Three Memoirs & Biographies to Read for Women's History Month

March is a very special month, especially for me. We celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th, and Women’s History Month for all thirty-one days. Additionally, my kind and loving mother was born in March. As a staunch queer and intersectional feminist librarian, and former women and gender studies major in college, I am forever passionate about centering ALL women’s stories and experiences. If you, too, are itching to read about the fascinating lives of three incredible women of the past and present, look no further than this short, but mighty list! 

Fairest is Meredith Talusan’s beautiful memoir of growing up poor in the Phillipines, immigrating to the U.S., attending Harvard University, coming out as a nonbinary trans-feminine person in the early 2000s and being mistaken for white for much of her life. Talusan is a journalist and a contributing editor at them. 

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry is an intimate glimpse into Hansberry’s short but active life as a Black lesbian feminist playwright and intellectual in the twentieth century. While she is most well-known for her play, A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry was also very active in civil rights work.  

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib was one of my favorite books of 2019. Habib shares her journey of self-discovery as a queer Muslim woman by way of travel, immigration, visiting old neighborhoods in Toronto and developing a love of photography. Habib is a Pakistani Canadian photographer, writer and activist. Be sure to also check out her amazing photography project, Just Me and Allah.