Posts Tagged ‘Feminism’

Bustle: This Tamora Pierce Series Helped Me Understand How It Feels To Be The Only Woman In The Room

There’s a lot of advice to be found in books for women who work in male-dominated workplaces: lean in, be a girlboss, find your magic, etc. But, to be honest, I learned the most about working in male-dominated spaces from books I read while I was still a child — namely, Tamora Pierce’s fantasy novels, and especially the Protector of the Small series.

The excerpt says it all! In this article, Melissa Ragsdale over at Bustle delves into Kel’s experiences in knight training, and how they reflect some real-world challenges women face in male-dominated industries.

Click here to read it in full: This Tamora Pierce Series Helped Me Understand How It Feels To Be The Only Woman In The Room

 

Unbound Worlds: How a Lady Knight Prepared Me for America in 2017

[T]here are certain ugly truths about the world that children and teens will grow into that books like The Hate U Give and the Protector of the Small series address – issues readers will eventually face in one form or another.

In a thoughtful and sobering article, Feliza Casano at Unbound Worlds shares her experiences with Tammy’s books, and the lessons she took from them. You can read it all here: How a Lady Knight Prepared Me for America in 2017

LA Review of Books: Growing Up Female

If you’re a fan of Tammy’s, you may be able to relate to this article in the LA Review of Books! In Growing Up Female, Josephine Wolff  delves into the “thread of pragmatic feminism” in Tamora Pierce’s books, beginning in the very first adventures of Alanna, and continuing in heroines like Daine and Kel.

It’s an intense and cult-ish thing to discover Pierce’s books as a young girl. Pierce is a fantasy writer beloved by many readers who do not consider themselves fantasy fans. This is because, for all their sorcerers and dragons, her books, at their core, are about young women growing up and figuring out who they are: how to be weird and stubborn and heroic and angry, how to deal with getting their periods, how to control their tempers, how to handle jealousy, how to decide whether to sleep with their best friends or their teachers, how to prevent pregnancy, how to navigate romantic relationships with men many years their seniors, how to challenge and defeat men many years their seniors, how to be women who don’t conform to the rigid expectations of their (entirely imaginary!) world and time.

Check it out here!

 

Tamora Pierce’s io9 Interview

io9: Let’s start with the new book, Tortall: A Spy’s Guide. Why do this kind of in-world expansion/set of information?

Tamora Pierce: People are always asking me—and if not me, friends of mine who know the universe well—details that don’t normally get included in the books, or details of story that haven’t come out yet. I was talking with my editor at Random House about just a basic dictionary or travel guide, or something of the sort that would have just bits and pieces that people would like that was pretty much insider information. I’d seen that there were several books of that kind that had come out at that point and I thought, “Yeah, we can do this.” That was my first mistake.

(There’s even a little tidbit about the upcoming Numair Chronicles in there…)

Unbound Worlds Interview

Earlier in October, Tammy spoke with Unbound Worlds at NYCC 2017. In addition to talking about the writing process, she speaks frankly about the feminist themes in her books:

I write female heroes, by and large, and I write female characters taking action when action is needed. I write female characters undertaking tasks that are often described as tasks women can’t do. I write realistically as I can how they would go about undertaking those tasks in a way that people in our world would understand without ringing any false notes. I was raised a feminist. My mother was a feminist.

Check out the full interview here: Tamora Pierce: ‘No is Not a Word You Should Tell Me’

Daja Named One of “Ten Empowering Female Characters in Children’s Books”

Daja gets some recognition from Guardian readers as she makes the list of Ten Empowering Female Characters in Children’s Books! Regarding her impact, Hannah Catteral says:

She has a strong sense of justice and hard work, and is always a champion for her friends. She apprentices to an older blacksmith, Frostpine, who teaches her skilled and magical metalwork, and eventually becomes a master of her craft.

In later books, as she grows older, she also falls in love with a woman, and this is treated as perfectly normal. Having grown up with Daja, her friends and their adventures, this was absolutely wonderful and unprecedented for childrens’ series at the time.

Tamora Pierce is One of The Pixel Project’s “16 for 16” Honour Roll Call of Authors Who Support Stopping Violence Against Women

from the article: “The Pixel Project’s Read For Pixels campaign was first launched in September 2014 in recognition of the longstanding power of books to shape cultural ideas and influence the direction of history…. To date, 60 award-winning bestselling authors from genres as diverse as Science Fiction, Fantasy, Crime, Thrillers, and Horror have participated in various Read For Pixels campaigns and initiatives, raising more than $33,500 for the cause to end Violence Against Women to date.”

This year, the nonprofit honors sixteen authors, including Tammy. The others are: Alexandra Sokoloff, Christopher Golden, Claudia Gray, Colleen Gleason, Dan Wells, Darynda Jones, Gregg Hurowitz, Keri Arthur, Lauren Beukes, Laurie R. King, Max Gladstone, Meg Cabot, Nalini Singh, Steven Erikson, and Victoria (V.E.) Schwab.

Buzzfeed Members Pick ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE as One of “21 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her Lifetime”

At Number 17, between Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, is Tammy’s first Tortall novel. She’s delighted to be included on this list, and proud to be in such great company as Ms. Yousafzai, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Jane Austen and Khaled Hosseini.

BUZZFEED: 21 Books Every Woman Should Read in Her Lifetime