Literary Aviatrix: The Power of Story - Women in Aviation
Join Liz Booker as she interviews authors whose books feature women in aviation from across genres, historical periods, and types of flying, and be inspired by the tenacity, adventure, and courage of our sisters in the air. * Liz not only promotes books featuring women in aviation, but also provides the tools and information for other women to tell their stories. Check out Writers' Room interviews for in-depth discussions on writing, publishing, and book promotion. * Liz is a retired Coast Guard helicopter pilot and writer, and host of the Aviatrix Book Club, Aviatrix Writers' Group, and Literary Aviatrix website where you'll find hundreds of books featuring women in aviation for all ages. * Sign up for the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter to stay up to date on book news and book discussions and follow her on social media @LiteraryAviatrix. * https://linktr.ee/literaryaviatrix
Episodes
Pioneering airline pilot Lynn Rippelmeyer reflects on her extraordinary journey from being hired as a TWA stewardess in the early 1970s to becoming one of the first women to fly the Boeing 747, and later retiring from United Airlines after a career shaped both by deregulation, mergers, and furloughs, and by generosity, unexpected opportunities, and adventure.
We talk about her two-part memoir, beginning with Life Takes...
If you love daring women, vintage airplanes, and real-world adventure, you’re going to love this one. Pilot and author Tracey Curtis-Taylor shares her journey from a $15 introductory flight in Canada to flying her restored 1942 Stearman across Africa, from UK to Australia, and across the United States. We talk about her inspirations — Lady Mary Heath, Amy Johnson, Out of Africa — and her experiences confronting backla...
Hold on to your flight goggles — this episode might be our juiciest Literary Aviatrix Classics yet.
In this roundtable, Dr. Jacque Boyd, Captain Jenny Beatty, and I dive into Aviatrix: The Story of Elinor Smith, the 1981 memoir of the teenage pilot who took the 1920s aviation world by storm.
Elinor Smith — “The Flying Flapper of Freeport” — was famous for flying under New York’s East River bridges at just seventeen, set...
At age 47, Mary Build took her very first flight lesson. What followed was a remarkable 30-year career in aviation—flying seaplanes, running her own seaplane base in Maine, flying to Alaska, competing in the Air Race Classic, and serving as a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE).
In this interview, Mary shares her powerful journey from overcoming personal challenges to becoming a respected leader in aviation. We talk about ...
In this episode, I sit down with Captain Tammie Jo Shults — one of the first women to fly Navy tactical jets, longtime Southwest Airlines captain, and author of Nerves of Steel.
Tammie Jo is best known for her extraordinary leadership on Southwest Flight 1380, but as she shares in this conversation, her story is about much more than one day in the cockpit. It’s about the obstacles she faced along the way, the resilienc...
This is my first in-person interview, recorded at Patty Bear’s home in a medieval village in Provence. Her new book, Captain Patty’s Wisdom Hacks, launches September 9 and is available for preorder now.
We bridge the years after her memoir From Plain to Plane—from USAF KC-135 pilot (Desert Shield/Desert Storm) to nearly 30 years at United Airlines, parenting, coaching, and building a life between the U.S. and France.
In...
This June, I sat down with bestselling author Tracey Enerson Wood to talk about her newest historical novel, Katharine, the Wright Sister: A Novel (2024). The book shines a spotlight on Katharine Wright, the often-overlooked sister of Wilbur and Orville Wright—whose contributions were vital to the invention and promotion of the airplane.
Tracey and I talk about her path from registered nurse to novelist, her love of wr...
From growing up in a Gandhian school in India, to serving ten years in the Indian Army, to founding a thriving flight school in South Florida, Yogini “Yogi” Modi’s journey in aviation is extraordinary.
In this interview, Yogi shares how her father’s encouragement sparked her passion for flying, how she became one of the Indian Army’s microlight pilots, and how she has dedicated her career to training and mentoring the ...
Shirley M. Phillips is a pioneering female pilot and author whose new aviation memoir, How Not to Fly an Airplane, captures four decades of pilot life stories and lessons from the cockpit. From her start as a teenage student pilot in New Hampshire to becoming the first pregnant airline pilot at her company, Shirley’s career in aviation is filled with grit, humor, and resilience.
In this pilot interview, Shirley shares ...
In this interview with author Lucille Ponte, writing under the penname Bridges DelPonte, we talk about the fabulous fourteen women featured in her non-fiction anthology, She Soars: Trailblazing Female Pilots in Florida, and her professional advocacy for women’s equality in the military as an attorney and law professor. The book highlights fun and interesting facts about names we know from our cast of women in aviation...
In this interview I talk with author Leona Cobham about the latest in her middle grade chapter book series featuringa cast of vintage British aircraft characters, Airplane Adventures Flying Circus: Above and Beyond. I first interviewed Leona in 2023, and we talked briefly about her grandfather, Sir Alan Cobham and his pioneering contributions to air-to-air refueling. We talk a little more about his advocacy for the ad...
In this interview with debut author Carolyn Dasher, we talk about her new novel, American Sky, which features two women who join the WASP in WWII and their legacy across three generations.
Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/american-sky/
The blurb:
Three generations of indomitable women navigate life on their terms in an epic and inspiring historical novel about love and war, fa...
In this interview with Nicole Glover, author of the Aviatrix Book Club discussion book for June 2025, The Improvisers, we talk about how she wove historical themes of aviation, race and civil rights, historically Black communities, music, family, and sisterhood into a magical fantasy fiction mystery set in the 1930s.
Buy the Book:
https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/the-improvisers-a-murder-and-magic-novel/
Finally, another Literary Aviatrix Classics episode with my guest hosts Dr. Jacque Boyd and Captain Jenny Beatty! This episode is all about Amy Johnson. We started off with her book Sky Roads to the World but, truth in advertising, we did not love this book. It’s a great history of aviation exploits of the time with insightful predictions of what aviation would offer in the future, but we gleaned almost nothing about ...
In this interview with author, lawyer, and pilot Erin Miller, we talk about her journey through the halls of congress to change federal law so she and her family could honor her WASP Grandmother, Elaine Danforth Harmon's wish to be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a...
In this Writers' Room conversation with author Susan Tate Ankeny, author of two historical works, we talk about her journey to publish her first book, The Girl and the Bombardier: A True Story of Resistance and Rescue in Nazi Occupied-France about her father's experience in WWII, and how that led to her agent offering her the opportunity to write and publish, American Flygirl, about WWII WASP Hazel Ying Lee....
In this interview with author Susan Tate Ankeny, we talk about her biography of Chinese American WWII Women Air Force Service Pilot, Hazel Ying Lee, American Flygirl, the Aviatrix Book Club discussion book for May 2025.
Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/american-flygirl/
Children's Books about Hazel:
https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/the-fearless-flights-of-hazel-ying-lee/
In this interview with author Becky Aikman we talk about her new book Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger about the women who flew for the Air Transport Auxiliary in Britain.
Buy the book: https://literaryaviatrix.com/book/spitfires/
The blurb:
The heart-pounding true story of the daring American women who piloted the most dangerous aircraft of World War II through...
In this writers' room interview I talk with Heather B. Moore, who has been writing for 20 years and is a USA Today best-selling author with over a hundred books published about her writing journey. She offers her tips on launching a writing career, how to navigate publishing, and shares how she manages her writing life.
Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Boo...
In this interview with Amanda Harrison we talk about her memoir, Solo2Darwin: In the Footsteps of Amy Johnson, in which she recounts her attempt to fly solo from England to Australia in her vintage open cockpit Tiger Moth. We also talk about the other themes shared in her book about grieving the loss of her father, her breast cancer journey, and the experience of navigating life with dyslexia.
I mention Eliz...
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