In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight 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 as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.
A woman didn’t win The Man Booker Prize this year but there was still some interesting coverage of the prize and the shortlisted writers:
- Deborah Levy interviewed in the New Statesman
- Marta Bausells, ‘The Rise of the Small Press on the Man Booker Shortlist‘ on Literary Hub
- Ottessa Moshfegh interviewed on the Penguin Blog and in The New Yorker
- ‘How to write a Man Booker novel: six shortlisted authors share their secrets‘ in The Guardian
- Marta Bausells, ‘Inside the World of Judging the Man Booker Prize‘ on Literary Hub
The best of the rest:
On or about books/writers/language:
- Zadie Smith, ‘Dance lessons for writers‘ in The Guardian
- Dave McKenna, ‘The Writer Who Was Too Strong To Live‘ on Deadspin
- Jane Bernstein, ‘How I Helped Tell a Soldier’s Story‘ on Literary Hub
- Emily St. John Mandel, ‘The Gone Girl With The Dragon Tattoo On The Train‘ onFiveThirtyEight
- Megan Marshall, ‘Elizabeth and Alice‘ in The New Yorker
- Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘Are You an Anne Shirley or an Emily Starr?‘ on Literary Hub
- Seo Hee Im, ‘Sex, violence and The Vegetarian: the brutality of Han Kang’s Booker winner‘ in The Guardian
- Sara Nović, ‘Who Can Speak for the Deaf Community‘ on Literary Hub
- Rachael Nevins, ‘Fall to Pieces: On Elena Ferrante and My Own Frantumaglia‘ on Hazlitt
- Maddie Rodriguez ‘Anne Brontë, Anger, and the Resonance of Assault in the Tenant of Wildfell Hall‘ on BookRiot
- Shelley DeWees, ‘The Publisher Who Rejected Jane Austen‘ on Literary Hub
- Eleanor Brown, ‘‘I like the way he kisses my hand’: My grandmother’s life in jazz age Paris‘ in The Guardian
- M.L. Stedman, ‘On First Seeing Your Novel on the Big Screen‘ on Literary Hub
- Chloe Caldwell, ‘What I Think of the Fact That You Keep Asking Me What My Family Thinks of My Writing‘ on Catapult
- Sarah Schulman, ‘White Writer‘ in The New Yorker
- Sarah Hughes, ‘Shirley Jackson: the US queen of gothic horror claims her literary crown‘ in The Observer
- Ali Smith, ‘Ali Smith on the prime of pop artist Pauline Boty‘ in The Guardian
- Leah Schnelbach, ‘Imaginative Anthropology: In Celebration of Ursula K. Le Guin‘ on Tor.Com
- Nneka Okona, ‘On Travel Memoirs by Black Women Writers‘ on Literary Hub
- James Lasdun, ‘How Patricia Highsmith’s Mr Ripley Rises from Genre to Myth‘ on Literary Hub
- Wendy Jones, ‘What was really going on with English women?‘ in The Guardian
- MariNaomi, ‘The Making of a Comics Memoir‘ on Catapult
- Margaret Drabble, ‘I am not afraid of death. I worry about living’ in The Guardian
- Meg Elison, ‘If Women Wrote Men the Way Men Write Women‘ on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
Personal essays/memoir:
- Sarah Thomas, ‘Inheritance and Time Travel‘ on Catapult
- Ciara O’Rourke, ‘The Other Sister‘ in Seattle Met
- Michelle Tea, ‘A Walking Tour Of The Places Where I Hit Rock Bottom‘ on Buzzfeed
- Dianca Potts, ‘Hallowed Hell House‘ on Lenny
- Alyssa Martino, ‘Vacancies‘ on Catapult
- Eli Goldstone, ‘Bad Dreams‘ on Granta
- Jodi Ettenberg, ‘Learning to Cope With Chronic Pain (And Why I’m Establishing a Home Base)‘ on Legal Nomads
- Mila Jaroniec, ‘Imprecise Magic‘ on Lenny
- Stephanie Land, ‘The Love of a Thousand Muskoxen: Grieving a Love Lost to Time and Sickness‘ on Longreads
- Sonia Weiser, ‘Scrabble With My Mum‘ on Catapult
- Nimko Ali, ‘What does it feel like to flee war as young child?‘ on The Pool
- Kelsey McKinney, ‘The Art of the Box Score‘ on Hazlitt
- Melissa Matthewson, ‘On Coupling: An Inventory‘ in Guernica
- Nadja Spiegelman, ‘When Beauty Makes You Vulnerable‘ on The Cut
- Emily Alford, ‘How Makeup Helped Me Reclaim My Face‘ on Buzzfeed
- Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers, ‘Learning to Embrace Guanxi: On Living Communally in China‘ on Literary Hub
- Niina Pollari, ‘Minor Gains‘ on Catapult
- Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, ‘On Being the Media’s Token Muslim Girl‘ on The Cut
- Lily Dunn, ‘The Fog and the Sea‘ on Granta
- Sonya Chung, ‘How I Learned That Beauty Doesn’t Have To Hurt‘ on Buzzfeed
- JD Ho, ‘Vegetables for a Dead President‘ on Catapult
- Rushaa Louise Hamid, ‘How I Found Myself When My Skin Changed Its Identity‘ on Buzzfeed
Feminism:
- Bibi Lynch, ‘Do not brand me a failure. I’m a survivor. All unhappily childless people are’ in The Guardian
- Heather Skyler, ‘The Boy Who Groped Me and the Flute Case That Saved Me‘ on Catapult
- Liz Meriwether, ‘Laughing Until We Cry: Conversations About Getting Flashed, Grabbed, and Groped‘ on The Cut
- Rachel Klein, ‘When the Body Breaks its Silence‘ on Catapult
- Andrea Bennett, ‘Chain Reaction‘ on Masionneuve
- Lynn Enright, ‘Why does it feel awkward to admit you’re on a diet?‘ on The Pool
- Sophie Wilkinson, ‘Addressing the toxic combination of misogyny and homophobia‘ on The Pool
- Laurie Penny, ‘Fear of a Feminist Future‘ on The Baffler
- Daisy Buchanan, ‘When women are surrounded by misogyny, they are going to internalise it‘ on The Pool
Society and Politics:
- Molly Ball, ‘Trump’s Graying Army‘ on The Atlantic
- Emma Bracy, ‘We Are Always Defined From a Distance‘ on Hazlitt
- Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Are we now persecuted for speaking up for the vulnerable?‘ on The Pool
- Ijeoma Oluo, ‘I’m not ready for the Obama era to end‘ in The Guardian
- Eimear McBride, ‘Brexit has disfigured the tolerant Britain I’ve known‘ in The Guardian
- Alex Wagner, ‘Marriage After Trump‘ on The Atlantic
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gloria Steinem and Rashida Jones, ‘To the First Lady, With Love‘ in The New York Times
- Molly Ball, ‘In Ferguson, the Seeds of Trump’s Defeat‘ in The Atlantic
Film, Television, Music, Art, Fashion and Sport:
- Gabrielle Bellot, ‘Hayao Miyazaki and the Art of Being a Woman‘ on The Atlantic
The interviews/profiles:
- Naomi Alderman on The Writes of Woman and in The Guardian
- Vanessa Hua in The Los Angeles Review of Books
- Belle Boggs and Monica Youn on Literary Hub
- Toni Morrison on Literary Hub
- Emma Donoghue on Lenny
- Emily Witt on Literary Hub
- Therese Oneill on Salon
- Larissa Pham on Electric Literature
- Jess Kidd on Jo Hogan Writes
- Irenosen Okojie in 3:am Magazine
- Hannah Hart on Hello Giggles
- Claudia Rankine in The Guardian
- Joanna Kavenna on Literary Hub
- Britt Bennett on The Rumpus
- Zadie Smith in The New York Times
The regular columnists:
- Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
- Lucy Mangan in Stylist
- Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
- Caitlin Moran in The Times
- Lauren Laverne in The Pool
- Ella Risbridger in The Pool
- Sali Hughes in The Pool
- Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
- Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
- Eva Wiseman in The Observer
- Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
- Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
- Josie Pickens on Ebony
- Bridget Christie in The Guardian
- Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
- Juno Dawson in Glamour
- Kashana Cauley on Catapult
- Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
- Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
- Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub
Wow, this is a lot of reading to catch up on. I feel overwhelmed by all the links -must have taken you some effort to put it together for our delight. i started doing something similar last year but gave up when I found how much time it took.`kudos to you for giving it a go
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much for including me on your list Naomi. And such a helpful list for research of good publications and what’s out there. We appreciate your hard work! xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re very welcome. Thank you! x
LikeLike