Women of Mayo Clinic: The Founding Generation has been named a Minnesota Book Award Finalist

I am so grateful for this news. My goal in writing the book was to make more people aware of these inspirational women and to encourage others. This recognition will help further that cause at time when women’s history and stories are not sufficiently being represented in the media and publication world.

The honor is even more significant to me coming from a public library. Public libraries in the United States represent a cornerstone of our democracy, open to everyone, and empowering anyone willing to read something longer than a tweet!

Virginia M. Wright-Peterson’s first book, Women of Mayo Clinic: The Founding Generation, was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in 2017 and a Chinese translation was released in 2018. Her second book, A Woman’s War, Too: Women at Work During WWII (April 2020) reveals vivid stories of contribution and sacrifice, including women serving in every branch of the military and working in vital roles in factories, shipyards, mines, homes, and communities. Many women relocated during the war years, and they were present at every important battle of the war overseas. Virginia Wright-Peterson has searched for stories that challenge our understanding of ourselves and our world. She has been especially committed to collecting, preserving, and sharing women’s stories often missing in published histories, including the daily news. In her search for a broader perspective, she deployed to a military base in Iraq with the American Red Cross and taught as a Fulbright Scholar at University of Algiers. Virginia Wright-Peterson has a Ph.D. in English and currently serves in administration at University of Minnesota Rochester.