In the Media: 5th April 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.

As In the Media seems to be growing by the week, I’ve divided it into more categories. Comments welcome on what you think of the change and whether you’d prefer different/more section headings.

The big news this week is the launch of The Pool, a free, online resource written by women, for women. Writer and broadcaster, Lauren Laverne and writer and former Red magazine editor, Sam Baker are the women behind it, The Guardian ran a piece about the site earlier in the week. ‘Drops’ of content are released during the day; each piece tells you approximately how long it will take you to read/listen to/watch, and you can search by content or by time if you’ve only got a few minutes.  You can also sign up for an account which allows you to save articles to your ‘scrapbook’ either to read later or refer back to.

I’ve dipped in a few times this week and I love it; it’s clearly organised with some great contributors. My picks so far would be the book section (of course), where you can read the opening of Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Girl and the opening of Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum. There’s also an interview with Essbaum and 10 Things You Need to Know About Anne Tyler as well as an article by Baker about why good books often end up making bad films.

Elsewhere on the site, I’ve enjoyed Sam Baker’s ‘Does this mean I’m not allowed to be a LEGO any more?‘; Lauren Laverne’s blog, ‘Is being a teenager harder than ever before?‘; Sali Hughes’ ‘Why every woman needs a solo playdate‘ and ‘Is it ever OK to commit liticide?‘ (although I winced through the whole of that one); Holly Smale’s ‘Why can’t we just get over Cinderella?‘; Gaby Hinsliff’s ‘What would happen if men didn’t have the vote?‘; Stacey Duguid’s ‘Flares if you care‘ where Duguid goes around high street shops trying flares on like you do when you’re shopping (as opposed to raiding the magazine’s fashion cupboard); an extract from Lynsey Addario’s It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, and Laurene Laverne’s interviews with Caitlin Moran and Kim Gordon.

In Harper Lee news, ‘Harper Lee elder abuse allegations declared ‘unfounded’ by Alabama‘ says The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers:

• Hannah Rosefield, ‘Barbara Pym and the New Spinster‘ in The New Yorker
• Amy Jenkins, ‘Waving or drowning? On her debt to Stevie Smith‘ in The Guardian
• Kimberley Francisco, ‘On (Not) Reading Science Fiction as a Teenage Girl‘ on Stacked Books
• Jenny McAuley, ‘Jane Austen invented #RealisticYA fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Man Booker International Prize draws together variety of best from literature world‘ in The National
• Lucy K. Shaw, ‘April Mixtape‘ on Electric Literature
• Jill Alexander Essbaum, ‘Writers on Location: on Zürich‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Laxmi Hariharan, ‘Why the hero of my YA dystopian novel had to be an angry young Indian girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Cuthbertson, ‘How Assumedly White Characters are a Disservice to, well, Everyone‘ in The Missouri Review
• Alison Flood, ‘The Girl on the Train racks up express sales of 2m in three months‘ in The Guardian
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘How “The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing” Shaped My Twenties‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Gilmartin, ‘The rise of the short Irish Story‘ in The Irish Times
• Molly McGrann, ‘Prostitution in post-war London: a different kind of independence‘ on Picador Blog
• Sarah Hilary, Shelley Harris and Sinéad Moriarty, ‘Richard & Judy Book Club Authors: What Are They Up To Now?‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Christine Dwyer Hickey, ‘My Life in Books‘ on Atlantic Books’ Pinterest
• Sonya Vatomsky and Kia Groom, ‘Saving “Saving Anne Sexton”: In Which Dead Women are Used as Props (Again)‘ in Quaint Magazine
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Does Magic Stand for Privilege in Harry Potter?‘ on Flavorwire
• Eve Johnson, ‘Sonnets And Unrealities: Björk And ee cummings‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Val McDermid, ‘Why crime fiction is leftwing and thrillers are rightwing‘ in The Guardian
• Alexander McCall Smith, ‘The Secret of the Jane Austen Industry‘ in the Wall Street Journal
• Roopa Farooki, ‘Monsters in Caves‘ on Royal Literary Fund
• Suzannah Gillman, ‘Will the Real Cheryl Strayed Please Stand Up?‘ on The Gloria Sirens
• Edan Lepucki, ‘Beyond Binaries: On ‘Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids’‘ on The Millions
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘6 Fairy Tales That Need A Shakeup‘ on the Huffington Post
• Chris Ayers, ‘Extinctathon‘ ‘a new series, drawn from Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam trilogy, that illustrates the corporate horrors of the trilogy’s fictional dystopia’
• Lindy West, ‘Herland: the forgotten feminist classic about a civilisation without men‘ in The Guardian
• Madhvi Pankhania, ‘Miles Franklin award longlist 2015: eight out of 10 nominees are women‘ in The Guardian
• Ron Charles, ‘Marilynne Robinson confident about a fourth Gilead novel‘ in The Washington Post
• Joshua Farrington, ‘Three debut novels on Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize shortlist‘ (all by women) in The Bookseller
• Keija Parssinen, ‘Writing Out of Rage (How Sexual Politics Inspired “The Unraveling of Mercy Louis”)‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Coming to America‘ in The Butter
• Kristi York Wooten, ‘How 1980s Atlanta Became the Backdrop for the Future‘ in The Atlantic
• Byddi Lee, ‘How to get ahead in self-publishing: No 1 – you need a lot of hats‘ in The Irish Times
• Leslie Jamison And Catherine Lacey’s E-mail Conversation About Narcissism, Emotional Writing And Memoir-Novels on the Huffington Post
• Victoria Finan, ‘Independent Bookshop Week book awards 2015 shortlist announced‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘The pleasure and pain of being a Folio prize judge‘ in The Guardian
• Dorthe Nors, ‘A form close to home‘ on English PEN
• Emily Midorikawa & Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers‘ on Something Rhymed

Personal essays/memoir:

• Eva Wiseman, ‘Living with your parents when you are a parent yourself‘ in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood, ‘It’s midnight. Dare I open the sealed trapdoor in my house?‘ in The Guardian
• Dani True, ‘True Romantic #5: The Hope Chest‘ on The Rumpus
• Mary H.K. Choi, ‘Eat Pray Roll‘ on Matter *Flashing images throughout
• Sierra-Crane Murdoch, ‘Sugar Days‘ in VQR Online
• Marika Seigel, ‘On Being the Mom of “the Foreign Kid”‘ in The Butter
• Shan Wang, ‘“Happy Birthday” and Other Things My Mom and I Don’t Say‘ in The Toast
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘A Queer Hoosier on Still Loving Indiana‘ on Talking Points Memo
• Rebecca Riley, ‘How I Learned The Meaning Of Ableism‘ in The Fem
• Saudamini Deo, ‘My Name Is Red‘ in Kindle
• Lauren Apfel, ‘I called him pathetic, he accused me of ruining his life: What children did to our marriage‘ in Salon
• Roxane Gay, ‘Having a Heart, Being Alive‘ in The Butter
• Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Open Heart, Open Sky‘ in The Butter
• Alexis Paige, ‘The Right to Remain‘ on The Rumpus
• Lindsay Tapscott, ‘Letter from Montreal: The City Undressed‘ on Maisonneuve
• Shannon Fandler, ‘Unprepared In Appalachia‘ on Vela
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Variations on Crying‘ in The Butter
• Ruth Dawkins, ‘Now You Are Six‘ on Dorkymum
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘Driving in Greater Noida‘ in Granta
• Jennifer Weiner, ‘All Grown Up and In Charge of the Seder‘ in The New York Times
• Kristen Hanley Cardozo, ‘Three Months Without Breathing‘ on Archipelago
• Lavinia Greenlaw, ‘On Not Totally Seeing a Total Solar Eclipse‘ in The New Yorker
• Chelsea Biondolillo, ‘Not Travel Writing‘ on Vela

Feminism:

• Stephanie St. John, ‘“Mad Men” eulogies: Peggy Olson, feminist hero‘ on Salon
• Lili Loofbourow, ‘The Many Faces of Tatiana Maslany‘ in The New York Times
• Sybil Baker, ‘The DrunkenBoat Fiction Count for 2013‘ in DrunkenBoat
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why I changed my mind about porn‘ in the New Statesman
• Sabine Heinlein, ‘The Answer Is Never‘ on Longreads
• Anna Cafolla, ‘I’m a girl and I have periods, whether Instagram likes it or not‘ in The Independent
• Cate Burlington, ‘Things My Male Tech Colleagues Have Actually Said to Me, Annotated‘ in The Toast
• Doreen St Felix, ‘The Prosperity Gospel of Rihanna‘ in Pitchfork
• Lucy-Anne Holmes, ‘If you want to write about feminism online, be ready to take on the haters‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Don’t stress out. Our kids are just fine when their mothers work late‘ in The Guardian
• Shannon Reed, ‘The Historical Feminist Roundtable, Bucket List Edition‘ on Buzzfeed
• Susan Cox, ‘Of course men want children more than women do‘ on Feminist Current
• Snigdha Poonam, ‘Kidnap, rape and ‘honour’ killings: on the road with a female reporter in rural India‘ in The Guardian
• Julie Bindel, ‘What Andrea Dworkin, the feminist I knew, can teach young women‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Social media is protecting men from periods, breast milk and body hair‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why rape suspects should not remain anonymous‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Friedman, ‘Can a New Law Really Change the Way College Students Hook Up?‘ in Cosmopolitan

Society:

• Katy Reckdahl, ‘The Lost Children of Katrina‘ in The Atlantic
• Linda Vaccariello, ‘This Is How We Lose Them‘ in Cincinnati Magazine
• Helen Lewis, ‘Life is full of people with bad ideas and awful opinions. Try to meet as many at university as you can‘ in the New Statesman
• Sophie McBain, ‘Why are so many people using food banks?‘ in the New Statesman
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Dear Nigel Farage – children will play if we close roads, not borders‘ in The Guardian
• Germaine Greer, ‘At the centenary of Gallipoli; an interrogation of the myth of Australian nationhood‘ in the New Statesman
• Samantha Ellis, ‘Theatre should reflect society – and boldly imagine ways for it to change‘ in The Guardian
• Grace Dent, ‘In case you were wondering what it’s like to not always look down at your phone, I can tell you‘ in The Independent
• L.V. Anderson, ‘We Should Have a Better Condom by Now. Here’s Why We Don’t.‘ on Slate
• Meredith Talusan, ‘Being transgender in a transphobic society leads to moments of sheer desperation‘ in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman, ‘Electrified‘ in The New Yorker
• Olivia Laing, ‘The future of loneliness‘ in The Guardian
• Brittney Cooper, ‘The right’s made-up God: How bigots invented a white supremacist Jesus‘ on Salon
• Lily Lynch, ‘Forgetting Resistance In The Balkans‘ on Balkanist
• Laura Trethewey, ‘Collective Independents‘ on Maisonneuve
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Films about queer women rarely stray from “lesbian drama” clichés – but things are improving‘ in the New Statesman
• ER Truitt, ‘Preternatural Machines‘ on Aeon
• Glosswitch, ‘How can a memoir convey the damage done by eating disorders, without passing it on?‘ in the New Statesman
• Rebecca Harris, ‘The loneliness epidemic: We’re more connected than ever – but are we feeling more alone?‘ in The Independent
• Momtazza Mehri, ‘Black, British & Muslim; We’re not just a “Complication”‘ on Media Diversified
• Jennifer Hensley, ‘Pills, Pills, Pills – There Is No Medicine‘ on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• Vanessa Hua, ‘The Dim Sum Revolution‘ in San Francisco Magazine
• Bella Qvist, ‘So Ruby Tandoh came out? It won’t be the last time‘ in The Guardian
• Jetta Rae, ‘What ‘Passing’ Says About Our Expectations of Women – And Why This Trans Woman’s Getting It Wrong on Purpose‘ on Everyday Feminism

Music:

• Cath Bore, ‘In Defence of the Smash Hits Centerfold‘ on her blog
• Linda Grant, ‘It’s not always easy to be a Joni Mitchell fan, but her illness devastates me‘ in The Guardian
• Lisa Peet, ‘Viv Albertine, Side One and Side Two‘ on Bloom
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘Why do we mock teenage girls who love One Direction when Top Gear fans are just the same?‘ in the New Statesman
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘A Love Song & Some Stubbornness‘ on Real Pants

The interviews:

• Lynsey Addario in The Guardian
• Kim Gordon in The Irish Times
• Barbara Klein Moss on Bloom
• Jessica Valenti in The Cut
• Trish Hopkinson in The Fem
• Amy Butcher in The Fem
• Meghan Daum on the Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour and the Huffington Post and Jezebel
• Lydia Davis in The New York Times
• Fatima Bhutto on NPR
• Johanna Basford on NPR
• Alexandra Sokoloff on Grab This Book
• Teri Terry in The Guardian
• Amber Tamblyn on the Huffington Post
• Margret Aldrich on Publishers Weekly
• Caitlin Moran on Vice
• Alice Stevenson on Bookanista
• Renée Knight in The Telegraph
• Lauren Van Den Berg on Paul McVeigh’s Blog
• Paula Hawkins on Booktopia
• Xiaolu Guo on Penguin Blog
• Teresa K. Miller on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• Cush Jumbo in The Guardian
• Hollie Poetry in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara in Vogue

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The First Meeting of the People of Unintentional Color Support Group‘ by Gayle Brandeis
• An extract from The Long Weekend by Veronica Henry
• ‘Fall From Oysters‘ by Susan Sanford Blades on Little Fiction
• ‘Small Stories #8‘ by Madeline Witt on The Rumpus
• An extract from Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Little Red Hen‘ in The Toast
• An extract from The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman
• ‘Escape, Release, and Return‘ by Leslie Baum on Guernica
• ‘Voyage of the Coral Princess‘ by Kasia Juno in Guts Magazine
• ‘Me and the Devil‘ by Eimear McBride on BBC Radio 4
• An extract from Sphinx by Anne Garréta in 3:AM Magazine
• An extract from The Language of Paradise by Barbara Klein Moss
• ‘The Slanted Life of Emily Dickinson‘ by Rosanna Bruno
• ‘Dirty Thirties’ and ‘Rugby‘ by Terese Svoboda in Numéro Cinq

Photograph by Jane Feng

 

If you want some poetry to read:

• from The Devastation by Melissa Buzzeo in Trickhouse
• ‘It Must Have Got Lost In The Mail‘ by Susannah Betts on Vagabond City Journal
• Two Poems by Khadijah Queen in The Offing
• ‘Beat Poem‘ by Leslie Maxwell in Blunderbuss Magazine
• ‘—moLt shEd‘ by Rebecca Y. Lee in Vagabond City Journal
• ‘What Breaks First‘ by Jynne Dilling Martin in The New York Review of Books
• ‘To Proceed You Must First Understand‘ by Barbara Jane Reyes on The Rumpus
• ‘Carousel‘ by Gabrielle Bates
• ‘The Medium‘ by Elaine Feinstein in the TLS
• ‘April Fools’ Day‘ by Elaine Feinstein in The Guardian

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein on Penguin Books Blog
• An extract from Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts and Daring to Act Differently by Emer O’Toole on the Irish Post
• An extract from A Day’s Work by Joanna Biggs in the London Review of Books (£)

The lists:

• 5 Great Books To Read In April on Buzzfeed
• 10 Must-Read Books for April on Flavorwire
• Diane Pickett’s The 10 Commandments of Southern Writers on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• 7 Books About Friendship That Prove This Relationship Is The Most Important One You’ll Have in Your Lifetime on Bustle
• Here are the the most magical things JK Rowling has ever done in The Independent
• 12 Writers On The Women Authors Who Inspired Them on Buzzfeed
• The Very Best LGBT Books You Need to Read Right Now on The Debrief
• JK Rowling’s life advice: ten quotes on the lessons of failure in The Guardian
• Molly McGrann’s Top 10 things I learned while writing The Ladies of the House on Female First
• 24 books for a year of reading only work by women in The Washington Post
• 14 Illuminating Quotes From “The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing” on Buzzfeed