by her father.



Ann Radcliffe born Ann Ward on July.9.1964 in London, a few years later the family would move to Bath. Ann was middle class and well read, and would marry Oxford graduate William Radcliffe. William worked late into the night as an editor as well as part time owner of the newspaper The English Chronicle. Ann wrote poetry, romance and gothic fiction which she read to him when he returned home.Her first novel The Castle of Athlin and Dunbayne a romance set in the Scottish Highlands was published in 1789 to moderate success. Her third book The Romance in the Forest was published in 1791 and would propel her ti fame.



Charolette Bronte is known as the author of Jane Eyre today, but in 1849 she was Cureer Bell a mysterious unknown author with a debut novel that was shocking, and a woman the London Literatti were dying to meet.


Frances Burney was called the Mother of English fiction. She was born in 1752, her father was the prominent music historian Charles Burney, her Mother was Esther Sleepe Burney. Despite the fact that Charles had academic credentials Burney’s education was sadly neglected. At rather age of eight she did not know the alphabet. But by the time she was ten she had taught herself to write through extensive reading in her Fathers library, and she entertained herself by writing in her journal. Burney had completed her first novel Caroline Evelyn when she was fifteen, but burned it along with other writings from her childhood. In 1778 at the age of twenty seven Burney published her first novel Evelina anonymously.


Jane Austen completed six novels, and saw four of them published in her lifetime. These four novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion had a large cultural impact.


From Mary Wollstonecraft to Frances E Harper, an African American Woman born free in Baltimore Maryland in 1825. She was sent to live with her maternal aunt and uncle, Henrietta and William Watkins, Reverend Watkins was a renowned abolitionist and speaker who educated his young niece at the academy of negro youth. Under his guidance she published her first anti slavery piece at the age of fourteen. She would also become an advocate for women’s rights.


Alice Dunbar Nelson has an awe inspiring resume, she was a well known figure during the Harlem Renaissance as well as a poet, a short story writer and a journalist she was also an educator. She was a sought after speaker who fought for the rights of African Americans and Women. She had been born in New Orleans in 1875, just ten years after the civil war.


This compelling collection features eighteen women authors from Louisa May Alcott, to Beatrix Potter Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Anne Lister, and more—and asks a simple question: in a time when being a woman writer often meant being undervalued, overlooked, or pigeonholed, why did she write?


Learn about women writers from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, from familiar favorites to those who have undeservedly fallen into obscurity, and their often untold histories.


If you are looking for an informative as well as fun.


This unique graphic novel covers the life of women authors, spanning three centuries.


I give Why She Wrote five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!