Oh, Pioneers!(Column)

Byline: LORNA KOSKI

Oh, Pioneers!

"I wanted to make sure I was looking at women from all different parts of the world the Far East, South America and to be sure that the stories I'm putting into the book are those of women who overcame odds or who were the first," says Angella M. Nazarian of her choices for the 20 women she writes about in "Pioneers of the Possible: Celebrating Visionary Women of the World" (Assouline). "It's that element of surprise for the reader, to be able to read biographies of women nobody's heard about." Among those selected for the book, some, to be sure, were very well known, among them Golda Meir, Martha Graham, Ella Fitzgerald and AnaA[macron]s Nin. But Nazarian also included a number who are less famous in the U.S.: Cambodian anti-human-trafficking activist Somaly Mam, bullfighter Conchita Cintron, Guatemalan human-rights advocate Rigoberta MenchA* Tum and Moroccan runner Nawal El …