Laura Bell

Laura Bell is an inspirational and unique storyteller who brings a strong female voice to the page. She writes stories that explore and uncover the hidden life of women, featuring larger-than-life female characters who inhabit a powerful and captivating world. Bell has twelve published novel length works, many of them received with critical acclaim and awards.

Bell has had a long career as an independent author and started with her first book in 1990. Her works have explored the struggles of women in a patriarchal society, often focusing on the effects of oppression on women in their day-to-day lives. Her writing reflects her strong feminism and depicts female characters who are strong, independent, and resilient. Bell rarely gives her characters a happy ending-she goes further, delving into the difficulty of being a woman in a world that wants to keep you down, and how to stay true to yourself through it all.

One of Bell's most acclaimed books is “Conspirita: The Little Sister”, which won the 2019 IPPY Bronze Medal for Fiction. This book is a story of pain and struggle, but with an uplifting message at its core. Conspirita is a story of a girl growing up in Mexico who is facing the limit of restrictions placed on females by men in her family. Although the protagonist respects her father and knows that he loves her, she still feels strongly about the inequality in the world, and determines to do something about it. After Calpurnia, the main character, begins her journey to find her great-grandmother's magic, she discovers a world she never could have imagined. Along the way, she discovers an inner strength she never knew she had and finds that she is capable of more than she ever realized.

In addition to “Conspirita: The Little Sister”, Bell has written a number of other books that explore the difficulties of womanhood in different places and contexts. “Tails of Love” is a romantic comedy that follows a group of women who are trying to start a feminist theatre group. The novel shows how difficult it can be for women to maneuver within a male-dominated world. Meanwhile, Bell's “Treasures from the Basement” is a bildungsroman that follows a young woman's journey of self-discovery as she navigates society's judgement of her. This work is particularly important given that it portrays the ways in which women can be shackled by the expectation that they fit narrow molds.

The writer’s vibrant and evocative tales bring to life the struggles and struggles of female characters, showing how they navigate their lives within a world that often doesn't create space for them. Bell weaves fantastic stories with strong feminist views to create works of fiction that provide entertainment while pushing the conversation around female empowerment forward. Bell has created a world populated by women who are strong, independent, and resilient, making her work an invaluable comment on life for modern-day women.