Since International Women’s Day is coming up this Sunday, we asked four of our favorite authors to share a bit about why it’s so important to them as storytellers.
Roshani Chokshi
Author of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes
Today is important to me because women are so often the unrecognized vessels of story. We hear our first tales from our mothers at our cribs, we mythologize ourselves throughout adolescence with the tales we tell of ourselves and others, we remember our joys, pains and lessons which pass like worn coins from hand to hand in silent understanding, spreading a currency of tales that simultaneously becomes myth, superstition, folklore, and history.
J. C. Cervantes
Author of The Shadow Crosser
Story has power. It is the thread that unites us, that creates narratives of hope and strength, that lifts voices, and celebrates women’s achievements. And like story, International Women’s Day doesn’t belong to one group, one person, one cause. It belongs to all of us.
Rebecca Roanhorse
Author of Race to the Sun
Growing up, there were no big action-adventure Fantasy stories with heroes that resembled me. To be able to write one now for my daughter and other kids like her is an honor. It is imperative that we tell all kinds of stories—fantasy and science fiction included—that center girls, especially BIPOC girls, as heroes. It is just as important that those stories be told by authors that are BIPOC women, too. They are powerful examples for children of all genders and backgrounds.
Tehlor Kay Mejia
Author of Paola Santiago and the River of Tears
To me, International Women’s Day is a celebration and a reminder. I am a career woman and a mother, a feminist and a person at the intersection of multiple identities. Feminism, and the recognition of what women are capable of, is responsible for so much of who I am as a storyteller today—but I can’t deny that it’s a movement that often fails to support its most vulnerable members. Today, I look to the past with gratitude for what we have accomplished, and to the future with hope that there are brighter, more inclusive times ahead.
