In 2017, VIDA: Blog of the Australian Women’s History Network will be participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

The AWW challenge was set up to help overcome gender bias in the reviewing of books by Australian women. The challenge encourages avid readers and book bloggers, male and female, living in or outside Australia, to read and review books by Australian women throughout the year. You don’t have to be a writer to sign up. You can choose to read and review, or read only.

To do so, we are seeking book reviewers to review new and classic works by Australian women historians.

Should you be interested in participating, we can usually facilitate access to review copies of new works by Australian women historians.

For an example of a VIDA blog book review, check out Rachel Harris’s 2016 review of Jane Jose‘s recent architectural history.

For a review of a classic Australian history book, check out VIDA blog Managing Editor Ana Stevenon’s 2015 AWW review of Beverley Kingston; and also more recent histories by Clare Corbould, Frances M. Clarke, and Clare Wright.

To participate further, check out the AWW guidelines and get involved on social media:

If you’re on Twitter, follow @auswomenwriters and use the #aww2017 hashtag to tweet links to your reviews, and to share in discussions of interest to AWW participants.

If you are interested in writing a book review for VIDA blog over the course of 2017, please contact the blog’s managing editors, Alana Piper and Ana Stevenson: auswhn@gmail.com.