In the Media, June 2016, Part One

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.

It’s impossible to begin with anything other than the Stanford rape case. The victim’s court statement was published on Buzzfeed and went viral. The piece, along with responses from Brock Turner’s father and friends, including a female friend who defended him, have prompted some impassioned and powerful pieces: Louise O’Neill wrote, ‘20 minutes is an awfully long time when you’re the one being raped‘ in the Irish Examiner; Estelle B. Freedman, ‘When Feminists Take On Judges Over Rape‘ in The New York Times; Sarah Lunnie, ‘Maybe the word “rapist” is a problem: The utility of nouns and verbs, or accepting who we are and what we do‘ on Salon; Adrienne LaFrance, ‘What Happens When People Stop Talking About the Stanford Rape Case?‘ on The Atlantic; Kim Saumell, ‘I was never raped but…‘ on Medium; Rebecca Makkai, ‘The Power and Limitations of Victim-Impact Statements‘ in The New Yorker; Roe McDermott, ‘He Said Nothing‘ on The Coven; Glosswitch, ‘Does the outrage over the Stanford rape case do anything to help victims?‘ in the New Statesman

The other big news this fortnight was Lisa McInerney’s debut novel, The Glorious Heresies, taking The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016. Justine Jordan wrote, ‘Sweary Lady’s riot of invention is a well-deserved winner of the Baileys prize‘ in The Guardian. While McInerney wrote about her working day for The Guardian and shared a secret in ‘Bad Behaviourism‘ on Scottish Book Trust

There’s a new series on Literary Hub about women writers in translation. Written by a group of translators, each fortnight they’re looking at a country and the women writers from there yet to be translated into English. So far they’ve covered Germany, China and Italy. I’ve added it to the regulars at the bottom of the page.

And finally, the excellent Jendella Benson has a new column on Media Diversified. This week’s is ‘How to Raise a Champion‘ and I’ve also added her to the list of regulars at the bottom of the page.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Natasha Walter, ‘We’ve been expecting you, Ms Bond: why fiction needs more female spies‘ in The Guardian
• Barbara Donsky, ‘The Power of Nancy Drew‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Kaulie Lewis, ‘Books I Wish I Wrote: On Writerly Jealousy‘ on The Millions
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘Sex, drugs and radical feminism. At 50, Valley Of The Dolls is as relevant as ever‘ on The Pool
• Tessa Hadley, ‘At Home in the Past‘ in The New Yorker
• Peggy Frew, ‘The closest Mum ever came to saying ‘I love you’ – Dad never even came close‘ in The Irish Times
• Joanna Walsh, ‘The N Word – Against the Novel‘ in The Irish Times
• M.J. Carter, ‘Who Were the Infidels‘ on For Winter Nights
• Lisa Dempster, ‘If you doubted there was gender bias in literature, this study proves you wrong‘ in The Guardian
• Rachael Acks, ‘An Open Letter to a Novel I Was Certain I’d Love (And Didn’t)‘ on BookRiot
• Teresa Preston, ‘Where Are All the Single Ladies in Fiction‘ on BookRiot
• Sarah Hepola, ‘What My Parents Really Think About My Memoir of Alcoholism‘ on Literary Hub
• Alix Hawley, ‘Angels of the North: On ‘Happy Valley’ and Anne Brontë‘ on The Millions
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘Beyoncé is not shining a light on African literature – it’s the other way round‘ in The Guardian
• Lionel Shriver’s ‘teenage diary: bad spelling and unreturned affections‘ in The Guardian
• Mo Moulton, ‘Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Barber, and the Story of a Wartime Lemon‘ in The Toast
• Christina Patterson, ‘Memorising Poetry Is an Art of the Heart‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Madison, ‘Dear Broke Reader: Your Sense of Entitlement is Killing Me‘ on her website
• Kelly Kanayama, ‘Even with “inclusive” Shakespeare, whiteness takes priority‘ on Media Diversified
• Rivka Galchen, ‘Where Is Luckily?‘ in The New Yorker
• Mylo Freeman, ‘Black girls can be princesses too, that’s why I wrote my books‘ in The Guardian
• Annie Liontas, ‘Inherit the Word‘ in The New York Times
• JoAnna Novak, ‘The Long Dash‘ on Catapult
• Lucie Whitehouse, ‘Why Strong Female Friendships Are So Important In Literature Today‘ in Bustle
• Kate Angus, ‘How to Tell the Future with Books‘ on Literary Hub
• Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, ‘Writers need new ways of talking about Africa’s past and present‘ in The Guardian
• Amber Sparks, ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Short Story Writers (And Demand They Write a Novel)‘ on Electric Literature
• James Wallace Harris, ‘The Resurrection of Lady Dorothy Mills‘ on BookRiot
• Alison Flood, ‘Yale English students call for end of focus on white male writers‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Tyler, ‘Let’s face it, Shakespeare’s plots are terrible’ in The Guardian
• C.J. Flood, ‘Teen girls have a right to roam too‘ in The Guardian
• Michelle Dean, ‘In Between Daze‘ in The Awl
• Charlotte Eyre, ‘Crossan wins YA Book Prize 2016‘ in The Bookseller
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘Girly Book Covers and Man Book Clubs‘ on Electric Literature
• Saengeeta Bandyopadhyay, ‘My God, so Much Sex?‘ on English Pen (translated by Arunava Sinha)
• Michelle Dean, ‘Read it and keep: is it time to reassess the ‘beach read’?‘ in The Guardian
• Sarra Manning, ‘I Love Books, Let Me Count The Ways…‘ in Red
• Katherine Wilson, ‘How Elena Ferrante made the neglected Naples a must-visit destination‘ on The Pool
• Jonathan Coe, ‘Enid Blyton? She gave me my sense of social justice‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hilary, ‘A Gift for Killing: Patricia Highsmith’s legacy for today’s crime writers‘ on Virago
• Esther Allen, ‘From the Translator: The Song Remains the Same?‘ on Words Without Borders
• Monica Tan, ‘Women and Melbourne writers dominate Miles Franklin 2016 shortlist‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘The mystifying disappearance of children’s author Helen Bailey‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Buchanan, ‘How Shakespeare shaped Greer’s feminist masterpiece‘ on ABC
• Ursula K. LeGuin, ‘Up the Amazon with the BS Machine‘ on Book View Cafe
• Emily Carr, ‘Finding Poems in My Own Labyrinth‘ on Literary Hub
• Gretchen Gerzina, ‘“True Love”: The Victorian (re)discovery that transformed our understanding of black women’s literature‘ on Salon

Personal essays/memoir:

• Melynda Fuller, ‘Rapture of the Deep‘ on The Rumpus
• Claire Hoffman, ‘Growing Up in Meditationland‘ in The Cut
• Tanwi Nandini Islam, ‘How Failure Became My New Beginning‘ in Elle
• Maya Binyam, ‘That Place Becomes a Wound‘ on The Hairpin
• Stephanie Danler, ‘On Losing Something Precious‘ on Literary Hub
• Marina Benjamin, ‘My Daughter, Myself‘ on Aeon
• Rebecca Worby, ‘Expanding the Story‘ in Guernica
• Cathy Day, ‘They Found a Meth Lab in Cole Porter’s Childhood Home‘ on Literary Hub
• Bryony Gordon, ‘How my relationships with men were affected by my mental illness‘ on The Pool
• Allison Moorer, ‘Below The Belt‘ on Guernica
• Rina Caballar, ‘How to Make Polvoron: Growing Up With a Mother Overseas‘ in The Toast
• Soniah Kamal, ‘The Reluctant Writer‘ on Catapult
• Stephanie Wittels Wachs, ‘How to Reinvent Yourself‘ on Medium
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Time, Money, Happiness‘ on The Smart Set
• Gillian B. White, ‘Muhammad Ali and the Importance of Identity‘ on The Atlantic
• Erin Williams, ‘Before I Was A Mother, I Was A Drunk‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Sweeney, ‘Some Girls‘ on Catapult
• Nicole Walker, ‘DNA‘ on The Rumpus
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘The Plus Side to Marrying a Total Stranger‘ on Female First
• Ulrika Campbell, ‘My Mother Told Me I Should Get Breast Implants When I Was 14‘ on XOJane
• Bridget Minamore, ‘The simple joy shared by two women on the road‘ on The Pool
• Marie Phillips, ‘Can you ever truly feel at home in a country you weren’t born in?‘ on The Pool
• Francine Prose, ‘Enthralled by Sicily, Again‘ in The New York Times
• Jane Demuth, ‘This Is to Mother You: On Caring for a Toxic Parent in Her Greatest Time of Need‘ on Longreads

Feminism:

• Marina Benjamin, ‘The ‘middlepause’: what no one tells you about turning 50‘ in The Telegraph
• Alexandra Heminsley, ‘Why BodyForm’s new ad is a game changer‘ on The Pool
• Megan Garber, ‘When Newsweek ‘Struck Terror in the Hearts of Single Women’‘ on The Atlantic
• Robyn Wilder, ‘Finding your place in the mummy-cliques‘ on The Pool
• Helen Phillips, ‘Escaping the Self-Critical Eye for the Sake of My Daughter‘ on Literary Hub
• Holly Brockwell, ‘“There’s not a shadow of regret”: one woman’s diary of her struggle to become voluntarily infertile aged 30‘ in Stylist
• Jessica Valenti, ‘My life as a ‘sex object’‘ in The Guardian
• Orbala, ‘On Conditional Love in Patriarchies and Death to Patriarchy‘ on Freedom from the Forbidden
• Claire Heuchan, ‘Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Racism in the Feminist Movement‘ on Sister Outrider
• Ann Friedman, ‘Pop Feminism Doesn’t Mean the End of the Movement‘ in The Cut
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘When it comes to online abuse, we need to see a fuller picture‘ on The Pool
• Dawn Foster, ‘If I ever see you in the street, I hope you get shot’ on The London Review of Books
• Una Mullally, ‘Shifting Ground‘ in Granta
• Hadley Hall Meares, ‘The invention of the paper bag was a triumph of feminism‘ on Aeon

Society and Politics:

• Alana Massey, ‘Your Parents’ Romantic Lives Don’t Have to Determine Your Own‘ in The Cut
• Sonia Smith, ‘Unfriendly Climate‘ in Texas Monthly
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, ‘Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City‘ in The New York Times Magazine
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘The Brown, Queer, And Poor Are Not The Ones Holding The Left Back‘ in The Establishment
• Mary Milz, ‘Blindsided: A Dream Engagement Turned Nightmare‘ in Indianapolis Monthly
• Alex Mar, ‘What Ever Happened to “The Most Liberated Woman in America”?‘ on Longreads
• Andrea Nguyen, ‘The History of Pho‘ on Lucky Peach
• Ella Risbridger, ‘If I am your “carer”, can I also be your girlfriend, mother or daughter?‘on The Pool
• Kathleen McAuliffe, ‘Disgust Made Us Human‘ on Aeon
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Sexuality today: how we embarked on a new age of freedom and tolerance‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘Citizen Khan‘ in The New Yorker
• Ashley Powers, ‘The Man in the Woods‘ in the California Sunday Magazine
• Lynn Enright, ‘Negotiating the etiquette of love in the airport‘ on The Pool
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘The disastrous message sexism in the Labour party is giving young women voters‘ on The Pool
• Jacinda Townsend, ‘Heteronormativity and the Single Mother‘ in The White Review
• Glosswitch, ‘To ignore someone’s educational background isn’t “fair play” – it perpetuates inequality‘ in the New Statesman
• Olga Khazan, ‘Not White, Not Rich, and Seeking Therapy‘ in The Atlantic
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Hillary Clinton vs. Herself‘ in New York Magazine

Film, Television, Music, Art, Fashion and Sport:

• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Why, after years of gay-free cartoons, I can’t get excited about Finding Dory’s lesbian couple‘ on the New Statesman
• Chitra Ramaswamy, ‘Why we need more gay characters on screen‘ on The Pool
• Kristen Lopez, ‘How the Weepy Fantasy ‘Me Before You’ Infantilizes the Disabled‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Hall, ‘Watch author Jojo Moyes respond to controversy over the portrayal of disability in Me Before You‘ in Stylist
• Clover Hope, ‘How White Are the Women’s Magazine Covers of 2016 so Far?‘ on Jezebel
• Kat George, ‘Why Missy Elliott’s feminist legacy is criminally underrated‘ on Dazed
• Désirée Wariaro, ‘Beyoncé and Resistance‘ on Media Diversified

The interviews/profiles:

• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney in The New York Times
• Annie Proulx in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal
• Marilynne Robinson on BookRiot
• Nina Stibbe in Red
• Mary Roach in The New York Times
• Christina MacSweeney on Words Without Borders
• Sarah Hepola on Salon
• Rebecca Schiff on The Rumpus
• Stephanie Danler on Literary Hub
• Jessica Valenti on BookRiot and The Pool
• Lynne Kutsukake on Bloom
• Sarah Gerard on The Huffington Post
• Rita Mae Brown on Broadly
• Lydia Millet and Jenny Offill on Slate
• Nell Dunn on The F Word
• Sarah Perry on The History Girls and Five Books
• Yaa Gyasi on NPR
• Lynn Steger Strong on The Rumpus
• Eleanor Wasserberg on Waterstones
• Sylvia Patterson in The Guardian
• Laura Lippman on The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Patricia Engel on Electric Literature
• Hanya Yanagihara on Waterstones and The Bookseller
• Leila Aboulala (and Elnathan John) on Literary Hub
• Emma Jane Unsworth and Rachel B. Glaser on Granta
• Emma Straub on BookRiot and Electric Literature
• Kathleen Alcott in The Guardian
• Julie Myerson on Bookanista
• Emma Cline on The Bookseller
• Weina Dai Randel on History from a Woman’s Perspective
• Joanna Walsh in The Honest Ulsterman
• Helen MacKinven on Christina Banach’s website
• Charlotte Hobson in the Financial Times
• Rebecca Perry in The Honest Ulsterman
• Kimberle Crenshaw in The Guardian
• Alice Walker on Salon

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

Book Lists for All Humans #3

Today’s list comes in reaction to this list on Publishers Weekly: The 10 Funniest Books, only two of which are written but women and none by writers of colour. Note to us all: only  white men are funny.

Or not. I’m struggling a little with this one as funny isn’t my go-to so please add your suggestions, especially books by women of colour from beyond the UK and USA.

Animals – Emma Jane Unsworth
friends, booze, debauchery

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day – Pearl Cleage
HIV, religion, love

Love, Nina – Nina Stibbe
nannying, working class nanny meets the literati

Is Everyone Hanging Out with Me? – Mindy Kaling
memoir

Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans
war, evacuees, survival

Mr Loverman – Bernadine Evaristo
homosexuality, London, family, Caribbean

The Table of Less Valued Knights – Marie Phillips
quests, feminism, sexuality

Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu – Yi Shun Lai
dating, mothers, following your dreams

Yes, Please – Amy Poehler
memoir, feminism

Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged – Ayisha Malik
hijabs, dating, writing

Links are to my reviews

In the Media: October 2015, Part Two

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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

Photograph by Nadya Lev

This fortnight has been dominated by trans issues and feminism. This is largely due (in the UK at least) to the no-platforming of Germaine Greer due to her unpalatable comments about trans women. Sarah Seltzer looks at ‘The Disturbing Trend of Second-Wave Feminist Transphobia‘ on Flavorwire. This coincided with YA author, James Dawson, coming out as a transgender woman in this great piece by Patrick Strudwick on Buzzfeed. I look forward to featuring James and his books on the blog under his yet to be revealed new name and pronoun. Elsewhere, Francesca Mari writes, ‘They Found Love, Then They Found Gender‘ on Matter, Corinne Manning writes about ‘In Defence of the New Censorship‘, discussing the use of singular they on Literary Hub while Laurie Penny explores, ‘How To Be A Genderqueer Feminist‘ on Buzzfeed.

Photograph by Chad Batka

The woman with the most publicity this fortnight is Carrie Brownstein. She’s interviewed in Rolling Stone, Slate, Noisey, The New York Times and The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Francesca Rendle-Short, ‘Focus on Lesbian/Queer Australian Women Writers‘ on Australian Women Writers
• Emily Gould, ‘Our Spoons Came from Woolworths‘ on The Paris Review
• Can Xue, ‘A special kind of performance: on the course of a Chinese writer‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Mosse, ‘Women’s Prize for Fiction: 20 years on – why we need it more than ever‘ in The Telegraph
• Anne Thériault, ‘What I Wish Everyone Knew About Sylvia Plath‘ on The Belle Jar
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘YA or not YA? On writing and reading labels‘ on Live Otherwise
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘US Open & Revisions‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Out with vampires, in with haunted houses: the ghost story is back‘ in The Guardian
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘The enduring appeal of Bridget Jones‘ on The Pool
• Virginia Pasley, ‘The Dueling Universes of Bridget Jones‘ on Medium
• Kate Zambreno and Adrian Nathan West ‘The Pleasure of Following Coincidences: on Marianne Fritz‘ in The Believer
• Claire Harman, ‘“I pine away”… Charlotte Brontë’s romantic obsession‘ in The Guardian
• Leslie Jamison, ‘The Possibilities of the Personal‘ on Nieman Storyboard
• Lily Tuck, ‘True Confessions of an Auto-Fictionist‘ on Literary Hub
• David Mitchell, ‘On Earthsea: A Rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin‘ in The Guardian
• Adam Fitzgerald, ”That’s not poetry; it’s sociology!’ – in defence of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen‘ in The Guardian
• Jennifer Croft, ‘Understanding Difference: On Translating Olga Tokarczuk‘ on Pen American Centre
• Naomi J. Williams, ‘on late starts and lost calls‘ in The Irish Times
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘What Is Fanfiction, Anyway?‘ in the New Statesman
• John Plotz, ‘Le Guin’s Anarchist Aesthetics‘ on Public Books
• Susan Bernofsky, ‘Who’s Getting Translated? Mostly Men‘ on Translationista
• Helen MacKinven, ‘on Setting Her Novel in a Small Town‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Kate Mosse, ‘The wild bunch: on why we love out-of-control women‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Eby, ‘The Brutal Murder of Mary Grace: Peacock
  Love and Death on Flannery’s Farm‘ on Literary Hub
• Jane Smiley, ‘At the end of this trilogy I wept‘ on Literary Hub
• Tanya Landman, ‘Is To Kill a Mockingbird a racist book?‘ in The Guardian
• Susanna Rustin, ‘Joan Brady: “Alger Hiss Was Framed by Nixon”‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Laskow, ‘We Have a Copy of Patricia Highsmith’s Unpublished Essay on Green Wood Cemetery‘ on Atlas Obscura
• Isabel Rogers, ‘How do you get into Fight Club if you pronounce it ‘figghut’?‘ on her blog
• Scott Esposito, ‘Pillars: #4. River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit‘ on Conversational Reading
• Olivia Laing, ‘Separating art from life always needs the most delicate touch‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Emma Jane Unsworth, ‘Suffering the strangeness of sleep paralysis‘ on The Pool
• Elena Ayala-Hurtado, ‘“Adrift between two dialects”: Teaching English in Madrid‘ in The Toast
• Kristen Martin, ‘Investigation, from the Latin investigationem‘ in Guernica
• Daisy Hernández, ‘Colares‘ on The Rumpus
• Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Arch Tait), ‘Boys in Zinc‘ in Granta
• Ella Sackville Adjei, ‘The Terrible Tale Of My Racist One-Night Stand‘ on Buzzfeed
• Susana Morerira Marques (translated by Julia Sanches) from ‘Now and at the Hour of Our Death’ in The Offing
• Jane Smiley, ‘Horse Country‘ in The New York Times
• Molly Langmuir, ‘A Road Trip With My Friend Led to a Nude Photo Shoot‘ on The Cut
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘Caught in the Middle‘ in Guernica
• Masha Gessen, ‘The Memory Keeper‘ on Svetlana Alexievich in The New Yorker
• Joanne Harris, ‘A Writer’s Manifesto‘ on Writers’ Centre Norwich
• Corinne Manning, ‘Myself in Translation: On the Genius of Alison Bechdel‘ on Literary Hub
• Sofi Stambo, ‘Lists‘ on AGNI
• Michele Filgate, ‘Dressing Myself for the First Time‘ on Refinery 29
• Ka Bradley, ‘A Letter of Enquiry Regarding a Possible Purchase‘ in The Offing
• Scherezade Siobhan, ‘Llamada‘ on Real Pants

Feminism:

• Sophia Benoit, ‘A list of things I wish women’s magazines would publish‘ in The Guardian
• Sabeena Akhtar, ‘Education, not Liberation!‘ on The Poco Book Reader
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘The damage done by demonising single mothers‘ on The Pool
• Frances Ryan, ‘A disabled woman’s struggle is any woman’s struggle‘ in The Guardian
• Akwugo Emejulu, ‘From #BlackLivesMatter to Anti-Austerity: Women of Colour and the Politics of Solidarity‘ on Verso Books Blog
• Emer O’Toole, ‘Suggestions for stock photos in abortion articles‘ in The Irish Times
• Jina Moore, ‘Women Refugees Fleeing Through Europe Are Told Rape Is Not A Real Issue‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Dohrmann, ‘Lost Girls: Women, sex, and the Arab Spring‘ in Harper’s
• Brittney Cooper, ‘The gun crisis we aren’t talking about: Black women are under attack — and America doesn’t care‘ on Salon
• Rebecca Traistor, ‘The Game Is Rigged‘ in The Cut
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Taking Up Space‘ on Girl Lost in the City
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘Women’s pain: do we need to scream to be heard?‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Rachel Nuwer, ‘The Tragic Tale of Mt. Everest’s Most Famous Dead Body‘ on the BBC
• Kate Taylor, ‘At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’ in The New York Times
• Brittney Cooper, ‘She was guilty of being a black girl: The mundane terror of police violence in American schools‘ on Salon
• Anna Holmes, ‘Has ‘Diversity’ Lost Its Meaning?‘ in The New York Times
• Ellen Berrey, ‘Diversity is for white people: The big lie behind a well-intended word‘ on Salon
• Saima, ‘What’s In a Name?‘ on Medium
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘My atheism does not make me superior to believers. It’s a leap of faith too‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Martin, ‘The Deputy Who Disappeared‘ in Los Angeles Magazine
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The Women’s Equality party has a problem – no one hates it‘ in The Guardian
• Julie Beck, ‘How Friendships Change in Adulthood‘ in The Atlantic
• Apoorva Mandavilli, ‘The Invisible Women With Autism‘ in The Atlantic
• Maya Oppenheim, ‘Not just sourdough: the feminist artisan bakery run by women who are ex-offenders‘ in the New Statesman
• Sarah Graham, ‘Only two sexes? The barefaced lie that makes intersex people like me invisible‘ in The Independent

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Megan Garber, ‘Suffragette and the Perils of Inspiration Porn‘ in The Atlantic
• Leah Finnegan, ‘The Fragile Ears of Men‘ on Joanna Newsom in The Awl
• Hannah Jane Parkinson, ‘The name’s Bond, Jane Bond: what would lesbian 007 look like?‘ in The Guardian
• Jada F. Smith, ‘With ‘Being Mary Jane,’ Mara Brock Akil Specializes in Portraits of Black Women‘ in The New York Times
• Rachel Shabi, ‘Homeland *is* racist. And it has a problem with women‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Cristina Henríquez in Guernica
• Melinda Salisbury on helloiammariam
• Gloria Steinem in The New York Times
• Selma Dabbagh in Guernica
• Sloane Crosley in The New York Times and The Bookseller
• Azar Nafisi on The Millions
• Suzanne Scanlon on Electric Literature
• Garance Doré in The Cut
• Terry Stiastny on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Meera Syal in The Guardian
• Lauren Holmes on Electric Literature
• Jane Smiley on Northern Soul
• Erica Jong in The Observer
• Stacy Schiff in The New York Times
• Helen Simpson in The Guardian
• Edna O’Brien in The Telegraph and The Bookseller
• Carmen Maria Machado on Electric Literature
• Helen MacKinven on Poppy Peacock Pens
• Eileen Myles in the LA Times
• Laura Watkinson on translating Tonke Dragt in The Guardian
• Alex Mar on The Millions and Nerdist
• Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Kelly Sue De Connick on The Pool
• Valeria Luiselli in The White Review
• Marilynne Robinson on The Daily Beast
• Emma Jane Unsworth in The Cut
• Margaret Atwood on Literary Hub, Salon and The Millions
• Sarah Weinman on The Paris Review
• Mary Ruefle on Divedapper
• Yeonmi Park in The Irish 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

The Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize Winners

Yesterday evening was the prize ceremony for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. The event took place in the Jerwood Space in South London and I was lucky enough to be there.

Photograph by Nina Pottell

The longlist of fifteen titles was whittled down to eight winners, all of whom were presented with a beautiful hand-bound edition of their book and a cheque for £5000. The prize is unique in that it awards the best British fiction from across the country and has eight winners who equally share the prize money. It was clear from the speeches of the winners, particularly Carys Davies, Grace McCleen and Bethan Roberts how much this means to writers in a time when grants have been cut and more books than ever are being published. It’s also fantastic to see a number of independent publishers being recognised and to have a winners list where three quarters of the recipients are women. (Now for more writers of colour to be recognised, although I understand there’s an issue here in terms of the number of books submitted by writers of colour.)

Photography by Rachael Beale

The winning books are:

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton)

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth (Canongate Books)

Mobile Library by David Whitehouse (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

Mother Island by Bethan Roberts (Chatto & Windus, Penguin Random House)

Significance by Jo Mazelis (Seren Books)

The Incarnations by Susan Barker (Doubleday, Transworld)

The Offering by Grace McCleen (Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton)

The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies (Salt)

The three I’ve read are all great (click the link to read my reviews) – Animals and The Incarnations both made my best of the year list last year. I’m really looking forward to exploring the rest of the list.

Photograph by Nina Pottell

It’s also Fiction Uncovered’s fifth birthday and to celebrate they had an art installation cake. Yes, that’s really a cake! Isn’t it amazing? It tasted delicious too.

There’s also more celebrations to come. Jerwood Fiction Uncovered FM will return to the airwaves on Sunday 21 June. The annual radio station dedicated to discussing great British fiction will be on Resonance FM at 104.4fm and via http://www.resonancefm.com. Guests will also include the winning authors, the 2015 judging panel and other British fiction writers including Catherine Hall, Nikesh Shukla, Matt Thorne, Alex Wheatle, broadcaster Nikki Bedi and Danuta Kean. AND ME! Yes, really. I’m on a panel hosted by Nikki Bedi with Danuta Kean and Nikesh Shukla discussing diversity in the publishing industry following the pieces I wrote for the Fiction Uncovered blog in May. Jerwood Fiction Uncovered FM is on air 12-5pm, presented by Matt Thorne and Simon Savidge. The panel I’m involved in takes place from 13.40 to 14.10. Tune in!

The Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Longlist

I’ve loved the Fiction Uncovered prize since discovering it three years ago. It awards eight writers who haven’t garnered the recognition they deserve and the choices are always wonderful. This year, for the first time, a longlist has been announced and it looks amazing. There are fifteen books, eleven of which – ELEVEN – are by women writers. I’m impressed. I’ve only read four of them but they’re all fantastic; if you click on the titles you can read my reviews. I’m going to endeavour to read the rest now. The shortlist is announced on the 18th June.

A Man Lies Dreaming – Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton)

Animals – Emma Jane Unsworth (Canongate Books)

Beastings – Benjamin Myers (Bluemoose Books)

Dear Thief – Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House)

Mobile Library – David Whitehouse (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

Mother Island – Bethan Roberts (Chatto & Windus, Penguin Random House)

Significance – Jo Mazelis (Seren Books)

The Four Marys – Jean Rafferty (Saraband)

The Incarnations – Susan Barker (Doubleday, Transworld)

The Offering – Grace McCleen (Sceptre, Hodder & Stougton)

The Redemption of Galen Pike – Carys Davies (Salt)

The Spice Box Letters – Eve Makis (Sandstone Press)

The Stray American – Wendy Brandmark (Holland Park Press)

The Way Out – Vicki Jarrett (Freight Books)

Wittgenstein Jr – Lars Iyer (Melville House UK)

This diverse group of books has been chosen by the judges as they display the flair, range and literary rigour abounding in British writing today and should, the judges believe, be widely read. In a nation reeling from the most divisive general election for many years, this is a group of books that can unify readers in the power of a good story.

Announcing the longlist, chair of judges India Knight said:

“It is absolutely thrilling to have found such brilliant books, across such a wide variety of genres, and from authors that live and write all over the country. These are fantastic writers who deserve to be household names.”

On the decision to release the longlist for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize for the first time this year, prize Founder and Director Sophie Rochester said:

“With writers from Swansea, Newcastle upon Tyne, Bath, Brighton, Lancaster, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Glasgow and London, and publishers from Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland and Norfolk, this year’s longlist presents an exciting snapshot of contemporary British fiction writing and publishing.”

Joining India Knight on the judging panel this year are Matt Bates (WH Smith Travel), Cathy Galvin (Word Factory/Newsweek) and Simon Savidge (Savidge Reads).

My Bailey’s Prize Wishlist 2015

You know that spring is almost here when the Bailey’s Prize for Women gets underway. Next Tuesday (10th March) the longlist of 20 novels (if it remains the same as recent years) will be announced. Eligible novels have to be written in English and published by a UK adult imprint between the 1st of April 2014 and the 31st of March 2015. Translations are not eligible.

Here’s what I’d like to see on the list. If you click on the cover, it’ll take you to my review, unless the book is yet to be published, in which case the review will be posted on the week of publication.

As ever, I’ll be shadowing the whole process. Check back on Friday for more details on this.

(Published 26th March)

(Published 26th March)

(Published 5th March)

And three I haven’t read yet but are strong possibilities:

In the Media: 15th 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.

This week it’s been almost impossible to escape Fifty Shades of Grey and the commentary surrounding it. Girl on the Net wrote ‘Is 50 Shades of Grey abuse?‘ on her blog; Leslie Bennets wrote, ‘Sex, Lies and Fifty Shades‘ for EW; Janice Turner wrote ‘At last, a man who knows what women want‘ in The Times, while Eva Wiseman went with ‘Why Fifty Shades finds itself in a world of pain‘ in The Observer.

And the pieces about and around the ‘new’ Harper Lee novel keep coming; The Guardian reported ‘Harper Lee ‘hurt and humiliated’ by Mockingbird sequel controversy‘; Salon reported on ‘Harper Lee and America’s silent abuse epidemic‘; Sadie Stein wrote, ‘Hot Stove‘ in The Paris Review; The New Yorker went with ‘Harper Lee and the Benefit of the Doubt‘; McSweeney’s ran ‘Harper Lee’s Letters to Her Editor After the Publication of To Kill a Mockingbird‘; The Los Angeles Times asked ‘Is Harper Lee’s new book headed for Hollywood?‘; while the Huffington Post asked ‘What Did Atticus Finch Think of the Civil Rights Movement?‘

There’s also been a focus on women’s deaths with the launch of The Femicide Census. Karen Ingala Smith wrote, ‘Femicide is a leading a cause of premature death for women – why aren’t we doing more?‘ and Sarah Ditum, ‘Why we need a Femicide Census‘ both in the New Statesman, while Parker Marie Malloy wrote ‘Trans Women of Color Deserve to Be Mourned as Much as Leelah Alcorn‘ on Slate.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Megan Garber, ‘Foucault That Noise: The Terror of Highbrow Mispronunciation‘ in The Atlantic
• Siobhan Phillips, ‘Beauty Work: Lessons in Ballet‘ in The Toast
• Emily Parker, ‘Writing Under Embargo: The Challenges of Controlled Information in Cuba‘ on Discourse in Progress
• Lee Siegel, ‘The Poet’s Keeper: Rereading Eileen Simpson’s “Poets in Their Youth”‘ in The New York Times
• Jaclyn Voran, ‘The Rise of the Teenage Breast Reduction‘ in The Atlantic
• Alana Semuels, ‘Is Ending Segregation the Key to Ending Poverty?‘ in The Atlantic
• Tara Ison, ‘How to lose your virginity: What movies taught me about sex and vulnerability‘ on Salon
• Perks, ‘Paul Dacre Leaves House Wearing Unflattering Suit, Sporting High Forehead Haircut and No Make Up‘ in the Evening Harold (I don’t know the gender of the person who wrote this but figured it was worth it for the Daily Mail ridiculing.)
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Here I Am, In Your House‘ on her blog, Publishing for Humans
• Snigdha Poonam, ‘The Fixer‘ in Granta
• Melissa Harrison, on The Fish Ladder and female nature writers on Caught By the River
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Reckless‘ on her blog Clothes, Camera and Coffee
• Ann Morgan, ‘All the world’s a page: One woman’s year-long quest to read a book from every country‘ in The Independent
• Glosswitch, ‘Paternity leave: why we should stop romanticising fatherhood‘ on the New Statesman
• Lissa Evans, ‘I’m Serious About This‘ on Commonwealth Writers
• Paul Collins, ‘Vanishing Act‘ on Barbara Newhall Follett in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Yvonne Roberts, ‘Depression and the fragility of the strong, silent male‘ in The Guardian
• Gayle Lazda, ‘Valentine’s Day is Over: Celebrating the Literary Spinster‘ on BookMachine
• Marjorie Brennan, ‘We’ll talk openly about sex – but why are periods still a taboo subject?‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Marissa Higgins, ‘No Results Found‘ in Guernica
• Megan Garber, ‘But Seriously, ‘”Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?”‘ in The Atlantic
• Emily Bolton, ‘“My Macabre Passion”: The Musical Saw‘ in The Toast
• Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘Joni Mitchell Wants to Define Her Own Legacy — So Why Don’t We Let Her?‘ on Flavorwire
• Juhanna Rogers, ‘Lessons I’ve Learned as a Black Woman World Traveler‘ on For Harriet
• Suzanne Moore, ‘The Baftas don’t even bother with tokenism any more‘ in The Guardian
• Dianca London Potts, ‘I, Tituba: Working as a Historical Reenactor in Salem‘ in The Toast
• Miranda Ward, ‘Dream Body‘ in Vela
• Katherine Heiny, ‘With Writing, Opportunity Comes From Small Moments‘ on The Atlantic
• Sadie Stein, ‘Into the Weekend‘ on Elizabeth Bowen in The Paris Review
• Francine Prose, ‘The Case for Hollywood History‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘Democracy, Deferred‘ on The Atlantic
• Stella Newman, ‘Stella’s Dream Valentine’s Date‘ on Handwritten Girl
• Helen Lewis, ‘Beyond the pink bus: why we still need to talk about “women’s issues”‘ on the New Statesman
• Margaret Sullivan, ‘The Times and Transgender Issues (Part 1 of 2): On Pronouns‘ in The New York Times
• Maria Popova, ‘Joan Didion’s Favorite Recipes‘ on Brainpickings
• Amy Collier, ‘A Paint Company Describes White Paint Colors‘ in The Toast

• Katy Phillips, ‘My Feminist Engagement (And Why I Won’t Crash Diet to be a Bride)‘ on Vagenda
• Lisa Gardner, ‘on Researching for Crash & Burn‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘What The Happiest Woman In The World Looks Like‘ in The Toast
• Emily Gould, ‘What Would Laurie Colwin Do?: On Eating and Contentment‘ in The Toast
• Rob Dunn, ‘The Hearts of Mary Shelley‘ in the Huffington Post
• Helen Harris, ‘Where are all the grandparents in modern fiction?‘ in The Guardian
• Kait Heacock, ‘I Spent A Year Following #ReadWomen2014, And I Learned 5 Big Lessons From Reading Female Voices‘ on Bustle
• Emily Bullock, ‘Double English‘ on Bookanista
• Deborah McKinlay, ‘In Praise of Love Letters‘ on One Book Lane
• Alexander McCall Smith, ‘Very Barbara Pym‘ in The Guardian
• Bethany Black, ‘As a Trans Woman, You Find That Your Stories Are Rarely Told‘ in the Huffington Post
• Anthony Lawton, ‘Rosemary Sutcliff’s account of her First Love‘ on Slightly Foxed
• Tanya Landman, ‘YA – A Double Edged Sword?‘ on The History Girls
• Robin Black, ‘One of the Most Difficult Things About this Career‘ on Gulf Coast
• Diana Walter, ‘How To Tell If You Are In A Logic Puzzle‘ in The Butter
• Terese Svoboda, ‘The Too Small House: Lola Ridge and I‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Hannah Beckerman, ‘A Year in the Life of a Debut Novelist‘ on the Huffington Post
• Aminatta Forna, ‘Don’t judge a book by its author‘ in The Guardian
• Gail Rebuck, ‘Reflecting on Women in Publishing‘ in The Bookseller
• Andrew Dickson, ‘Sarah Kane: a Blast from the past‘ in The Guardian
• Francine Prose, ‘on the Modern Classic Novel A House and its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett‘ on NYBooks (PDF)
• Alissa Nutting ‘on Sara Woods’ Sara or the Existence of Fire‘ on Electric Literature
• Myriam Francois-Cerrah, ‘Feminism has been hijacked by white middle-class women‘ in the New Statesman
• Jennifer Weiner responds to Jonathan Franzen’s latest comments on her blog
• Brooke Jarvis, ‘Homeward‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Cat Winters, ‘US Suffragettes in YA Fiction‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Mashaal Mir, ‘Chapel Hill shooting: Would the media have covered the tragedy if Twitter didn’t exist, and what would have happened if the murderer was Muslim?‘ in The Independent
• Marion McGilvary, ‘The importance of my work ‘family’‘ in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Think you don’t have a racist bone in your body?‘ in The Guardian
• Lorrie Moore, ‘Our Date with Miranda‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Diane Watts #mylgbtbooks 8-14 February on Storify
• Kathryn Hughes, ‘Angela Brazil: dorm feasts and red-hot pashes‘ in The Guardian
• Colin Stokes, ‘Pride and Prejudice in the Club‘ in The New Yorker
• Louise O’Neill, ‘Single White Female‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Jennifer Weiner, ‘Great! Another Thing to Hate About Ourselves‘ in the New York Times
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘A Stone for My Great-Grandmother‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Van Den Berg on the complex writing process behind Find Me on Read Her Like an Open Book

The interviews:

• Fay Weldon in The Guardian
• Susan Daniel in The Times of India
• Kelly Link on The Millions
• Liu Yu in The New York Review of Books
• Sarah Gerard on Electric Literature
• Fay Weldon web chat on The Guardian
• Ann Pancake on Bloom
• Virginia Burges on Bookbag
• Roxane Gay on Poets & Writers
• Eva Holland on Longreads
• Cate Marvin on American Microreviews and Interviews
• Meghan Daum on Forth
• Sara Baume in The Irish Times
• Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters, creators of Lumberjanes on Comic Alliance
• Katherine Heiny in The Observer
• Anne Tyler in The Observer

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• An extract from The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yoojoo (tr. Janet Hong) on PEN American Centre
• ‘The Tree Planted By Water‘ by Megan Byrne on Necessary Fiction
• ‘Labyrinth‘ by Amelia Gray in The New Yorker which she discusses here
• An excerpt from Sister Golden Hair by Darcey Steinke on Hypertext
• An excerpt from Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley by Ann Pancake on Bloom
• ‘Forest fire, supper time‘ by K.T. Billey on Blunderbuss
• ‘The Transparency Project‘ by Alissa Nutting on Guernica
• ‘There Is an Angel Inside Me I’m Constantly Shocking‘ by Sabrina Tom in the New Orleans Review
• ‘Making Monuments‘ by Christine Murray on Poethead
• ‘The Bottomless Pit‘ by Sharma Shields on Electric Literature
• An extract from The Longest Fight by Emily Bullock on Bookanista
• An extract from Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor on Penguin Random House Canada
• ‘The Time Being‘ by Antonia Honeywell (a prequel story to The Ship) on Whole Story Audiobooks
• ‘Penelope‘ by Sarah Thomasin on Three Drops Poetry
• ‘formal place setting‘ by Sophie Collins and Livia Franchini in 3:AM Magazine
• ‘Happy Valentines‘ by Amie Taylor on The 1033 Project
• ‘Driveways‘ by Kathryn Ailes in Quotidian
• ‘The House Made of Sugar‘ by Silvina Ocampo (tr. Daniel Balderston) on Longreads

The lists:

• The 2015 Amelia Bloomer Project List (Best Feminist Books for Children and Young Adults) on Amelia Bloomer
• Five Books Which Romanced Me on Louise Marley’s blog
• 6 Awesome YA Books Coming in February on the Huffington Post
• The top 10 books about addiction in The Guardian
• 10 Reasons to Love Edna O’Brien on For Books’ Sake
• 2015 Fiction Preview, Part 2: 15 Books to Add to Your Spring List on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Maggie Nelson’s Six Non-Fiction Writers in Vela
• 19 Unforgettable Children’s Books That Celebrate Diversity on Buzzfeed
• 10 Young American Poets Changing the Face of Poetry on The Culture Trip
• 19 Stories About Love in The Riveter
• Six Books by Black Women We’re Looking Forward to in 2015 on For Harriet

My favourite pieces this week:

• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Red & Lipstick‘ on Real Pants
• Naomi Alderman, ‘A Fat Person Making a Fitness App Is Like a Nun Giving Sex Advice, Right?‘ on Matter
• Emma Green, ‘Helen Keller Puts the Smackdown on Mansplaining‘ on The Atlantic
• Emma Jane Unsworth, ‘Holidays for one: why I love to hit the road alone‘ in The Guardian

Books of the Year 2014 (Part 2)

As promised yesterday when I posted my Books of the Year (Part One) – those published pre-2014, here’s part two with those published this year.

There are two things I dislike about doing this sort of post; the first is I’m very aware of the books that people I trust rate highly and I haven’t got to yet – Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation; Miriam Toews’ All My Puny Sorrows; Ali Smith’s How to be both, and Suri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World are all high on my TBR. And then there are the books I really enjoyed but didn’t quite make the cut because I want to highlight those books that didn’t garner as much attention as I think they should have. Honourable mentions therefore to The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton; The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh; The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey by Rachel Joyce, and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

Here they are then, the books published this year that entertained me the most, made me laugh (to the point of tears sometimes), cry, gasp and look on in wonder and admiration at the writer’s skill. The books I want to thrust into your hands and say ‘Read this!’. (Click on the titles for the original reviews.)

 

House of Ashes – Monique Roffey

A coup d’état on a island that might be Trinidad and Tobago. A bookish man named Ashes who gets caught up in the idea of revolution; a teenager called Breeze who thinks it will lead to a better life for him, and Aspasia Garland, Minster for the Environment and a hostage. A powerful book about power, poverty and leadership. My book of the year.

 

 

The Enchanted – Rene Denfeld

An unnamed prisoner on death row; an attorney investigating whether a prisoner can be saved on appeal; the fallen priest; the prison warden; a guard; a white haired boy. Abuse, control, freedom. Who’s good and who’s bad. Breathtaking prose. I have no idea why this book isn’t being raved about everywhere.

 

 

H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald

A book that is being raved about everywhere and deservedly so. Macdonald’s memoir of training a goshawk, Mabel, following her father’s sudden death, using her own experience to reflect upon that of T. H. White. Beautiful prose and an absorbing story.

 

The Incarnations – Susan Barker

Someone’s leaving letters in Wang Jun’s taxi. Letters that say they’re from a soulmate he’s had for over a thousand years, a soulmate who will take us on a journey through China’s history and lead Wang Jun to question his family and his friendship. A bizarre omission from the Booker Prize list, I have high hopes of this being on the Bailey’s Prize list.

 

 

In Search of Solace – Emily Mackie

Interesting voice, interesting structure, interesting themes, heartbreaking story. How Jacob Little goes in search of Solace (a woman he lived with and loved at university but he’s also searching for inner peace). It’s clever and thoughtful but also a good story. Longlisted for The Green Carnation Prize but I’ve seen very little about it elsewhere, another one I’m hoping to see on the Bailey’s Prize list.

 

 

Academy Street – Mary Costello

The story of Tess, from being a young girl in a big house in Ireland when her mother dies, through the rest of her life in New York as a nurse. A small life, quietly told in beautiful, considered prose. Heartbreaking.

 

 

 

 

Animals – Emma Jane Unsworth

Laura and Tyler are best friends, flatmates and drinking buddies, but Laura’s getting married to Jim who’s just gone teetotal and Tyler’s not happy about the changes afoot. There’s always time for one last bender though, isn’t there? Absolutely hilarious but with many thought-provoking moments about what it’s like to be a woman in your late 20’s/early 30s railing against society’s expectations.

 

 

Thirst – Kerry Hudson

An unlikely love story between Dave, a Bond Street shop security guard and Alena, a Siberian woman, trafficked to the UK and caught stealing shoes. Dave and Alena’s stories are heartbreaking enough but their attempts to forge a relationship through the walls they’ve built up and the cultural differences has moments I found completely devastating.

 

 

After Me Comes the Flood – Sarah Perry

John Cole, lost in a heatwave, arrives at a house in which the inhabitants are expecting him. He soon realises he’s not their John Cole but stays anyway. There he begins to discover what both he and those around him are capable of. Eerie, disconcerting and unusual.

 

 

A Song for Issy Bradley – Carys Bray

The story of the Bradley family, a family of Mormons, coming to terms with the death of their youngest member, Issy, from meningitis. We move between the family members – two teenagers, Zippy and Alma, seven-year-old Jacob, and parents Ian and Claire as they question their faith and work out how life can go on. Unexpectedly full of humour with great characters.

 

 

The Woman Who Stole My Life – Marian Keyes

Stella Sweeney’s back in Ireland trying to write a follow-up to the best-selling novel that saw her move to New York. Her yoga loving son who hates her is in tow; her artist ex-husband, Ryan, is giving everything he owns away in the name of art, and whose phone calls is she avoiding? Funny, smart and a cracking love interest.

 

 

Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans

When Mattie starts forgetting things and then disappears, her godson, Noel is evacuated to St. Albans and Vee Sedge. Vee and her son, Donald, are both taking advantage of the outbreak of war in their own ways. Noel ends up drawn into both. A novel about survival with crooked characters you can’t help but fall for. Funny, acutely observed and heartwarming.

 

 

Wake – Anna Hope

The return of the unknown soldier to Westminster. The story of three women whose lives have been affected by the war. Hettie, a dancer whose brother, Fred, has PTSD. Evelyn, who lost a fiancé and a finger in the war. She’s also losing her brother who’s returned a different person. Ada, whose son Michael died but who she continues to see on the street. Their stories are connected although they’ll never meet. Devastating.

 

 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler

Rosemary Cooke tells the story of her family, quite an unusual family and the events that took place when she was sent to stay at her grandparents. Did it happen as she remembers or is she fooling herself? An unusual take on what it means to be a family.

 

 

 

Lila – Marilynne Robinson

The one that converted me to Marilynne Robinson. Lila is a prequel to Gilead and tells the story of his second wife prior to and including their meeting and marrying. It’s about loneliness, not being able to see yourself clearly and fighting the urge to run away. The prose is beautiful and the story is heartbreaking.

 

 

2a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas – Marie-Helene Bertino

Christmas Eve Eve in Philadelphia. Nine-year-old Madeline’s mother is dead from cancer and her father can’t get out of bed. She’s desperate to sing – at school initially but, better still, at a jazz club. Madeline’s teacher, Sarina, has dinner with her ex-boyfriend to contend with after school ends and Jack Lorca, owner of the Cat’s Pajamas, jazz club, has a relationship with his son which is in need of repair and a police fine that he can’t pay. The day that awaits all three of them is skilfully interwoven in a story that’s equal amounts grit and heartwarming.

 

In the Media: 23rd November 2014

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.

It’s been Ursula K. Le Guin’s week. Awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the National Book Awards, she gave a widely praised speech about the need for freedom. You can watch it here, or read the transcript here. She’s interviewed on Salon, in The Guardian by Hari Kunzru and there’s a piece on where she gets her ideas from on Brain Pickings

Arundhati Roy and Megham Daum are the women with the second most coverage this week. Roy’s in Prospect, talking about ‘India’s Shame‘ and the caste system and interviewed in The Observer, where there are plenty of unnecessary comments about her looks. While Daum is interviewed on FSG’s website, in The Guardian and on The Cut.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Lavinia Greenlaw on her hero, Chaucer in The Guardian
• Lionel Shriver, Deborah Moggach and Lisa Jewell on their parents’ marriages in The Telegraph
• How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse According to Margaret Atwood on Buzzfeed
• Mary O’Donnell, ‘How I Write Poetry‘ on her blog
• Clare O’Dea, ‘Husbands in Books, from Bad to Worse‘ on her blog
• Susanna Hislop and Hannah Waldron, ‘Look to the Stars…‘ on the Waterstones blog
• Christine Murray, ‘There will always be singing; an appreciation of Doris Lessing‘ on her blog
• Jennifer O’Connell, ‘The World has serious mammy issues‘ in The Irish Times
• Susan Lanigan, ‘On Restrained, Elegant Prose‘ on her blog
• Lucy Allen, ‘The Myth of the “Empowered Woman” in History‘ on her blog
• Linda Tirado, On poverty in the US and the UK in The Guardian
• Alan Hollinghurst, ‘The Victory of Penelope Fitzgerald‘ in The New York Review of Books
• James Wood, ‘The Trials of Penelope Fitzgerald‘ in The New Yorker
• Meytal ‘If Roxane Gay is a Bad Feminist what am I?‘ on her blog
• ‘Re-membering Audre Lorde and Celebrating Toni Cade Bambara‘ on The Feminist Wire
• Bryony Gordon, ‘Why Adele was right to ignore Bob Geldof and Band Aid‘ in The Telegraph
• Amy Mason, ‘Female alcoholics need help, not vilification‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Donovan, ‘Beautiful Scots Words You May Not Know‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Valerie Mendes on Oxfordshire on One Book Lane
• Matthew Rosza, ‘The meme-ification of Ayn Rand‘ on Salon
• Anna Stothard, ‘Objects of Berlin‘ on her blog
• Valeria Luiselli’s introduction to ‘Ayotzinapa’ on Asymptote
• Sarah Larson, ‘Amy Poehler’s Confidence Lessons‘ in The New Yorker
• Mary Costello, ‘Where I Write‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Cynthia Haven, ‘Poet Melissa Green: Virgil would still be proud‘ on The Book Haven
• Cassandra Neace, ‘Discovering the Women of SciFi: Nnedi Okorafor‘ on Book Riot
• Cecily Kane, ‘I Want to be the Time-Traveler, Not His Wife‘ on her blog
• Emily Gould, ‘Leave Jonathan Franzen Alone‘ in Vice
• Suzanne Moore on The Hunger Games and the familiarity of the dystopian scenes in The Guardian
• Lydia Millet, ‘Gather Your Acolytes About You‘ on The Millions
• Anna Nordberg, ‘Dressing Like My Mother‘ in The New York Times
• Elisabeth Cohen, ‘Sex and the Single Librarian‘ on The Millions
• Miriam Toews, ‘The Day I Stopped Believing in God‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anne Margaret Daniel, ‘The Art of Zelda Fitzgerald‘ on Huffington Post
• Megan Amran, ‘How John Stewart and Stephen Colbert shaped my Comedy‘ on Salon
• Claire Fallon, ‘The Shocking, Twisted Stories Behind Your Favorite Nursery Rhymes‘ on Huffington Post
• Roxane Gay, ‘Bill Cosby and the rape accusers‘ in The Guardian
• Sonya Chung, ‘Reflections on Julia Child‘ on Bloom
• Jennifer S. Deayton, ‘Ladies Night in Hong Kong‘ in the Stockholm Review of Literature
• Jonathan Gibbs, Friday Book Design Blog on May-Lan Tan’s Things to Make and Break in The Independent
• Melissa Febos, ‘Against Our Own Best Time: Competition Among Writers in the Margins‘ on VIDA
• ‘Notes to Self‘, Authors look back at their work on The Guardian
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘The View from Over the Hill‘ on the Faber Academy site
• Lionel Shriver on Lammily in The Guardian
• Frances Leviston reflects on Elizabeth Bishop in the Edinburgh Review

The interviews:

• Celeste Ng in The Guardian
• Amanda Coe in The Guardian
• Margaret Drabble in The Believer
• Emma Jane Unsworth in Flux
• Michelle Magorian in We Love This Book
• Jo Mazelis on Novel Kicks
• Megan Amran on the AV Club
• Elly Danica on The Butter
• Helle Helle on English Pen
• Claudia Rankine on Guernica
• Margaret Atwood, Twitter Q&A on Harper Voyager
• Andrea Levy in The Independent
• Emily St. John Mandel on the National Book Foundation
• Rachel Joyce in the Irish Times
• Cheryl Strayed and Gillian Flynn in The New York Times
• Alina Gregorian in BOMB Magazine
• Marilynne Robinson on Open Book (BBC Radio 4) and on the National Book Foundation
• Sarah Davis-Goff, co-founder of Tramp Press on Totally Dublin
• Non Pratt on Bookends and Pages Blog
• Louise Glück on Poets and Writers
• Toni Morrison on The Colbert Report

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘Kitty and Pussy‘ by Anne Neumann on Liars’ League
• ‘Alight at the Next‘ by Eley Williams in 3:AM Magazine
• An excerpt from Significance by Jo Mazelis on Writers’ Hub
• ‘The Imaginary Road‘ by Jackie Kay on Manchester Literature Festival (click on the box on the right of the screen to download)
• An extract from The Night Falling by Katherine Webb
• ‘Where We Must Be‘ by Laura Van den Berg on Electric Literature
• Three Poems by E.C. Belli on Blunderbuss
• ‘Exes‘ by Joanna Walsh on Queen Mob’s Tea House

The lists:

• Eliza Mariah’s Sci-Fi Round-Up on her blog
• The 50 Best Independent Fiction and Poetry Books 2014 on Flavorwire
• The Best Young Adult Books of 2014 in The Telegraph
• Christmas Gift Books People Will Love to Find Under the Tree in Marie Claire
• 17 of the Most-Highlighted Quotes from the Best Fiction by Women of the Past Two Years on Bustle
• Books of the Week in Publishers Weekly
• Latinas for Latino Lit: ‘Remarkable’ Children’s Books of 2014 on NBC
• 10 More Books Set in Edinburgh on Scottish Book Trust
• Winter Reading List on Stylist
• 10 Women Writers of LGBT YA on For Books’ Sake
• 75 Reasons Why Margaret Atwood Is Awesome on Book Riot
• Top 5 Women Writers of the Beat Generation on For Books’ Sake (Waterstones adjust your display tables accordingly.)
• The Top 10 Crime Debuts of 2014 on Crime Fiction Lover
• The 25 Books Every Woman Should Read by Lisa Simpson in Stylist
• If you like this book by a man, you’ll love this book by a woman on Buzzfeed
• 50 Writers You Need to See Read Live on Flavorwire
• 11 Memoirs Every Woman Should Read in Her 20s on Bustle

And the best things I’ve read this week:

• Ali Hope, ‘Slamming the bedroom door‘ on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on her blog
• Isabel Rogers, ‘Truth and Fiction‘ on her blog
• Claire Fuller, ‘Crab Wood‘ on Tin House
• ‘From Literary Protégée to Competition Rival‘, Ann Patchett and Madeline Miller’s friendship on Something Rhymed
• Emma Jane Unsworth, ‘Readers love a good anti-hero so why do they shun anti-heroines‘ in The Guardian
• Shauna Miller, ‘Why We Still Need Leslie Feinberg‘ on The Atlantic
• Valeria Luiselli, ‘Building a New World‘ on Worlds Without Borders
• Nicola Griffith, ‘Branding: It Burns‘ on The Weeklings

‘I’m proud to be a feminist.’ Emma Jane Unsworth at Off the Shelf Festival, Sheffield

It’s a rainy autumnal evening when I arrive at Sheffield Central Library. Upstairs in a room lined with cases of leather-bound books, a small stage is set. Emma Jane Unsworth is here to talk about her latest novel Animals.

The event begins with Unsworth reading from early in the novel. She chooses a section where Tyler has been visiting dating strikes drunk, resulting in her committing cyber suicide and we learn about Laura at school, always top or second in English.

This is followed by an interview.

Unsworth is asked whether Animals is a novel about drinking. She says there’s a lot of drinking and drugs in the novel, often to excess. She wanted to show the ups and downs, the joys of going out with your best friend but also the hangovers and the existential crises.

This is followed by a question about ‘settling down’, which the interview suggested doesn’t happen in the book. Unsworth says she hopes she shows a breadth of possibilities. She wanted there to be joy in the excess but also to show that there’s a pressure that comes with doing the same thing over and over. It reaches a point where there’s no freedom in it any more for Laura. From a political view, she wanted to explore how women are expected to do certain things with their bodies at certain times. Society dictates that a woman should prepare her body for pregnancy.

The interviewer asks if she thinks there is a pressure to grow up. Unsworth says she noticed it within her own group of friends in their late twenties as people began to marry and have babies. Those who did neither of these felt they were being left behind, as though they were failing. Women should have choices but they are false choices if they’re made by fear. She questioned why you might feel that life would have less value if you didn’t marry/have children and did you reach a point in your life when you have to change completely? At this point, the voice of the two women – Laura and Tyler – started to become real in her head and she wanted to turn it into a narrative, a comedy about a duo and their escapades. ‘I don’t understand what it means to grow up! I wanted to fight that!’ she says.

Was Animals good fun to write? The nights out were but some of them made her feel queasy! She talks about the joy of going out with girlfriends, the way that you feel free to talk more. She says one of her favourite scenarios is a pub table, a bottle of wine and her best mate; she’s sorted so much out that way! She also wanted to document Manchester; it was an act of preservation.

The interviewer comments on how good it is to read an urban novel not set in London. Unsworth says she couldn’t imagine it being set anywhere else. She enjoyed doing the little booze tours in the book and the wanderings at strange times. She’s seen the buildings in Manchester grow, change, move and shift in her time there, it’s deeply ingrained in her imagination.

The interviewer asked for questions from the audience.

The first is about the title of the novel. Unsworth says it comes from the Frank O’Hara poem but it wasn’t her idea. She wanted to call it The Rogue because it’s rarely applied to women and she wanted to nod towards the Picaresque, a genre rarely applied to women. Everyone hated it but she dug her heels in until Francis Bickmore, her editor, sent her the O’Hara poem. She quotes the first stanza:

Have you forgotten what we were like then
when we were still first rate
and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth

She changed her mind then as she felt the poem referred to Tyler and Laura’s glory days, days that did so much for both of them. She goes on to talk about how, although comparisons have been drawn with Withnail & I, she was wary of slotting female characters into a male blueprint. That’s neither original nor progressive. She wanted them to be dirtier and grimier than Ab Fab and with a different tone to Withnail & I.

Somebody else asks about her protagonists being highly educated but lacking stimulation and fulfilment. Unsworth says she wanted a backdrop of real, modern day Britain so the Olympics, Mars Rover, Higgs Boson and the recession are all there. Manchester was grim, shops were shutting, people couldn’t get jobs doing what they wanted so ended up in telesales and coffee shops, feeling lucky to get those. She wanted her characters to be pretentious, not too sympathetic. They ponce around town quoting Yates and drinking which is just the way the voices came out. (Unsworth says it sounds awful when writers say that!) She expands on that saying the voices arrived when she was two drafts into a completely different novel. She thought they were interesting so began writing it into her phone. When she transferred it to a computer, she discovered she had 16,000 words. She’d never written so excitedly nor so fast!

What does she think of the Booker Prize and why do comedic books rarely win, are they difficult to write? She knew that’s what she wanted to write and she’s got braver with the humour as she’s written more. She says she ‘wussed out’ with her first novel Hungry, the Stars and Everything because she was worried what her boss might think of her, what her nan was going to think, so she removed some of the sex scenes. Her family are proud of Animals though because it’s fiction! She says she thinks there’s a presumption that if something’s funny it can’t be taken seriously but she feel passionate/less low and more connected to the characters if they’re humourous.

Someone asks about Laura being a writer and the book she’s writing about a priest who falls in love with a talking pig. Unsworth says it’s her being silly, taking the mickey out of the magical realism in Hungry the Stars and Everything. She wrote it down, showed it a friend and they liked it. She expected an editor to say something but they didn’t so it’s still in there!

Do you see a lot of yourself in Tyler? There’s something appealing about her, she’s tough/solid and ‘ain’t changing for anyone’, but there’s no room for growth then. Unsworth says she’s loads to learn and loads to do and isn’t ready to stop changing/growing or being sympathetic.

Has she always wanted to be a writer? She reveals that she used to write Valentine’s poems for her friends at school and charge them a pound! She went on to be a journalist but went part-time to write her first novel. She also reveals that the first draft of her third novel is finished.

Did you feel like a proper grown-up when the first book came out? She said it’s strange when it’s an object. She was scared but once it was out felt excited and emboldened.

Is there a difference between publishing as a journalist and publishing a novel? Unsworth says she still worried when she was writing journalism but not a lot went online at that time so it still felt small scale. It’s a big thing to write a book people might keep. It’s also risky because it’s your own ideas while articles are often written for commissions or to spec. It’s liberating and terrifying writing a novel but, she says, she’s writing to be read and to share things.

Someone else asks about Tyler as a female anti-hero. Unsworth says she couldn’t have written anything else. She’s never tried writing from a male point-of-view but neither was it a conscious choice to write about women behaving badly or in a way that is perceived to be bad but that was what created the narrative tension, along with societal pressures. She says she became braver as the writing went on, especially in redrafts. She started to think about extremities and the limits and depths of what these two women could bear mentally. She wanted to make it a farce and she’s glad she did.

How’s the film going? (Animals was optioned as a film by producer Sarah Brocklehurst in April.) I have to know where the scene’s going before I can get a word down, she says. Every single scene is plotted out. But she loves writing dialogue and is under no illusion as to the length of the process or the amount of collaboration that will come later.

What do you think about the apparent desire for likeable characters in books and have you had any comments about how unlikeable your characters are? Unsworth says she thinks this is more of a problem for women writers, that people conflate them with their characters. She talks about Alicia Nutting, writer of Tampa and how many interviews she read where the interviewer begins by expressing surprise at how nice Nutting is, as though a woman can’t write an unlikeable character who isn’t herself. She says she agrees with the idea that characters need to be believable in context and refers to Claire Messud’s comments to Publishers Weekly following the publication of The Woman Upstairs.

The penultimate question is how Unsworth feels about being part of a movement. She talks about how lucky she is to have caught the wave and be part of a pioneering group challenging conventions. She mentions the television programme Girls, the film Bridesmaids and fellow writers Annaliese Mackintosh and Zoe Pilger. However, she says, ‘The second something’s a trend, it’s a trap’; she has an appetite and interest for characters that go against the grain and she wants to keep exploring what makes these women bad. She doesn’t want to become complacent and stop questioning. She makes clear, ‘I’m proud to be a feminist. It’s an honour to be connected with those writers.’ She thinks it’s brilliant feminism is being talked about but we need to interrogate it too.

The final question is women without children being undervalued in society. Unsworth says there’s a moral value attached to being a parent or getting married despite no one suddenly graduating to a new level of compassion. There’s a feeling in society that if you lose a baby, you’ve failed; it’s why you can’t say you’re pregnant for three months in case you miscarry because shame comes with that loss. She says that life isn’t a series of checkpoints to tick off and by choosing not to marry or have children, you’re just going on another path. It should be a choice and not one made out of fear or pity. She dislikes society’s view that women in their 40s and 50s who go out drinking are described as ‘such a tragedy’ or ‘not quite right’. Humans justify their position by dismissing the alternative which just reduces the possibilities for everyone.

The event ends almost where it began, thinking about women drinking and behaving in a way that society doesn’t like. Unsworth is an interesting and entertaining speaker; she’s clearly passionate about fighting for a different space for women and doing so through fiction that’s both smart and humourous. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with for book number three.