By Irena Choi Stern, Co-Vice President, Friends of the Bronxville Public Library

Apr. 10, 2019:  The most highly anticipated women’s world cup yet will kick off in Paris on June 7, but the popularity of the game is entirely down to the players and the battles they’ve fought both on and off the field. The U.S. team leads the way not only in trophies won but also in campaigning for equal pay and leading the charge for women everywhere.

Bronxville’s Gemma Clarke is the author of a new book, Soccerwomen: The Icons, Rebels, Stars, and Trailblazers Who Transformed the Beautiful Game. On May 2 at 7:00 pm at the Bronxville Public Library, she will be in conversation with Andrea Montalbano, the voice and author of Soccer Sisters and also a soccer star in high school and co-captain of the women’s soccer team at Harvard. In 2008, Montalbano was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2008.

In an event sponsored by the Friends of the Bronxville Public Library, the two women will discuss the upcoming 2019 Women's World Cup and the incredible stories of soccer’s pioneers, champions, unsung heroes, and future stars around the world.

“Where we are now with women’s soccer is because of all those who’ve come before,” said Rebecca Lowe, NBC sports anchor. “And my goodness, what stories they can tell.”

A journalist who has written about soccer for the Guardian, the Observer, the Times (UK), the Daily Telegraph, and the London Evening Standard, Clarke was the first female publications editor for a Premier League soccer club and a founding member of Women in Football. As a child, she played on a boys' soccer team in north London and at the Arsenal soccer schools, where she was the only girl.

Montalbano left broadcast journalism to write books after a long career at NBC News and authored Breakaway in 2010. Determined to create a series for girls, she created the Soccer Sisters novels, which Olympic and World Cup champion Brandi Chastain has described as "exactly the kind of book I wish I'd had the chance to read as a girl." She is involved in global philanthropic efforts to promote women’s soccer, as well as gender equality on and off the field.

The event will take place on Thursday, May 2, at 7:00 pm in the Yeager Room of the Bronxville Public Library. Books are available for sale at Womrath Bookshop.

Pictured here:  At top: Gemma Clarke (photo by Stark Sands); second photo: Andrea Montalbano (photo by I. Choi Stern).

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