Long before women writers such as Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich and Maxine Hong Kingston became literary greats, black, Asian and American Indian women made history in the U.S. and Canada by pursuing writing as a craft. They penned short stories, novels and essays during a period in which people of color were still openly considered “savages” and women were widely regarded as the inferior sex. Despite these perceptions, women writers such as Nella Larsen, Zitkala-Sa and Sui Sin Far—each born before 1900—made the courageous decision to record their thoughts and experiences, forever changing the American literary landscape.

•Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)

Edith Maude Eaton was born in Macclesfield, England, in 1865 to a Chinese mother and an English father. When Eaton was a small child, her family moved to North America, first to New York and then to Montreal, Quebec. She endured bullying as a child because of her mixed-race heritage. The eldest of 14 children, Eaton also had the burden of helping to support her family, dropping out of school for that reason. Despite this setback, Eaton managed to become a writer, working as a journalist, stenographer and short story writer. Assuming the pen name Sui Sin Far much of the time, Eaton used her writings to challenge racial stereotypes about the Chinese and shine a light on what life was like in Chinese communities at the turn of the century. Her notable works include the autobiographical essay, “Leaves From the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian” (1909) and Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912). Her younger sister, Winifred Lillie Eaton (Onoto Watanna), wrote the first so-called Asian-American novel, Miss Nume of Japan, in 1899. The elder Eaton, however, wrote the first fiction of any kind about Asians in North America. Her short story “The Gamblers” appeared in Fly Leaf journal in 1896. After a series of health challenges throughout her life, including rheumatoid arthritis and malaria, Eaton died at age 49 in 1914.More »

•Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)

A Sioux Indian of the Yankton band, Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird) was born in South Dakota in1876. She became a published author in 1901 with the debut of her story collection rooted in Sioux culture, Old Indian Legends. Twenty years later the autobiographical essays she originally wrote for Harper’s and Atlantic Monthly in 1900 and 1901 appeared in the book American Indian Stories. In the 1979 forward to that book, Dexter Fisher points out that Zitkala-Sa’s autobiographical writings mark one of the earliest efforts by a Native American woman to tell her story without consulting an editor, ethnographer or interpreter. She wrote, in part, to preserve the culture of the Yankton Sioux and also to describe the encroachment of European culture on indigenous peoples. She herself had been educated in white boarding schools, which created a rift between Zitkala-Sa and family members who viewed her Western education as suspect. In mid-life, Zitkala-Sa became a fierce advocate for American Indians, urging the federal government to provide Native peoples with employment opportunities, citizenship and to settle tribal land claims fairly. Zitkala-Sa died in 1938.More »

•Nella Larsen

Novelist and short story writer Nella Larsen was born in 1891 in Chicago to a Danish mother and a father of either African-American or Caribbean origin. Larsen’s parents separated, and her mother married a white man. Conflicted about having to raise a biracial black daughter, Larsen’s mother eventually sent her away to live abroad for a few years with relatives in Denmark. Larsen received training as a nurse at black institution Fisk University as well as at Lincoln Hospital and Nursing Home in New York. In addition to working as a nurse, Larsen worked as a librarian. She lived in New York City during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance. Inspired by her love of reading and the artistic movement around her, Larsen began writing short stories. Her most notable works are novellas, however. Quicksand (1928) chronicles a young, biracial woman whose life mirrors Larsen’s in many ways. Passing (1929) explores the ramifications of leaving behind the black race to live as white. After the successes of these works, Larsen seemed poised for literary greatness. In 1930 she became the first black woman to receive a Guggenheim fellowship. However, her career took an irreversible hit that same year when she was accused of plagiarizing her short story “Sanctuary,” a charge she denied. Larsen eventually withdrew from literary life and resumed work as a nurse. She died in 1964.More »