Women Writing Dangerously

A gripping, centuries-spanning visual history and exploration of books by female authors who have been banned or silenced.

When it comes to censoring women’s writing, everything old becomes new again. Women Writing Dangerously is an astonishing, colorful exploration of the consequences women writers have faced when their books became controversial, honoring those who fought the system by using their pens and typewriters as weapons.  

Books by women have long been targeted, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) and The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (1928) to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970) and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1983), with more titles being challenged each year. Women Writing Dangerously explores the fascinating stories of literary trailblazers who first dared to bring sexuality, gender identity, race, immigration, and other controversial topics to reading audiences—even if it meant facing backlash and silencing.

Filled with historical ephemera, covers from forgotten books, and original illustrations, this dynamic volume shares not only the facts and figures, but the passion that went into creating these books and the heartbreak around their banning. Today’s censorship frenzy doesn’t exist in a vacuum, nor is it going away any time soon; but through Nava Atlas’s in-depth research and storytelling, readers will walk away with a more enriched literary history emboldened by the past to fight for a future that ensures freedom of expression.