If you've ever taken one of my When Women Write courses or studied some of the great works written by women, you know that there were often obstacles that stood in the way of publication. Women authors commonly used pseudonyms or pen names in order for their writing to be taken seriously, had to hide their gender even after successful publication and overwhelmingly positive sales, or were flat out denied the respect they were due.

And what about the books women have written that were then banned because of content or authorship?

In this one-time class, we'll take a look at the banned books of female authors, discuss why they're controversial, and decide whether we would have accepted or banned them had we lived in the same period as the author herself. 

We’ll also create Zine pages—a creative way to express and communicate our ideas by organizing and producing a magazine together. Each student will create one page of our Zine during our discussion, and all will have the opportunity to share why they made the creative choices that led to their finished product.

We will discuss as many of the following books as we can. Some class discussions are livelier than others, and because of that excellent interchange, we might not get to every book on the list. I will, however, provide all the necessary info your learner will need if they wish to purchase and/or read the titles for themselves.

𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘪𝘯, Mary Shelley
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, Kate Chopin
𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯'𝘴 𝘈𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, Laura Hobson 
𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘍𝘰𝘹: 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘬, Christina Stead
"The Lottery", Shirley Jackson
𝘛𝘰 𝘒𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢 𝘔𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥, Harper Lee
𝘈 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦, Madeleine L'Engle
𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘺, Louise Fitzhugh
𝘐 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, Maya Angelou
𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥, Toni Morrison
The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘭𝘦, Alice Walker
𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴, Marjane Satrapi
Judy Blume

Note that the following books are studied in depth in the When Women Write series: 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒊𝒏 and 𝑻𝒐 𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂 𝑴𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒅.

Please also note that because sometimes books are banned for their mature content, this is a class better suited to the student who is mature enough to discuss issues of sexuality.