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. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.
Two excellent UK prizes – the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize announced their longlist and shortlist, respectively this week. The former has eleven women on a longlist of fifteen. Yes, that does say ELEVEN, that’s 75% of the shortlist (well, 73.3 if you’re being pedantic). And the latter is an ALL WOMEN shortlist of three, from a longlist of ten that had gender parity. Excellent news.
You can read interviews with two of the Desmond Elliot shortlisted writers, Cary Bray and Emma Healey, in The Bookseller
Two important pieces about sexual abuse and victim blaming were published this week: Hayley Webster ‘31 years have passed with me thinking I asked for it…but what if I didn’t‘ on her blog and Lizzie Jones, ‘Sexual Assault: Society, Stop With the Slut Shaming‘ on The Huffington Post.
The best of the rest:
On or about books/writers/language:
- Meytal Radzinski, ‘Women in Translation: The grim improvement of 2014‘ on Bibliblio
- Eve Ainsworth, ‘Why I wanted to tell the bully’s story‘ in The Guardian
- S.D. Sykes, ‘Memento Mori… Remember that you have to die‘ in Shots
- Laura Miller, ‘You Belong to Me: The fanfiction boom is reshaping the power dynamic between creators and consumers.’ on Vulture
- Kathryn Schulz, ‘Outside In‘ (on Nell Zink) in The New Yorker
- Lizzy Kremer, ‘Crime and Violence: Those who do not flinch‘ on Publishing for Humans
- Sophie Hannah, ‘No one should condescend to Agatha Christie – she’s a genius‘ in The Guardian
- Kate Spicer, ‘Why is the term dadbod so brilliantly perfect?‘ in The Pool (more about neologisms than the concept of dadbod itself)
- Mona Eltahawy, ‘Why I stopped wearing the hijab‘ in The Pool
- Rebecca Bowler, ‘Dorothy M Richardson deserves the recognition she is finally receiving‘ in The Guardian
- Cheryl Strayed and Pankaj Mishra, ‘Is There a Double Standard for Judging Domestic Themes in Fiction?‘ in The New York Times
- Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘Signs That Agatha Christie Is About To Murder You‘ in The Toast
- Laura Miller, ‘Fairy tales, fantasy and dangerous female desire: Celebrating Angela Carter, the literary link between Bros. Grimm and “50 Shades”‘ on Salon
- Joanna Cabot, ‘On Reading a Book You Don’t Like‘ on TeleRead
- Susan Price, ‘Reviving the Female Canon‘ in The Atlantic
- Susan Harlan, ‘Great House Therapy: Elizabeth & Darcy’s Neither Formal Nor Falsely Adorned Pad of Privilege‘ in The Toast
- Sarah Hughes, ‘Killer Women festival: The female crime novelists transforming how the publishing industry works‘ in The Independent
- Maria Farrer, ‘Why teenagers have to take terrible risks in YA literature – and in real life too‘ in The Guardian
- Hannah Lavery, ‘Why Libraries Are Important To Me‘ on her blog
- Suzi Henderson, ‘The Great Literature Gender Gap‘ on The Inflectionist
- Hannah Depp, ‘Meghan Daum, Live in the Capital‘ on Literary Hub
- Melissa Moorer, ‘This Writer’s On Fire: Sofia Samatar‘ in The Butter
- Ali Hope, ‘Mary Hocking reading week 1st-7th June‘ on her blog
- Sara Nović, ‘Topography of a Novel: Girl at War‘ on Blunderbuss
- B.E. Andre, ‘How to Make the Truth Palatable‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
- SD Sykes, ‘on writing crime during the time of a great plague‘ on Crime Files
- Sarah Bannan, ‘Can we do it? Yes, we can: on daring to use the first person plural‘ in the Irish Times
- M. Lynx Qualey, ‘Is There a Renaissance in Arabic Children’s Literature?‘ on Arabic Literature (in English)
- Sadie Stein, ‘Booksellers Week‘ on The Paris Review Blog
- Marian Palaia, ‘The Real World vs The MFA‘ on Literary Hub
- Jami Attenberg, ‘This week’s con.‘ on Tiny Letter
- Nicole Lee, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘Fear of causing offence becomes a fetish’‘ in The Guardian
- Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Baby-Sitters Club vs. Sweet Valley High‘ in The Butter
- Mona Eltahawy, ‘World in 2050: Women in Power‘ on Literary Hub
- Frances Wilson, ‘The nourishing blood of the novelist‘ in the New Statesman
- Lauren Laverne, ‘My own personal Wonderland‘ in The Pool
- Mallory Ortberg, ‘The Forgotten Brontë Sister‘ in The Toast
- Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Books Are My Love Language & How to Treat Yourself‘ on Real Pants
- Sarah Pinborough, ‘Fantasy and Reality – Where Do You Draw the Line?‘ on the Huffington Post
- Cerrie Burnell, ‘Every child deserves to have their life represented in books‘ in The Guardian
- Lizzy Kremer, ‘Are you talking to me? Writing under a new identity‘ on Publishing for Humans
- Jill Lepore, ‘Women in Science Fiction‘ on The New Yorker Podcast
- Bridget Penny, ‘an ostentation of solitariness: looking for the wilderness in abney park cemetery‘ in 3AM:Magazine
- Alice Bolin, ‘Miss Marple vs. the Mansplainers: Agatha Christie’s Feminist Detective Hero‘ on Electric Literature
- Naomi Frisby, ‘Reading Ourselves‘ on Fiction Uncovered
Personal essays/memoir:
- Jesmyn Ward, ‘Cracking the Code‘ in The New Yorker
- Julie Brister, ‘Large as Life‘ on Slate
- Sali Hughes, ‘There’s no such thing as TMI‘ in The Pool
- Laura June, ‘The Little Things‘ in The Awl
- Meridith De Avila Khan, ‘A Girl and Her Books: On the Loss of Sweet Briar College‘ on The Millions
- Sophie Heawood, ‘I’ve fallen out of love with music‘ in The Guardian
- Leah Reich, ‘The Birth of Uncool‘ on Medium
- Deborah Landau. ‘When I Got Pregnant At 40, Time Slowed Down‘ on Buzzfeed
- Myfanwy Collins, ‘Bruise: On Living with the Fear of Dying‘ in The Butter
- Monica Heisey, ‘Walt‘ on Maisonneuve
- Sadie Stein, ‘Like Rain on Your Wedding Day‘ on The Paris Review Blog
- Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Bored to Broken‘ in The Butter
- Shirley Muir, ‘Out of the Blackness‘ on Scottish Book Trust
- Ailidh Lennon, ‘“I wanted a house with a garden and chickens”‘ in The Pool
- Cyn Vargas, ‘I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About‘ on Midnight Breakfast
- Sofia Soter Henriques, ‘Nossa Família‘ on Midnight Breakfast
- Samantha Hunt, ‘There Is Only One Direction‘ in The Cut
- Bryony Gordon, ‘‘I’m coming out of the mental health closet for my daughter’‘ in The Telegraph
- Leslie Nipkow, ‘How I became fat: “It’s tough to be a bad-ass girl in a dainty world”‘ on Salon
- Sarah Royal, ‘The Best Time I Was The Only Passenger Aboard A Cargo Freighter Container Ship Across the Pacific Ocean‘ on The Hairpin
- Jessica Valenti, ‘It’s great to have a vacation. And even better when you leave kids at home‘ in The Guardian
Feminism:
- Dawna I. Ballard and Sunshine Webster, ‘Why Women ‘Having It All’ Is an Empty Concept‘ on Medium
- Erika Hall, ‘Across the River and Into the Woods‘ on Medium
- Lauren Dozier, ‘The Inconsistent Acceptance of Black Beauty‘ on The Huffington Post
- Emily Mitchell, ‘A Boy My Sister Dated in High School‘ in Guernica
- Tracy Moore, ‘Single Mom By Choice: A Great Option for ‘Strong-Ass Bitches’‘ in Jezebel
- Anna Merlan, ‘‘Suck Dick, Fight or Quit Doing Gay Shit’: The Texas Prison Rape Problem‘ on Jezebel
- Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘What Makes a Good or Bad Female Role Model?‘ in Stylist
- Danielle Brooks, ‘How I Learned to Love My Body‘ in Glamour
- Minda Honey, ‘Empty Beds, Empty Wombs: Life Beyond the Blueprint‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
- Olga Kazan, ‘Into the Body of Another‘ in The Atlantic
- Ann Friedman, ‘What Getting Your Nails Done Really Means‘ in The Cut
- Sarah Tomlinson, ‘My conflicted relationship with female beauty‘ on Salon
- Christina Tesoro, ‘I’m a Bitch and Proud of It‘ in Cosmopolitan
- Louise Foxcroft, ‘The diet industry has exploited our health fears for centuries – here’s how‘ in The Guardian
- Elissa Strauss, ‘The Rise of “Mama”‘ on Longreads
- Louise Raw, ‘Why Are We So Afraid of the Idea of Women in Power‘ on Morning Star
Society and Politics:
- Zoe Williams, ‘What does the new government mean for women?‘ in The Pool
- Lyndsey Gilpin, ‘Women Making Whiskey: An 800-Year History‘ in The Atlantic
- Susan Berfield, ‘Chinese Maternity Tourists and the Business of Being Born American‘ on Bloomberg
- Aude Konan, ‘Why Black people in France are still invisible‘ on Media Diversified
- Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘Coming of Age in the Time of the Hoodie‘ on AGNI
- Anna Holmes, ‘The Underground Art of the Insult‘ in The New York Times
- Eleanor Margolis, ‘Is it just me, or did you receive loads more online dating attention on post-election Sunday?‘ in the New Statesman
- Ann Jones, ‘“Farkhunda is Our Sister”‘ in Guernica
- Jean Friedman Rudovsky, ‘The Ecotourism Industry Is Saving Tanzania’s Animals and Threatening Its Indigenous People‘ in Vice
- Emma Green, ‘American Religion: Complicated, Not Dead‘ in The Atlantic
- Helen Macdonald, ‘Spies in the Sky: On How Birds Reflect Our National Anxieties‘ in The Guardian
- Roisin Kiberd, ‘Will love win in Ireland?‘ in The Pool
- Alexis Gumbs, ‘an element of radical waywardness‘ in The Offing
- Sarah Maslin, ‘Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers‘ in The New York Times
- Abby Tomlinson, ‘I’ll always be a Milifan. Ed was the best prime minister we never had‘ in The Guardian
- Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Teenage girls are far smarter than we give them credit for‘ in The Pool
Film, Television, Music and Fashion:
- Anne Helen Petersen, ‘In Praise Of Betty Draper, Difficult Woman‘ on Buzzfeed
- Caroline Framke, ‘The Ascendancy of the ‘Awkward Older Sister’‘ in The Atlantic
- Jiayang Fan, ‘Chinese Whisperers‘ in The Awl
- Samira Sawlani, ‘What fresh hell is this? ‘The Princess of North Sudan; more scary tale than fairy tale’‘ on Media Diversified
- Jenn Lyons, ‘Women of the Wasteland – Mad Max: Fury Road‘ on her blog
- Alice Coote, ‘My life as a man‘ in The Guardian
- Eliana Dockterman, ‘How TV Sex Got Real‘ in Time
- Marissa Bate, ‘So, Hollywood thinks women aren’t superheroes?‘ in The Pool
- Jessica Winter, ‘David Letterman Raised Me‘ on Slate
- Sady Doyle, ‘Age of Robots: How Marvel Is Killing the Popcorn Movie‘ on Medium
- Hadley Freeman, ‘Why I owe it all to 1980s movies‘ in The Guardian
The interviews:
- Anne Enright in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
- Victoria Dahl in Jezebel
- Helen Macdonald on Electric Literature
- Sara Nović on Electric Literature
- Suzanne Scanlon in BOMB Magazine
- Aine Greaney on The Fem
- Margaret Jull Costa on Foyles’ Blog
- Jessica Hopper in The Hairpin and on Salon
- Lisa Kleypas on Jezebel
- Nell Zink on Literary Hub and on the Huffington Post
- Sora Kim-Russell on London Korean Links
- Kate Atkinson in The Globe and The Mail
- Amanda Palmer in Standard Issue
- Joanne Harris on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
- Sarah Govett on Teen Librarian
- Toni Morrison on Goodreads
- Cal Moriarty on Orenda Books
- Elisa Gabbert on Okey-Panky
If you want some fiction to read:
- ‘A Millennial Revenge Fantasy‘ by Jamie Lauren Keiles on The Hairpin
- The first five chapters of The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North in The Pool
- ‘Ghosts & Cyborgs‘ by Lyndsey Ellis in The Offing
- ‘Film Previews on a Plane: The Helpful Summaries‘ by Margaret Atwood in The National Post
- ‘Thanksgiving in Connecticut‘ by Katherine Bell on The Fem
- An extract from A Tale of Two Besties by Sophia Rossi on HelloGiggles
- An extract from My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff on Literary Hub
- ‘The Kind of Water I Like‘ by Lillian Akampurira Aujo on Sooo Many Stories
- ‘McCarthy and Woolf‘ by Chella Courington in Cacti Fur
- ‘Juke Joint Banshee‘ by Patty Templeton on Urban Fantasist
- ‘The Wretched Pet‘ by Betty McIntyre on Urban Fantasist
- ‘The Ice-Cream Van‘ by Jessica Patient on Urban Fantasist
If you want some poetry to read:
- ‘Extinction‘ by Jackie Kay in The Guardian
- ‘A Reading in New York‘ by Claire Potter in the New Statesman
- ‘[I can’t bear anymore what happens to the body]‘ by Victoria Lynne McCoy in The Offing
- ‘Words Like Applesauce‘ by Bethany Mary in The Fem
- ‘Thing is an Amen‘ by Rachael Katz in The Offing
- ‘Black Words Matter‘ Four poems by Baltimore Students on Real Pants
- ‘in this story…‘ by Lisa Marie Basile in Berfrois
- Six by Elisa Gabbert on Okey-Panky
The lists:
- 47 Books Every College Grad Should Read on Buzzfeed
- 10 Books to Read This Summer in the Wall Street Journal
- 8 reasons you absolutely have to watch Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in The Pool
- Judith Claire Mitchell’s Top 10 (unconventional) ghosts in literature in The Guardian
- Books of the Week, May 18, 2015 on Publishers Weekly
- Amelia Gray’s 10 Best Dark Books on Publishers Weekly
- 13 Best Quotes from Adichie’s Pen Festival Lecture on Brittle Paper
- 4 Small Press Books to Read in May (All-Women Edition) on BookRiot
- Kirsty Logan’s Seven New(ish) Island Books on The Island Review
- 11 Teen Books About Growing Up in Scotland on Scottish Book Trust
- Sarah Menkedick’s Four Books on Early Motherhood on Vela
- 12 Feminist Books ‘Mad Men’s Joan And Peggy Could Have Used To “Burn This Place Down” on Bustle
The Writes of Womxn 
Somos muchas las mujeres a las que nos gusta escribir, bien en medios telematicos ( blogs, redes sociales,etc) o en papel, este último medio tal vez sea el preferido, pero al que muy pocas tenemos acceso ya que no se nos da la oportunidad de hacerlo. Mientras eso sucede expresemosnos por aquí. Te leeré. Gracias. Un saludo
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I don’t speak Spanish so with the aid of Google translate, I hope I’ve understood this correctly. Hello. Thank you. It’s my pleasure – I enjoy compiling the list, hope you enjoy reading.
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Am going to spend some worthwhile hours going through your links. so thank you for all the time you must have spent doing this….One request though? Can you put the links “opening in a new window”? pretty please? That way I can ensure I come back to you and spend even more time on your wonderful post, especially if I’ve gone off and commented elsewhere.
kthxbai xxx
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Thank you for reading, hope you find things you enjoy. I’ve just looked up how to do that (my browser does it automatically, so I hadn’t even thought about it) and it’s v.easy to do, so yes, of course, expect that to happen from next week.
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