Cathleen Miller discusses Maine women writers on MPBN鈥檚 "Maine Calling"
On May 4, 2016, Cathleen Miller, M.A., M.L.S., curator of SWAG视频鈥檚 Maine Women Writers Collection, was a guest on MPBN鈥檚 radio program 鈥淢aine Calling鈥 to discuss Maine Women in History.
Miller introduced listeners to two remarkable women writers from Maine: Sally Wood, considered the first American female writer of gothic fiction, and Ruth Moore, whose novel Spoonhandle was made into a movie, Deep Water.
Miller shared her views on the value of collecting writing from Maine women writers, as opposed to Maine writers in general.鈥淲hy we collect 飞辞尘别苍鈥檚 voices, specifically, is one that always comes up in my work, and I think what women struggle against to create that work historically and still is [that] women are having kids; they鈥檙e taking care of their families; and they鈥檙e writing books,鈥 she said.
鈥淚n our collection, we have 飞辞尘别苍鈥檚 diaries, which tell the stories of women who didn鈥檛 have the luxury of writing books or didn鈥檛 have the time to become educated. But they wrote little notes about their lives, and those tell us really important details about history that are not written in the history books.鈥