Women and Children First Virtual Anthology Reading: WE ARE THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB

Join us on Women & Children First's Crowdcast Channel for an anthology reading celebrating the release of We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays and Artwork from Grown-Up Readers. Editors Megan Milks & Marisa Crawford will be joined by contributors Yumi Sakugawa, Jami Sailor, Logan Hughes, Kelly Blewett & Myriam Gurba for readings, a conversation, and maybe even some BSC trivia!

In 1986, the first-ever meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club was called to order in a messy bedroom strewn with RingDings, scrunchies, and a landline phone. Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne launched the club that birthed an entire generation of loyal readers.

Ann M. Martin’s Baby-Sitters Club series featured a complex cast of characters and touched on an impressive range of issues that were underrepresented at the time: divorce, adoption, childhood illness, class division, and racism, to name a few.

In We Are the Baby-Sitters Club, writers and a few visual artists from the original BSC generation will reflect on the enduring legacy of Ann M. Martin’s beloved series, thirty-five years later—celebrating the BSC’s profound cultural influence.

Marisa Crawford's writing on pop culture, art and feminism has appeared in Harper's BAZAAR, The Nation, Hyperallergic, VICE, and elsewhere. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Reversible and The Haunted House, both from Switchback Books.

Megan Milks is the author of Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body and Slug and Other Stories, both forthcoming from Feminist Press, as well as Tori Amos Bootleg Webring, the second installment in Instar Books’ new Remember the Internet series.

Kelly Blewett is an assistant professor of English at Indiana University East, where she directs the undergraduate writing program and teaches writing and pedagogy courses. Her scholarship explores writing pedagogy, reading, editorial practices, and feedback. She’s still an avid reader who journals about what she’s reading.

Myriam Gurba is a writer and artist. She is the author of the true-crime memoir Mean, a New York Times editors’ choice. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the Paris Review, TIME.com, and 4Columns. She has shown art in galleries, museums, and community centers. She lives in Long Beach, California, with herself.

Logan Hughes is a software developer, birdwatcher, and fanfic enthusiast. He is the author of Sixth Grade Detective, a middle grades interactive novel from Choice of Games. He lives in Boston with his partner and a growing collection of succulents.

Jami Sailor is a librarian living and working in the Arizona desert. They have been making zines, small-circulation self-published magazines, for almost as long as they've been diabetic. Jami's favorite beverage is lemonade, which yes, sometimes makes their blood sugar high.

Yumi Sakugawa is a second-generation, Japanese-Okinawan-American interdisciplinary artist and the author of several books including I Think I Am in Friend-Love With You, Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe, and The Little Book of Life Hacks. She currently lives in Los Angeles.