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Women's History Month 2018

by Elissa Gershowitz
Feb 26, 2018 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
March is Women's History Month, and that gave author-illustrator-supermom-friend-of-the-Horn-Book Grace Lin [edited to add, per Comment below] and colleagues including Karen Blumenthal, Meg Medina, Christine Taylor-Butler, and Jeanette Bradley, plus others a radical idea: let's celebrate and amplify the work and voices of women in the children's book industry. (Remember how last year we said, "now seems like an especially important time to celebrate the achievements of women and girls"? Well, now seems like that times a thousand #MeToo #TimesUp)

Grace and Karen co-organize a new Facebook group and associated hashtag (crowd sourced and voted on) -- #KidLitWomen -- with the following mission: "calling attention to the gender inequities of our industry, uplifting the women who have not received their due, and finding solutions to reach equality." Every day in March, people will be posting thematic articles, essays, poems, interviews, etc., to further the mission and keep the conversation going. The Horn Book is participating by posting our own articles and by amplifying, amplifying, amplifying. Join us.

Illustration by Grace Lin.

Elissa Gershowitz

Elissa Gershowitz is editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc. She holds an MA from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons University and a BA from Oberlin College.

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Elissa Gershowitz

Yes! You are here! Looking forward to talking soon.

Posted : Mar 03, 2018 12:28

Denene Millner

This is beautiful—thank you for leading the charge. I’m excited about this!

Posted : Mar 02, 2018 11:12

Elissa Gershowitz

So amplified! Thank you, Grace -- will edit in the morning.

Posted : Feb 26, 2018 11:55

Grace Lin

Thanks so much for sharing and spreading the word about #kidlitwomen! I hope everyone joins us! I just wanted to clarify the origin of #kidlitwomen--I wish I could take full credit, but I cannot. At Kindling Words, author Karen Blumenthal and I led a white space strand about the gender inequities in our industry, asking for solutions. There was a group of 10-15 of us and Meg Medina suggested that we use Women's History Month as a way to spearhead change and this idea was born. Many people were involved in its origin, such as Christine Taylor-Butler and Jeanette Bradley who have been working hard on stats that we will unveil on March 1st. I'm proud to #kidlitwomen's present public face and co-organizer (with Karen Blumenthal!), but this is definitely not one woman's initiative!

Posted : Feb 26, 2018 11:34

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