Ann Ferrar

Journalist and author Ann Ferrar is best known as the long-time biographer of motorcycling pioneer Bessie Stringfield and as the author of "Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles and the Rapture of the Road" (NY: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996; NH: Whitehorse Press, 2000).

Ferrar is an accomplished writer of narrative non-fiction. Her motorcycle lifestyle articles have been published in The New York Times. Her feature stories on women's issues and eclectic human-interest subjects have been published in national women's magazines, newspaper syndication and online venues.

In response to worldwide interest in the late Bessie Stringfield via Ferrar’s story on Bessie in "Hear Me Roar," the author is writing a new biographical memoir called "African American Queen of the Road: The Untold Story of Bessie Stringfield, A Memoir of Race, Resilience and the Road." (Visit https://BessieStringfieldBook.com for more info.)

The coming biography-memoir, well underway and copyright-protected at every juncture, is expanding on Ferrar’s story "Bessie B. Stringfield: The Color Blue." This short-form, non-fiction narrative written by Ferrar for "Hear Me Roar" is the story that first introduced the unknown Bessie Stringfield to an admiring worldwide readership.

Ann met Bessie at the start of her research and motorcycle road trips for "Hear Me Roar." A former biker herself, Ferrar became friends with Bessie in the last three years of Bessie’s life (she died in 1993). The two women formed a personal legacy pact whereby Bessie asked Ann to write her biography.

The author felt privileged when Bessie gave Ann the gift of her life story (aka her life rights), so that Ann could keep Bessie’s memory and legacy alive in her published writings. Ann conducted and recorded Bessie's exclusive oral history on audio tape and began writing original stories on the life of Ms. Stringfield. Bessie was unknown to the national public and she had been overlooked even by black and women's historians. Ferrar's audio tapes of Ms. Stringfield are copyright-protected and reside in the Library of Congress; they are not available to the public.

Ferrar rode her own motorcycles for 18 years, owning six different bikes ranging from Hondas to BMWs. She began riding in her native New York City and became an assertive urban biker and a long-distance solo rider. Hear Me Roar was a groundbreaking book in its genre. Ferrar, with her background in journalism and her passion for women's studies, produced a book that was the first to chronicle this little-known facet of women's mobility and gender role-reversal throughout the 20th century.

To research and write Hear Me Roar between 1990 and 1996, the author interviewed scores of women bikers, rode tens of thousands of miles around America alone, and was a participant-observer in dozens of motorcycle rallies and other biker events. Ferrar was the first journalist to unearth the hidden history of early women riders from the turn of the last century.

Ferrar met and interviewed early female pioneers of motorcycling, including Bessie Stringfield, and Dot Robinson and Vera Griffin of the Motor Maids, each legendary in their day. Ferrar met descendants of the Van Buren sisters and other outstanding, hidden women. Modern-day women riders in the pages of Hear Me Roar include Becky Brown, founder of Women in the Wind international motorcycle club, and Sue Slate and Gin Shear, who founded the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation and launched the Pony Express National Ride for Breast Cancer Research, a relay around the continental United States. Ferrar also met and featured dozens of other female bikers who made their mark in motorcycle sports and in different subcultures and biker lifestyles.

To discover deceased women who made their mark in the very early 1900's, Ferrar did thorough research in archives, niche museums and specialized libraries. Most significantly, Ferrar discovered, preserved and wrote the amazing hidden history of Bessie Stringfield, who was, and still is, singular even among so many other daring, accomplished women.

Hear Me Roar was critically acclaimed and covered by The New York Times, CNN, Entertainment Weekly and other media outlets. The author's LinkedIn page has excerpts from Hear Me Roar. Also on her LinkedIn page are some of Ann's motorcycle lifestyle articles written for The New York Times, including "Windswept Freedom on Two Fast Wheels," "Uneasy Rider" and "To Roar or Not to Roar."

The author's website introducing her upcoming book "African American Queen of the Road" is at https://BessieStringfieldBook.com.

Ferrar has been interviewed about Bessie Stringfield by media outlets ranging from The New York Times and the German magazine Der Spiegel, to Harley-Davidson's upscale Enthusiast magazine, to Broadly.vice.com, aimed at the LGBTQ community. Interest in Bessie Stringfield via Ann's stories could not get more diverse and concurrently more universal than that!

Over the years, Ferrar has also been consulted for her expertise on the early history of women bikers, particularly for her unparalleled knowledge of Ms. Stringfield, for college and library talks. In 2002, the author was asked by the American Motorcycle Hall of Fame to adapt "Bessie B. Stringfield: The Color Blue" for the museum's website and for Bessie's induction speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony. During that period, Ferrar was also asked to speak about Bessie for PBS and History Channel programs such as Glory Road: The Legacy of the African American Motorcyclist and a series called American Biker.

Born and raised in South Brooklyn, the author is an alumna of Brooklyn College, City University of New York, with concentrations in journalism and women's studies. She is a past recipient of the Hazel Kolb Brighter Image Award from the American Motorcyclist Association for Hear Me Roar. A member of the New York-based Authors Guild, Ann lived in TriBeCa in Lower Manhattan for many years. She still lives in the Northeastern United States.