Author Archives: Alexis Rossi

The World’s Most Famous Mouse Joins the Public Domain

This year we are welcoming many works from 1928 into the U.S. public domain (books, movies, images, etc.), as well as recorded sound from 1923.

Some of the big events from 1928 include the first machine sliced and wrapped loaf of bread being sold, the fatal Okeechobee hurricane, the failure of the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles, the discovery of a moldy petri dish that would lead to the creation of penicillin, Amelia Earheart flying across the Atlantic, and a certain mouse making his public debut.

Movies

Everybody’s talking about Mickey. On November 18th, 1928 Steamboat Willie was published, the third Mickey Mouse film by Walt Disney and the first one to be published with sound. The prior two Mickey Mouse films, including Plane Crazy, had not been picked up for distribution so this was the public’s first introduction to the mouse. Steamboat Willie may have been named after another popular movie that came out in 1928, Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., or perhaps the Vaudeville song, “Steamboat Bill” (popularized in 1910) which was included in the soundtrack (along with the 19th century song “Turkey in the Straw”).

But there were many other movies that debuted in 1928, and here are just a few noted examples:

You have 2 weeks left to remix films from 1928 into a submission for the Public Domain Day 2024 Remix Contest (deadline is January 17!).

Books

The second Winnie the Pooh book called The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne was published in 1928, along with other famous titles such as All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich M. Remarque, Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, and Tarzan Lord of the Jungle by Edgar R. Burroughs. 

Browse some of the books published in 1928 on the site, including

Recorded music from 1923

Recorded sound enters the public domain on a different schedule, and this year we’re welcoming music from 1923.

Looking at our collections, it seems like the only song anyone really cared about was “Yes! We have no bananas” which was recorded by a silly number of musicians (including in Italian and Yiddish!) and even led to them trolling themselves with the “I’ve Got the Yes! We Have No Bananas Blues. Here’s the same artist, Billy Jones, both with bananas and annoyed about the bananas

The Jazz Age was really swinging, and 1923 saw the first recordings by King Oliver’s Jazz Band, including early work from Louis Armstrong on Dipper Mouth Blues. The first recorded example of jazz band boogie-woogie also came out that year, The Fives by Tampa Blue Jazz Band. And dancing the Charleston became a craze in 1923, thanks to Charleston from the 1923 musical “Runnin’ Wild.”

While the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb was found in 1922,  it wasn’t until February of 1923 that the tomb was unsealed and of course the event was memorialized in song, including  Old King Tut by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, and Tut-Ankh-Amen (In the Valley of the Kings) by S. S. Leviathan Orchestra.

Some popular songs from 1923 that are have joined the public domain include:

Come celebrate the public domain with us in person in San Francisco on January 24th, or virtually on January 25th.

Welcoming 1927 to the Public Domain

This year we are welcoming works from 1927 into the public domain in the United States, including books, periodicals, sheet music, and movies

Big events of 1927 include the first transatlantic phone call from New York to London, the formation of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the first successful long distance demonstration of television, the release of the first popular “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, and the first nonstop transatlantic solo airplane flight, from New York to Paris, by Charles Lindbergh.

Movies

Despite the popularity of The Jazz Singer, movies were still mostly silent in 1927, including the gorgeous Metropolis by Fritz Lang. Laurel and Hardy’s first film, Putting Pants on Phillip, was released that year, along with an early Gary Cooper Western, Nevada, Joan Crawford in Spring Fever, Mary Pickford in My Best Girl, Clara Bow in Get Your Man, and Cecil B. DeMille’s King of Kings.

I was particularly taken with No Man’s Land, which gives top billing to a horse (Rex the Wonder Horse, in case you were wondering – if you’d like to follow his career he also starred in The King of Wild Horses and Black Cyclone). 

Or we can time travel with Koko the Clown in Koko in 1999 where they apparently thought that at the turn of the last century everything would happen via automation and you’d get a wife from a vending machine for 25 cents.  

Music

No new recorded music enters the public domain in the US this year — the next group of recorded music becomes available in 4 years, due to how the music modernization act is written — but we do have some fun new sheet music to explore. The biggies that are most remembered today are probably The Best Things in Life Are Free and I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream. But you should also take some time to play Dream Kisses, The Desert Song, My Ohio Home, and Girl of My Dreams.

Periodicals

Thousands of issues of periodicals from 1927 are entering the public domain, some from titles that are still well known today like:

You may also want to check out copies of The American Girl (published by the Girl Scouts), check up on the financial markets leading up to the Great Depression in the The Financial Times, or research bling in The Jewelers Circular.

Books

The Sherlock Holmes books came to an end in 1927, and with it the release of The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan-Doyle (vol I and vol II). Other biggies include Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather and Mosquitoes by William Faulkner.

But as always, the most fun is to be had perusing the books from 1927 for hidden gems. Enjoy the gorgeous art deco designs in Ideas & studies in stencilling & decorating, for instance.

Some other fun titles include

Celebrate Public Domain Day

You can join us to celebrate public domain day two ways this year, virtually or in person.

We are having a virtual party on January 19, 2023 at 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern. REGISTER FOR THE VIRTUAL EVENT HERE!

And the next day we will have an in-person Film Remix Contest Screening Party on January 20, 2023 at 6pm at 300 Funston Ave in San Francisco, to watch this year’s Public Domain Day Remix Contest winning entries. REGISTER FOR THE IN-PERSON PARTY IN SAN FRANCISCO HERE!

New additions to the Internet Archive for July 2022

Many items are added to the Internet Archive’s collections every month, by us and by our patrons. Here’s a round up of some of the new media you might want to check out. Logging in might be required to borrow certain items. 

Notable new collections from our patrons: 

Books – 78,091 New items in July

This month we’ve added books on varied subjects in more than 20 languages. Click through to explore, but here are a few interesting items to start with:

Audio Archive – 91,636 New Items in July

The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Explore.

LibriVox Audiobooks – 119 New Items in July

Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audiobooks of public domain texts in many different languages. Explore.

78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings – 8,888 New Items in July

Listen to this collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century. Explore.

Live Music Archive – 965 New Items in July

The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming (all with artist permission). Explore.

Movies – 135 New Items in July

Watch feature films, classic shorts, documentaries, propaganda, movie trailers, and more! Explore.

New additions to the Internet Archive for May 2022

Many items are added to the Internet Archive’s collections every month, by us and by our patrons. Here’s a round up of some of the new media you might want to check out. Logging in might be required to borrow certain items. 

Notable new collections from our patrons: 

Books – 52,300 New items in May

This month we’ve added books on varied subjects in more than 20 languages. Click through to explore, but here are a few interesting items to start with:

Audio Archive – 89,325 New Items in May

The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Explore.

LibriVox Audiobooks – 92 New Items in May

Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audiobooks of public domain texts in many different languages. Explore.

78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings – 112 New Items in May

Listen to this collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century. Explore.

Live Music Archive – 807 New Items in May

The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming (all with artist permission). Explore.

Netlabels223 New Items in May

This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres. Explore.

Movies – 110 New Items in May

Watch feature films, classic shorts, documentaries, propaganda, movie trailers, and more! Explore.

New additions to the Internet Archive for April 2022

Many items are added to the Internet Archive’s collections every month, by us and by our patrons. Here’s a round up of some of the new media you might want to check out. Logging in might be required to borrow certain items. 

Notable new collections from our patrons: 

  • Chris Cromwell Rare Reel to Reel Tapes – Rare and recovered reel-to-reel tapes from a variety of sources and preserved by Chris Cromwell. 
  • 1940s Classic TV – Television from the 1940s.
  • Game Shows Archive – A collection of game shows throughout television history, involving chance, skill and luck, usually presided over by a host and providing in-show commercials.
  • Dutch Television – Television programs and videos in the Dutch language, or from the Netherlands.

Books – 50,109 New items in April

This month we’ve added books on varied subjects in more than 20 languages. Click through to explore, but here are a few interesting items to start with:

Audio Archive – 150,224 New Items in April

The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Explore.

LibriVox Audiobooks – 99 New Items in April

Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audiobooks of public domain texts in many different languages. Explore.

78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings – 6,745 New Items in April

Listen to this collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century. Explore.

Live Music Archive – 909 New Items in April

The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming (all with artist permission). Explore.

Netlabels111 New Items in April

This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres. Explore.

Movies – 55 New Items in April

Watch feature films, classic shorts, documentaries, propaganda, movie trailers, and more! Explore.

New additions to the Internet Archive for March 2022

Many items are added to the Internet Archive’s collections every month, by us and by our patrons. Here’s a round up of some of the new media you might want to check out. Logging in might be required to borrow certain items. 

Notable new collections from our patrons: 

Books – 60,379 New items in March

This month we’ve added books on varied subjects in more than 20 languages. Click through to explore, but here are a few interesting items to start with:

Audio Archive – 93,954 New Items in March

The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Explore.

LibriVox Audiobooks – 122 New Items in March

Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audiobooks of public domain texts in many different languages. Explore.

78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings – 7,423 New Items in March

Listen to this collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century. Explore.

Live Music Archive – 1,098 New Items in March

The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming (all with artist permission). Explore.

Netlabels186 New Items in March

This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres. Explore.

Movies – 25 New Items in March

Watch feature films, classic shorts, documentaries, propaganda, movie trailers, and more! Explore.

What’s New in February 2022

Here are some of the notable new additions to the Internet Archive from February 2022. (Logging in might be required to borrow certain items.)

Notable new collections: 

We’ve been reorganizing some of the items uploaded by our users, and these collections of magazines struck us as particularly interesting:

Books 45,073

This month we’ve added books in more than 20 languages. Here are a few good ones to start with:

Audio Archive 73,305

The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users.

The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection 118

Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audio versions of public domain texts: poetry, short stories, whole books, even dramatic works, in many different languages.

78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings 8,840

Listen to this collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century.

Live Music Archive 892

The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming.

Netlabels 263

The Netlabels collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of virtual record labels.

Internet Arcade 5

The Internet Arcade is a web-based library of arcade (coin-operated) video games from the 1970s through to the 1990s, emulated in JSMAME, part of the JSMESS software package. Containing hundreds of games ranging through many different genres and styles, the Arcade provides research, comparison, and entertainment in the realm of the Video Game Arcade.

New additions to the Internet Archive for January 2022

Many items are added to the Internet Archive’s collections every month, by us and by our patrons. Here’s a round up of some of the new media you might want to check out. Logging in might be required to  borrow certain items. 

Notable new collections: 

Books 40,695

This month we’ve added books on varied subjects in more than 20 languages. Click through to explore, but here are a few interesting items to start with:

Audio Archive 79,099

The audio archive contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users.

The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection 98

Founded in 2005, Librivox is a community of volunteers from all over the world who record audiobooks of public domain texts in many different languages.

 

78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings 6,849

The Great 78 Project! Listen to this collection of 78rpm records, cylinder recordings, and other recordings from the early 20th century.

Live Music Archive 799

The Live Music Archive is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format, along with the convenience of on-demand streaming (all with artist permission).

Netlabels 486

This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres.

Welcoming Recorded Music to the Public Domain

Every January we feature works that are entering the public domain. And this year the big story is in recorded music.

Recorded Music from 1922 and earlier

Approximately 400,000 sound recordings made before 1923 will join the public domain in the U.S. for the first time due to the Music Modernization Act (read more at copyright.gov). You can peruse about 38,000 of them in our collection of digitized 78rpm records.

By 1922 we were solidly in the Jazz Age – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age was published in 1922, and the term was already in popular usage. Jazz migrated from Black American communities in New Orleans into the rest of the United States, having evolved from its roots in rag time, blues and Creole music.  In fact, 1922 was the year Louis Armstrong left New Orleans to join King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago.

Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1911) written by Irving Berlin and performed by Collins and Harlan

Peruse the collection to hear early jazz classics like Don’t Care Blues by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds, Ory’s Creole Trombone by Kid Ory’s Sunshine Orchestra, and Jazzin’ Babies Blues by Ethel Waters.

Early recordings by Bert Williams (the first Black American on Broadway and the first Black man to star in a film), Fanny Brice (the real-life ‘Funny Girl’), Enrico Caruso (the legendary Italian operatic tenor), and so many others give life and flavor to our imaginings of the early 20th century.

Here are some of the top songs from 1922, to give you a taste:

But personally when I “flip through” these records I’m always drawn to the novelty songs

There’s a whole genre of sound imitations, like Violin Mimicry where a violin is used to imitate people talking, Jingles from the Marsh Birds with a man imitating birds imitating popular songs (just as confusing as it sounds), and A Cat-astrophe with people imitating rather catastrophic cats to music.

You can also skip the jokes and go straight to laughing just for the sake of it with these gems:  Laughs You Have Met, Gennett Laughing Record, and The Okeh Laughing Record, or choose to have a little music with laughing choruses like Ticklish Reuben, She Gives Them All the Ha-Ha-Ha, Stop Your Tickling, Jock! or And Then I Laughed.

And perhaps my favorite of the bunch is Fido is a Hot Dog Now which seems to be about a dog who is definitely going to hell.

Fido is a Hot Dog Now (1914) by Billy Murray

Other Media from 1926

As usual, we are also welcoming some new books, movies, journals, and sheet music – this time from 1926! (Read about 1925, 1924, and 1923 in previous posts.)

Some popular first edition books from 1926:

The Clothes We Wear (1926) by Frank and Frances Carpenter

Other interesting books from 1926 that you might want to explore include Show Boat by Edna Ferber which was made into the musical Show Boat in 1927 with music by Jerome Kern, The Clothes We Wear by Frank and Frances Carpenter which is a child friendly exploration of how clothes are made all the way from the field through weaving and into sewing, or The Art of Kissing by Clement Wood which is pretty self explanatory.

We invite you to explore some of the other items dated 1926 in our collections to find your own fun items that may now be in the public domain.

Virtual Party for the Public Domain

Please join us for a virtual party on January 20, 2022 at 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern time with a keynote from Senator Ron Wyden, champion of the Music Modernization Act and a bunch of musical acts, dancers, historians, librarians, academics, activists and other leaders from the Open world! (And yes, we DO have a book from 1926 about how to throw the world’s best party.)

 Event on January 20th, 2022

REGISTER FOR THE VIRTUAL EVENT HERE!

Great Books by Women Authors

On March 8th New York Public Library’s Gwen Glazer published a wonderful list of books in celebration of International Women’s Day: 365 Books by Women Authors to Celebrate International Women’s Day All Year.

In the spirit of continuing to celebrate female authors past the confines of Women’s History Month, we’ve gathered some of these books into a special collection called Great Books by Women Authors to make it easier to find your next exceptional read. You will also find these books via Open Library as listed below. Happy reading!

Great Books by Women Authors
Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies
Susan Abulhawa, The Blue Between Sky and Water
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
Svetlana Alexievich, Voices From Chernobyl
Clare Allan, Poppy Shakespeare
Sarah Addison Allen, Lost Lake
Isabel Allende, Eva Luna
Karin Altenberg, Island of Wings
Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies
Tahmima Anam, The Good Muslim
Natacha Appanah, The Last Brother
Chloe Aridjis, Asunder
Bridget Asher, All of Us and Everything
Margaret Atwood, Oryx & Crake
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Mariama Bâ, Scarlet Song
Toni Cade Bambara, Those Bones Are Not My Child
Gioconda Belli, The Inhabited Woman
Karen Bender, Refund
Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III
Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters
Lauren Buekes, The Shining Girls
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
Leonora Carrington, The hearing trumpet
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee
Susan Choi, American Woman
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Sonya Chung, Long for This World
Caryl Churchill, Top Girls
Lucille Clifton, Mercy
Simin Daneshvar, Sutra & Other Stories
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions
Edwidge Danticat, Claire of the Sea Light
Meaghan Daum, Unspeakable
Dola de Jong, The Tree and the Vine
Grazia Deledda, After the Divorce
Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day
Emily Dickinson, The Poems of Emily Dickinson
Joan Didion, Democracy
Rita Dove, On the Bus With Rosa Parks
Yasmine El Rashidi, Chronicle of a Last Summer
Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero
George Eliot, Middlemarch
Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower
Paula Fox, Desperate Characters
Lauren Francis-Sharma, Til the Well Runs Dry
Ru Freeman, On Sal Mal Lane
Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances
Mary Gaitskill, The Mare
Petina Gappah, The Book of Memory
Elena Garro, First love ; &, Look for my obituary
Louise Gluck, Faithful and Virtuous Night
Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist
Jorie Graham, Erosion
Linda LeGarde Grover, The dance boots
Paula Gunn Allen, America the Beautiful: Last Poems
Marilyn Hacker, Names
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Eve Harris, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus
Bessie Head, The Collector of Treasures
Amy Hempel, Reasons to Live
Cristina Henriquez, The Book of Unknown Americans
Christine Dwyer Hickey, The Cold Eye of Heaven
Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt
Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift
Alice Hoffman, Survival Lessons
Sara Sue Hoklotubbe, Deception on All Accounts
bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
Keri Hulme, The Bone People
Dương Thu Hương, Paradise of the Blind
Hồ Xuân Hương, Spring Essence
Ulfat Idilbi, Grandfather’s Tale
Elfriede Jelinek, Women As Lovers
Han Kang, The Vegetarian
Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club
Kazue Kato, Blue Exorcist
Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey
Porochista Khakpour, The Last Illusion
Vénus Khoury-Ghata, A House at the Edge of Tears
Suki Kim, Without You, There Is No Us
Jamaica Kincaid, See Now Then
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Natsuo Kirino, Out
Sana Krasikov, One More Year
Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
Laila Lalami, Secret Son
Nella Larsen, Passing
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Random Family
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Yiyun Li, Kinder Than Solitude
Gloria Lisé, Departing at Dawn
Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star
Inverna Lockpezer, Cuba: My Revolution
Alia Mamdouh, The Loved Ones
Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess
Ronit Matalon, The Sound of Our Steps
Ayana Mathis, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Claire Messud, The Woman Upstairs
Ai Mi, Under the Hawthorn Tree
Gabriela Mistral, Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral
Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy
Lorrie Moore, Bark
Marianne Moore, The Poems of Marianne Moore
Toni Morrison, Sula
Bharati Mukherjee, The Tree Bride
Alice Munro, Family Furnishings
Iris Murdoch, A Severed Head
Eileen Myles, School of Fish
Azar Nafisi, The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books
Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You
Hualing Nieh, Mulberry and Peach
Sara Nović, Girl at War
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, I Do Not Come to You by Chance
Silvia Ocampo, Thus Were Their Faces
Nnedi Okorafor, Binti
Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox
Ruth Ozeki, All Over Creation
Cynthia Ozick, Foreign Bodies
ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Grace Paley, The Little Disturbances of Man
Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
Shahrnush Parsipur, Kissing the Sword
Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary
Katha Pollitt, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights
Claudia Rankine, Citizen
Alifa Rifaat, Distant View of a Minaret and Others Stories
Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not An Option
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Vedrana Rudan, Night
Sonia Sanchez, Does Your House Have Lions?
Sappho, The Complete Works of Sappho
Noo Saro-Wiwa, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
Åsne Seierstad, The Angel of Grozny
Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton
Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mom
Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book
Ana Maria Shuah, The Weight of Temptation
Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead
Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Marivi Soliven, The Mango Bride
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Susan Sontag, Styles of Radical Will
Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love
Gertrude Stein, Fernhurst, Q.E.D., and other early writings
Aoibbhean Sweeney, Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking
Elizabeth Crane, When the Messenger Is Hot
Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
Valerie Taylor, The Girls in 3-B
Lygia Fagunda Telles, The Girl in the Photograph
Lynne Tillman, No Lease on Life
Dubravka Ugresic, Thank You For Not Reading
Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters Street
Kirstin Valdez Quade, Night at the Fiestas
Jean Valentine, Little Boat
Lara Vapnyar, There Are Jews in My House
Marja-Liisa Vartio, The Parson’s Widow
Josefina Vicens, The Empty Book
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter
Phillis Wheatley, The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley
Zoe Wicomb, You Can’t Get Lost In Cape Town
Joy Williams, The Visiting Privilege
G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
Sarah E. Wright, This Child’s Gonna Live
Tiphanie Yanique, Land of Love and Drowning
Samar Yazbek, Cinnamon
Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen
Haifa Zangana, Dreaming of Baghdad