Looking at the Atlantic Slave Trade From Another Perspective

I spent the eight weeks leading up to Christmas working on a short book on the trans-Atlantic slave trade for high school libraries. Quite frankly, it kicked my butt. I took the assignment because I wanted something to distract myself with while my agent took my proposal for Women Warriors out on submission.* I knew…

Read More

Rejected Princesses

I’ve been following Jason Porath’s Tumblr Rejected Princesses (and the blog that followed it and the Facebook page) for two years and a bit.  The project began in a discussion with his Dreamworks’ co-workers over what historical woman was least likely to be the heroine of a children’s animated movie.  He discovered that few of…

Read More

From the Archives: Why You Can’t Vote

If you’ve been hanging around the Margins for a while, you’ve read this one before. I think it’s worth repeating. From sixth century Athens on, who has the vote and why has been a touchy and evolving subject in democracies. People who already have the vote have hesitated to extend it to others for two…

Read More