The Annapolis Book Festival, (L to R): Nikole Hannah-Jones; Keith Boykin; Candace Dodson-Reed.

“There is power in narrative,” said Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and creator of the 1619 Project , to an eager and nodding crowd of hundreds of fans and book lovers at the recent 22nd Annual Annapolis Book Festival.

Noteworthy that 32 out of 53 featured authors speaking at the festival identify as female, the authors recently shared their work documenting in nonfiction and fiction books –among many topics--the stories of women across history for audiences from children and young adult to adults. More than 3,000 attendees savored 35 sessions throughout the day of panels, discussions, talks and signings.

As a presenting author, I noticed the books with a theme of narratives of women changing history and aiming to shift the present and the future.

““There is power in narrative.”—Nikole Hannah-Jones @takeleadwomen #truth #storytelling #socialjustice”

This may be reflective of publishing trends. “Studies consistently show women to be more avid readers than men,” according to Your Tango. “In recent years, female authors have been grabbing the spotlight in larger numbers than ever before. BookTok is mostly female-led, which means that reviewers are starting to take over the traditionally male book review trend.”

Book sales in the U.S. are healthy, Statista reports in 2024,” Print book sales figures have improved and unit sales now consistently surpass 700 million per year. Print also remains the most popular book format among U.S. consumers, with 65 percent of adults having read a print book in the last twelve months.”

At the festival, Vicki Valosik, author of Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water, and master synchronized swimmer herself, shared, “Synchronized swimming became an Olympic sport in 1984 for women only,” almost eight decades after it was a popular source of entertainment starring women.

Australian Annette Kellermann in the early 1900s was “one of the most famous women in aquatics, a role model and gave public lectures for women,” said Valosik, editorial director at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she also teaches graduate-level writing courses.

Kellermann, a silent film and vaudeville performer, was also an early feminist advocating to eradicate corsets. “You can’t be brave when you can’t breathe,” she said in a 1907 speech.

The star of the 1914 silent movie, “Neptune’s Daughter,” Kellermann fought for access to swimming pools as it was a race and class issue, Valosik said. “She advocated for women to have the right to wear a one-piece, lighter weight bathing suit.” So she created one and is considered the mother of the modern swimsuit.

In her most recent biography, The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters, author Susan Page, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of USA Today, says of the legendary broadcast journalist, “As a print journalist, I saw she did things no woman had done before. A woman could scoop all the male anchors, and a woman could make as much money as s man,” Page said.

“Walters made $1 million a year when Walter Cronkite made $400,000. So there was never a question I could do interviews and make money,” said Page, who has covered 12 presidential elections and eight administrations, and interviewed the past 10 presidents.

Walters, former NBC “Today Show” co-anchor with Harry Reasoner; “ABC Evening News” co-anchor; “20/20” co-host,” and creator of the all-female show, “The View,” did “the Monica Lewinsky interview that is still the highest rated interview on a single network in the history of television--a record likely to stand forever,” Page said.

The author of the earlier biographies, Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power and The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, Page said, all three legendary women were “members of the silent generation who became women of great consequence.” Walters, according to Page, “was a person of such energy and smarts, she ignored the hurdles she faced.”

“In her recent biography of Barbara Walters, author Susan Page of USAToday writes, “She was a person of such energy and smarts, she ignored the hurdles she faced.” @USAToday #womeninmedia ”

Page, who interviewed 130 people for this book (but not Walters), said that when Walters passed in 2022 at the age of 93 (which is under debate because she never disclosed her age), she had chosen to become a recluse due to her condition following a fall that left her compromised and in a wheelchair. Not wanting to be photographed or seen in public, she did not leave her apartment for several years and cut off ties with friends.

“She lived a life out loud and in the last several years was silenced,” Page said.

At 87, Katherine Haas, former teacher at Key School, where the festival is held, and author of Little Jade, said she wrote “a book about racism and trying to find identity.” Growing up with a heritage of Chinese and German, Haas, said she knew no one else like her in school or elsewhere.

Twenty years ago, Haas said, she found a group of Lakota Sioux Indians and for the first time felt welcomed in community.

Venturing to write this memoir during the pandemic, Haas said it was both “painful and cathartic,” and is a book aimed at an audience of young adults.

““Holding memories up to the light” is what author Nicole Chung achieves in her memoirs. #storytelling #truth #history”

“Holding memories up to the light” is what Nicole Chung, author of the bestselling memoirs, A Living Remedy and All You Can Ever Know, said is her goal in writing memoir.

Describing her life as an adoptee by a white family the Pacific Northwest, Chung said, “I was the only Korean I knew until I was 19. I grew up in racial isolation.”

Speaking of the complexities of life including caretaking of aging, ill parents, and the current cultural climate, Chung said that now as a mother of two daughters, 14 and 17 years old, she takes solace in the idea that, “Knowing you can’t do everything, but you can do something.”

She added, “You can’t look at young people and feel hopeless. We owe it to them to keep fighting for their future alongside them.”

It is the younger generation of GenZ, particularly young women, who are moving forces in politics and culture. Melissa Deckman, author of The Politics of GenZ: How The Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy, and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, is a political scientist focused on these issues.

“Gen Z women are participating in politics, have a commitment to women’s rights, gun control, racial justice and climate change and are doing a lot of activism, such as in widespread marches,” Deckman said. “Their lived experiences are things that impact them in ways that did not impact their parents.”

““Gen Z women are participating in politics, have a commitment to women’s rights, gun control, racial justice and climate change and are doing a lot of activism.” —Author Melissa Deckman #Genz #womensrights #leadership”

She added that many of this generation of women embrace the label of feminists. “One in two Zoomers is a non-white, strong, self-assured woman. One in four zoomers are LGBTQ,” Deckman said.

“Gen Z do not rely on legacy media. Most news information comes from their phones,” Deckman explained. “Gen Z women would not have been able to galvanize and organize without social media. They see the world isn’t just, and ask, ‘What can I do to bring justice to the world?’”

During the pandemic and afterward with its “COVID fumes,” there was a gendered effect on responses,” said Jim Zervanos, author of Your Story Starts Here: A Year on The Brink With Generation Z. A high school teacher in the Philadelphia suburbs for two decades, Zervanos said, “Boys retreated back into their shells and girls projected activism and energy.”

In a separate discussion, Hannah-Jones, creator of the award-winning 1619 docuseries and Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University where she is the founding director of the Center for Journalism & Democracy, said, “I feel energized, I don’t feel hopeful. We use hope as an anesthesia, so that we don’t have to do anything now. Whether or not our society is just is about us choosing to make it so.”

She added that the systems of racism that have been constructed can also be deconstructed. “I want us to change the structures of power. Social movements are all about young people. There is a reason young people feel free to challenge systems.”

Postcards at the book festival stating, “Don’t Give Up The Ship,” noted that the Department of Defense recently ordered the nearby U.S. Naval Academy to remove 381 banned books from the Academy’s Nimitz Library.

The back of the postcard reads: “Because books belong in hands, not cages.”

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com

Power Sources: Learn The Stories of Women Changing Systems Past, Present, Future

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