Erica Isotta: “I fight gender inequalities with literature”

A law degree from Bocconi, various experiences in Ireland, Spain, France and the Netherlands, where she has now settled down and works as a commercial consultant for companies in the technology sector, but above all a great passion for writing and reading. By combining these skills and attitudes, Erica Isotta, twenty-nine years old from Milan, gave birth to Women Plot, a publishing house born just a year ago with the aim of reduce gender inequalities through literature and publishing.

“As a writer, in the second book published with a Roman publishing house, I became aware of the gender inequalities also present in the publishing field and I chose to take the field in defense of women’s rights” so Erica recalls the origin of her idea contained also in the question “Why don’t we study enough authors during the hours of Italian literature at school?”.

To fill this gap, in a literary context that only publishes 30% of authors, has decided to make her contribution to supporting female writers by publishing their books and amplifying their voices.

So far there are about thirty emerging authors, coming from every corner of Italy and of any age, who work alongside great writers of the past, such as Matilde Serao, Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen.

«The selection criterion», he explains «is contained in the theme of emancipation treated in the volume. And this also applies to the writers of the past that we republish: the message they convey is fundamental, in line with our mission. Like, for example, Cristina di Belgioioso, who jumped to the headlines for the statue dedicated to her recently in Milan, on which, however, we had already paused, “exhuming” one of her works imbued with female independence ».

The concept of this young publishing house, which aims to become “The Netflix of books written by women”, it evolved quickly. In a few months, the team of Women Plot, led by Erica Isotta and made up of several under 30s as competent as they are passionate, in addition to translating books into English, French and Spanish and also publishing ebooks and audio books, she has structured a real women’s movement.

In a sector that they define as “dusty”, they felt the need to transform the individual experience of reading into a collective activity, made even more democratic by the digital world, which goes hand in hand with a form of activism: from marketplace where it is also possible to buy books from other small independent publishing houses, supporting an idea of ​​free collaboration between women for a more equal society, reading in magical places and the exchange of books, up to bookclub and to the podcast in which they host writers and address the hot topics of current affairs, such as, lately, the Zan Bill, transfeminism, ghosting, the law on spontaneous abortion in New Zealand.