5 Graphic novels for International Women’s Day

Giveaway now closed.

Happy International Women’s Day. Hurrah for all the brilliant women out there, yes, that includes you. To help celebrate the day, I’ve gone against convention and invited a man on the blog. I know, it’s outrageous. What happened was this: Will Rycroft, the brilliant Community Manager at Vintage Books, who some of you will know from the Vintage Vlog, suggested we do a vlog for International Women’s Day. So we did and you can watch it here. On it, I recommend to Will five fantastic books by women writers from marginalised backgrounds. In return, I asked Will for a recommendation or two as well…

Before we even start, this post isn’t ‘Will mansplains graphic novels’! When I was chatting with Naomi about International Women’s Day she pointed out that in her reading of female authors she had a small blind spot: graphic novels and this got me excited. I love graphic novels and if there’s one thing worth celebrating in the world of graphic novels it’s the fact that female writers are producing some of the most fantastic work and that the UK in particular has several female artists worth getting very excited about. Choosing just five books to put before you today was tough, there are so many that I’d like to mention, but I hope this selection gives a nice variety of tone and style and will introduce you to authors you may not have read before. It goes without saying (although here I am saying it) that Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel classic that would fit the bill here but after Emma Watson chose it for Our Shared Shelf, her feminist book club, I figured it’s one you may have read already. But if you haven’t, then you must, it’s brilliant.

Sally Heathcote: Suffragette
Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot, Kate Charlesworth

Bryan Talbot is the godfather of the British graphic novel scene and, working together with his wife, Mary, has been producing graphic biographies or histories to tell the stories of lesser-known figures. Sally Heathcote may be fictional but she meets plenty of the real figures from the Suffragette movement in this book which puts you right in the entre of women’s fight for equality. You can hear the authors talking about the book in this edition of the Vintage Podcast.

Fun Home
Alison Bechdel

You may recognise the name Bechdel from the Bechdel Test, which a movie only passes if it features two female characters having a conversation about something other than a man – as featured in her comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For below.

Given that, it may seem strange to highlight this graphic memoir about her father but Fun Home is a brilliant exploration of family dynamics, homosexuality and the literature that makes us. For anyone struggling to tell their family or others about their own sexuality this is a must read. And if you love it then there’s her follow-up, Are You My Mother?, to enjoy afterwards, telling the other side of the family story.

The One Hundred Nights of Hero
Isabel Greenberg

There is nothing not to like about this wonderful feminist fairy tale. Beautifully illustrated and featuring the story of two women united in their love for each other, for storytelling, and their resilience against the plotting of dastardly men, it’s a joy from first page to last. Absolutely perfect for YA readers too; it takes its inspiration from Scheherazade and the storytelling of 1001 Nights to weave a patchwork that involves love in many forms but perhaps most strongly that of female friendship.

The Property
Rutu Modan (trans. Jessica Cohen)

Some people don’t like the term graphic novel, it sounds a bit pretentious, but sometimes a graphic work contains exactly the kind of complexity that you would expect to find in a traditional novel. This book does exactly that whilst also retaining a simplicity of style that makes it easy to enjoy. A woman travels to Warsaw with her grandmother to reclaim a property lost during WWII. There’s humour to be had with officious bureaucracy and meddlesome relatives but there is also a touching secret from the past, as well as a burgeoning relationship for our young narrator. To bring such a light touch to important themes and history marks Modan out as a uniquely skilful artist and writer.

Notes on a Thesis
Tiphaine Rivière (trans, Francesca Barrie)

If you have ever struggled to hand in an assignment, dissertation or even just your tax return on time then you are going to cringe in recognition when reading this hilarious and painful tale of one woman aiming for a PhD. Beginning with enthusiasm but slowly bending under the weight, the labour and the obstacles of modern academia, we follow our heroine as she desperately tries to complete her work on Kafka. Almost everyone will recognise their own struggles here and it’s the kind of book that may make you laugh and cry in equal measure.

All five of these books feature in this article, which also highlights five more classic feminist texts.

A huge thanks to Will for introducing me – and maybe you too – to these five graphic novels. I’ve been reading my way through them and they’re absolutely wonderful. Although, Notes on A Thesis is so accurate, I had to have a lie down in a darkened room after reading it.

But that’s not all…Vintage have kindly given me a copy of each of these five graphic novels to give away. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment below saying which graphic novel you’d like to win and why. You can enter for more than one book if you wish. The giveaway is U.K. only (sorry) and will close at 5pm U.K. time on Sunday 12th March. Winners will be chosen at random and notified via email.

Giveaway winners

I allocated everyone a number, in order of posting, for each book they asked to be considered for and put them through a random number generator, which came up with the following winners:

Sally Heathcote: Suffragette – Anarmchairbythesea
Fun House – yatiekates
The One Hundred Nights of Hero – snoakes7001
The Property – Rebecca Foster
Notes on a Thesis – Joseph

Congratulations to all the winners; check your email for what to do next. Thank you to everyone who entered, I hope you discovered something new and wonderful to read regardless.

Thanks to Will and Vintage Books for the guest post and the giveaway.

My Plans for #ReadDiverse2016

I don’t do New Year resolutions. I learnt some years ago that those vague statements – I’m going to do more exercise/eat less/learn a language – don’t last beyond mid-January. But goals do, at least specific ones you can work towards and extend, if necessary, or not beat yourself up about if you don’t quite fulfil them do.

Last year, I set a goal to read more books by women of colour. I joined Eva Stalker’s #TBR20 project with the caveat that I’d continue to read review copies I was sent as well. I still haven’t completed all the reviews of those books yet but the main effect it had was I paid attention to what I was reading, specifically who the writer was. In 2014 10% of my reading was by writers of colour, in 2015, it was 32%. The unintended consequence of this, however, is that the number of books I read by writers from LGBTQIA communities plummeted from 6% to 0.5% and books in translation from 11% to 0.6%. (The latter was partly a consequence of me not really taking part in #WITMonth due to personal circumstances but still, it’s poor.)

The plan for this year then: more reviews of books by women of colour; more reviews of books by women who identify as LGBT; a proper focus on women in translation in August.

I’m aiming for 50% of my reviews to be of books by women of colour. I’ve changed the focus from the percentage I’m reading with the intention of even coverage on here. What I noticed last year was that although I was reading books from my #TBR20 stack, when I got back to reading and reviewing after my break in the summer, I was focusing on books by white women, the ‘big titles’. As a consequence, I have a stack of review copies by women of colour. These are now at the top of the pile.

I’ve also created a new #TBR20 pile focusing on writers from the LGBT communities. And here they are…

Half of the books (those on the left, except Anaïs Nin who appears to be in the wrong pile) are by women of colour. I used several sources to help me compile the list: More than 50 books by Queer People of Color by zarahwithaz; 10 Novels & Memoirs By and About Black Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women on Autostraddle;100+ LGBTQ Black Women You Should Know: The Epic Black History Month Megapost also on Autostraddle, and the Wikipedia list of LGBT Writers.

Elsewhere, you might have seen on social media that Media Diversified have created Bare Lit Festival (@BareLit). ‘A literary festival focused entirely on writers of colour’, which will run from the 26^th – 28^th February 2016.

We want to counteract the trend of equating literary merit with whiteness by highlighting the amazing variety of work currently being produced by BAME writers. That’s why we’ve put together an exciting programme of performances, panels and conversations — such as ‘Second-Generation Poets in Exile’, ‘What Does Liberation in Literature Look Like?, Sci Fi vs. Afrofuturism’ and much more.

I’ve already bought my weekend pass and you can support the festival by buying passes or single event tickets now and helping them to raise the cost of running the event. Find out more on their Indiegogo page.

Mention of Media Diversified brings me to this interesting piece, posted a couple of days ago: Decolonise, not Diversify by Kavita Bhanot. I agree with everything she says.

Speaking only for myself, I didn’t get involved with #diversedecember because I thought it would change the world but I did hope it might lead some people to question their world view or the view the white-dominated world imposes upon us.

During December, Salena Godden (@salenagodden) posted a video of her performing her new poem ‘I Count’. ‘I have become a woman that counts…’ she begins. Yep. I became a woman that counts when I started this blog. I don’t think it’s a solution and it’s certainly not going to bring about one on its own, but while ever white/male/hetero/cis domination exists, I’ll count. For me, #ReadDiverse2016 (@ReadDiverse2016) is about hoping you’ll join in that count too.

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

In the Media: 3rd May 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. 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.

There’s an election in the UK this week. As you’d expect, there’s been a number of articles about it, policies and where the previous coalition has left us. Huffington Post have been running a ‘Beyond the Ballot’ series. Contributions include: Vivienne Westwood, ‘The Housing Crisis – Politicians Are Criminals‘ and Denise Robertson, ‘Today, There Are No Housing Lifelines for People Who Fall on Hard Times‘. Media Diversified also have a series called ‘Other Voices’. Contributions include, Maya Goodfellow ‘Why aren’t politicians talking about racial discrimination in the job market?‘ and ‘Letting migrants drown in the Mediterranean, is this what the Tories mean by ‘British values’?‘ and ‘The pro-Tory business letter: a reminder that politics shouldn’t be dominated by a privileged few‘

Elsewhere, Zoe Williams wrote ‘10 big misconceptions politicians have about women‘ in The Pool; Deborah Orr, ‘Scotland is sending a curveball down Westminster way – and it’s not just Labour that will get hit‘ in The Guardian; Gaby Hinsliff, ‘We floating voters may be unenthused but we’re definitely not unprincipled‘ in The Guardian; Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett wrote, ‘Why I’m thinking about spoiling my ballot‘ in the New Statesman; Laura Waddell, ‘Pink Vacuum Politics‘ on Libertine’ Suzanne Moore, ‘Parliament? Over the years I’ve met several powerful men there who have no idea of boundaries‘ in the New Statesman; Hannah Pool asks, ‘Why aren’t black women voting?‘ in The Pool; Suzanne Moore, ‘I’m sick of this estate agent election‘ in The Guardian

Saturday saw the death of crime writer, Ruth Rendell. The Guardian reported her death and ran a series of articles: Val McDermid wrote, ‘No one can equal Ruth Rendell’s range or accomplishment‘; Mark Lawson, ‘Ruth Rendell and PD James: giants of detective fiction‘; Stanley Reynolds wrote her obituary; here she is ‘In Quotes‘ and if you haven’t read anything by her, The Guardian also recommend ‘Five Key Works’ while The Telegraph have, ‘The best of Ruth Rendell: 10 to read, watch and listen to‘.

And then there was that beach body ready advertisement. Responses to which ranged from Gemma Correll, ‘Hilarious Illustrations Show You How to Get “Beach Body Ready”‘ in Stylist; Hadley Freeman, ‘What is a beach body anyway?‘ in The Guardian, and Tara Costello explained, ‘Why I Stripped to Make a Statement‘ on the Huffington Post.

Congratulations to Marion Coutts on winning the Wellcome Prize. Jenny Turner writes in The Guardian as to why Coutts is her hero. The shortlist for the Encore Award was announced and includes Harriet Lane, Amanda Coe, Rebecca Hunt and Deborah Kay Davies. And Gaby Wood was ‘…made Booker’s literary director‘ reports The Bookseller.

And the woman with the most publicity this week is Leesa Cross-Smith who’s the featured writer on Atticus Review. She’s interviewed and has two stories up, ‘My Lolita Experiment‘ and ‘Dandelion Light‘; another in Synaesthesia Magazine, ‘The Darl Inn‘, and her column on Real Pants this week is ‘Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? & Girlfriendships‘.

 

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• John Yau, ‘Language Is Not Colorless: The Amazing Writing of Sawako Nakayasu‘ on Hyperallergic
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘Crush of the week: Toni Morrison‘ in The Guardian
• MJ Carter, ‘We should thank a Devon shoemaker for freedom of the press’ in The Guardian
• Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, ‘“Who Is Cagney Without Lacey?”: The Fug Girls on Writing as a Duo‘ in The Toast
• Neil Gaiman, ‘Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell‘ in The Guardian
• Susanna Clarke ‘on the TV Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: “My own characters were walking about!”‘ in The Guardian
• Masha Gessen, ‘“Paying Attention and Paying Respect Is All That Writers Can Do”‘ on Slate
• Ali Smith, ‘The Joy of Finding Myself Guest Director of Brighton Festival‘ on the Huffington Post
• Doreen St. Félix, ‘Toni Morrison‘ on The Oyster Review
• Lucy Worsley, ‘It doesn’t matter if The Tudors and Wolf Hall are historically inaccurate and a bit silly‘ in the Independent
• Sarah Hilary, ‘Writing a New Crime Series‘ on Headline
• EllaClaire, ‘Teenage opinion: why you should read classic books‘ in The Guardian
• Patrice Gopo, ‘Does Race Matter If Books, Like ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ Touch Your Heart?‘ in The New York Times
• Charlotte Gordon, ‘Why I Teach Mary Wollstonecraft‘ on the Huffington Post
• Louise O’Neill ‘on Lisbeth Salander‘ on We Love This Book
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Boats, Buddhism and the Boom‘ on Foyles
• Hillary Kelly, ‘Bring back the serialized novel‘ in the Washington Post
• Arifa Akbar, ‘How many more books will there be telling me how to be a Muslim?‘ in The Independent
• Lesley McDowell, ‘Do you have to be middle-class to be a writer?‘ on her blog
• Amelia Gray ‘on “Labyrinth”‘ on Real Pants
• Hannah Gersen, ‘The Value of Writing Programs: On Why I Don’t Have an M.F.A.‘ on The Millions
• Mo Moulton, ‘On Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey: An Essay with Personal Interruptions‘ in The Toast
• Charles Wolford, ‘Obsessive Love: Sex in Brontë and Faulkner‘ on Quadrapheme
• Allison Pohle, ‘The Last Days of Ladies’ Home Journal‘ on The Hairpin
• Hannah Furness, ‘Jane Austen’s real Mr Darcy unmasked by historian‘ in The Telegraph
• Alice Audley, ‘Zoella and the YouTuber books you need to buy‘ in The Telegraph
• Hanya Yanagihara, ‘How I Wrote My Novel: A Little Life‘ on Vulture
• Francine Prose, ‘I admire Charlie Hebdo’s courage. But it does not deserve a PEN award‘ in The Guardian
• Julia Copus, ‘A Self Among the Crowd‘ on Royal Literary Fund
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘The Art of the Paragraph‘ on The Smart Set
• Emma Teitel, ‘Why romance novelists are the rock stars of the literary world‘ on Macleans
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Mommie Dearest‘ in The Butter
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Made-up worlds (and a worldie maid)‘ on Bookanista
• Melissa Moorer, ‘This Writer’s On Fire: Lisa Mecham‘ in The Butter
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘What Happens Next: Predicting the Future‘ on Publishing for Humans
• ‘Day and Night I Find Neither Rest Nor Peace’; Charlotte Brontë’s Beautiful Letters On Unrequited Love‘ in Stylist
• Katrina Otuonye, ‘On Deadlines, Failure, and Getting Started‘ on Litro
• Dr Jenny McAuley, ‘on “Vindication of the Writes of Woman” by Mary Wollstonecraft‘ on The History Vault

Personal essays/memoir:

• Alison Taylor, ‘I’ve become part of a new social phenomenon – the boyfriend proposal‘ in The Independent
• Stacey Duguid, ‘Marathon Shopper‘ in The Pool
• Jordana Narin, ‘No Labels, No Drama, Right?‘ in The New York Times
• Michelle García, ‘The War of Forgetting‘ in Guernica
• Allison P. Davis, ‘Boxing Helped Me Tap Into My Inner Rage‘ in The Cut
• Sonya Lea, ‘Shattered‘ in Guernica
• Alana Massey, ‘The Dickonomics of Tinder‘ on Medium
• Casie Brown, ‘The Boy Is Mine‘ on The Hairpin
• Leah Reich, ‘The Cruelest Month‘ on Medium
• Amanda Giracca, ‘The Art of Butchery‘ in Aeon
• Rebecca Harrington, ‘The Apple Watch Is Great for Starting Conversations About the Apple Watch‘ in The Cut
• Alix Johnson, ‘Telling Stories: Secrets, Lies, and Sexual Assault‘ in The Toast
• Vivian Underhill, ‘Steal This Book if You Need To‘ on The Fem
• Sali Hughes, ‘Not going out‘ in The Pool
• Erika Smith, ‘A Return to Babysitting‘ on The Billfold
• Amy Glynn, ‘Desire Lines‘ on Berfrois
• Caolan Madden, ‘I Was Somebody: My Weekend With Miranda July’s App‘ on Weird Sister
• Tracy Moore, ‘My Love Affair with Androgynous Clothes‘ on Jezebel
• Shanrah Wakefield, ‘The Best Time I Burned the Shit Out Of My Hand Whilst Waxing My Box For A Boy‘ on The Hairpin
• Lynsey White, ‘Old Maid‘ on her blog
• Heather Steadham, ‘Firepower‘ in The Butter
• Colleen Kinder, ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Spring‘ in VQR
• Louise Troh, ‘The Tragic Love Story Behind America’s First Ebola Victim‘ in Vanity Fair

Feminism:

• Hattie Crisell, ‘Why is going grey still such a big deal?‘ in The Pool
• Meghan Murphy, ‘On ‘corporate feminism’ and the appropriation of the women’s movement‘ on Feminist Current
• Caitlin Moran, ‘How to Build a Girl‘ in The Times
• Jennifer Purdie, ‘Mormon, Childless, And Constantly Condescended To‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alexandra Duncan, ‘How I Made A Career Out Of Showing People My Cervix‘ on Buzzfeed
• Ann Friedman, ‘Older Women Aren’t Enemies, They’re Envied‘ in The Cut
• Ann Glaviano, ‘Report from the Field: On (Not) Reporting Sexual Violence‘ on VIDA
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘Time, gentlemen: when will the last all-male clubs admit women?‘ in The Guardian
• Siobhan Fenton, ‘Why do British feminists care more about sexist adverts than abortion rights in Northern Ireland?‘ in The Independent
• H. Liang, ‘Advice to my former self: desperate working mother of two young children‘ on Shrink Grows Kids
• Alana Levinson, ‘Girl, Send Me a Frext‘ on Medium
• Julia Alsop, ‘Out of Our Hands‘ on Maisonneuve
• Jessica Roy, ‘A Modest Proposal: How to Close the Gender Wage Gap‘ in The Cut
• Tracey Moore, ‘What Do Men Want? Obedient Wives and Independent Daughters, Apparently‘ on Jezebel
• Mara Lee, ‘Kissing historically‘ on Media Diversified
• Joanne McAlpine, ‘Looking Back: Fragments From Women’s Shelters (1981 – 1996)‘ in The Toast
• Janet Reitman, ‘Abortion Rights at Risk: The GOP Opens a New Front in the War on Women‘ in Rolling Stone
• Jane Merrick, ‘Should wolf-whistling be reported to the Police? If you’re Poppy Smart, then yes‘ in The Independent
• Shani Gilchrist, ‘Why I Talk To My Sons About My Work‘ on Role Reboot
• Vaidehi Mujumdar, ‘The state still controls women’s bodies. Especially brown and black ones‘ in The Guardian
• Joni Edelman, ‘Being Thin Didn’t Make Me Happy, But Being ‘Fat’ Does‘ on Everyday Feminism
• Joan Smith, ‘Women who waive their anonymity are changing our perspective on rape‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Megan Garber, ‘The History of ‘Thug’‘ in The Atlantic
• Meredith Talusan, ‘From A Symbol Of Athletic Power To A Symbol Of Gender Transition‘ on Buzzfeed
• Pilot Viruet, ‘Black Exhaustion‘ on Medium
• Shannon Keating, ‘Coming Out as Gay in Elementary School‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anna Della Subin, ‘In the Light of Ras Tafari‘ in The White Review
• Amie Ferris-Rotman, ‘The Earthquake-Wrecked Town That the Nepali Government Forgot‘ in The Atlantic
• Sharon Harrigan, ‘Foie Gras, the Vegetable‘ in VQR
• Amy Quan Barry, ‘Forty Years Ago Today‘ in the Huffington Post
• Leigh Cowart, ‘The Drug That’s Infecting Indiana‘ on Medium
• Dawn Foster, ‘Free Schools‘ in the London Review of Books
• Minal Hajratwala, ‘A Brief Guide to Gender in India‘ in Granta
• Julie Vuong, ‘What does it feel like to flee your country in an unsafe boat?‘ in The Pool
• Erika Hayasaki, ‘Living with Being Dead‘ on Medium
• Annie Waldman, ‘Scientific Expertise on Lethal Injection Falls Short‘ in Guernica
• Joan Walsh, ‘The hideous white hypocrisy behind the Baltimore “Hero Mom” hype: How clueless media applause excuses police brutality‘ on Salon
• Bella Qvist, ‘Freshly Filtered Favouritism: Why I Wouldn’t Want to Be a Barista at Pret‘ on the Huffington Post
• Maureen Rich Wallace, ‘My Son Belongs in Your Child’s Class‘ on Medium
• Myriam Francois-Cerrah, ‘To talk about race, we need to talk about the problem with “whiteness”‘ in the New Statesman
• Kamila Shamsie, ‘Murdered on the streets of Karachi: my friend who dared to believe in free speech‘ in The Guardian
• Diana Prichard, ‘Cultivating a New Immigrant Narrative‘ on Medium
• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, ‘The Day AIDS Hit the Fashion Industry‘ in The Atlantic
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘Drones — One white death can change everything‘ on Dawn
• Alex Morris, ‘How Exactly Do You Teach Femininity?‘ in The Cut
• Paris Lees, ‘Why the world needs to stop gawping, and support Bruce Jenner’s transition.’ in Cosmopolitan
• Laura Gottesdiener, ‘A Foreclosure Conveyor Belt‘ in Guernica
• Elif Shafak, ‘There is no us and them: remembering the lost Armenians‘ in the New Statesman
• Nancy Cook, ‘When Cities and Suburbs Work Together‘ in The Atlantic
• Morgan Meaker, ‘Gentrification in Brixton: who wins, who loses and who’s to blame?‘ in the New Statesman
• Helen Lewis, ‘The battle for better maternity care shows the limits of the Amazon warehouse approach to medicine‘ in the New Statesman

Music, Film and Television, Personalities:

• Tracey Thorn, ‘In music today, it’s all or nothing – rich at the top or languishing forlornly at the bottom‘ in the New Statesman
• Louisa Thomas, ‘The Boxer and the Batterer‘ on Grantland
• Sally Howe, ‘Pulp Nonfiction: Death (and Life) on Reality TV‘ on Blunderbuss
• Helen O’Hara, ‘Meryl Streep and Rose Byrne are prising open Hollywood for women‘ in The Pool
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Calling Eurovision too gay for a “family show” is as perplexing as it is insidious‘ in the New Statesman
• Lauren Laverne, ‘Katie Hopkins and incendiary opinions are the new celebrity gossip‘ in The Pool
• Agata Pyzik, ‘In Praise of Vulgar Feminism: On Kim Gordon and Courtney Love‘ in n+1

The interviews:

• Sandra Newman on The Writes of Woman
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Wall Street Journal
• Miriam Toews in The Guardian
• Mariel Hemingway in the LA Times
• Sarah Gerard on Literary Hub
• Aimee Bender on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Alexander in the Washington Post
• Lucy K Shaw on Real Pants
• Rachel Holmes on Guernica
• Sarah Waters in the Huffington Post and Culture Whisper
• Meghan Daum on Slate
• Jandy Nelson in The Guardian
• Tracey Thorn in The Pool
• Alison Bechdel in TIME
• Michelle Tea on The Rumpus
• Valeria Luiselli on Literary Hub
• Sarah Lepiciger on Reading Agency
• Darcey Steinke on The Rumpus
• Jillian Tamaki on The Hairpin
• Laura Salters on Sky’s Book Corner
• Hilary Mantel on Fourth Estate
• Carla Berrocal on Broken Frontier
• Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer via Bustle
• Vivian Gornick on Publishers Weekly
• Anna North on One Book Lane
• Janice Galloway in the Falkirk Herald
• Liza Klaussman on The White Company
• Janet Champ on The Toast
• Annelise Finegan on Three Percent
• Kate Hamer on Thriller Books Journal
• Kim Gordon on The Quietus
• Cece Bell in The Guardian

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The Taste of Home‘ by Ola Awonubi on The Reading Life
• An extract from The Green Road by Anne Enright in The Irish Times
• ‘Love Isn’t Easy When You’re the National Anthem‘ by Aoko Matsuda (translated by Jeffrey Angles) in Guernica
• ‘Light‘ by Leslie Nneka Arimah in Granta (Winner of Commonwealth Writers Short Story for Africa)
• ‘Famished Eels‘ by Mary Rokonadravu in Granta (Winner of Commonwealth Writers Short Story for the Pacific)
• An extract from The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld on Orion Books
• ‘Redshift‘ by Erin Calabria in Atlas and Alice
• ‘Chamber in My Heart‘ by Sossity Chiricuzio in Atlas and Alice
• ‘The School of English‘ by Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books
• An extract from The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan on Foyles
• An extract from The Last Summer of Us by Maggie Harcourt on We Love This Book
• An extract from Today I Am a Book by xTx on Literary Hub
• ‘Escape, Release, and Return‘ by Leslie Baum in Guernica
• An extract from Sphinx by Anne F. Garréta (translated by Emma Ramadan) on Electric Literature
• ‘A Satisfying End-of-Relationship Goods Exchange In Three Acts‘ by Maria Yagoda on The Hairpin
• ‘How to Clean a Dollhouse‘ by Betty Capot on Blunderbuss
• ‘A Sheltered Woman‘ by Yiyun Li (Winner of the Times’ Short Story Award)
• An extract from The Sound of a Sundial by Hana Andronikova (translated by David Short) on Body
• An extract from The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer
• ‘How to Hook‘ by Jodi Angel in The Offing
• ‘The Fairy Sword‘ by Laura Madeline Wiseman on The Fem
• An extract from God Help the Child by Toni Morrison on Essence
• ‘Fortune‘ by Erin Lawless on Books With Bunny
• ‘Fincan‘ by Mia Hooper in The Toast
• ‘Normal‘ by Bree in Guernica
• An extract from A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson on the Penguin Blog

If you want some poetry to read:

• Twenty-One Love Poems (The Floating Poem, Unnumbered) by Adrienne Rich on All Poetry
• ‘exodon paradoxus (bucktooth tetra)‘ by Dana Ranga (translated by Monika Cassel) in Guernica
• ‘Backdrop‘ by Andrea Gilham in Atlas and Alice
• Two Poems from Monetized by Alissa Quart on The Offing
• Three Pantoums by Lo Kwa Mei-en in The Offing
• ‘The Advantage of Sexual Cannibalism‘ by Antoinette Nena Villami on CactiFur
• Three Poems by Marika Prokosh on Lemon Hound
• ‘The Bookbinder‘ by Clare Best on Anthony Wilson’s blog
• ‘Whitewashed‘ by Natasha Head on The Tashtoo Parlour
• Two Poems by Sandra Simonds on Fanzine
• ‘Scientific‘ by Marisa Seigel on The Rumpus
• Two Poems by Sharon Olinka in Drunken Boat
• ‘Agression Diary‘ by Annemarie Austin
• ‘Errant Fathers, Stupid Women‘ by Marina Sofia in Think Pink

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swarmy on Literary Hub
• An extract from Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn in The Pool

The lists:

• Books of the Week, May 1, 2015 on Publishers Weekly
• 14 Of The Most Buzzed-About Books Of 2015 on Buzzfeed
• 18 Brilliant Books You Won’t Want To Miss This Summer on the Huffington Post
• 18 Of May 2015’s Best Books To Either Read By Yourself Or Share With Your Mom This Month on Bustle
• 10 Reasons to Love Nella Larson on For Books’ Sake
• 21 Books Every Woman Should Read By 35, Because Reading Keeps You Young (Sort Of) on Bustle
• The June 2015 Indie Next List Preview on American Booksellers Association
• Anne Helen Petersen’s Ten Writers On Entertainment in Vela
• 5 Great Books To Read In May on Buzzfeed
• Best Books April Part Two on Quadrapheme
• Best New Fiction: May 2015 on Typographical Era
• Top 10 books about working life in The Guardian
• Life Lessons from To Kill a Mockingbird on Scottish Book Trust
• 11 Steamy Books for Teens on Scottish Book Trust
• Novelicious Picks…Psychological Thrillers on Novelicious
• Kirsty Logan’s Top Five Literary Circuses on We Love This Book

In the Media: 26th 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. 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.

This week’s been all about friendship. The Cut declared it Friends Forever Week and ran a series of articles including, ‘The Friend Who Showed Me the Life I Could Have Had‘ by Nell Freudenberger; Emily Gould wrote, ‘Envy Nearly Wrecked My Best Friendship‘; Carina Chocano, ‘9 Friends Who Made Me Who I Am‘; Heather Havrilesky, ‘The Friend I’ve Been Fighting With for 20 Years‘; ‘Clique-Stalking: Instagram’s Greatest Social Pleasure‘ by Maureen O’Connor, and ‘25 Famous Women on Female Friendship‘. While Megan O’Grady wrote ‘This Spring’s Literary Subject May Have You Calling Your Pals‘ in Vogue; Lauren Laverne says ‘It’s time to rehabilitate matchmaking‘ in The Pool, Sulagna Misra writes ‘How Captain America Helped Me Make Friends in the Real World‘ on Hello Giggles and Leesa Cross-Smith writes, ‘Broken Friendships & Knowing All Too Well‘ on Real Pants.

If you’re still to discover it, one of my favourite blogs Something Rhymed covers friendships between female writers and is run by two female writers who are also best friends, Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa. On the site this week, ‘Crying Tears of Laughter: Irenosen Okojie and Yvette Edwards‘.

And then there’s the Amy Schumer sketch with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patricia Arquette and Tina Fey celebrating Louis-Dreyfus’ ‘Last Fuckable Day’. If you haven’t seen it yet, you must watch it RIGHT NOW! And when you’ve done that you can read Eleanor Margolis, ‘This Inside Amy Schumer sketch about the media’s treatment of “older” women is perfect‘ in the New Statesman and/or Lynn Enright, ‘Hollywood actresses skewer sexism and ageism brilliantly‘ in The Pool.

Unfortunately, it’s also been about Twitter trolls: Soraya Chemaly wrote in Time, ‘Twitter’s Safety and Free Speech Tightrope‘; Fiona Martin wrote ‘Women are silenced online, just as in real life. It will take more than Twitter to change that‘ in The Guardian; Sali Hughes wrote, ‘Trolls triumph by shutting down women’s voices‘ in The Pool

Congratulations to Yiyun Li who became the first woman to win the Sunday Times short story award and to Emily Bitto who won The Stella Prize this week.

In this week’s Harper Lee news, ‘Reese Witherspoon set to record Harper Lee’s new novel‘ reports Alison Flood in The Guardian.

And the woman with the most publicity this week is Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, who writes ‘How Writers Can Grow by Pretending to Be Other People‘ in The Atlantic, and is interviewed on Slate, in Cosmopolitan and on Longreads. While Stephanie Gorton Murphy writes, ‘The Uneasy Woman: Meghan Daum, Kate Bolick, and the Legacy of Ida Tarbell‘ on The Millions.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Doireann Ní Ghríofa, ‘on writing Clasp and what became of Airt Uí Laoghaire’s horse‘ in The Irish Times
• Ali Smith, ‘on Public Libraries‘ in The Independent
• Anne Milano Appel, ‘Skirting the Juniper Brambles: A Translator Narrowly Misses Getting Trapped in the Copyright Thicket‘ on Publishing Perspectives
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Creating the Literary World of the Future: A Response to VIDA’s Recommendations‘ on The Millions
• ‘“Can You Think About Rising?” A year after the firings of two top women editors, four journalism leaders discuss the challenges of editing while female‘ in Politico
• Sage Stossel, ‘Writers who are also mothers‘ in The Boston Globe
• Lindsay Merbaum, ‘Not a Real Writer: How Self-Doubt Holds Me Back‘ on Electric Literature
• Caitlin White, ‘J.K. Rowling’s New Robert Galbraith Novel Is Coming, and Her Announcement Proves Again Why She’s the Queen of Twitter‘ on Bustle
• Moira Redmond, ‘The Girl on the Train – and other express encounters in literature‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Winman, ‘What it means to be a reader‘ on Waterstones’ blog
• Elizabeth Andre, ‘Now Writing Is for Extroverts Too‘ on The Rumpus
• Ann Patchett, ‘Owning a bookstore means you always get to tell people what to read‘ in The Washington Post
• Norah Vincent, ‘On the Subject of My Suicide‘ on Literary Hub
• Rosy Edwards, ‘Why You Should Never Read Your Reviews, and it’s Not the Reason You Think‘ on the Huffington Post
• James Parker, ‘Renata Adler: Troll or Treasure?‘ in The Atlantic
• Alice Stephens, ‘Behind in the Count‘ in the Washington Independent Review of Books
• Elif Shafak, ‘Books were my crazy, wise companions in a conservative world‘ in The Pool
• Leslie Wilson, ‘Writing Last Train from Kummersdorf – A Little Bit of My Soul‘ on The History Girls blog
• A Celebration of Reading, by Outside the Box: Women Writing Women on Jane Davis’ website
• Concepta Cassar, ‘Food For Thought: What Montaigne Can Teach Us About Ultraprocessed Foods‘ on Litro
• Robin Black, ‘What’s So Great About Young Writers?‘ in The New York Times
• Sulagna Misra, ‘The Everyday Matters of Superheroes, Part I: Civil War, Marvel Nine Nine, and Dwayne McDuffie‘ and ‘The Everyday Matters of Superheroes, Part II: Jane Austen, AUs, and Pacific Rim‘ in The Toast
• Amanda Holmes, ‘Reading Wuthering Heights with Juvenile Offenders‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Melissa Harrison, ‘How to get down to grips with writing a book? Take a walk on the wild side‘ in The Guardian
• Sunili, ‘Reading as Revolution: Why I’m still banging on about People of Colour and Literature‘ on Medium
• Kelly Jensen, ‘A Conversation About Girls’ Stories with Laurie Halse Anderson and Courtney Summers‘ on Bookriot

• Mallory Ortberg, ‘How To Tell If You Are In A Shirley Jackson Story‘ in The Toast
• Arifa Akbar, ‘A foreign language can make sex scenes read better‘ in The Independent
• Rene Denfeld, ‘Books Saved Me‘ on Waterstones’ blog
• Michelle Dean, ‘Race, wit and mansplaining: female authors debate at Los Angeles books festival‘ in The Guardian
• Genevieve Cogman, ‘Women in SF&F Month‘ on Fantasy Cafe
• Taylor Sperry, ‘Readers may binge, but they do not purge‘ on Melville House
• Jessamyn West, ‘Kind of a Big Deal: What it’s like to be a famous librarian‘ on Medium
• Kamila Shamsie, ‘How I Began to Read‘ on Yahoo News India
• Harriet Mallinson, ‘Is romantic fiction a dangerous passion?‘ in The Guardian
• Courtney Maum, ‘Why Being A Debut Author Isn’t Exactly A Dream Come True‘ on Buzzfeed
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Kathy Acker’s pioneering adventures in the internet’s erogenous zone‘ in The Guardian
• Danielle Lazarin, ‘Where Are the Female Lit Mag Editors? Here.‘ on The Review Review
• Caitlin Moran, ‘What Have They Done to My Library?‘ on Nosy Crow
• Emily Beber, ‘Passed over to a broken machine: on Claire Potter’s Mental Furniture‘ in 3AM: Magazine
• ‘Glamorous and Bold: The Story of the First Black Female Cartoonist‘ on Black Then
• Bronte siblings bicentenary plans announced on the BBC
• Alissa Wilkinson, ‘The Power of Confession‘ in Pacific Standard
• Jonathan Shia, ‘Alison Bechdel: The Bechdel Test “Has Been a Very Strange Turn in My Life”‘ on Vulture
• Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘The Riotous Power of Toni Morrison‘ in VQR
• Melissa Moorer, ‘This Writer is on Fire: Cathy Linh Che‘ in The Butter
• Alyssa Cole, ‘History in Color: A Black American Romance Roundtable‘ in The Toast
• Paul Kerschen, ‘Sour, Salty, Bitter, Spicy, Sweet: On Can Xue and Five Spice Street‘ in Music & Literature
• Alexander Chee, ‘From Potter to Tartt To Ferrante: How We Came to Love the Multi-Volume Novel‘ on Literary Hub
• Rachel Joyce, ‘In my head, books are always competing with real life‘ in The Telegraph
• Anna James, ‘Slew of second novels set for this summer‘ in The Bookseller
• Alison Flood, ‘Report finds UK books world has marginalised and pigeonholed ethnic minorities‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Hayley Webster, ‘I love cemeteries and memorial gardens…I need to see the evidence someone existed‘ on her website
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘I Moved to New York on Crutches’ on Femsplain
• Jo Hogan, ‘Heartbeats and Heartbreak‘ on her blog
• Lisa Grunwald, ‘The Art of Being Apart‘ in the New York Times
• Anna Feintuck, ‘Making sense of the city‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Edwidge Danticat, ‘Without Her‘ in The New York Times
• Cal Flyn, ‘How do you acknowledge a shameful heritage?‘ in The Pool
• Sadie Stein, ‘Shying‘ in The Paris Review
• Abby Kloppenberg, ‘Small Talk: Intimacy Doesn’t Require Two People, Does It?‘ on Medium
• Heidi Julavits, ‘Turning Clutter Into Joy‘ in The New York Times
• Robyn Wilder, ‘How motherhood messes with your identity‘ in The Pool
• Leah Reich, ‘The Princess Who Learned To Lock Her Heart Away‘ on Medium
• Madhurima Chakraborty, ‘By Any Other Name‘ on The Hairpin
• Nicole Soojung Callaghan, ‘First Steps: Searching for My Birth Family‘ in The Toast
• Anastasia Selby, ‘The Day Before Thanksgiving I Got an Abortion‘ on Weird Sister
• Bridget Foley, ‘“I am not supposed to be alone. I am one of a pair”‘ on Salon
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: There Was That One Time‘ in The Butter
• Alexandra Neuman, ‘Tampon‘ on The Fem
• Pia Ehrhardt, ‘Inpatient, Outpatient‘ in The Butter
• Jess Bergman, ‘Letters to Anita: On My Grandmother’s Legacy‘ in The Toast
• Dini Karasik, ‘A Country Called My Mother‘ in The Butter
• Claire Greaves, ‘How Am I? Honestly!‘ on the Huffington Post
• Laura Turner, ‘The Claustrophobia of Fear‘ on Medium

Feminism:

• Caitlin Moran, ‘on Getting Her Legs Out‘ on The Pool
• Maanvi Singh, ‘See Priya Cook: Gender Bias Pervades Textbooks Worldwide‘ on NPR
• Margaret Corvid, ‘Moving on from the “happy hooker”: why I love my job as a sex worker‘ in the New Statesman
• Adeline Ginn, ‘Why Do Fewer Women Vote?‘ on the Huffington Post
• Anonymous, ‘I had an abortion because of extreme morning sickness. Spare others that pain‘ in The Guardian
• Camille Beredjick, ‘When A Queer Woman Counts Calories‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jetta Rae, ‘The Incidental Activism Of My Going Outside‘ on Ravishly
• Nilanjana S Roy & Radhaben Garva, ‘Painting the Women’s Movement‘ in Granta
• Jane C. Hu, ‘Gal Science: What Is Female Brain?‘ in The Toast
• Jamie Lauren Keiles, ‘Acceptable Catcalls‘ on The Awl
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Wanting to be liked won’t earn you respect‘ in The Pool
• Imogen Fox, ‘Sideburns for women: get in the loop‘ in The Guardian
• June Carbone and Naomi Cahn, ‘The Marriage Calculus‘ in Aeon
• Polly Neate, ‘Domestic Abuse Can Deny Women Their Vote – Here’s How‘ on the Huffington Post
• Alexandra Heminsley, ‘Paula Radcliffe’s final marathon‘ in The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Bim Adewunmi, ‘An Article About Black Women Shouldn’t Have To Come With A Warning Label‘ on Buzzfeed
• Rachel Munroe, ‘Have You Ever Thought About Killing Someone?‘ on Medium
• Kim Brooks, ‘The Struggle To Reclaim Parenting‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Stillman, ‘Where Are the Children?‘ in The New Yorker
• Amanda Ripley, ‘The Upwardly Mobile Barista‘ in The Atlantic
• Tyler Wetherall, ‘Female distillers prove women know their alcohol – and always have‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Merrick, ‘Designing for Disability‘ in The New Yorker
• Paula Cocozza, ‘Unlike Matilda Kahl, I enjoy making decisions on what to wear every morning‘ in The Guardian
• Beejoli Shah, ‘My Bindi Is Not Your Bindi‘ on The Frisky
• Zakia Uddin, ‘What It’s Like Speaking A Different Language From Your Parents‘ on Buzzfeed
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘From Nate Silver to #Milifans: welcome to the age of political fandom‘ in the New Statesman
• Sophie Heawood, ‘How hard can it be to cancel a mobile phone or satellite TV contract?‘ in The Guardian
• Lo Kwai Mei-en, ‘Reports from the Field– Speak Test: The Silencing of the Racialized Body‘ on VIDA
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘From Boyle to May, Immigration, as it turns out, has done rather well on providing jobs‘ on Media Diversified
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘No more “gal pals”: why do we assume lesbians are confused, attention-seeking, or man-boycotting straight women?‘ in the New Statesman
• Kristina Kay Robinson, ‘What’s Old Is New Again‘ in Guernica
• Morgan Meaker, ‘How has Britain’s most deprived community fared under the coalition?‘ in the New Statesman
• Marcia Rigg, ‘I Am Tired of Reports and Recommendations – What We Need Is a Culture Change in Attitudes Towards Mental Health‘ on the Huffington Post
• Natalie Bennett, ‘It’s Time for the UK to Stand Up for Migrants‘ on the Huffington Post
• Natasha Devon, ‘I’m a size 14 to 16, and Jamelia doesn’t think I should be able to shop for clothes that fit me – is she ok?‘ in The Independent
• Caroline Criado Perez, ‘Why don’t you care who made your clothes?‘ in the New Statesman
• Rachel Shabi, ‘Britain must help stop the human tragedy in the Mediterranean‘ in the Evening Standard
• Jameela Jamil, ‘Thank God I’m Not Jamelia‘ on the Huffington Post
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Hooray for the Milifans. They can change the world for the better‘ in The Guardian
• Lauren Smiley, ‘What Strippers Can Teach Uber‘ on Medium
• Angela Flournoy, ‘When Black Neighbourhoods Disappear‘ on Literary Hub
• Joanna Biggs, ‘Keep smiling if you want a job in 2015‘ in The Guardian
• Zoe Williams, ‘Demanding more: on where democracy lives in the 21st century‘ on the Penguin blog
• Deborah Orr, ‘Why the hysteria over Nicola Sturgeon?‘ in The Guardian
• Bryony Gordon, ‘Katie Hopkins is a monster of our own making‘ in The Telegraph
• Hannah Pool, ‘Jourdan Dunn draws attention to fashion’s problem with black hair‘ in The Pool
• Laurie Penny, ‘There may be nothing to vote for — but there’s plenty to vote against‘ in the New Statesman
• Zoe Williams, ‘Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history‘ in The Guardian
• Jane Rawson, ‘Don’t Mention the War‘ in Overland
• Sarah Ditum, ‘What Katie Hopkins wrote was monstrous. But save your anger for the politicians who decided to let migrants drown‘ in the New Statesman

Music, Film and Television:

• Rawiya Kameir, ‘Your Fave Is Problematic, And That’s Okay For You, But They Still Need To Apologize‘ in Fader
• Tracy Ann Oberman, ‘Here’s to you, Anne Bancroft‘ in The Pool
• Jeanette Leach, ‘Say What You Can‘ on [post-rock]
• Lauren Barton, ‘Patti Smith: punk’s poet laureate heads back on the road for her sins‘ in The Guardian

The interviews:

• Toni Morrison in The Guardian and on NPR
• Nicky Beer on The Rumpus
• Kirsty Logan on the Penguin Blog
• Charlotte Gordon in the Wall Street Journal
• Sabaa Tahir on Publishers Weekly podcast
• Yumi Sakugawa on Okey Panky
• Heidi Julavits on Electric Literature and Lit Up
• Meredith Talusan in The Toast
• Emily Schultz in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Lora Mathis on The Fem
• Jillian Tamaki in The Guardian
• Laila Lalami on the Los Angeles Review of Books Podcast
• Monica Byrne on The Rumpus
• Jan Morris in The Guardian
• Paula Hawkins on The Daily Beast and in The Guardian
• Mary Costello on Electric Literature
• Attica Locke on Kirkus and NPR
• Renée Knight on The Gymkhana Club
• Liz Fenwick on One Book Lane
• Helen Skelton in The Guardian
• P.P. Wong in The Strait Times
• Elizabeth Alexander on Salon
• Iona Grey on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Claire Potter on Very Small Kitchen
• Liza Klaussman in The Pool
• Andrea Gillies on Novelicious

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The Penis Problem‘ by Suzanne Schafer on her website
• ‘Last Chapter on Hotel Stationery‘ by Ursula Villarreal-Moura in The Butter
• ‘The Rental Heart‘ by Kirsty Logan on Storychord
• ‘Last Night & Yesterday‘ by Joslyn Sklar in The Offing
• An extract from Adult Onset by Anne-Marie MacDonald on Literary Hub
• ‘Maps‘ by Kate Sparks on Whiskeypaper
• ‘The Beacon‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Bird Song‘ by Nadia Hassan on Rewriting Mary Sue
• ‘Far Beyond the Brilliant Sky: 9‘ by Rebecca Burns on The Word Runs Through It
• An extract from Amy Wild: Amazon Summer by Helen Skelton
• An extract from The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld on Orion Books
• The opening of Mental Furniture by Claire Potter on Very Small Kitchen
• ‘Letters to a Mostly Imagined Correspondent‘ by Katherine Riegal in The Offing
• The first five chapters of Villa America by Liza Klaussman
• ‘You Are a Sacred Space‘, by Yumi Sakugawa in Okey Panky
• ‘Inkubation‘ by Jacqui Pack on Litro

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘Elegie of a Diaspora‘ by Ally Ang on Vagabond City
• Five poems by Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. in Drunken Boat
• ‘All My Creys‘ by Cynthia Arrieu-King in Drunken Boat
• ‘Pathology‘ by Kenzie Allen on Litragger
• Three Poems by MRB Chelko on Blunderbuss
• ‘Dorothy Parker Swipes Left‘ by Heather Alexander in The Toast

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Angry in Piraeus by Maureen Freely in The New York Review of Books
• ‘Small Stories #11‘ by Madeline Witt on The Rumpus
• An extract from The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
• An extract from Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin on Literary Hub

The lists:

• The Spinster Hall of Fame: Cut-out Dolls of Five Pioneering Women Writers on Literary Hub
• 11 Novels That Expectant Parents Should Read Instead of Parenting Books on Electric Literature
• LGBTQ* Poets You Should Know: Highlighting Women of Color on The Fem
• 11 Books To Give Your Future Daughter Throughout Her Life on Bustle
• 31 Contemporary Poets You Need To Read on Buzzfeed

In the Media: 12th 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.

The results of the VIDA count was announced on Monday. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts have counted the number of female and male reviewers in the major literary publications. There are some improvements this year, but overall the picture remains grim. For the first time this year, VIDA published a separate count for Women of Colour, it’s as depressing as you might expect. Reaction came from Hannah Ellis Peterson in The Guardian, ‘Male writers continue to dominate literary criticism, Vida study finds‘; Radhika Sanghani in The Telegraph, ‘Men aren’t better writers than women. Literary mags need to close the book on gender bias‘ and on Bustle, Caroline Goldstein declared, ‘The Results of the 2014 Women of Color VIDA Count Are Problematic‘.

VIDA also produced a handout: Things You Can Do Right Now to Advance Women’s Writing. Immediately after the results of the announcement, good things began to happen in Twitterland; Marisa Wikramamanayake created a ‘Women Who Review‘ database. If you’re a reviewer, you can add yourself to it; if you’re an editor at a literary magazine with a gender balance problem, you can have a look at all the women you could approach with review commissions. Judi Sutherland is getting a group of women reviewers together to send reviews to the TLS, contact her on Twitter if you want to get involved, and Amy Mason created Sister Act Theatre (@SisterTheatre): Support + recommendations of/for women working in UK theatre/performance. Worked with a great woman? Need work? Promoting your show? Tell us.

While all that’s been going on, Katy Derbyshire has been collating ‘Some more statistics on translated fiction‘ on Love German Books.

The other big news this week came from an American report that found the number of women choosing to be child-free has increased. The report coincided with the publication of the Meghan Daum edited essay collection Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids and the launch of the film While We’re Young. It’s triggered a number of articles: Emma Gray at the Huffington Post says, ‘A Record Percentage Of Women Don’t Have Kids. Here’s Why That Makes Sense‘; Jane Marie wrote, ‘Why I Stopped Trying to Be a Supermom and Started Being Myself Again‘ on Jezebel’; Hayley Webster wrote, ‘I had an abortion and didn’t talk about it…and I no longer want to live in shame‘ on her website; Hadley Freeman wrote, ‘Why do we still have to justify the choice to be child-free?‘ in The Guardian; Jessica Valenti asked, ‘Why do we never worry about men’s childlessness and infertility?‘ also in The Guardian

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Juliet Greenwood, ‘Women and Myths in Storytelling‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Laura Miller, ‘Our enduring Tudor obsession: Sex, ambition, wealth and power never go out of style‘ on Salon
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best novels: No 81 – The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962)‘ in The Guardian
• Lauren St John, ‘My American West adventure – in pictures‘ in The Guardian
• Jen Calleja, ‘Verfreundungseffekt: Waiting For Something To Happen —Tsou Yung-shan’s The Waiting Room‘ on The Quietus (Includes an extract from the book translated by Michelle Wu
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Stevie Smith, steel soul of the suburbs‘ in The Observer
• Linda Besner, ‘Changing face: The emergence of a new genre of memoir addressing the consequences of a changing planet‘ in The National Post
• Fran Lebowitz, ‘Why Childhood Was a Good Fit‘ in The Wall Street Journal
• Kathryn Schulz, ‘What Part of “No, Totally” Don’t You Understand?‘ in The New Yorker
• Alison Flood, ‘Allison Pearson revisits bestselling heroine in middle age‘ in The Guardian
• Krutika Mallikarjuna & Krystie Lee Yandoli, ‘If Carrie Bradshaw Wrote Her Column In 2015‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jill Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau Playlist on The Pool
• Elizabeth Day, ‘Can writing a male character make you think like a man?‘ on The Pool
• Jean Morris, ‘Reading in Translation‘ in Shiny New Books
• Anna Thomasson, ‘Researching A Curious Friendship‘ in Shiny New Books
• Laura Kalpakian, ‘On Writing Three Strange Angels‘ in Shiny New Books
• Rebecca Mascull, ‘Song of the Sea Maid, Science and Setting‘ in Shiny New Books
• Claire Fuller, ‘The Writing of Our Endless Numbered Days‘ in Shiny New Books
• Adèle Geras, ‘A Strange Phenomenon‘ (on Dorothy Whipple) on The History Girls
• Rene Denfeld, ‘Why I Talk to Death Row Criminals‘ on BBC World Service
• Jacob Victorine, ‘How to Translate a Map: Clare Cavanagh: Poetry 2015‘ on Publishers Weekly
• 2015 Best Translated Book Award Fiction Longlist on Three Percent
• Amy Bloom, ‘Literary Tastes‘ on VQR
• Francesca Mari, ‘The Assistant Economy‘ in Dissent
• Michelle Dean, ‘Passing Through‘ (on Nella Larsen) in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Sady Doyle, ‘Before Lena Dunham, there was Anaïs Nin – now patron saint of social media‘ in The Guardian
• Anuradha Roy, ‘The making of books, and of friendships‘ on Scroll In
• 2015 Authur C. Clarke Award Shortlist
• Amanda Holpuch, ‘US postal service delivers misquote on Maya Angelou stamp‘ in The Guardian
• Shane Breslin, ‘So are we really in the middle of an Irish literary renaissance?‘ on Irish Writing Blog
• Parisa Ebrahimi, ‘Why I Fell For Frances & Bernard‘ on Vintage Books
• Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, ‘The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison‘ in The New York Times
• Ane Farsethas, ‘Lydia Davis at the End of the World‘ on Lit Hub
• Mallika Rao, ‘The Kids Are ALL-CAPS‘ on the Huffington Post
• A.M.F. Winn, ‘Not Just an Ugly Face‘ on the Huffington Post
• Niki Browes, ‘The Girl On The Train: Who’s Reading It And Why You Need To‘ in Instyle
• Siobhan Curham, ‘on Empowering Books for Women and Girls‘ on Adventures With Words
• Emily Wolfteich, ‘Saudade and the Untranslatable‘ in Asymptote
• Tessa McWatt, ‘Why read a book (let alone write one)?‘ on Bookanista
• Laura Kipnis, ‘Marry by 30‘ (on Kate Bolick’s Spinster) on Slate
• Kat Brown, ‘Children’s book written by the young Queen Victoria to be published‘ in the Telegraph
• Dinika Amaral, ‘Finding Language in the Code‘ in Guernica
• Claudia Rankine & Beth Loffreda, ‘On Whiteness and the Racial Imaginary‘ on Lit Hub
• Leslie Jamison, ‘This Female Consciousness: On Chris Kraus‘ in The New Yorker
• Jemma Wayne, ‘10 Things You Didn’t Know About After Before‘ on Legend Press
• Candy Gourlay, ‘Growing up I thought Filipinos weren’t allowed to be in books‘ in The Guardian
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Who Gets to Review? Tranströmer, Ishiguro, and Critical Expertise‘ on Electric Literature
• Anne Lamott shares all that she knows: “Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared” on Salon
• Megan Garber, ‘How to Say ‘Yes’ (by Not Saying ‘Yes’)‘ on The Atlantic
• Jo Hogan, ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers: How Twitter and Book Bloggers Changed My Life‘ on her blog
• Afrikult, ‘Tsitsi Dangarembga‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Colm Tóibín, ‘A tale of two poets, Thom Gunn and Elizabeth Bishop‘ in The Guardian
• Marina Warner, ‘Learning My Lesson‘ on the LRB YouTube
• Jennifer Rankin, ‘Traditional books on paper open a new chapter of success‘ in The Guardian
• Lee Brackstone, ‘How I came to publish Sarah Hall‘ on Faber & Faber
• Kathleen Coyle, ‘Lost in Translation: Norwegian Novelist Regine Normann‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Judith Thurman, ‘Good, Clean Fun: A Revival of “Gigi”‘ in The New Yorker
• J.C. Gabel, ‘Anatomy of a Cover: The Complete Works of Flannery O’Connor‘ in The Paris Review
• The Encore Award Longlist
• Liza Klaussmann, ‘‘A talent for living’: how the Murphys inspired Villa America‘ on the Picador blog
• Matthew Sweet, ‘Memoirs of the Spacewomen‘ on BBC Radio 3

Personal essays/memoir:

• Mary Anne Mohanraj, ‘“Don’t you want to be normal?”‘ on Salon
• Samantha Irby, ‘i’m taking my dead dad on vacation.‘ on bitches gotta eat
• Sarah Miller, ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Woman: My March Madness‘ in The Toast
• Erin Wisti, ‘Showing My Scars: On Self-Harm‘ in The Butter
• Grace Moltini, ‘Beer and Loathing in Deutschland‘ in The Riverter
• Nichole LeFebvre, ‘Love in Lilac Velcro‘ in The Butter
• Sali Hughes, ‘Confessions of an email hoarder‘ on The Pool
• Anna Wiener, ‘Ecstatic Dance: To Fly, To Heal, To Love‘ in The Toast
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: I’ll Take a Side of Empathy with Those Cheerios, Please‘ in The Butter
• Huda Hassan, ‘My Mother’s Child‘ on The Hairpin
• Rushaa Louise Hamid, ‘How I Found Myself When My Skin Changed Its Identity‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sali Hughes, ‘When did it become compulsory to enjoy exercise?‘ on The Pool
• Leah Reich, ‘You’d Be So Nice‘ on Medium
• Dana Tommasino, ‘Learn To Cook (in 21 Easy Steps)‘ on The Rumpus
• Susie Boyt, ‘New York: It’s Show Time‘ in Harpers Bazaar
• Katie Rose Guest Pryal, ‘A Mother’s Suicide Attempt and the Guilty Burden of Statistics‘ in The Toast
• Liz Prato, ‘The Terrible Things I Learned About My Dad: On Abuse and the People We Love‘ in The Butter
• Claire Greaves, ‘I Cannot Erase My Existence and Therefore I am Going to Get Better‘ in the Huffington Post
• Charlotte Philby, ‘The darkest secret of my new motherhood‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Taylor, ‘My parents are my greatest love of all‘ in The Independent
• Emylia Hall, ‘Offspring‘ on Book Slam

Feminism:

• Jessica Valenti, ‘It wasn’t Jackie’s job to get the details of her rape correct. It was Rolling Stone’s‘ in The Guardian
• Srishti Dutta Chowdhury, ‘A Decorum of Purity‘ in Kindle Magazine
• Hanna Rosin, ‘Despite Damning Report, Rolling Stone Will Continue “To Do What We’ve Always Done.” Are They Serious?‘ on Slate
• Carolyn Wysinger, ‘First Boi In – Dressing Queer in the Corporate World‘ on Media Diversified
• Sophie Tanner, ‘“‘I’ve Decided To Marry Myself, To Celebrate My Life as a Happy, Single and Self-Fulfilled Woman”‘ in Stylist
• Olga Khazan, ‘Why Some Women Choose to Get Circumcised‘ in The Atlantic
• Lauren Laverne, ‘What is a “real” woman anyway?‘ on The Pool
• Laura Craik, ‘What does plus size even mean?‘ on The Pool
• Helen O’Hara, ‘Why you’re not going to a romcom this weekend‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Two Beds and the Burdens of Feminism‘ in The New Yorker
• Lucy Mangan, ‘Why Are Periods Still Shocking‘ in Stylist
• Julia Phillips, ‘Feminism at the End of the World‘ on Jezebel
• Tracy Kuhn, She Wears it Well‘ on Volvo Diaries
• Rebekah Lowin, ‘Photographer teaches daughters: “Strong is the New Pretty”‘ on Today
• Heidi Mirza, ‘Black British feminism then and now‘ on Media Diversified
• Glosswitch, ‘Sussex police’s victim-blaming anti-rape campaign: why is it victims, not rapists, that must change their behaviour?‘ in the New Statesman
• Lottie O’Conor, ‘Is Reddit’s feminist ‘hero’ merely feeding the stereotypes that hold women back?‘ in The Guardian
• Arwa Mahdawi, ‘Sorry Dove, empowerment isn’t a personal care product‘ in The Guardian
• Hayley Krischer, ‘How a New Wave of Feminist Cooking Publications Is Redefining Women’s Relationship to Food‘ on Flavorwire
• Key Ballah, ‘My body is not an invitation‘ on Patheos
• Jessie Thompson, ‘Am I a Joke Feminist?‘ on the Huffington Post
• Barbara Ellen, ‘Men know nothing at all about being sex objects‘ in The Observer
• Anna March, ‘Dead Girls Sold Here‘ on The Rumpus
• Bridget Christie, ‘We’re a nation of armchair activists – and that’s OK‘ in The Guardian
• Matilda Kahl, ‘Why I Wear the Exact Same Thing to Work Every Day‘ in Harpers Bazaar

Society and Politics:

• Emilie Friedlander, ‘How Everlane Turned Hipsters Basic‘ on The Fader
• Ann Friedman, ‘Idle Threads‘ on The Baffler
• Fanny Malinen, ‘We need a new media to tell the real news‘ on New Internationalist
• Shailja Patel, ‘The Road to Garissa‘ in The New Inquiry
• Zoe Williams, ‘The Nicola Sturgeon memo: Westminster’s nasty machinations have been exposed‘ in The Guardian
• Catherine Matusow, ‘The Complicated Truth About Children and Drowning‘ on Houstonia Magazine
• Naomi Wolf, ‘The fastest way to spread extremism is with the censor’s boot‘ in The Guardian
• Kari Mugo, ‘Misfits: Reflections on Identity, Race, and Prejudice‘ in The Toast
• Brinda Bose, ‘The Outsider Within‘ in Kindle Magazine
• Mary Elizabeth Williams, ‘My social media asylum: What I learned during my time away from the trolls (and the brunch pics)‘ on Salon
• Bethany Rutter, ‘Fat can be healthy, so don’t tell me you’re dieting for health reasons‘ in The Guardian
• Emma Sky, ‘Iraq Is Finished‘ on The Atlantic
• Roxane Gay, ‘What the Hell Do We Say Now?‘ in The Butter
  
• Barbara Ntumy, ‘Why I Challenged Farage on Racism‘ on the Huffington Post
• Nancy Jooyoun Kim, ‘Open Houses: On Race, Identity, and Looking for a Place to Live‘ in The Butter
• Sara Sheridan, ‘Scottish politics offers hope to British voters – and a break from the nastiness‘ in The Guardian
• Samantha Rea, ‘Let Children Be Children – Without Jamming Them Into Gender Roles‘ on the Huffington Post
• Alexis Okeowo, ‘Lagos Must Prosper‘ in Granta
• Alana Semuels, ‘Where the White People Live‘ on The Atlantic
• Bella Mackie, ‘Lady Hale is right – blame should be taken out of divorce‘ in The Guardian
• Bethany Lamont, ‘Outsider Inside‘ on The Hairpin
• Yuliya Komska, ‘My grandparents rejected the Holocaust survivor label. They weren’t alone‘ in The Guardian
• Lionel Shriver, ‘Don’t be so hysterical about sex crimes‘ in The Guardian
• Marina Hyde, ‘The great unvetted public locked out as party leaders tour sanitised Britain‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Why posh boys make me boggle‘ in The Times
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘On The Oba Of Lagos‘ on Olisa

Music and Television:

• Abby Higgs, ‘Getting Awkward with Annie Lennox: Part 1‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Hannah Giorgis, ‘Rihanna And The Radical Power Of “Carefree Black Girl” Celebrity‘ on Buzzfeed
• Amanda Ann Klein, ‘The Wonder Years, Memory, and Mourning‘ on Medium
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Girls keep it together in front of their rock’n’roll idols. It’s men who turn into gibbering wrecks‘ in the New Statesman
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘I love Nirvana, but I get why Kurt Cobain’s daughter doesn’t‘ in The Guardian

 

The interviews:

• Robin Rinaldi in The Independent
• Hilary Mantel on Vulture
• Ursula P. Archer on ACF Digital Salon
• Amelia Gray in Berfrois
• Keren David on Delightful Book Reviews
• Valeria Luiselli on British Council Literature
• Helena Coggan in The Guardian
• Becky Albertalli on Buzzfeed
• Gillian Rose in Times Higher Education
• Caitlin Moran (the Director’s Cut) on The Pool
• Bethany Chase on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Jane Thynne in Shiny New Books
• Cecilia EkBäck in Shiny New Books
• Sarah Bannan in Shiny New Books
• Lindsay Hawdon on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Caitlin Moran (Part Two) on Vice
• Lizzie Skurnick on Longreads
• Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan on the Huffington Post
• Viv Albertine on Weird Sister
• Elizabeth McCracken on Paul McVeigh’s blog
• Joyelle McSweeney in The Believer
• Jill Alexander Essbaum in The Los Angeles Times
• Jenn Ashworth (and Richard Hirst) on The Workshy Fop
• Amanda Jennings on From First Page to Last Page
• Diane Williams on Numéro Cinq
• Sarah Hall on Foyles
• Laura Watkinson on Intralingo
• Nancy Tucker in The Independent
• Jennifer Weiner on CBS News
• Jennifer Michael Hecht on The Rumpus
• Dorothy Koomson on We Love This Book
• Ursula Le Guin on BBC Radio 4
• Attica Locke in the Los Angeles Times
• Heidi Julavits on Vulture
• Kirsty Logan on The List
• Lauren Berry on Deep South Magazine
• Andrea Cohen on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Tracey Thorn in The Observer
• Caitlin Moran in The Guardian
• Renée Knight on The Pool
• Jemma Wayne & Lara Pawson on Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Janina Matthewson on Read Her Like an Open Book

If you want some fiction to read:

• An extract from Never Isn’t Long Enough by Diane F. Pickett (YouTube)
• ‘The Good Wife‘ by Devjani Bodepudi in Kindle Magazine
• ‘Apollo‘ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The New Yorker, which she discusses here
• ‘Our Christophers‘ by Sharma Shields on Electric Literature
• ‘Bearish‘ by Leesa Cross-Smith
• An extract from Glory by Rachel Billington on Orion Books
• An extract from The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer on Dead Good Books
• An extract from Disclaimer by Renée Knight on The Pool
• ‘A Story Between Me and Thee on the Occasion of Our Shipwrecking’ and ‘Little Peg Tudor‘ by Rachael Dunlop on Flash! Friday
• ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: Thousandfurs, Or The King Who Wanted To Marry His Daughter‘ by Mallory Ortberg in The Toast
• ‘Other People’s Butter‘ by Tayler Heuston
• ‘The Toddler on the Bus‘ by Helen Croney on Scottish Book Trust
• ‘The Sanded Shard’ by Sara Baume on The Book Show RTÉ Radio 1
• The Ladies of the House by Molly McGrann on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime
• ‘Not Searching‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Item Girls‘ by Kuzhali Manickavel in Granta
• ‘Box 30‘ by Rom Tearne on her blog
• An extract from Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent on Liz Loves Books (if you follow the link at the top of the post, you can follow the trail of extracts posted throughout the week)
• ‘Runaway‘ by Laura Kay on Litro
• ‘The New Boyfriend‘ by Kelly Link on A Public Space
• ‘A Fun Home Coda‘ by Alison Bechdel on Vulture
• Short Stories by Laura Barnett on her website
• ‘Paradise Lost‘ by Devjani Bodepudi
• ‘Every Woman to the Rope‘ by Joanna Quinn in The White Review
• ‘Smote, or When I Find I Cannot Kiss You in Front of a Print by Bridget Riley‘ by Eley Williams in The White Review

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘frances farmer’ & other poems by Afshan Shafi in 3:AM Magazine
• ‘working title‘ by Mahogany L. Browne in Winter Tangerine Review
• ‘Billie‘ (for Billie Holiday) by Salena Godden on The Pool
• Five Poems by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
• ‘Future Biometrics‘ by Jillian Weise in Poetry Magazine
• ‘My Prayer‘ by Agnimita Chatterjee in Kindle Magazine
• Three Poems by Geraldine Clarkson on And Other Poems
• ‘Fuck The Life Abundant‘ Marnie Bullock Dresser in The Fem

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An Excerpt from Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris on The Millions
• An extract from Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn in The Observer
• An extract from Get It Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics by Zoe Williams in The Guardian

The lists:

• Books for Spring in Shiny New Books
• 5 New Books to Read for Your Grown-Up Spring Break in Glamour
• 32 Perfect Books To Kick Off Your Book Club on Buzzfeed
• Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
• 29 Important Lessons Jane Austen Taught You About Love on Buzzfeed
• 100 Best Books of the Decade so Far in The Oyster Review
• Spring Fiction Preview: 15 Books You Won’t Want to Miss on Read Her Like an Open Book

In the Media: 19th October 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.

Two things seem to have dominated this week: essays and people not being very nice to each other. Let’s start with the former:

Essays have been a talking point although most of the pieces I link to aren’t new. The resurgence of interest seems to have come from Is This a Golden Age for Women Essayists? which ran in the The New York Times a couple of weeks ago. The difference in opinions between Cheryl Strayed and Benjamin Moser is fascinating. Meghan Daum’s about to publish her second essay collection. There’s a great interview with her on her website (and how much do I want to read Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed?). One of this year’s most talked about essay collections is Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams, the final essay of which ‘Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain‘ is available to read on VRQ Online. Amongst others, the essay discusses Lucy Grearly. If you’re new to her (as I am), there’s an essay on her in New York Magazine by Ann Patchett. I can’t mention essays without mentioning Roxane Gay, here’s a piece in The New Inquiry by Patricia A. Matthew on why Gay’s a new feminist icon.

Not being very nice to each other then. Well, this very odd piece by Katherine Hale ran in The Guardian yesterday, in which she admits to ‘stalking’ a book blogger who gave her a bad review on Goodreads. Bibliodaze posted this response to the article. Kate McDonough on Salon was the latest person to defend Lena Dunham, this time against Kevin D. Williamson of the National Review who questioned whether Dunham is telling the truth about a sexual assault which she writes about in her book. Emily Gould wrote on Buzzfeed about her experience of online trolls and why we should fight them, while Helen Lewis in the New Statesman talked about more experiences high profile women have had of trolls and what can be done to try and stop them. Caitlin Moran in The Times (paywalled) asked ‘Should We All Quit Twitter?‘ and how it’s easy to think it’s not real, thoughts prompted by her viewing the leaked Jennifer Lawrence photographs.

Other overtly feminist piece this week are Chris Kraus’ essay ‘The New Universal‘ – on feminism and publishing in The Sydney Review of Books; ‘Women as Supporting Characters Is a Problem‘, Alison Herman reports from Comic Con for Flavorwire; Johann Thorsson tells us ‘2 Things I Learned Reading Only Books by Women for a Month‘; Jacqueline Rose, ‘We Need a Bold Scandalous Feminism‘ in The Guardian; Lorraine Berry and Martha Nichols, ‘ “Women and Power”: How Much Clout do Female Writers Have‘ in the New York Times, and philly.com asks ‘Where are the women?‘ on the National Book Awards list (which all sounds very familiar).

And Sali Hughes, writer of ‘Pretty Honest’, is the woman with the most press this week, she’s interviewed in Standard Issue and on the Boden blog and there’s an new extract (audio, this time) from the book on the 4th Estate website.

Other noteworthy essays/articles:

• Roxane Gay on being hospitalised following an accident, written in the hospital
• Colin Dickey on Time in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Neil Gaiman on ‘My Hero: Mary Shelley‘
• Bim Adewunmi’s Crush of the Week is on Claudia Winkleman’s Fringe
• Sarah Churchill on ‘The Joys of Judging the Man Booker Prize‘ (I should probably point out, lest anyone’s new to the blog, that I was one of the people to openly criticise the lack of gender parity on the longlist.)
• Elizabeth Minkel in the New Statesman on ‘Why It Doesn’t Matter what Benedict Cumberbatch thinks of Sherlock Fan Fiction‘
• Elizabeth Minkel again in the New Statesman on whether adults should read Young Adult novels
• Corrine Duyvis ‘on the decline of “issue” books‘ in The Guardian and this response to it from Caroline Clark on Queer YA.
• Members of the 4th Estate team on their favourite female characters from 4th Estate publications – Aunty Ifeoma from Purple Hibiscus; Flora 717 from The Bees
• ‘We Should All Be Feminists’, behind the cover of Adichie’s latest publication on the 4th Estate blog
• Kate Mosse on trying taxidermy in The Guardian
• Laura van den Berg ‘Natasha: On a Storyteller Raised by a Wolf‘ in The Millions
• Laura June in praise of the Amazon Reviews Anne Rice writes (yes, you read that correctly) on Vulture
• Alice Furse on ‘How to Make 48 Scotch Eggs‘ or what to do when your life changes dramatically
• Rowan Williams on Marilynne Robinson’s moral world in the New Statesman
• James Wood in the New Yorker on Rediscovering Elizabeth Harrower (late to this)
• Alison Kinney on Frankenstein as a metaphor for revision in Avidly (late to this too)
• A variety of writers on Alice Munroe in the New Yorker
• Rupert Pirie-Hunter on Agnes Owens in Overland
• Louisa Treger on Dorothy Richardson: The Forgotten Virginia Woolf on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Kate Christensen on her favourite bar in Electric Literature
• Natalie Ferris on Christine Brooke-Rose in Frieze (published in 2012 but I’ve only just discovered her)
• Helen Pidd on Emma Jane Unsworth at Manchester Literature Festival in The Guardian
• Darcey Steinke on Barry Hannah and I on The Millions
• Elif Batuman ‘Marriage Is an Abduction‘ on Gone Girl in the New Yorker
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘Four Months till Publication‘ and tragedy strikes
• Kristiana Willsey ‘Hunger Is the Beginning of Every Folk Tale‘ on The Toast
• Catherine Lacey ‘The Question of Fate‘ in Granta
• Jessie Burton on the difficult of writing a second novel after such huge success with the first on her blog
• Emma Warren continues her series ‘A Year in Oxleas Woods‘ on Caught By the River

And the interviews:

• Margaret Atwood on why Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea is a masterpiece on ion
• Diane Cook on Electric Literature and in conversation with Sam Lipsyte in Granta
• Shelley Harris, Abigail Tarttelin and Essie Fox on One Book Lane
• Rebecca Mascull on jaffareadstoo
• Women In Clothes aka Heti, Shapton and Julavits on The Rumpus
• Qaisra Shahraz on Woman Writers, Women’s Books
• S.E. Hinton in the New Yorker
• Emily St. John Mandel on the Adventures with Words podcast
• Meike Ziervogel on Female First

On translation:

• ‘Concept and Form‘ – Poet and translator Sophie Collins interviewed in Review 31
• And in case you’re not fed up of it yet, Zeljka Marosevic, MD of Melville House UK, wrote about Elena Ferrante and whether writers should reveal their real identities following this article by Lizzy Davies in The Guardian.

If you’d like some fiction to read/listen to:

• Tender, quarterly journal made by women
• An all-female edition of Right Hand Pointing – Short Poetry, Short Fiction and Short Art
• ‘Exquisite Corpse‘, fifteen writers including Zadie Smith and Jenny Offill co-write a story for the New York Times
• Kirstin Valdez Quade ‘Ordinary Sins‘ in The New Yorker (Quade talks about the writing of the story here)
• Kirsty Logan ‘The Elephant Dance‘ in Ambit
• Tanya Ray ‘Zoriada‘ in Granta
• Paul Theroux reading Elizabeth Taylor’s ‘The Letter Writers‘ on The New Yorker podcast
• Anne Carson ‘Krapp Hour‘ in Granta
• Jackie Kay’s ‘Dear Library‘ poems on Scottish Book Trust
• Katherine Stansfield, ‘There’s No Such Thing as Pandas‘ and three other poems on the Seren Books blog
• Kate Tempest reads her poem ‘The woman the boy became‘ on the Picador Blog
• Sylvia Plath reading ‘Daddy’

Or some non-fiction:

• An extract from India Knight’s In Your Prime: Older, Wiser, Happier in The Times (paywalled)
• Extract from The Iceberg by Marion Coutts, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize (Warning: this made me sob)

This week’s lists:

• Louise Treger’s Top Five Feminist Characters in We Love This Book
• Val McDermid’s Top Five Crime Novels Everyone Should Read Before They Die in the Big Issue
• Lynn Kanter’s 30 Women Novelists You Should Know is up to number 13: Caroline Leavitt
• The 10 Best Short Story Collections according to Elizabeth Day in The Guardian
• Six Life Lessons from Amy Poehler in Good Housekeeping
• Judith Kinghorn’s Ten Favourite Novels by Women Writers
• Five books Jojo Moyes recommends on her blog
• Lena Dunham’s bookshelf for Strand Bookshop
• 28 Feminist Writers Recommend Books Every Man Should Read on Flavorwire
• The 50 Best Culturally Diverse Children’s Books in The Guardian

And my favourite pieces this week:

• Ursula K. Le Guin on Being a Man on Brain Pickings
• Monica Heisey’s ‘A Cool Book Review By a Hip Writer Who Has Definitely Had Sex‘ on The Hairpin
• Moira Redmond on ‘How Nylons Changed Literature‘, in The Guardian
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Fictional Characters whose Lives Would Have Been Vastly Improved By An Abortion‘ on The Toast
• Alison Bechdel’s one panel graphic review of The Paying Guests
• Antonia Honeywell’s spoof interview of Richard Flanagan as if he was a female writer

In the Media: 28th September 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.

I don’t know if it’s just me but there seems to be a lot of writing about bodies this week. The Observer have a whole section on our attitudes to sex, including this piece by Helen Lewis which looks at teenage girls and cites Lena Dunham, Caitlin Moran and Bryony Gordon, amongst others.

Caitlin Moran is also interviewed on the Longreads blog on ‘Working Class, Masturbation and Writing a Novel‘. While Sam Baker focused her Harper’s Bazaar column on two excellent, just published, fashion and beauty books. They are Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton (I bought it this week and it looks fantastic), which you can hear more about on The Arcade podcast and Pretty Honest by Sali Hughes, who you can read an interview with on Get the Gloss.

And as for other points in life and bodies, Megham Daum has written about different types of parenting in the New Yorker and in the Paris Review, the New York Times obituary writer, Margalit Fox is interviewed about her work.

Feminism was headline news again thanks to Emma Watson’s speech to the UN and the launch of He for She. Joanne Harris wrote on her blog about feminism and why it doesn’t need a name change. Alison Mercer wrote about women’s silence on her blog. While Elena Adler, wrote this on banned books and women.

#Readwomen2014 is still going strong. It’s creator Joanna Walsh gave this fantastic interview to LeftLion (I’m not just saying that because I get a mention, either!); Belinda Farrell wrote this on her year of reading women, and Daily Life published this piece by Aviva Tuffield, Stella Prize executive director on why men need to read more books written by women. While VIDA ran a piece on the marginalisation of female writers, focusing on Mavis Gallant.

In writers who are very much in the spotlight, you can listen to all the BBC National Short Story Award shortlisted stories. Alison Bechdel spoke to Buzzfeed about what she’s doing next. Hilary Mantel was on the Culture Show while Sarah Ditum wrote seriously about her in the New Statesman and the Daily Mash took the piss. Ali Smith did The Guardian webchat and Elena Ferrante did the Financial Times Q&A.

Speaking of women in translation, translator Kate Derbyshire wrote this about why she wants to establish a prize for women in translation.

This week’s other noteworthy articles are:

• A translation of one of Russian writer Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya aka Teffi’s stories in the New Yorker.
• Debut author, Claire Fuller on how she got an agent.
• Claire McGowan says goodbye to Guilty Pleasures on The Conversation.
• Two pieces on Virgina Woolf – Rachel de Moravia on Woolf, Feminism and Modern Architecture in Edge Condition Vol. 3 (you’ll need to download the PDF) and this on Kabe Wilson rearranging ‘A Room of One’s Own’ to create a new story ‘Of Woman or So’.
• A profile of Lynne Tillman by Colm Tóbín in the New Yorker. (Late to this but still great.)
• Nadine Gordimer remembered by Tony Eprile in The Nation.
• Val McDermid on The Grisly History of Forensics in The Guardian.

And the interviews:

• Gillian Flynn in the Telegraph.
• Cary Bray in the New Humanist.
• Catherine Lacey on Electric Literature.
• Caroline Kepnes on Bolo Books.

And this week’s lists:

• Emily Gould’s Top Ten Fall Must-Reads.
• Ten Indie Titles the National Book Awards Overlooked on Electric Literature.
• The Best British Words for Rain by Melissa Harrison in the Financial Times. (Late to this but it’s wonderful.)
• An African Reading List on Bookriot.
• The Most Feminist Moments in Sci-Fi History on The Cut.
• Four Brilliant Memoirs by Female Musicians on Emerald Street.

In the Media: 21st September 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.

In a change to usual proceedings, I’m beginning with non-fiction writers this week as there’s been so much non-fiction talk in the news with the National Books Awards non-fiction longlist and Lena Dunham’s book on the way, in particular.

Alison Bechdel was awarded a MacAuthur “genius grant” this week. Here’s a piece she wrote on her blog last year about The Test which bears her name and how she feels about it. While Elizabeth McCracken wrote this week’s My Hero piece in The Guardian about Bechdel.

Fellow graphic novelist Roz Chast was also in the news for being the only woman to make the non-fiction longlist of the National Book Awards. (More on that in the lists at the bottom.) This piece in Slate looks at why critics don’t take cartoonists seriously.

Caitlin Moran, whose photograph some people can’t take seriously, wrote in her Times column this week about the letters/comments she has from people about the faces she pulls in photographs and why she does it. ‘My face, my rules‘. (Unfortunately UK Times articles are subscriber only.)

Lena Dunham’s book Not that Kind of Girl published a week on Tuesday led Hadley Freeman to question how feminist is writing a memoir? An extract from Dunham’s book ran in The Guardian. The Times ran an interview while Meghan Daum wrote a profile in the New York Times.

Sheila Heti also has a new book out. Heti has collaborated with Leanne Shapton and Heidi Julavits for Women in Clothes. Heti talks about the book in this Los Angeles Review of Books interview, while Julavits and Shapton are in the Observer.

Also in the Observer is an extract from Linda Tirado’s memoir Hand to Mouth about the myths surrounding poverty.

In the fiction world, who else to begin with this week than Hilary Mantel who’s been causing controversy with an interview she gave to Damien Barr for the Daily Telegraph which they refused to run along with the title story from her latest collection ‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher’. The Guardian picked up both the interview and the story.

Also still causing a ruckus, is reclusive novelist Elena Ferrante. An essay written by her about Madame Bovary and the reoccurring themes in her work ran on the English Pen website, while Rohan Maitzen examined the critical response to Ferrante and Jonathan Gibbs articulated his thoughts on his blog and discussed the UK covers of Ferrante’s novels.

No stranger to controversy in her day either, Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘American Fiction’ was discussed in The New Yorker while Maggie Gee was ‘In the footsteps of Virginia Woolf‘ in The Guardian writing about bringing Woolf back to life for her latest novel.

Fiction faired better than non-fiction in awards this week with an all-female shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award. Zadie Smith’s story ‘Miss Adele Amongst the Corsets‘ in The Paris Review, Tessa Hadley’s ‘Bad Dreams‘ and Lionel Shriver’s ‘Kilifi Creek‘ in The New Yorker.

Other good articles this week were:

• Two Emily St. John Mantel pieces which I missed when they were originally published: on writers and their day jobs for The Millions and on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa talking about Setting a Novel in the Future.
• Rene Denfeld’s very powerful piece in The New Yorker blogs about the man she called her dad.

And interviews:

• Margaret Drabble in Northern Soul
• Karen Campbell on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Sarah Perry on For Books’ Sake
• M.J. Hyland on the Tin House blog
• Sophie Hannah in The Guardian about being a crime writer and writing a new Poirot novel

While in translation news (besides Ferrante, of course!), Marian Schwartz talked about translating Russian Literature and Two Lines Press published an extract from Bae Suah’s novel The Low Hills of Seoul translated by Deborah Smith.

And this week’s lists:

• Margaret Eby on Books by Women that Should be on the National Book Awards’ List and this Facebook page which was set up so people could add the books they think should have been on the NBA non-fiction list.
• 10 reasons to love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on For Books’ Sake
• Jessie Burton on 33 Things I’ve Observed So Far as The Miniaturist became a best seller (late to this one but it’s good)
• 11 New and Recent Books for the Feminist Reader on Elle magazine’s site
• Top 10 stories of mothers and daughters selected by Meike Ziervogal in The Guardian

Finally, I’m going to leave you with the three pieces I’ve loved the most this week:

• Alice Bolin on ‘hoarding verbal matter‘ (with beautiful photographs of Yayoi Kusama’s work)
• Jess Richards on love and desperately seeking a variety of things
• Shelley Harris’ video for her forthcoming novel Vigilante. (I am having that wig!)