“There’s so much more to women’s history than Seneca Falls, Susan B. Anthony, and the Feminine Mystique,” author Kate Schatz tells BuzzFeed.
City Lights/Sister Spit
Barbara Schatz
Think about all the talented, brave, and brilliant women who have colored American history. Now imagine, after two years of researching all of these amazing women, you have to pick 26 — and only 26 — of their stories to tell. Good luck!
For author Kate Schatz, simply choosing was the hardest part about writing Rad American Women A-Z. "There were like 26 million women to choose from!" Schatz told BuzzFeed during a recent emailed interview. The new children's book available for purchase online now from City Lights/Sister Spit profiles "rebels, trailblazers and visionaries" from widely celebrated icons to those whose names all too often go unspoken. The less predictable additions include Maya Lin, the artist responsible for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Mexican-American journalist Jovita Idar. The book's subjects are as diverse in race, socioeconomic class, and historical era as they are in passion and profession, all the way from "A is for Angela" Davis to "Z is for Zora" Neale Hurston.
Schatz, who grew up in San Jose, California, and now lives on the tiny island of Alameda in the Bay Area, originally set out to write Rad American Women for her daughter, "so that she'd have a fun, empowering, and informative book to read." Having previously published numerous short stories in places like Oxford American and Joyland, this was Schatz's first foray into the world of kid's lit. "Writing for children is different in every way imaginable, especially on the publishing end — people are so so so psyched for children's books," she says. "It's also a huge pleasure and privilege to write something that will actively educate readers — I'm a teacher, too, so that's always part of my mission as an artist."