Women Authors of Banned Books
Sarah Ambrus • March 1, 2025

March is Women’s History Month and Lioness Books would like to take the time to honor female authors who have written banned or challenged books. These books are available as audiobooks and hardcopy books to be purchased on our website. We encourage you, as readers, to open your minds to these stories and fight against ongoing book bans. 

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale


In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead’s commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive. At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense,
The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic.



More Books by Margaret Atwood

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Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale


In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead’s commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive. At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense,
The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic.



More Books by Margaret Atwood

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Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time


Late one night, three otherworldly creatures appear and sweep Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe away on a mission to save Mr. Murray, who has gone missing while doing top-secret work for the government. They travel via tesseract--a wrinkle that transports one across space and time--to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murray is being held captive. There they discover a dark force that threatens not only Mr. Murray but the safety of the whole universe.


A Wrinkle in Time
is the first book in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet.


More Books by Madeleine L’Engle

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Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings


Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

 

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.


Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.


More Books by Maya Angelou

Purchase I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

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Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings


Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

 

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.


More Books by Maya Angelou

Purchase I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Purchase Audiobook

Toni Morrison

Beloved


Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. 


More Books by Toni Morrison

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Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones


"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."


So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.


More Books by Alice Sebold

Purchase The Lovely Bones

Purchase Audiobook


Check out the full list of recommendations here.

Audiobooks here.

Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones


"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."


So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.


More Books by Alice Sebold

Purchase The Lovely Bones

Purchase Audiobook


Check out the full list of recommendations here.

Audiobooks here.

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