In the Media: 22nd February 2015

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.

Much introspection or writing about introspection this week; Emily Landau wrote about ‘My Prescribed Life‘ in The Walrus; Jo Milne had extracts from her book Breaking the Silence, about hearing for the first time, published in the Daily Mail; Emer O’Toole discussed ‘Ten things feminism has ruined for me‘ in The Guardian; Steph wrote ‘The hijab (and page 3)‘ on her blog Reimagining My Reality’ Amber Sparks wrote, ‘What Work Is and Why It Matters: Mourning Philip Levine‘ on Real Pants; Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote ‘I gave up social media for Lent‘ on Salon; Rebecca Scherm wrote ‘Charm School‘ in The Toast, while Rhiann Sasseen wrote, ‘She wants to be alone‘ for Aeon and Zadie Smith wrote ‘Life Writing‘ on keeping a diary for Rookie.

Fifty Shades of Grey continues to inspire articles, Roxane Gay wrote ‘A Few Thoughts On Fifty Shades of Grey‘ in The Butter; E.J. Dickinson wrote ‘Why “Fifty Shades of Grey” is actually good for women‘ on Salon; Zoe Margolis wrote, ‘50 Shades of Grey: a film about male power, idealising emotional abuse as sexy when it isn’t‘ for the New Statesman, while Laurie Penny wrote, ‘Fifty Shades of Socialist Feminism‘ on her blog. Harper Lee’s forthcoming novel is also remains a talking point; The Washington Post ran Neely Tucker’s, ‘To shill a mockingbird: How a manuscript’s discovery became Harper Lee’s ‘new’ novel‘; Sam Tanenhaus wrote, ‘Why ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Won’t Die‘ on Bloomberg View and The New Yorker, Casey N. Cep’s ‘Harper Lee and the Mysteries of Monroeville‘.

And the woman with the most coverage this week (making the most waves?) is Antonia Honeywell whose novel The Ship launched on Thursday. She had an exclusive short story published in the Sunday Express, ‘Goldfish Memories‘; she’s been interviewed by the Curtis Brown Book Group, on Rachel Connor’s blog, on Rebecca Mascull’s blog and on this very blog, and she’s discussed ‘Why I Wrote The Ship‘ on the W&N blog. All of that while all of this was going on, ‘Things you can’t say on Twitter‘ published on her website. If that’s floated your boat (fnar), you can read the opening of The Ship on the Orion Books’ website.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Eva Wiseman, ‘Why femicide won’t end until we have a truly equal society‘ in The Guardian
• Adriana Kelly, ‘The Basement‘ on The Awl
• Mona Gable, ‘The Trouble with Oxy‘ in the Los Angeles Magazine
• Susan Dominus, ‘The National Front’s Post-Charlie Hebdo Moment‘ in the New York Times
• Jo Hogan, ‘Why Writing Is a Gift For Which We Should Be Thankful‘ on her blog
• Meg Rosoff, ‘Why the PEN competition for writers in prison is hard to resist as a judge‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Why the Oscars are toxic for women‘ in The Times (£) but you can listen to it for free on Soundcloud
• James Walton, in defence of Anne Tyler in The Daily Telegraph
• Janice Turner, ‘I wouldn’t be young again. It’s far too stressful‘ in The Times (£)
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Who needs therapy? It’s high time our politicians hit the couch‘ in The Guardian
• Kat McGowan, ‘Young, Attractive, and Totally Not Into Having Sex‘ on Wired
• Elissa Shappell, ‘Dirty, sister, daydream: I wanted Kim Gordon’s bad-assitude‘ on Salon
• Roxane Gay, ‘Notes from South Florida‘ in The Butter
• Torie Rose Deghett, ‘Belfast, Aspiring to Normal‘ in The Atlantic
• J.E. Reich, ‘The Ghosts I Saw at Home: Hauntings, Loss, and Mental Illness‘ in The Toast
• Mary Norris, ‘Holy Writ‘ in The New Yorker
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Feminist writers are so besieged by online abuse that some have begun to retire‘ in The Washington Post
• Joseph M. Schuster, ‘Secret Lives: Katherine Heiny’s “Single, Carefree, Mellow”‘ on The Millions
• Marina Hyde, ‘Racist fans are everyone’s problem – not just football’s‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Against the Fiona Bruce amendment: why feminists should oppose the ban on sex-selective abortion‘ in the New Statesman
• Sunili Govinnage, ‘I read only non-white authors for 12 months. What I learned surprised me‘ in The Guardian
• Fanny Johnstone, ‘I love being Fanny. So laugh your head off at my expense‘ in The Guardian
• Monique Truong on translations on Publishing Perspectives
• Cora Currier, ‘Outside the Neighborhood: Reading Italy Through Elena Ferrante‘ on The Millions
• Zadie Smith, ‘Brother from Another Mother‘ in The New Yorker
• Morgan Jenkins, ‘Mo’Nique won an Oscar, then got ‘blackballed’. Of course it’s about race‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Mead, ‘1945-1955‘ in The New Yorker
• Holly Smale, ‘The children’s author on growing up with Keats, back-stabbing bullies, and the awkwardness of modelling‘ in The Independent
• ‘After Amy Tan: An Asian American Literature Roundtable‘ in The Toast
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘Breaking Boundaries‘ on the Huffington Post

• Serena Kutchinsky, ‘Sarah Kane, Sheffield Theatres: has her time come?‘ in Prospect
• Wiam El-Tamami, ‘Cairo: September 2014‘ in Granta
• Hannah Ellis-Peterson, ‘Ali Smith calls decline of arts teaching in state schools “horrific”‘ in The Guardian
• Katie McDonough, ‘“Lean the f*** away from me”: Jessica Williams, “impostor syndrome” and the many ways we serially doubt women‘ on Salon
• Sari Botton, ‘Think of This as a Window: Remembering the Life and Work of Maggie Estep‘ on Longreads
• Leo Robson, ‘Generation game: can novelist Anne Tyler save the modern saga?‘ in the New Statesman
• Marissa Maciel, ‘Feminist Postpartum Vignettes‘ in The Toast
• Lynne Segal, ‘Feminism and the Politics of Pleasure‘ on Verso Books
• Nicole Soojung Callahan, ‘Meeting Mr. Darcy: My One Day as a Film Extra‘ in The Toast
• Stella Duffy, ‘4 ways to make the arts for everyone, not just the chosen few‘ in The Stage
• Harriet Lane, ‘How Writing Fiction Masters Fear‘ in The Atlantic
• Cate Marvin, ‘Unwelcome Visitations: On Writing “Dead Girl Gang Bang”‘ on The Poetry Foundation
• Emily Strasser, ‘The Chair‘ in Guernica
• Karen Narefsky, ‘The Suburbanization of the US Working Class‘ in Jacobin
• Vann R. Newkirk II, ‘The Law of Rememberence: What Octavia Butler Taught Me‘ in the Gawker Review of Books
• Reading Bhanu Kapil in The Believer
• Nichole Perkins, ‘Black Woman, Wonder Woman‘ in The Toast
• Mikella Clements, ‘Dyke Patrol: Looking For Your People‘ in The Toast
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘Rock Out to this Election Song Released by Nigerian Novelist, Chibundu Onuzo, and her sister Dinachi‘ on Brittle Paper
• Janet Mock, ‘A Note on Visibility in the Wake of 6 Trans Women’s Murders in 2015‘ on her website
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘The Struggle to Be a Good Critic‘ on Electric Literature
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Teenage Jane Austen Wrote Hilarious, Racy Parody Stories for Her Family‘ on Flavorwire
• Nimmi Gowrinathan, ‘Narrating Crisis in Sri Lanka‘ in Guernica
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Cage Fight: Toddlers and Tiaras‘ in The Butter
• Caryn Rubanovich, ‘Popular Publishers Tell Women to Be a Man or Write Like One‘ on Adios Barbie
• Rebecca Whitney, ‘What’s Behind the Allure of the Thriller‘ on Hunger TV
• Emily Nussbaum, ‘Last Girl in Larchmont‘ in The New Yorker
• Alex Chisholm. ‘Not Good Enough: Diversity and the Arts‘ in Exeunt Magazine
• Lisa Carter, ‘An Author Asks: Why should a translator get royalties when the story is mine?‘ on Intra Lingo
• Erica Carnes, ‘Losing My Boyfriend To Cancer At 29‘ on Buzzfeed
• Suzanne Moore, ‘I always let my children have hamsters because they didn’t live very long. But we never recovered from Spike‘ in the New Statesman

(Photograph by Myra Klarman)

The interviews:

• Lauren van den Berg on Electric Literature
• Katherine Heiny on Bloom
• Helen Coggan on BBC Breakfast
• Sarah Gerrard on The Nervous Breakdown
• Sheila Heti on The Cut
• Jessi Streib on The Science of Us
• Rebecca Scherm on Books and Reviews
• Kim Gordon in The New York Times
• Claire Fuller on Litro
• Mara Wilson on Longreads
• Éilís Ní Dhubhne on Libran Writer
• Paula Hawkins in Woman
• Helen Lederer in The Scotsman
• Judith Kerr in The Guardian
• Elisa Albert on Electric Literature
• Monica Byrne on Electric Literature
• Laurie Halse Anderson on Buzzfeed
• Catherine Chanter on Curtis Brown Creative Blog

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘The Magic of Scotland‘ by Claire Fuller in the Sunday Express
• ‘Hold the Baby‘ by Tania Hershman in Ink, Sweat and Tears
• An excerpt from Binary Star by Sarah Gerard on The Nervous Breakdown
• An extract from Creature Comforts by Trisha Ashley on Scribd
• ‘Brilliant and Fast‘ by Claire Fuller in Litro
• ‘Saint Andrews Hotel‘ by Sara Majka on Electric Literature
• An extract from Find Me by Lauren van den Berg
• Two poems by Kary Wayson on Electric Literature
• An extract from I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh on The Crime Vault

Or some non-fiction:

• An extract from I’m Very Into You by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark in BOMB Magazine
• An extract from The Upstairs Wife by Rafia Zakaria on Salon

The lists:

• The Best Women Writers of Scandinavian Crime Fiction on For Books’ Sake
• Moreish Fiction: The Most Addictive Page-Turners to Chomp Through in One Weekend or Less in Stylist
• Samantha Ellis’ Five Best Novels About Spinsters in the Wall Street Journal (£)
• 22 Books To Read Now, Based On Your Favorite Black Literature on Buzzfeed
• The Must Read Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
• Hannah Beckerman’s Six Best Moms in Fiction on Bookish
• It’s A Woman’s Universe: The Ladies Of Science Fiction on the Huffington Post
• 9 Books to Get You Excited For Spring Break on Bustle
• Books to Read When Your Brain Has Melted on Oprah
• 22 Books Women Think Men Should Read on the Huffington Post
• Fashion Unpicked: Have We Been Stitched Up By the Fashion Industry? on For Books’ Sake
• Romantic Reads on Novelistas Ink
• 33 Impossibly Beautiful Toni Morrison Quotes on Buzzfeed
• Elisa Albert’s 9 Radical Books About Motherhood on the Huffington Post
• 23 Reasons “The Handmaid’s Tale” Is The Best Novel Of All Time on Buzzfeed
• 7 Myths About Female Writers That Needed To Be Dispelled Yesterday on Bustle
• Kirsty Logan’s Once Upon a Time: 11 fairytale retellings for adults on Scottish Booktrust