Women's Studies

The poet, Audre Lorde, depicts her life and examines the influence of various women on her development.

This modern literary masterpiece follows the interwoven destinies of five women—including a wealthy middle-aged housewife, a sex worker, and a schoolteacher—as they arrive by different paths to live together in an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.

Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

Vanished tells the stories of women and girls in upstate New York who see to make sense of the world around her in the wake of loss.

In this heartrending debut, Fatimah Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another in this exploration of identity, siblinghood, and gender.

Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America's most beloved TV cooking show.

Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and looks back to the legacy of Britain's colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker captures the journey of Celie, a poor Black girl, from age fourteen well into adulthood.

An unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.

Harriet Jacobs's narrative of enslavement is remarkable for its candid exposure of enslavement. Her sufferings, and eventual escape to the North, are described in vivid detail. Harriet Jacobs lived in the area and is buried in Cambridge, MA.

A provocation and a promise, transforming many of our most urgent political debates and asking what it might mean to be free.

The Radium Girls is a masterful blend of historical account and heartfelt tribute. Moore's vivid prose brings these forgotten heroines back to life, ensuring that their sacrifices and triumphs are forever etched in our collective memory.

Henrietta Lacks' cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Chronicles women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York.

In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim.

A tender, unswerving homage to her found family, but also an insightful study of friendship as identity-crafting.

he women of antiquity are undeniably woven throughout the fabric of history, and in The Missing Thread they finally take center stage.