In the media is a weekly round up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous week and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. Also, just a note to make it clear that I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely.
This week there’s definitely a celebration of feminist role models happening. At the forefront (mostly because her book Yes, Please is out in the US on Tuesday and the UK the following week) is Amy Poehler. Bustle have 15 Quotes that Prove She’s Our Brilliant Fairy Godmother; Popsugar have 19 Times Amy Poehler Said What We Wish We’d Said, while People have her answering questions people posted on Twitter and Facebook. Amanda Hess, in Slate, wrote about Poehler joining the famous women’s comedy/memoir/advice-book club; Lydia Kiesling wrote in Salon about how Nora Ephron presides over Poehler, Dunham, Fey and Kaling’s books, while Sam Baker in Harpers Bazaar wrote about Fearless Feminist Reads and why they’re important for teenage girls as well as adults.
Someone else who’s been written about as a feminist role model this week is Jane Austen. Jane Austen: Feminist in Action by Sinéad Murphy ran on the Huffington Post blog; Alexander McCall Smith explained why he’s modernised Emma on the Waterstones’ Blog; Sarah Seltzer on Flavorwire wrote about ‘Why We Can’t Stop Reading – and Writing – Jane Austen Sequels‘, while on Something Rhymed, Emma Claire Sweeney wrote ‘In Praise of the Spinster‘ about playwright, Ann Sharpe, Austen’s family’s governess.
Another amazing woman, Joan Didion, is also being celebrated this week. Her nephew is making a documentary about her. You can watch the trailer here. He’s decided to raise funds via Kickstarter which led to Flavorwire publishing Some Other Joan Didion Kickstarter Rewards We’d Like to See and Vogue re-publishing her 1961 essay ‘On Self-Respect‘.
It would be wrong not to mention Hallowe’en this week, particularly as there’s been a group of pieces around that theme. Wired’s podcast, which features Lauren Beukes, is What’s Scarier, Haunted Houses or Haunted People?; Electric Literature have published ‘“Then, a Hellbeast Ate Them”: Notes on Horror Fiction and Expectations‘, looking at Diane Cook and Helen Oyeyemi amongst others; Sarah Perry has written on The Gothic for Aeon, and Kate Mayfield who wrote the memoir ‘The Undertaker’s Daughter’ is on For Books’ Sake talking about How Not to Write a Memoir and in The Guardian talking about ‘Growing Up in the Family Funeral Parlour‘.
Talking of scary, Gone Girl‘s still a hot topic this week. Tana Wojczuk wrote ‘Gone Girl, Bluebeard, and the Meaning of Marriage‘ in Guernica in response to Elif Bautman’s piece ‘Marriage Is an Abduction‘ from last week’s New Yorker. Amanda Ann Klein wrote about the ‘Unbearable Whiteness of Gone Girls‘ for Avidly, and Steph Cha wrote about ‘Laughing at “Gone Girl”‘ in the LA Review of Books.
This week’s other notable essays/articles:
- Maxine Frances Roper On Writing about Politics and Privilege for For Books’ Sake
- Jo Bloom on why she wrote her forthcoming novel Ridley Road
- Sonya Chung, Ruthless, Beautiful, Dangerous Comforting: How it is in the World of Tove Jansson on The Millions
- Emmanuella Kwenortey on The African Woman and her Conditional Place in the West on the Fourth Estate Blog
- Susan Elliot Wright on The Writing Life
- Jane Smiley on writing Some Luck on the Picador Blog
- Two pieces on ‘chick-lit’/the labelling of books by women – one by Deborah Batterman, ‘Is It Chick Lit? Is It Not Chick Lit? What Do We Call It?‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books and another by India Knight, ‘Chick lit is in its death throes‘ on The Guardian
- The Literary Legacy of Women Expats in Paris on The Culture Trip
- Alina García-Lapuerta on La Belle Créole, Cuba’s first female author
- Cate Sampson, ‘“She” for “He” in Children’s Books‘ in The Guardian
- Katherine Grant on her book Sedition on the Waterstones’ Blog
- Holly Smale ‘Teem Teen‘ on celebrating YA books on The Bookseller Blog
- Cynthia Miller Coffel, ‘Fanny Trollope “Tested as Few Women Have Been“‘ on Bloom
- Erika T. Wurth, ‘Less Boring Art, More Diversity‘ in Publishers Weekly
- Lydia Kiesling in Salon on ‘“Friendship” and the new Brooklyn novel‘
- Louise Erdich on the first sentence of her piece ‘Domain’ in Granta
- Nicole Dieker on GeekGirlCon being an oasis of acceptance on Boing Boing
- Feminist Wednesday Womancrush on Cheryl Strayed
- Leslie Wilson ‘How to Remember Them?‘ on The History Girls
- Marian Keyes on Sali Hughes’ Pretty Honest and impostor syndrome
- Tracey Thorn on being asked to do the identity parade on Never Mind the Buzzcocks for the New Statesman
- Kate Merry ‘Why Is Talking About Miscarriage Still Taboo?‘ for Vice
- The Millions puts a group of writers, including Jane Smiley and Francine Prose, in a room to discuss writing in ‘The Art of Dialogue‘
- Electric Literature has a group of writers discuss their ‘lowbrow’ influences
- Alison Flood says Edith Blyton’s ‘Not as good as she used to be‘ in The Guardian
- Julie Mayhew ‘This Electric Love‘ for Standard Issue
- Annabel Smith ‘Is the Publishing Industry Ready for Truly Interactive Books‘ on The Wheeler Centre’s site
- Eve Fairbanks on ‘How personal essays conquered journalism – and why they can’t cut it‘ in The Washington Post
- Christine Hennessy on the inspiration for Ayelet Waldman’s novel Love and Treasure on Greenwich Time
- Caroline Crampton ‘Women Writers after Woolf: Still Fighting for a Room of One’s Own‘ in the New Statesman
- Joanne Harris wrote about the aftermath of last week’s Kathleen Hale piece in The Guardian in which she wrote about stalking a blogger
- Book Riot, ‘No Really, Read Ann Leckie‘ (I don’t usually include reviews but this is almost an ‘in praise of’.)
- Kate Mosse on living with a name similar to another famous person’s in The Times (paywalled)
- Malala Yousafzai, ‘Girls continue to be killed and schools blown up‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
And the interviews:
- Lisa Williamson interviews designer Alice Todd on creating the amazing cover for Williamson’s forthcoming book The Art of Being Normal in We Love This Book
- Amanda Coe on Open Book
- Sandra Newman and Roopa Farooki also on Open Book
- Elizabeth Harrower on The Monthly Book
- Nina Stibbe on Bookanista
- Luci Tapahonso, the first Navajo Poet Laureate
- Hilary Mantel in conversation with Harriet Walter for The Royal Society of Literature
- Janice Galloway on Off the Page
- Joyce Carol Oates in Nightmare magazine
- Rowan Coleman talks to Richard and Judy. (There are links to all the other R&J Book Club choice podcasts on that link too.)
- Theresa Breslin on Scottish Book Trust’s website
- Rachel Joyce on Writing.ie and on the BBC
- Kate Tempest in The Guardian
- Sarah Thornton on The Economist
- Dorothea Lasky in Granta
- Emily St. John Mandel on Broadcast Exchange
- Detective Sergeant Marnie Rome, protagonist of Sarah Hilary’s Someone Else’s Skin, on the Richard and Judy Book Club site
- Anne Rice did the Guardian Q&A
- Bell Hooks and Laverne Cox in The New Yorker
- Alice Furse on The Workshy Fop
In translation news, I’ve seen no articles this week about the identity of Elena Ferrante – hurrah! But I have seen that there’s a new imprint called Periscope devoted to translating poetry by women – hurrah!
If you’d like some fiction to read/listen to:
- Rachel Joyce’s The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy is being adapted for BBC Radio 4. Here’s the first episode.
- ‘Technical Support‘ by Adele Geras in the Sunday Express
- The first chapter of Some Luck by Jane Smiley on the Picador blog
- Jane Flett, ‘The Things They Don’t Tell You About Fire‘ in Litro
- ‘Room to Write Short Story Prize Anthology‘ including a story by Isabel Costello
- ‘The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis‘ by Karen Russell on Electric Literature
- The all-female Stockholm Review of Literature, Volume 4
- The first chapter of The Good Children by Roopa Farooki
- Andrea Levy reading from Six Stories and an Essay on Waterstones’ Blog
- Julie Mayhew’s play The Electrical Venus on BBC Radio 4
- ‘Letter to an Optician‘ by Judy Brown on Seren Books’ blog
- Kathleen Hale ‘The Tub Is Just the Safest Place‘ in Hazllitt
- The first chapter of Head for the Edge by Kate Tough in The Scotsman
Or some non-fiction:
- An extract from Vivienne Westwood’s autobiography on the Picador Blog
This week’s lists:
- 15 Crime Books Perfect for a Winter’s Day on Dead Good Books
- Fourth Estate’s Very Best Short Stories by women
- 10 Historical Superstitions we carry on today by Karen Maitland on History Extra
- 10 Reasons to Love Ursula K. Le Guin on For Books’ Sake
- Book Loving Celebrities Name Their Favourite Fictional Reads in Stylist
- Apocalypse Now! Top 10 Novels about the End of Days by Annabel Smith
- Charlie Jane Anders on The 10 Types of Fictional Apocalypses (And What They Mean) on io9
- Sarah Hilary’s 7 Best Crime Reads of 2014 in Red magazine
- Sarah Hilary (again) with her Fictional Heroines for the Richard and Judy Book Club
- 10 Books by Women that Everyone Should Read by Julia Bell on Writers’ Hub
- 9 Reasons to read Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood on Books Speak Volumes
- The five defining moments in Arsenal’s ‘Invincible’ season by Amy Lawrence in GQ
And the best things I’ve read this week:
Thanks for the Joyce Carol Oates link. Plus, I can’t wait to see that Joan Didion documentary!
LikeLike
I can’t wait for the Didion either. I chipped in for the funding because I love her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I may well do that too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such a lot of work putting all this together. Thank you!
LikeLike
You’re welcome! I enjoy it or I wouldn’t do it!
LikeLike
This weekly post is the best thing about Mondays.
LikeLike
Thank you! I’m pleased it makes it more bearable.
LikeLike
Another bumper crop of links, I can’t imagine how much time this must take to put together. Thanks for the Joan Didion links; she’s a writer I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages..
LikeLike
Let’s not talk about that! You’ve not read any Joan Didion? Jacqui!
LikeLike
Haha! She’s on the shelf, what more can I say. Early next year, for sure 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person