In the Media: December 2018

It’s over eighteen months since I last posted an In the Media round-up. For those of you who are new to the blog, the idea’s a fairly simple one: I post links to interesting pieces by or about female writers that have appeared in the media (online) over the past few weeks. Previously this feature had a schedule. Initially it was weekly, then fortnightly and it always went up on a Sunday evening. However, my life has changed enormously in the last eighteen months: my marriage ended, I moved house, I turned 40 (and then 41), I left my regular job and went freelance, I started working for a literary festival, I went through a divorce. It has been, as the phrase goes, a lot. It has also changed how I read, what I read and what I choose not to read and, of course, this is going to impact on how I curate this feature.

Since I decided to bring In the Media back, I’ve been thinking about what I want it to be. On a practical level, it has to be condensed. As much as I would love to continue featuring all the work I come across by female writers, without a regular salary, I can’t afford the time it takes to compile something of that size. I’ve also pretty much stopped reading the news. As someone who’s been a news addict since 9/11, it’s been a big change for me but one that’s been so much easier to adhere to than I anticipated. I couldn’t continue being gaslighted on a daily basis and reading constant speculation on what might or might not happen at some undetermined date. What I’ve found is that I’m drawn to long form pieces in which there’s an exploration of something, whether that’s an aspect of someone’s life, a reflection on current society or an in-depth profile or interview. I want to be made to think and think deeply. What I’m most interested in is how we’re negotiating life now. The stories we’re telling about our lives, our society. Writing as resistance, as action, as a means of taking up space.

I think what I’m trying to say is In the Media will run when I can manage, with articles I really love, for all the reasons stated above.

Image from Time

This week’s big book news is that Margaret Atwood is writing a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Called The Testaments, it’s due to be published in September 2019. In The Guardian, Stephanie Merritt argues Margaret Atwood is right to have the last word on The Handmaid’s Tale, while on Electric Literature, Carrie V. Mullins says Please, Margaret Atwood, Don’t Write a Sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.

In other book news:

• The Women’s Prize has started a series titled Women Writers Revisited, looking at female writers who’ve been forgotten or overlooked. First up is Helen Waddell by the prize’s co-founder, Kate Mosse
• Alison Flood reports on poet Amy Lowell and Dr Hannah Roche’s findings that Lowell may have been an unacknowledged influence on Ted Hughes and D.H. Lawrence in The Guardian
• Naomi Alderman writes on leaving Orthodox Judaism behind in The Guardian, as the film based on her debut novel Disobedience is released
• Jenny Bhatt writes about the difficulties involved in ‘Emerging’ as a Writer – After 40 on Longreads

Personal essays/memoir:

• Sophie Mackintosh writes Marooned on ‘Love Island’ as part of the New York Times’ Modern Love series about watching Love Island as a coping mechanism when her partner was diagnosed with cancer
• Sarah Kasbeer writes Falling for My Booty Call on Longreads [cw: rape and domestic violence]
• Octavia Bright writes On Margate Sands about her recovery from alcoholism on Somesuch Stories
• Lacy M. Johnson writes On Likeability on Tin House [cw: rape]
• Ellena Savage writes Yellow City in the Paris Review [cw: rape]
• Lyz Lenz writes I’m a Great Cook. Now That I’m Divorced, I’m Never Making Dinner for a Man Again in Glamour
• Jen Hyde writes Looking Inside My Heart about meeting the women who made her new heart valve on Longreads
• Bix Gabriel asks What Do I Gain From Citizenship—And What Do I Lose? on Catapult
• Joy Lazendorfer writes My Year of Smoke: Finding Echoes of Frankenstein in the California Fires which is a hybrid personal essay/book commentary/climate change piece on Literary Hub

Feminism:

• Viv Smythe writes I’m credited with having coined the word ‘Terf’. Here’s how it happened in The Guardian

Society:

• Kerry Hudson writes I’ve never felt so truly understood as when I read this UN report on poverty in The Pool. Hudson’s one of our best, and by that I mean sharpest and most compassionate, writers on poverty and the effects of austerity
• Khushbu Shah tells us How Wellness Influencers Made Indian Food a Trend on Healthyish
• Amy Brady writes Encountering Beauty and the Effects of Climate Change in Acadia National Park on Catapult, which is better than anything you’ll read by JFranz about birds and the effects of climate change

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

• Doreen St. Félix writes about the impact of Missy Elliott’s“Supa Dupa Fly” as part of the Touchstones series in The New Yorker, while Amanda Petrusich writes on Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation 1814”
• Rachel Syme writes How Britney Spears Built a Billion-Dollar Business Without Selling a Single Record in InStyle
• Caitlin Moran and her daughters interview Matty Healy, lead singer of The 1975 in The Times. As much a piece about female teenage fandom as it is about Healy.
• Kelsey McKinney, Home Field Disadvantage, on Longreads, looks at the lack of serious investment in women’s baseball

The interviews/profiles:

• Madeline Lucas profiles Brigid Hughes, the first female editor of the Paris Review, on Literary Hub
• Lila Shapiro interviews N.K. Jemisin, the only writer to win the Hugo Award for best novel in three consecutive years, on Vulture
• Jennifer Baker interviews Chaya Bhuvaneswar on Electric Literature

In the Media, June 2016, Part One

In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, May 2016, 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 as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

It seems there’s been a return to traditional topics this fortnight. Having children (or not) and body image are back at the top of the agenda. On the former, Daisy Buchanan wrote, ‘I’m economically infertile, and I’ve made peace with that‘ on The Pool; Stephanie Merritt, ‘Sheryl Sandberg admits she did not get how hard it is to be a single mother‘ on The Pool; Ashley Patronyak, ‘A Slight Risk‘ in Guernica; Jordan Rosenfeld, ‘On Discovering Real Mothers on the Page‘ on Literary Hub; Diana Abu-Jaber, ‘Motherhood vs. Art: There Is No Wrong Choice‘ on Literary Hub; Rivka Galchin, ‘Why Does Literature Hate Babies‘ on Literary Hub; Willa Paskin, ‘Speak, Motherhood‘ on Slate; Jennifer Gilmore,’I’m Glad My Mother Worked‘ on The Cut, and Louise O’Neill, ‘I think I would be a good mother; I just don’t want to be one‘ in The Irish Examiner.

Discussions about body image seems to be around the publication of two new books: Shrill by Lindy West and Dietland by Sarai Walker. West wrote, ‘The ‘perfect body’ is a lie. I believed it for a long time and let it shrink my life‘ in The Guardian. Walker was interviewed in The Bookseller and The Pool. And Mallory Ortberg wrote, ‘“We would have paid her the same if she weighed 500 pounds”: Publishing, Weight, and Writers Who Are “Hard To Look At”‘ in The Toast

And then there was this: the men-only bookclub who only read books about men. LV Anderson at Slate decided to tell us all off for being outraged about it, ‘Feminists Shouldn’t Roll Our Eyes at Men-Only Books Clubs. We Should Applaud Them‘.

This fortnight saw the deaths of Sally Brampton and Geek Love author, Katherine Dunn. Kathryn Flett wrote, ‘Sally Brampton – the woman who made ‘Elle girls’ the new normal‘ in The Guardian and Daisy Buchanan wrote, ‘Depression is not a battle that can be won or lost‘ on The Pool.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Bethanne Patrick, ‘I Am Jessa Crispin’s Problem with Publishing‘ on Literary Hub
• Kate Morton, ‘I wrote The House at Riverton during my baby’s nap times‘ in The Telegraph
• Micah Perks, ‘How My Best Friend Willa Cather Helped Me Beat Stage Fright‘ on Literary Hub
• Alison Flood, ‘Kate Mosse speaks up for European literature in face of Brexit‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘The Diminution of Women Writers: An American Tradition‘ on Literary Hub
• Flora Willis, ‘Let Me Be Frank: I Love Dick, So Sad Today, The Argonauts and ‘confessional’ literature‘ on Serpent’s Tail
• Brooke Hauser, ‘Take It or Leave It: Guidebooks for Single Girls‘ on The Millions
• Louisa Treger, ‘From Violinist to Writer‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Andrew Dickson, ‘‘The strange thing is we howled with laughter’: Sarah Kane’s enigmatic last play‘ in The Guardian
• Jami Attenberg, ‘Appreciating the View‘ on Lenny
• Sian Cain, ‘Lionel Shriver: Donald Trump’s too far-fetched for fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Dana Schwartz, ‘Why Hasn’t ‘The Late Show’ Invited Any Female Novelists?‘ on Observer
• Eileen Pollack, ‘Why Fiction Needs More Women Scientists‘ on Literary Hub
• Ali Smith, ‘History of violence: on Alan Garner‘ in the New Statesman
• Alexandra Alter, ‘Masters of Prose Warm Up to Children’s Picture Books‘ in The New York Times
• Charlotte Geater, ‘When Romance Comics Hated Women‘ on Women Write About Comics
• Marni Graff, ‘Using Crime Fiction to Present Fully Formed Muslim Characters‘ on Literary Hub
• Edna O’Brien, ‘Is literature a dying animal?‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Enright, ‘On Writing‘ on the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
• Martin Chilton, ‘Valley of the Dolls: from reject to 30-million best-seller‘ in The Telegraph
• Hannah Gersen, ‘No More Dead Mothers: Reading, Writing and Grieving‘ on Literary Hub
• Elina Penner, ‘‘Disney For Adults’: How Trashy Romance Novels Conquered the World‘ on Broadly
• Jennifer R. Bernstein, ‘Why Literature Needs Psychology‘ on Literary Hub
• Katherine Cowdry, ‘Sharlene Wen-Ning Teo wins inaugural Deborah Rogers Writers’ Award‘ in The Bookseller
• Linda Grey Sexton, ‘Diving Deep to Explore the Wreck: Linda Gray Sexton on the Path to Inspiration‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Emma Donoghue, ‘“I’ve ended up having a family as well as being a lesbian. I thought it would be one or the other”’ in The Guardian
• Dorothy Koomson, ‘It breaks my heart to see library closures‘ in The Telegraph
• Jia Tolentino, ‘Sheesh, There’s a Reason Women Are ‘Totally Crushing It’ At the Confessional Essay‘ on Jezebel
• Joan Didion, ‘California Notes‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Katherine Cowdry, ‘McInerney, McCrea, Rochester shortlisted for Desmond Elliott Prize‘ in The Bookseller
• Lorraine Berry, ‘‘They’: the singular pronoun that could solve sexism in English‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Women Writers You Should Know: Alice Dunbar-Nelson‘ in The Toast
• Lionel Shriver’s guide to dystopia in The Telegraph
• Maaza Mengiste, ‘What Is the Writer’s Place in a Violent World?‘ on Literary Hub
• Lydia Millet, ‘Love Is Boring and Hard to Write About, And Yet…‘ on Literary Hub
• Hope Jahren, ‘Lab Girl‘ on Powell’s Books
• Casey N. Cep, ‘What Two Forgotten Pieces Tell Us About Harper Lee‘ in The New Yorker
• Michele Filgate, ‘Writers, The Loneliest Artists of All‘ on Literary Hub
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘The Point of Tangency‘ on The Smart Set
• Holly Smale, ‘Why children and teens need funny books‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Hogg, ‘“Cool Girls” don’t like Hillary: What “Gone Girl” and “30 Rock” taught me about politics, feminism and smashing the dude-bro patriarchy‘ on Slate
• Pamela Erens, ‘Labored Prose‘ on Slate
• Lucy Delap, ‘Bookselling and the Feminist Past‘ on OUP
• Nicole Lee, ‘Roxane Gay on Lemonade: ‘by the power of Beyoncé, I’ll overcome my fear’‘ in The Guardian
• Yvette Edwards, ‘The Anti-Canon: Douglas Hall’s In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750-86‘ on Influx Press

Personal essays/memoir:

• Melissa Broder, ‘Taking off the mask of OK-ness, and tweeting about my anxiety‘ on The Pool
• Ana Castillo, ‘When Two Feminists of Color Fall in Love‘ on Literary Hub
• Alana Massey, ‘What Happened When I Finally Made Money‘ in Elle
• Rachel Monroe, ‘The Cat Psychic‘ on Hazlitt
• M.K. Hall, ‘Go Boldly, Dear Dreamer‘ on The Rumpus
• Rebecca Schiff, ‘Why I Quit Online Dating‘ on The Cut
• Elizabeth Day, ‘What a year of living out of a suitcase taught me‘ on The Pool
• Natashia Deón, ‘My Son’s Lifelong Silence Has Taught Me To Listen‘ on Buzzfeed
• Rivka Galchen, ‘My Friends’ Moms‘ in The New Yorker
• Rebecca Worby, ‘The Desert Half‘ on Catapult
• Bernadette Murphy, ‘Evolve or Die‘ on The Rumpus
• Sara Pascoe, ‘I’ve started getting “hangover shame” – only for my entire adolescence‘ in the New Statesman
• Nina Stibbe, ‘A love letter to Leicester‘ in The Telegraph
• Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, ‘Optimus Prime and Me‘ in The Atlantic
• Kat Chow, ‘In My Mom’s Shoes‘ on Lenny
• Alyson Foster, ‘The View from the Fourth Floor‘ on Guernica
• Anna March, ‘You’re Just a Sinner I Am Told: Prince & the Sexual Revolution‘ on The Rumpus
• Sara Elizabeth Grossman, ‘Pastures‘ on Blunderbuss

Feminism:

• Dayna Evans, ‘Why Does the Media Keep Giving Abusive Men Platforms for Redemption?‘ in The Cut
• Laura June, ‘How Do I Avoid Giving My Daughter Body Issues?‘ in The Cut
• Jendella Benson, ‘Why are black girls killing each other – or trying to?‘ on Media Diversified
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The key to being a successful woman? Knowing what not to do‘ in The Guardian
• Anna Sillman, ‘Kelly Ripa, Sharon Osbourne, and the Power of the Personal Day‘ in The Cut
• Jamilah Lemieux, ‘bell hooks and the Sour ‘Lemonade’ Review‘ on Ebony
• Florina Rodov, ‘The Homemade Abortion: a Caged Bird, a Quinceaneara, and the American Dream‘ on Electric Literature
• Varaidzo, ‘Conversations About Consent: Why ‘No Means No’ Is Not Enough‘ on Gal-Dem
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘Sex Talk for Muslim Women‘ in The New York Times
• Dolly Alderton, ‘What women actually want‘ on The Pool
• Laura Maw, ‘Rhythms of Fear‘ on Hazlitt

Society and Politics:

• Erika Adams, ‘Remote Year Promised to Combine Work and Travel. Was It Too Good to Be True?‘ on Atlas Obscura
• Melanie Thernstrom, ‘When Do You Give Up On Treating a Child With Cancer?‘ in The New York Times Magazine
• Jenn Abelson, Bella English, Jonathan Saltzman, and Todd Wallack, ‘Private Schools, Painful Secrets‘ in The Boston Globe
• Ruby Tandoh, ‘The Unhealthy Truth Behind ‘Wellness’ and ‘Clean Eating’‘ in Vice
• Anna Merlan, ‘Inside Superstar Machine, Which Ex-Members Say Is a Cult Preying on New York’s Creative Women‘ on Jezebel
• Andrea Maurer, ‘Dear Sun, Please Shine On Us‘ in Guernica
• Nadia Shireen, ‘Waking up in Sadiq’s London‘ on The Pool
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The revenge revival: how public displays of vengeance became an industry‘ in the New Statesman
• Patricia Engel, ‘Cuba Crónica‘ on Catapult
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘Sadiq Khan may not represent a win for all Muslims, nor should he‘ on Media Diversified
• Eva Holland, ‘Cruising Through the End of the World‘ on Pacific Standard
• Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover, ‘‘You Want a Description of Hell?’ Oxycontin’s 12-Hour Problem‘ in The LA Times
• Rebecca J. Rosen, ‘The Circles of American Financial Hell‘ in The Atlantic
• Rebecca Asher, ‘Boys face just as much social pressure as girls‘ on The Pool
• Syreeta McFadden, ‘We’re in an amazing black cultural moment. Cue predictable white backlash‘ in The Observer

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

• Olivia Laing, ‘David Wojnarowicz: still fighting prejudice 24 years after his death‘ in The Guardian
• Keah Brown, ‘Love, Disability, and Movies‘ on Catapult
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘“I’m done taking pictures”: Justin Bieber, fandom and mental health‘ in the New Statesman
• Carrie Brownstein, ‘Call Me Crazy‘ in The New Yorker
• Jamie Moore, ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade Is Made for Readers‘ on BookRiot
• Chloe Cadwalladr, ‘Why working-class actors are a disappearing breed’ in The Observer
• Hannah Ewens, ‘How ‘The Craft’ Realized the Power of Teen Girls and Made Witchcraft Cool‘ on Vice
• Alexandra Molotkow, ‘Teen Music Is Wasted on the Teens‘ on The Cut
• Ira Boudway and Kate Smith, ‘The Braves Play Taxpayers Better Than They Play Baseball‘ on Bloomberg
• Brogan Driscoll, ‘Put It Away, Madonna: We Like Our Older Women Invisible And Devoid Of Sexuality‘ on the Huffington Post

The interviews/profiles:

• Veronica Roth in The Guardian
• Louise Erdrich in The New York Times and Publishers Weekly
• Paula Whyman on Bloom
• Sara Pascoe on Standard Issue
• Lionel Shriver in The Bookseller and The Guardian
• Sophie Kinsella in The Guardian
• Ally Hilfiger in The Cut
• Yi Shun Lai on Write by Night
• Andi Zeisler in The Guardian
• Jesse Crispin in The Guardian and on Vulture
• Leslie Jamison on Literary Hub
• Hayley Webster on All the Words
• Sarah Perry on All the Words
• Shelley Harris on All the Words
• Fiona Melrose on All the Words
• Keris Stainton on All the Words
• Helen McClory on All the Words
• Melissa Broder in The Guardian
• Abbey Clancy in The Telegraph
• Janine di Giovanni in The Paris Review
• Zadie Smith on Refinery 29
• Harriet Reuter Hapgood on Buzzed
• Lydia Millet on Electric Literature
• Brenda Miller on The Rumpus
• Sarah Mlynowski and Shannon Hale on Publishers Weekly
• Fiona Sampson on Literateur
• Robin Black on Electric Literature
• Lisa McInerney on The Desmond Elliott Prize
• Esmé Weijun Wang on Bookslut
• Pamela Erens on The Millions
• Geling Yan on China in WW2
• Margo Jefferson in Vogue
• Lydia Davis in The Los Angeles Review of Books

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, May 2016, Part One

In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

The last fortnight’s been dominated by death. On Thursday, Jenny Diski died less than two years after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Literary Hub ran ‘Remembering Jenny Diski‘ including pieces from Hayley Mlotek, Michelle Dean, Joanna Walsh, Bridget Read, Laura Marsh, Marta Bausells and Charlotte Shane. The Guardian ran an extract from her cancer diary. Joanne Harris wrote a found poem ‘Opium Ice Cream‘ from Diski’s tweets, and The London Review of Books opened Jenny Diski’s entire archive to non-subscribers.

The previous week comedian Victoria Wood died. A.L. Kennedy declared her, ‘My Hero‘ in The Guardian; Helen Walmsley Johnson wrote, ‘Victoria Wood gave us the gift of being able to laugh at ourselves‘ in The New Statesman

Although he’s not a female writer, Prince also died just over a week ago and so much brilliant writing by women has come from that: Porochista Khakpour, ‘Prince’s Woman and Me: The Collaborators Who Inspired a Generation‘ in the Village Voice; Maya West, ‘A Hierarchy of Love and Loss and Prince‘ on Jezebel; Bim Adewunmi, ‘Celebrating Prince For 48 Hours In Minneapolis‘ on Buzzed; Heather Haverilsky, ‘Prince Showed Me a Whole New Way of Existing‘ on The Cut; Amanda Marcotte, ‘Sexy MFers, unite: The feminist power of Prince’s sex-positive songs‘ on Salon; K.T. Billey, ‘Prince and the queer body: Our dirty patron saint of pop gave me permission to think outside the gender binary‘ on Salon; Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘Surviving a Long Alaskan Winter with Prince‘ on Literary Hub; Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, ‘Prince Spent His Life Elevating and Mentoring Women‘ on Jezebel; Lily Burano, ‘Why Prince Was a Hero to Strippers‘ on The Cut; Ashley Weatherford, ‘Understanding the Politics of Prince’s Hair‘ on The Cut; Mona Hayder, ‘Prince Was a Demigod Who Uplifted the Masses Through Music‘ on Literary Hub; Naomi Jackson, ‘Prince: Finding Joy Outside Conformity‘ on Literary Hub; Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Prince conjured the kind of sex you’d want to have – filthy and fun, and sometimes offensive‘ in The Independent; Tracy King, ‘We should celebrate Prince for championing female musicians‘ in The New Statesman; Laura Craik, ‘“I loved him because of how his music made me feel”‘ on The Pool; Michelle Garcia, ‘Prince gave black kids permission to be weirdos‘ on Vox; Ijeoma Oluo, ‘Prince Was The Patron Saint Of Black Weirdos‘ on The Establishment.

Other brilliant writing about music came from the launch of Beyoncé’s new album Lemonade. Brittany Spanos, ‘How Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Reclaims Rock’s Black Female Legacy‘ in Rolling Stone; Mandy Stadtmiller, ‘How Lemonade Helped Me Talk to My Husband About Cheating‘ on The Cut; Treva Lindsey, ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade Isn’t Just About Cheating, It’s About Black Sisterhood‘ in Cosmopolitan; Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Monica, Becky With The Good Hair, and the power of the Other Woman‘ in The Pool; Diamond Sharp, ‘Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Is an Anthem for the Retribution of Black Women‘ on Vice; Morgan Jerkins, ‘‘Lemonade’ Is About Black Women Healing Themselves and Each Other‘ in Elle; Daisy Buchanan, ‘What can Beyoncé’s Lemonade teach us about love?‘ on The Pool; Vanessa Kisuule, ‘Why Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ Shows a Refinement of her Artistry‘ on Gal-Dem; Carrie Battan, ‘Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” Is a Revelation of Spirit‘ in The New Yorker; Priscilla Ward, ‘Beyoncé’s radical invitation: In “Lemonade,” a blueprint for black women working through pain‘ on Salon; Ezinne Ukoha, ‘I Will Do Better By My Sisters‘ on Medium; June Eric-Udorie, ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and the power it bestows young black women‘ on The Pool; Rafia Zakaria, ‘Warsan Shire: the Somali-British poet quoted by Beyoncé in Lemonade‘ in The Guardian; Juliane Okot Bitek wrote, ‘On the Poet Warsaw Shire, Nobody’s Little Sister‘ on Literary Hub. While Jamila addressed Piers Morgan’s criticisms of the album with ‘Dear Piers…‘ on her blog.

And I wanted to include this story because it’s just lovey: Jessie Burton’s new novel The Muse includes a setting named after Waterstones’ bookseller Leila Skelton. Skelton does the most incredible window displays at the Doncaster shop which are often shared on Twitter.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Catherine Bennett, ‘Modern tribes: the Elena Ferrante fan‘ in The Guardian
• Erika Janik, ‘Women Detectives in Fact and Fiction‘ on Literary Hub
• Amanda Fortini, ‘Why Can’t You Be Sweet?‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Jacqueline Wilson, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Poliner, ‘How Mapping Alice Munro’s Stories Helped Me as a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Churchill, ‘Bring out the Great Gatsby gin and jazz: it’s time to breath new life into the literary lecture‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Barnett, ‘The Joys (and Perils) of Literary Tourism‘ on Literary Hub
• Nakul Krishna, ‘Enid Blyton, moral guide‘ on Aeon
• Summer Brennan, ‘On the Heartbreaking Difficulty of Getting Rid of Books‘ on Literary Hub
• Selin Gökcesu, ‘Jane and I: On Re-Reading Jane Eyre‘ on Electric Literature
• Idra Novey, ‘Learning to Be Embarrassed on the Page‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Moss, ‘Shakespeare for Children‘ on Granta
• Jillian Keenan, ‘Hamlet Was a Bro Who Didn’t Even Like Sex‘ on Literary Hub
• Julianne Ross, ‘You Want a Piece of Me: Elena Ferrante and the Myth that Female Artists Owe Us More than Their Work‘ on MTV
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best nonfiction books: No 13 – The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (1970)‘ in The Guardian
• Carol Lovekin, ‘on being published in later life‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Nora Zelevansky, ‘How to Write Teen Girl Characters‘ on Literary Hub
• Kit de Waal, ‘Ideas are free, but writing is expensive: how can we ensure disadvantaged voices are heard?‘ in The New Statesman
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Are we sex-literate? Why we should all be writing more about pleasure‘ in The New Statesman
• Aysha Khan, ‘Face-Off‘ in Reorient
• Anne Enright, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘The secret to work/life balance? There isn’t one‘ on The Pool
• Melissa Goodrich, ‘Diving Into the Faery Handbag: On Fabulism‘ on Electric Literature
• Emma Butcher, ‘The secret history of Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë’s private fantasy stories‘ in The Guardian

• Zeffie Gaines, ‘Falling Apart: A Meditation on Love and the Work of Baldwin, Winterson, and Morrison‘ on Electric Literature
• Bridget Read, ‘Charlotte Brontë May Have Started the Fire, But Jean Rhys Burned Down the House‘ on Literary Hub
• Varaidzo, ‘From school books to publishing, black girls deserve better representation‘ in The New Statesman
• Lyndsay Faye, ‘If Jane Eyre Came Out Today Would it Be Marketed as Genre?‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Berry, ‘My Pilgrimage to the House of Brontë‘ on The Millions
• Anna March, Jen Fitzgerald, Ashley Ford and Ashley Perez, ‘Most writers get screwed: We did the math, and it’s true — literary prizes exclude writers outside the campus gates‘ on Salon
• Stephanie Boland, ‘From Enid Blyton to Richard Hoggart: The use of literacy‘ in The New Statesman
• Alexandra Molotokow, ‘Maggie Nelson Refuses to Make Things Simple‘ on The Cut
• Elif Shafak, ‘On Women Writers Transcending Boundaries‘ on the Bailey’s Prize blog
• Ilana Massad, ‘Read Between the Racism: The Serious Lack of Diversity in Book Publishing‘ on Broadly
• Alison Flood, ‘Are most romance novels badly written?‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Flood, ‘Books by earliest women writers in English on display together for first time‘ in The Guardian
• Aya de Leon, ‘Portrait of the #WriterMom as a Member of the Working Class‘ on her blog
• Zoey Cole, ‘Remembering the Great C.D. Wright‘ on Literary Hub
• Virginia Baily, ‘Travels with my Aunt‘ on Virago
• Steph Harmon, ‘Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things wins $50,000 Stella prize‘ in The Guardian
• Bhavneet Kaur, ‘The Poetics of Resistance‘ in Kindle
• Sam Jordison, ‘Virginia Woolf in Brontë country: picking apart the genius in Jane Eyre‘ in The Guardian
• Georgette Mushier, ‘What literacy can do for children in institutions‘ in The New Statesman
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘Why I chose an African publisher over a western one‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘Was Jane Austen a feminist? The answer is in her stories‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Terri White, ‘The story of me and my beehive‘ on The Pool
• Claire Woods, ‘‘As I woke up each morning, my pregnancy screamed at me’‘ in The Irish Times
• Eleanor Franzén, ‘Death Out of Season‘ on Litro
• Alana Massey, ‘My Boyfriend Isn’t My Best Friend — My Cat Is‘ on The Cut
• Lorena Piñeiro, ‘Penance‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Linh Le, ‘How I learned to love my selfie‘ on Hello Giggles
• Lynn Murray, ‘The Carnival of Kid Baseball‘ on Tin House
• Susan Shapiro, ‘The Line Between Professor and Predator Isn’t Always So Clear‘ on The Cut
• Jung Yun, ‘My Fargo‘ on The Atlantic
• Kai Kalia Yang, ‘My Father the Song Poet‘ on Literary Hub
• Alexandra Reisner, ‘Small Bodies‘ on Electric Literature
• Jennifer Fliss, ‘The Day I told My Father to Shoot Himself‘ on Narratively
• Sara Lieberman, ‘Dating in New York Ruined Me for Paris‘ on The Cut
• Christina Crosby, ‘Your Puny, Vulnerable Self‘ on The Offing
• Anca Szilágyi, ‘Used to Be Schwartz‘ on The Rumpus
• Catherine Lloyd Burns, ‘Remembering John the Hotdog Man‘ on Guernica
• Rebecca Schiff, ‘On My Abnormally Quiet Jewish Family‘ on Literary Hub
• Mandy Stadtmiller, ‘I Love My Husband, But I Hate Working With Him‘ on The Cut
• Abigail Rasminsky, ‘I Had a Baby in Europe; Here’s What It Did to Me‘ in The Cut
• Chantal Braganza, ‘A Grief Like This‘ on Hazlitt
• Deborah A. Lott, ‘My Dream of Androgyny‘ on The Rumpus
• Rachel Charlene Lewis, ‘After Sandra Bland‘ on The Normal School
• Marisa Bate, ‘My mum was stalked when I was a child. The impact is lasting on us all‘ on The Pool
• Ella Dawson, ‘Good Girl‘ on Femsplain
• Laura Kasinof, ‘The Violence Was Once Mine‘ on Guernica
• Decca Aitkenhead, ‘The Loneliness of Losing Your Partner‘ on Well Doing

Feminism:

• Megan Garber, ‘Seeing Red: The Rise of Mensesplaining‘ on The Atlantic
• Alexandra Petri, ‘Play the ‘woman card’ and reap these ‘rewards’!‘ in The Washington Post
• Dayna Evans, ‘Here’s What Happens When Men Write About the Gender Pay Gap‘ on The Cut
• Glosswitch, ‘It harms women more than men when dads doing parenting are seen as “babysitters”‘ in The New Statesman
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Can you be a feminist and … ?‘ in The Guardian
• Tobi Oredein, ‘How YouTube became the best place to see black women’s stories‘ on The Pool
• Jennifer Tamyayo, ‘When You Handle Poison‘ in Mice Magazine
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘How to Fight the Patriarchy‘ on Literary Hub
• Ruth Whippman, ‘Sorry, but people need to stop telling women they shouldn’t apologise‘ on The Pool
• Maura Quint, ‘How to Negotiate a Raise (If You’re a Woman)‘ on McSweeney’s
• Eve Barlow, ‘Grimes: I’m not a victim of sexism, I’m a successful producer‘ on The Pool
• Tali Mendelberg and Christopher F. Karpowitz, ‘Are Women the Silent Sex?‘ in The Boston Review
• Jia Tolentino, ‘How ‘Empowerment’ Became Something for Women to Buy‘ in The New York Times
• Isabel Rogers, ‘Top Ten Totty Tips‘ on her blog

Society and Politics:

• Graciela Mochkofsky, ‘The Faithful‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Anna Wiener, ‘Uncanny Valley‘ in n+1
• Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, ‘‘Ban the Box’ Goes to College‘ on The Atlantic
• Jacqueline Rose, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?‘ in The London Review of Books
• Megha Majumdar, ‘Half-Truth and Reconciliation: After the Rwandan Genocide‘ on Literary Hub
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘When it comes to Labour and anti-Semitism, there’s only so much this left-wing Jew can suck it up‘ in The New Statesman
• Abby Rabinowitz, ‘The trouble with renting a womb‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Reiley, ‘From Farm to Fable‘ on Tampa Bay
• Aminatta Forna, ‘The Modern and the Medieval Collide: on Ebola‘ on Literary Hub
• Hope Jahren, ‘On Earth Day, Let Lab Girl Persuade You to Plant a Tree‘ on Slate
• Brigid Delaney, ‘The generation gap is dead. But is the result freedom or oppression?‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘A generation of artists were wiped out by Aids and we barely talk about it‘ in The Guardian
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘There’s an epidemic of missing people of colour who aren’t photogenic enough for us to find‘ in The Independent
• Kendra James, ‘A Black Girl’s Manual to Attending a New England Boarding School‘ in The Toast
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Could Hillary Clinton Ever Have Imagined This?‘ on The Cut
• Lisa Owens, ‘Is this the worst question you can ask someone?‘ on The Pool
• Laurie Goodstein, ‘Sex Abuse and the Catholic Church: Why Is It Still a Story?‘ in The New York Times

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

• Helen O’Hara, ‘25 years on from Thelma and Louise, its spirit of rebellion lives on‘ on The Pool
• Soleil Ho, ‘The Jungle Book’s Complicated Relationship with Imperialism‘ in Bitch
• Suzanne Moore, ‘The Hillsborough verdict shatters the fantasy that class war doesn’t exist‘ in The Guardian
• Anna Silman, ‘Damn, It’s a Good Time for Funny Women on TV‘ on The Cut
• Francine Prose, ‘The Ballad of Slippin’ Jimmy‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Kelly Kanayama, ‘Hollywood’s upcoming films prove it loves Asian culture – as long as it comes without Asians‘ on Media Diversified
• Ana Leszkiewicz, ‘The outrageous sexism on The Island with Bear Grylls might be what makes it a great show‘ in The New Statesman

The interviews/profiles:

• Rebecca Schiff on Electric Literature
• Emily Skillings on the Huffington Post
• Paula Hawkins in The Guardian
• Mylo Freeman on The Pool
• Joanna Walsh on The Literary Sofa
• Shirley Barrett on Electric Literature
• Maggie Mitchell on One Book Lane
• Louise Erdrich in The New York Times
• Susanna Donato on Okey Panky
• Sarai Walker in The Guardian
• Jillian Keenan on Longreads
• Angela Flournoy on Buzzfeed
• Camille Rankine on Grazing Grain Press
• Curtis Sittenfeld on The Millions
• Emma Cline on Publishers Weekly
• Laurie Penny on The Bailey’s Prize blog
• Lisa Owens on Bookanista and in The Bookseller
• Linda Legters on Bloom
• Mary Beard in The Guardian
• Deborah Levy on Foyles’ blog
• Tammy Cohen on The Prime Writers
• Ann Goldstein in Asymptote
• Sara Pascoe on Huffington Post
• Emily O’Neill on Vagabond City
• Joanne Harris on Waterstones
• Jenni Fagan on The Skinny
• Deborah Install on Rebecca Mascull’s blog

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, April 2016, 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 as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

It’s the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. Contributors including Sarah Waters, Margaret Drabble and Jeanette Winterson reflect on Jane Eyre in The Guardian; Samantha Ellis wrote about ‘The Greatest Heroines of All Time‘ on the BBC, and Sam Jordison asked, ‘Reading Jane Eyre: can we truly understand Charlotte Brontë or her heroine today?‘ in The Guardian. The Brontë Blog is doing an excellent job of curating everything and well worth having a look at.

The Guardian commissioned some research into the 70 million comments which have been left on its website since 2006. The results revealed that while the highest commenters are white men, the most abuse was left on articles by eight women writers and two male writers of colour. The only people who seemed surprised were white men. It’s great to have statistical evidence in support of this but listening to female writers and male writers of colour and acting on it might be a good idea too. Jessica Valenti, the most targeted writer wrote, ‘Insults and rape threats. Writers shouldn’t have to deal with this‘.

Andrew Piper and Richard Jean So decided to carry out some analysis regarding the words used in book reviews of books by male and female writers, ‘Women Write About Family, Men Write About War‘ in the New Republic details their findings.

The Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced this week. Hanya Yanagihara has ‘A Little Life – A Photo Story‘ on the Picador Blog; Anne Enright, Elizabeth McKenzie, Hanya Yanagihara and Lisa McInerney are interviewed on the Baileys’ Prize blog, along with longlistees Shirley Barrett, Vesna Goldsworthy, Becky Chambers, Julia Rochester and Kate Atkinson. Some of us (myself included) were shocked that Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins failed to make the shortlist, Eleanor Franzen considers why on Litro.

And in Australia, the Miles Franklin literary award longlist was announced with books by women taking five of the nine slots.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Gillian Flynn, ‘The book that inspired Gone Girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hilary Mantel, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘Most romances are badly written‘ in The Telegraph
• Alison Flood, ‘Miss Peregrine author returns with illustrated collection of fairytales‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘On a Strong 2016 Man Booker International Shortlist, Ferrante Still Looks Like a Sure Thing‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Brown, ‘Leave Peter Rabbit Alone‘ in The Guardian
• Robert Gottlieb, ‘Brilliant, Troubled Dorothy Parker‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Samantha Powell, ‘Fifteen Years Later, Bridget Jones Is Still Teaching Me to Embrace Imperfection‘ on The Cut
• Lynn Steger-Strong, ‘Reader-Based‘ on Catapult
• Tanya Gold, ‘Working as a diarist meant not caring about the people you hurt‘ in The New Statesman
• Alana Massey, ‘Climbing Mount Sontag‘ in Hazlitt
• Alexandra Alter, ‘Curtis Sittenfeld Is No Jane Austen, But She’s O.K. with That‘ in The New York Times
• Louisa Thomas, ‘The Conflicted Early Feminism of Louisa Catherine Adams‘  on Literary Hub
• Hilton Als, ‘Immediate Family: Maggie Nelson’s Life in Words‘ in The New Yorker
• Michelle Dean, ‘The Wreck: Adrienne Rich’s feminist awakening, glimpsed through her never-before-published letters.‘ in New Republic
• Kim Brooks, ‘A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Mom‘ in The Cut
• Anya Groner, ‘Space Tourism in Modern Storytelling‘ on Electric Literature
• Natasha Carthew, ‘I didn’t see working class identity in books when I was growing up, and I don’t see enough now‘ in The Guardian
• Rumaan Alam, ‘Why Wasn’t Great American Novelist Jane Smiley on the Cover of a Magazine?‘ in Literary Hub
• Elena Sheppard, ‘Why I’ve been reading and re-reading “Bridget Jones’s Diary” for 20 years‘ on Hello Giggles
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘How to buy the perfect book for someone else‘ on The Pool
• Esme Weijun Wang, ‘Why My Novel Uses Untranslated Chinese‘ on Literary Hub
• Diane McWhorter, ‘Harper Lee, the National Antidote‘ on Slate
• Bridget Read, ‘On Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, Ten Years Later’ on Literary Hub
• Anne K. Yoder, ‘Fiction Must Be Fed: On Margaret Cavendish, Frida Kahlo, and Marie Curie‘ on The Millions
• Lindsay Merbaum, ‘Not a Real Writer: How Self-Doubt Holds Me Back‘ on Electric Literature
• Laura Miller, ‘I’ll Be There for You: The difficult, dangerous task of writing about a friend‘ on Slate
• Melissa Chadburn, ‘The Girl in the Cabinet (I Read What You Wrote and I Hate You)‘ on Electric Literature
• Hannah Gersen, ‘Gluten-Free Proust‘ on The Millions
• Fatima Bhutto, ‘My Grandfather’s Library, Relic of a Freer Pakistan‘ on Literary Hub
• Ann Patchett, ‘The Bookstore Fights Back‘ on Literary Hub
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Women Writers You Should Know: Constance Fenimore Woolson‘ in The Toast
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘How not to talk about African fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jesse Crispin, ‘The Self-Hating Book Critic‘ on Copper Nickel
• Clare Warner, ‘‘Her nose was straight with a soft tip at the end’ — Writing Race at School‘ on Media Diversified
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘I realised I’d been sold a lie about women’ in The Guardian
• John William Walker Zeiser, ‘The Unsettling Gaze of Han Kang: Examining Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and Human Acts‘ on Electric Literature
• Lynnette Lounsbury, ‘I loved the beat generation. Then I realised it has no place for women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Kat Lister, ‘Saying “No” doesn’t have to be negative‘ on The Pool
• Marina Lucic, ‘Lessons on Hate‘ in Litro
• Lauren Libbert, ‘Losing my mother, then losing the music that could soothe after she’d gone‘ on The Pool
• Maggie Thach Morshed, ‘Shooting in the Dark‘ on Catapult
• Meagan O’Connell, ‘How Did I Wind Up a Housewife in Paradise?‘ on The Cut
• Lydia Kiesling, ‘Throwing Away the Most Beautiful Dress I Ever Owned‘ on The Cut
• Lorena Piñeiro, ‘Penance‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Faith Adiele, ‘All of the Above‘ on The Rumpus
• Mega Majumdar, ‘Laughter as Criticism‘ in Guernica
• Lily Gutierrez, ‘Peaches and Melisande‘ on Motherland
• Lynsey Hanley, ‘How I became middle-class‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Gavino, ‘A Band Named HotdogA Band Named HotdogA Band Named Hotdog‘ on Catapult
• Clare Archibald, ‘Congealed‘ on The Real Story
• Kate Bolick, ‘Afterlives: My Mother’s Breast Cancer, and My Own‘ in The New Yorker
• Kathryn Harrison, ‘On the Impossibility of Seeing Yourself‘ on Literary Hub
• Penny Anderson, ‘What it feels like to do your make-up when you’re blind‘ on The Pool
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘Listening to Old Women‘ in The Toast
• Melissa Broder, ‘How I Discovered the Power of a Hot-Pink Fake Penis‘ in The Cut
• Anissa Helou, ‘Before the War: The Lost Delicacies of Aleppo‘ on Literary Hub
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘My Wedding Was a Disaster, and Yours Will Be, Too‘ on The Cut

Feminism:

• Revati Upadhya, ‘I’m A Woman Who Doesn’t Have Or Want Kids, And I’m Happy‘ on Buzzfeed
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Who would think any good could come from an MP calling a woman ‘totty’?‘ in The Guardian
• Marisa Bate, ‘The everyday bravery of being a woman‘ on The Pool
• Sara Pascoe, ‘Boob jobs are viewed as a decorative tweak, but these women are self-harming’ in The Guardian
• Jill Lepore, ‘The Sovereignty of Women‘ in The New Yorker
• Rachel Aviv, ‘The Cost of Caring‘ in The New Yorker
• Shohana Khan, ‘If Muslim women’s clothing makes them consenting slaves, who are their slave masters?‘ on Media Diversified
• Siobhan Fenton, ‘Today in the UK, a woman was sentenced for the crime of an abortion – yet we act outraged at Donald Trump‘ in The Independent
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Think Donald Trump’s comments are shocking? They’re the law for some UK women‘ in The New Statesman
• Jesse Singal, ‘Is Attachment Parenting a Plot to Force Women Back Into the Home?‘ in The Cut
• Melissa Gira Grant, ‘Heather‘ on Buzzed
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Being a dark-skinned woman and the prejudices we face ‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Erika Hayasaki, ‘In a Perpetual Present‘ on Wired
• Catherine Buni & Soraya Chemaly, ‘The Secret Rules of the Internet‘ on The Verge
• Laura Elizabeth Woollet, ‘In Search of the Darkest Cult in American History‘ on Literary Hub
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘How Teju Cole Helped Me Make Peace with the Nigerian Scam Artist‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘Unnatural Selection‘ in The New Yorker
• Lynn Casteel Harper, ‘On Vanishing‘ in Catapult
• Elizabeth Senja Spackman, ‘Proximal Grief‘ in Guernica
• Pamela Rolloff, ‘The Reckoning‘ in Texas Monthly
• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Ugly Cry‘ in New Republic
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Making money is not a vice, but refusing to contribute tax is‘ in The Guardian
• Paris Lees, ‘Dear Ian McEwan, your ideas about penises are outdated‘ in The Telegraph

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

• Kate Aurthur, ‘How “Nina” Became A Disaster Movie‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Lyall, ‘Swim. Bike. Cheat?‘ on Longreads
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Lost and found: why are we obsessed with stories of young women escaping their kidnappers?‘ in The New Statesman
• Marie Phillips, ‘Kimmy Schmidt, and the unmitigated joy she will bring to your life‘ on The Pool

The interviews/profiles:

• Lisa Owens in The Bookseller
• Robin Black & Natalie Serber on Bloom
• Maggie Nelson in The Guardian
• Michelle de Kretser in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Brit Bennett on Jezebel
• Danielle Dutton in Brooklyn Magazine
• Idra Novey on The Rumpus
• Helen Garner in the Sydney Morning Herald
• Yvette Edwards on the Waterstones’ Blog
• Lynsey Hanley in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman on Literary Hub
• Rachel Traister on The Pool
• Sara Sheridan on From First Page to Last
• Janet Todd in Shiny New Books
• Sharon Guskin in Shiny New Books
• Karen Kovacik on Guernica
• Caitlin and Caz Moran on The Pool
• Maylis de Kerangal in BOMB
• Sophia Bennett in The Guardian
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Literary Hub
• Danielle McLaughlin on Short Fiction
• Jenny Downham on The Bookseller

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, March 2016, part one

In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

It’s Mothers’ Day in the UK today, so inevitably there’s been lots of writing about mothers – being one, having one, not having one – this week. Contributors including Jackie Kay, Jeanette Winterson and Helen Simpson wrote about ‘… my mother before I knew her‘ inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Before You Were Mine’ in The Guardian; Liz Dashwood asks, ‘What do I *really* want for Mother’s Day?‘ on The Pool; Rivka Galchen talked about ‘The Only Thing I Envy Men‘ in The New Yorker; Robyn Wilder wrote, ‘Maternity leave: the reality versus the expectations‘, Emily Eades wrote, ‘Becoming a mother without your own mother to rely on‘ and Sinéad Gleeson wrote, ‘Mothers, and the pram-in-the-hall problem‘ all on The Pool (Do follow the link to the Anne Enright clip on that last piece. Spot on and very funny); Susan Briante wrote, ‘Mother Is Marxist‘ on Guernica; Kate Townshend asked, ‘Is it possible for a mother and daughter to be *too* close?‘, Samira Shackle said, ‘Returning to my mother’s homeland helped me to make sense of my place in the world‘, Cathy Rentzenbrink said, ‘There is no such thing as a smug mother, we’re all terrified and struggling‘ and Rosalind Powell wrote, ‘I didn’t give birth, but I became a mother‘ all on The Pool; Sarah Turner wrote, ‘Mother’s Day Without Mum‘ on The Unmumsy Mum

Sadly, Louise Rennison died this week. Philip Ardagh wrote, ‘My Hero: Louise Rennison‘ in The Guardian. Shannon Maughan wrote her obituary for Publishers Weekly.

The woman with the most coverage this fortnight is Sanjida Kay with ‘Where’s the Diversity in Grip-Lit?‘ on The Asian Writer; ‘on Switching Genres‘ on The Literary Sofa, and ‘Fairytales‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books

Exciting news as forthcoming novels from Jilly Cooper, Zadie Smith and Ali Smith were announced this fortnight.

And I’ve added Kaushana Cauley’s new Intersections column for Catapult to the regulars list at the bottom of the links. It’s well worth a read.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Eve Ainsworth, ‘Toxic love: YA’s bad boys need to stay between the covers‘ in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara: ‘Don’t we read fiction exactly to be upset?’ in The Guardian
• Jessie Burton, ‘Success, Creativity and the Anxious Space‘ on her blog
• Claire Fuller, ‘Some things I’ve learned in my year of being published‘ on her blog
• Bree Crowder, ‘Four Young Adult Authors Share Why They Write Funny Books‘ on Bustle
• Karen Swallow Prior, ‘Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self‘ on The Atlantic
• Deborah Moggagh, ‘Man Booker Prize has an unhealthy effect on the market, says author Deborah Moggagh‘ in The Independent
• Claire Fallon, ‘Our Favourite Children’s Books Are Super Problematic‘ on the Huffington Post
• Alison Flood, ‘Tessa Hadley among nine winners of surprise $150,000 literary awards‘ in The Guardian
• Sian Cain, ‘Toni Morrison wins PEN/Saul Bellow award for contribution to American fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jo Hall, ‘If We Can Imagine Dragons: On Writing Non-Heterosexual Relationships in Fantasy‘ on Holdfast
• Alison Stine, ‘On Poverty‘ on Kenyon Review
• Joan Schenkar, ‘What Patricia Highsmith did for love: ‘The Price of Salt’ and the secrets behind ‘Carol’‘ in the Los Angeles Times
• Louise Walters, ‘I didn’t want to resort to self-publishing, but it’s an exhilarating change‘ in The Guardian
• Gaby Wood, ‘How Karl Ove Knausgaard and Elena Ferrante won us over‘ in The Telegraph
• Moira Redmond, ‘Leap year fear: a literary history of women proposing marriage‘ in The Guardian
• Katy Derbyshire, ‘Women in Translation: Why Does It Matter?‘ on Free Word
• Eva Jurczyk, ‘No More Books by Men‘ on The Awl
• Elizabeth Strassner, ‘How To Tell If You’re In a Flannery O’Connor Story‘ in The Toast
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘How to Make Sure Your Writing Is Forgotten‘ on The Rumpus
• Holly Williams, ‘From The Roaring Queen to Downton Abbey: the afterlives of Virginia Woolf‘ in the New Statesman
• Anna North, ‘What Publishing a Novel Taught Me About Life‘ on Waterstones’ Blog

• Kate Jenkins, ‘Harper Lee and the Myth of a Post-Racial America‘ on Literary Hub
• Sian Cain, ‘Fear of Flying still soars above tabloid outrage‘ in The Guardian
• Brigit Katz, ‘These forgotten female crime writers had no time for femme fatales or dowdy housewives‘ on Women in the World
• Idra Novey, ‘Writing While Translating‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘Teen readers aren’t in crisis, they’re just making their own rules‘ in The Guardian
• Jaya Saxena, ‘I Know I Should Like Reading More But There Are Things About The Act Of Reading That Make It Very Difficult‘ in The Toast
• Deirdre Sullivan, ‘The seed of Needlework was anger, and I wanted it to feel raw’ in The Irish Times
• Jesmyn Ward remembers Harper Lee: ‘She saw and responded to the humanity of each and every one of us’ on Entertainment Weekly
• Vipash Bansal, ‘Remembering Octavia Butler: 1947-2006‘ on Media Diversified
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Elizabeth Taylor‘ in The Guardian
• Brooke Magnanti, ‘Where are the normal women in fiction?‘ on One Book Lane
• Robin Stevens, ‘Boys could enjoy stories about girls, and vice versa – if only we’d let them‘ in The Guardian
• Chelsea G. Summers, ‘A History of Horny‘ on Hazlitt
• Brit Mandello, ‘Dear Joanna Russ: A Letter for an Inimitable Writer‘ on Tor.Com
• Sunny Singh, ‘Why set up a prize for writers of colour?‘ in The Bookseller
• Rory Samantha Green, ‘Born Lucky: my mum Jackie Collins and her wild child alter ego‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Barnett, ‘Finding ideas isn’t usually a problem‘ in The Guardian
• Joanna Cannon, ‘Mental illness is always a problem, so we will always need books about it‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathan Sturgeon, ‘The Paradoxical Legacy of Harper Lee‘ on Flavorwire
• Tricia Tongco, ‘Meet Faith, The Body-Positive Superhero Of Our Dreams‘ on the Huffington Post
• Melissa Harrison, ‘How cars ruined our love of the countryside‘ in The Guardian
• Shelley Harris, ‘The Secret Life of Mothers‘ on the WHSmith Blog
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘Black Women Writers and the Secret Space of Diaries‘ in The New Yorker

 

Personal essays/memoir:

• Esther Wang, ‘Watching And Reading About White People Having Sex Is My Escape‘ on Buzzfeed
• Megan Galbraith, ‘Sin Will Find You Out‘ on Catapult
• Georgina Kleege, ‘On Being Who I Am: My Life as a Tall Blind Woman‘ in The Toast
• Briallen Hopper, ‘Relying on Friendship in a World Made for Couples‘ in The Cut
• Sarah Resnick, ‘H‘ on n+1
• Rosalind Jana, ‘The One Piece Of Clothing That Makes Me Feel Extraordinarily Sexy‘ on Refinery 29
• Alana Massey, ‘Why I’m Buying a House Without a Family to Put in It‘ on The Cut
• Anna Holmes, ‘I Feel Destined to Be Single, and That’s Okay‘ on The Cut
• Kade Walker, ‘Veronica Dies in Jamaica‘ on The Rumpus
• Ellen Urbani, ‘There Is No Such Thing as a True Story‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Rebecca Traister, ‘The Single American Woman‘ in The Cut
• Aria Dean, ‘Closing the Loop‘ on The New Inquiry
• Eleanor Ross, ‘Why estate agent sexism could be costing you‘ on The Pool
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘It’s the £30bn cut you’ve never heard of. And women are bearing the brunt‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘So You’re a Celebrity Who Calls Yourself a Feminist. Now What?‘ in The Cut
• Linda Chavers, ‘To Black Girls Everywhere‘ on The Offing
• Caroline Paul, ‘Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared?‘ in The New York Times

Society and Politics:

• Caitlin Moran, ‘How to start – and win – an argument online‘ in The Guardian
• Hadley Freeman, ‘So the privately educated are the new underclass? Spare me the sob story‘ in The Guardian
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘Trump has succeeded in an America that is already pre-disposed to racial suspicion‘ on Media Diversified
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘Hillary Clinton’s haters and the glass ceiling of American politics‘ in the New Statesman
• Molly Crabapple, ‘What Life Is Like Inside the Besieged, War-Torn Syrian City of Aleppo‘ on Vice
• Julia Lee, ‘When People of Color Are Discouraged From Going Into the Arts‘ in The Atlantic
• Dorothy Cummings McLean, ‘Marriage Is an Accomplishment‘ on Quadrapheme
• Kate Spicer, ‘Does where you go to school affect your ability to succeed?‘ on The Pool
• Jamilah King, ‘How Black Women Like Me Reckon With America’s Political Process‘ on Mic

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

• Rachel Syme, ‘The Return to Predictability‘ on Complex
• Anna Leszkiewicz ‘The Ghostbusters trailer shows the new film is categorically not aimed at men‘ in the New Statesman
• Emma Brockes,  ‘Whether it’s Ali G or Tina Fey, ironic racism just isn’t funny any more‘ in The Guardian
• Venus Williams, ‘Why I’m Going Back to Indiana Wells‘ on The Players’ Tribune
• Joan Smith, ‘Now we know – the BBC’s macho culture protected predatory men for decades‘ in The Guardian
• Allison P. Davis, ‘Why Are White People Trying to Ruin ‘Formation’?‘ on The Cut
• Anohni, ‘Why I Am Not Attending the Academy Awards‘ on Pitchfork
• Gwynne Watkins, ‘Before #OscarsSoWhite: The Forgotten Story of Queer Nation’s 1992 Academy Awards Protest‘ on Yahoo
• Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘Boston Rules‘ on Hazlitt
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Kesha: the musical equivalent of the drunk girl in the short dress‘ on The Pool
• Kiva Reardon, ‘Mainstream Creep: Keeping Feminist Film Criticism Subversive‘ on Hazlitt

The interviews:

• Han Kang in The White Review (translated by Deborah Smith)
• Louise O’Neill in Elle
• Helen Stephenson on The Pool
• Chinelo Okparanta on For Books’ Sake
• Tracy Chevalier in The Bookseller and The Telegraph
• Rachel B. Glaser on For Books’ Sake
• Molly Crabapple on Literary Hub
• Shelley Harris on The Writes of Woman and One Book Lane
• Kathleen Spivak on The Rumpus
• Rebecca Traister on Jezebel and Elle (with Roxane Gay)
• Mona Awad on Electric Literature
• Virginia Reeves on Literary Hub
• Jennifer Clement on Pen America
• Monica Wendel on Vida
• Sara Taylor in The Big Issue
• bell hooks (with Emma Watson) in Paper
• Ottessa Moshfegh in The Observer
• Emma Donoghue on Public Books
• Meg Rosoff on Bookanista
• Sarah Ruhl in The New York Times
• Sarah Bakewell on The Bookseller
• Marian Keyes in the Bath Chronicle
• Laura van den Berg and Emily St. John Mandel on the FSG blog
• Joyce Maynard on Literary Hub
• G. Willow Wilson on Black Nerd Problems
• Sharon Horgan on Creative Review
• Elizabeth Kadetsky on The Rumpus
• Lucy Kalanithi in Stylist
• Jacky Fleming on The Pool
• Petina Gappah on NPR
• Carol Tulloch in The Observer
• Caitlin Moran on The Debrief
• Deborah Smith on The Quietus

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult

In the Media, December 2015

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.

This fortnight’s mostly been about end of year lists. Last year I linked to those that were gender balanced but this year I gave up counting after the first two, deciding it was a futile endeavour. Having said that, Sarah Seltzer says , ‘White Men Are the Minority on This Year’s Biggest Book Lists‘ on Flavorwire and there was some excitement around a new ‘Best UK novels’ list commissioned by the BBC. On The Pool, Lynn Enright said ‘Women writers dominate the top spots in list of best British novels‘. Which they do but the list as a whole isn’t balanced and it’s dominated by Nineteenth Century novels.

A fortnight ago I was going to begin this piece by mentioning The Good Immigrant an essay collection being published by Unbounders which means it needed crowdfunding. It includes essays by Chimene Suleyman, Bim Adewumni, Salena Godden, Sabrina Mahfouz, Coco Khan, Sarah Sahim and Reni Eddo Lodge and was fully funded in three days, partly thanks to JK Rowling. You can read about what an excellent person she is and what a great collection it sounds in The Guardian. And you can still contribute to the funding.

Clare Vaye Watkins essay ‘On Pandering’ is still being discussed. She talks about it further (with Marlon James) on NPR. Anne Boyd Rioux responded with ‘A Brief History of Pandering‘ on The Rumpus. Aya de Leon responded initially with ‘“On Pandering” and Subversive Revelations of Female Insecurity‘ and then to Marlon James’ Guardian conversation with ‘On Pandering, White Women as Scapegoats, and the Literary Industry as a Hand-Me-Down‘ on her blog, while Dreda Say Mitchell replied with ‘Black authors don’t write only for white women‘ in the Guardian.

In prize news, Sarah Howe won the resurrected Young Writer of the Year Award for her poetry collection Loop of Jade. She’s profiled in The Sunday Times (£) and interviewed on Bookanista and The Workshy Fop. And the Saltire Society Literary Award was announced with wins for Helen McClory, Patricia Andrew and Tanja Bueltmann.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Harper Lee, ‘My Christmas in New York‘ in The Guardian
• Blake Butler, ‘The Hallucinatory Terror of Unica Zürn‘ on Vice
• Patti Marxsen, ‘A Taste of Immortality: The Post-Earthquake Haitian Novel‘ in The Critical Flame
• Svetlana Alexievich, ‘On the Battle Lost‘ on Nobel Prize
• Alison Flood, ‘How Amazon came to dominate fiction in translation‘ in The Guardian
• Jane Hu, ‘Between Us: A Queer Theorist’s Devoted Husband and Enduring Legacy‘ in The New Yorker
• David Griffith, ‘The Displaced Person: Reading Flannery O’Connor in the age of Islamophobia.‘ on The Paris Review
• Amy Watkin, ‘Women Who Should Be Pretty Pissed Off: Jane Austen Is Probably Mad at Us‘ on McSweeney’s
• Siri Hustvedt, ‘Knausgaard Writes Like a Woman: On Gendered Literature and the Feminization of Feelings‘ on Literary Hub
• Sandeep Parmar, ‘Not a British Subject: Race and Poetry in the UK‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Anne Enright, ‘Antigone in Galway: on the dishonoured dead‘ in the London Review of Books
• Melissa Benn, ‘Vivian Gornick: one of the most significant writers you have probably never heard of‘ in The New Statesman
• Zanib Mian, ‘‘We need books that just happen to feature a Muslim protagonist’‘ in THe Bookseller
• Theresa Shim, ‘I Read Because We’re All Storytellers — It’s Human Nature, After All.‘ on Medium
• Susie Day, ‘Why we have to create more disabled characters in children’s fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Ginger Strand, ‘How Jane Vonnegut Made Kurt Vonnegut a Writer‘ in The New Yorker
• Stephanie LaCava, ‘Slow Days, Fast Company:Eve Babitz’s singular take on Los Angeles.‘ on The Paris Review
• John Mullan, ‘How Jane Austen’s Emma changed the face of fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Lorraine Berry, ‘How the Literary Class System Is Impoverishing Literature‘ on Literary Hub
• Margaret Atwood, ‘My journey with a young writer‘ on Medium
• Alana Massey, ‘Molly Crabapple Is The Writer Who Made Me A Writer‘ on Buzzfeed
• Morgan Parker, ‘I Don’t Need Diverse Books: On Re-defining ‘We’ and Making Black Art‘ on The Poetry Foundation
• Alison Flood, ‘Earliest known biography of an African woman translated to English for the first time‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Farooqui, ‘Why Ismat Chugtai’s stories should not be dropped from Rajasthan’s school textbooks‘ in Business Standard
• Shami Chakrabarti, ‘How do we keep up the fight for democratic values? With solidarity and storytelling’ in The Guardian
• Ester Bloom, ‘When Women’s Literary Tastes Are Deemed Less Worthy‘ on The Atlantic
• Sarah Franklin, ‘“Short stories lift you out of your own world for 10 minutes”‘ on The Pool
• Professor Sharon Rustin, ‘The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein‘ in The Public Domain Review
• Anne de Courcy, ‘The prime minister fell in love with his daughter’s best friend‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Terri White, ‘Fairytale of New York?‘ on The Pool
• Leslie Kendall Dye, ‘Contrast Study‘ on Vela
• Anne Thériault, ‘Being a Girl: A Brief History of Personal Violence‘ on The Belle Jar
• Andrea Yu, ‘Going Back Home: Life as a Reverse Immigrant‘ in The Wilson Quarterly
• Sulagna Misra, ‘Learning Body Positivity From a 700-Year-Old Hindu Statue‘ on Racked
• Karissa Chen, ‘The Audacity to Dream: On Asian Women, Feminism, and My Grandmother‘ on Vida
• Jess Zimmerman, ‘The Year in Luck‘ on Hazlitt
• Alexandra Kimball, ‘Unpregnant: The silent, secret grief of miscarriage‘ in The Globe and The Mail
• Katie Klabusich, ‘When The Poor Get Taken Advantage Of By Friends And Family‘ on The Establishment
• Alana Massey, ‘An Ode to the Hometown Friends Who Got Away‘ on The Cut
• Samantha, ‘Do Black Girls Even Get to Be Depressed?‘ on Bitches Gotta Eat
• Katy Waldman, ‘There Once Was a Girl: Against the false narratives of anorexia.‘ on Slate
• Jennifer Tseng, ‘How to Leave an Island: on Life, Libraries, and Commuting by Canoe‘ on Literary Hub
• Kelly Thompson, ‘The Story of My Fear Over Time‘ on The Rumpus
• Rachel Wilkinson, ‘Valuation Methods‘ on The Rumpus
• Caroline Crampton, ‘Travelling alone as a woman is incredibly empowering‘ on The Pool
• Ashley Ford, ‘How I Got Depressed, Forgave Myself, and Grew Up in the Process‘ in Elle
• Marisa Bate, ‘A letter to my friend: you are experiencing emotional abuse‘ in The Pool
• Laura Lampton Scott, ‘The Person Next to You on a Plane‘ on Electric Literature
• Collette Arrand, ‘Chrysalis: Transitioning and My Trans Identity‘ in The Toast
• Porochista Khakpour, ‘My Life in the New Age‘ in VQR
• Jhumpa Lahiri, ‘Teach Yourself Italian‘ in The New Yorker
• Molly Crabapple, ‘My Life in a Parisian Bookstore‘ on Literary Hub
• Alisson Wood, ‘‘Get Home Safe,’ My Rapist Said‘ in The New York Times

Feminism:

• Hermione Hoby, ‘The problem with being ‘badass’‘ in The Guardian
• Anonymous, ‘No, Mrs Mugabe, I am not responsible for my rape.‘ on Media Diversified
• Arabelle Sicardi, ‘Beauty Is Broken‘ on Medium
• Cass Geller, ‘I Am Woman, Hear Me Curse: Confessions Of A Potty Mouth‘ on Femsplain
• Jessica Woodbury, ‘“In Good Conscience”: Mormon Feminists on the Brink‘ in The Toast
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Why we should talk about menopause in the workplace‘ on The Pool
• Professor Heidi Safia Mirza, ‘Shame and Sexual Harassment‘ on Sexual Harassment in Higher Education
• Ratika Kapur, ‘Delhi’s same-sex carriages: The ladies’ compartment is a public space where women can assert their independence‘ in The Independent
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Do some men *still* find working women a problem?‘ on The Pool
• Ina Goel, ‘Menstrual Chronicles from Delhi‘ on The Fem

Society and Politics:

• Maya Goodfellow, ‘America may be ‘Trumped’, but Britain has its demons too‘ on Media Diversified
• Sandra Newman, ‘Possessed by a mask‘ on Aeon
• Olga Khazan, ‘The Hardest Job‘ on The Atlantic
• Deanna Othman, ‘Where was Donald Trump radicalized?: The hate-spewing candidate proves any ideology can lead to radicalization‘ on Salon
• April White, ‘The Divorce Colony‘ in The Atavist Magazine
• Priya Rane, ‘“The Silent Majority of Muslims”: Islamophobia and Counter Extremism in the UK‘ on Media Diversified
• Sarah Schweitzer, ‘The life and times of Strider Wolf‘ in The Boston Globe
• Eula Biss, ‘White Debt: Reckoning with what is owed — and what can never be repaid — for racial privilege.‘ in The New York Times
• Rachel Shabi, ‘Were you carried away by Hilary Benn’s ‘electrifying’ speech? This is political theatre, not democracy‘ in The Independent
• Jennifer Mascia, ‘What It Feels Like to Cover Gun Violence in America‘ in Vogue
• Kiona Smith-Strickland, ‘Princesses, Slaves, and Explosives: The Scandalous Origin of Vaccines‘ on Gizmodo
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘If only Diane Abbott had a job! Then we wouldn’t all have to describe her as “Corbyn’s former lover”‘ in The Independent
• Paris Lees, ‘“Being transgender is not a trend” Paris Lees on why being trans shouldn’t be headline news‘ in Stylist

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Ariel Levy, ‘Dolls and Feelings: Jill Soloway’s Post-Patriarchal Television‘ in The New Yorker
• Marisa Crawford, ‘Bloodlines: No Wave Performance Task Force’s PERIOD PIECE Traces the Lineage of Menstrual Art‘ on Weird Sister
• Shaadi Devereaux, ‘Netflix, Uncovering Cycles of Abuse and Chill: Jessica Jones and Domestic Violence‘ on Model View Culture
• Megan Koester, ‘Why It Sucks to Be a Woman in Comedy‘ on Vice
• Katherine Schwab, ‘Highbrow Ink‘ in The Atlantic
• Adriana Tobin, ‘Why Women’s Pockets Are Useless: A History‘ on Marketplace
• Gabrielle Jackson, ‘Please Sia, don’t show us your face‘ in The Guardian

The interviews:

• Jennifer Baker on The Rumpus
• Molly Crabapple on NPR, in The Guardian
• Diane Lefer on Awst Press
• Lauren Groff on Vulture
• Elaine Sciolino on Literary Hub
• Elena Ferrante in the Financial Times
• bel hooks in The New York Times
• Jane Ciabattari on The Rumpus
• Kate Gavino on Electric Literature
• Nell Zink in Tank Magazine
• Debra Monroe on The Rumpus
• Miranda July in The Believer
• Ratika Kapur in The Hindu
• Bette Adriaanse in Structo Magazine
• Sloane Crosley on Bookanista
• Louisa Hall on The Rumpus
• Dawn Lundy Martin on Literary Hub
• Isabel Allende in The Guardian
• Diana Athill in The Independent
• Naja Marie Aidt in BOMB Magazine
• Catherynne M. Valente on Electric Literature
• Alex Mar on Electric Literature

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans

Inter-Media

A few pieces I’ve enjoyed/found interesting in the last month.

Books wise the focus continues on the lack of coverage of books by women and on diversity in publishing. Syl Saller writes, ‘Why women-only initiatives are vital for the arts‘ followed by Alison Flood’s piece, ‘Publisher finds that writers’ influences are mostly male‘ both in The Guardian. The publisher is Sarah Davis-Gough of Tramp Press. Also quoted in the article is Deborah Smith, translator and publisher at Tilted Axis Press. On the And Other Books blog, she explains why Tilted Axis are having a year of publishing women. A woman much in the media of late is Harper Lee. Glynnis MacNichol writes ‘Harper Lee: the ‘great lie’ she didn’t write Mockingbird rears its head again‘ looking not just at Lee but other women who’s authorship has also been questioned.

Kerry Hudson gets angry and offers some solutions on the Writers’ Centre, Norwich’s website, ‘Lost Stories, Unheard Voices – Diversity in Literature‘. (Do read the piece by Nikesh Shukla that’s linked to at the bottom of that page also, you’ll be astonished.) In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Susan Barker, author of The Incarnations, looks at her own experience as someone mixed-race English and Chinese, raised in Britain but writing about China; ‘Should Ethnicity Limit What a Fiction Writer Can Write?‘

It’s unlikely you haven’t noticed that the Man Booker Prize longlist was announced this week. Dawn Foster wrote, ‘Summer’s here – so it’s time to grab a Booker and start reading‘ in The Independent and there are excellent interviews with longlisted authors Hanya Yanagihara and Anna Smaill.

In other recent topics, Roxane Gay writes about the outpouring for Cecil the Lion while Samuel DuBose, Sandra Bland and the 681 other black people killed by police in the USA so far this year. Aisha Mirza asks, ‘London’s super-diversity is a joy. Why would you ever want to leave?‘ in The Guardian.

While Nina Stibbe looks at her experience of moving to the countryside in The Independent, ‘When village life turns nasty: An author reveals the dark heart of the English countryside‘ and Hazel Davis looks at the power of online friendships in Standard Issue, ‘iFriends‘.

Lots of good things on The Pool, as always. Sali Hughes writes, ‘A magazine cover that can make the world better for women‘, ‘“Housing benefit saved me as a teenager”‘ and ‘Hasn’t lying about your age gotten really old?‘. Lauren Laverne asks ‘Is work/life balance a big, fat waste of time?‘, ‘Who’s looking after all those successful men’s kids?‘ and ‘Too busy to sleep?‘. Sam Baker met Amy Poehler and I’m not remotely envious. Honest. Anna James looks at the 10 ways J.K. Rowling changed our lives and Alexandra Heminsley celebrates marketing campaigns finally realising ‘Exercise is not about getting skinny‘.

There’s been a number of other articles about women’s bodies recently. Eva Wiseman looks at the damage done to children through anti-obesity messages, ‘Learning to love our bodies‘ in The Observer. Lindy West writes, ‘My wedding was perfect – and I was fat as hell the whole time‘ in The Guardian and Shelley Harris says, ‘This Woman Can‘ on her blog in relation to Daisy Buchanan’s ‘A Letter I Wrote To Myself About Getting Fat‘ on her blog.

Elizabeth Day’s ‘Stop Calling Women ‘Lovely’!‘ for Elle UK makes me want to punch the air and shout ‘Fuck, yes!’

And being Yorkshire born and bred and having left and returned to the county twice, I love Sophie Heawood’s piece ‘I’ve lived half my life in London, but I’ll always be a Yorkshire lass at heart‘ in The Guardian.

In the Media: 24th 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.

The Cannes Film Festival’s been in the spotlight (haha) this week for turning women away from a screening because they were wearing flat shoes. Heels as compulsory footwear for women may or may not (depending which day it is someone asks) be part of their dress policy. Helen O’Hara writes ‘How the 2015 Cannes Film Festival became all about women‘  while Laura Craik asks, ‘Is the tyranny of high heels finally over?‘ both in The Pool. Hadley Freeman wrote, ‘Can’t do heels? Don’t do Cannes‘ in The Guardian, while Elizabeth Semmelhack wrote, ‘Shoes That Put Women in Their Place‘ in The New York Times

The other big feminist story was about ‘wife bonuses’ after Wednesday Martin wrote a piece for the New York Times called, ‘Poor Little Rich Women‘. Amanda Marcotte asked, ‘What’s Wrong With “Wife Bonuses”?‘ in Slate

Awards this week went to the five 2015 Best Young Australian Novelists, three of whom are women, all of whom are women of colour – hurrah for progress. Also in Australia, the shortlist for the Miles Franklin Award was revealed, four of the five shortlisted writers are women. The O. Henry Prize Stories for 2015 were announced. Of the twenty selected, fifteen were by women. You can read those by Dina Nayeri, Molly Antopol and Lynne Sharon Schwartz by clicking on their names.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Bryony Gordon, ‘How to survive Hay Festival‘ in The Telegraph
• Sinclair McKay, ‘Leading Ladies: meet the Queens of Romance‘ in The Telegraph
• Cate Dicharry, ‘Diary of a First-Time Book Tour‘ on Literary Hub
• Kelly Link, ‘Subversive Pleasure‘ (on Angela Carter) in the New York Times
• Katy Waldman, ‘It’s Time to Stop Praising Authors for Being “Good at the Internet”‘ on Slate
• Laurie Uttich, ‘In Defense of ‘Depressing’ Books‘ on the Huffington Post
• Emily M. Keeler, ‘Friends don’t let friends review their friend’s books… do they?‘ in the National Post
• Susanna Rustin, ‘Literary festivals are getting too big for their books‘ in The Guardian
• Various, ‘Take a book holiday with some of our favourite authors!‘ on One Book Lane
• Abie Longstaff, ‘A history of human rights abuses in fairytales‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathan Clarke, ‘Six Possibly True Observations About Renata Adler‘ on The Millions
• Eleanor Morgan, ‘What the Hell Is a Hot Feminist?’ on Vice
• Samantha Langsdale, ‘Simon Pegg is wrong – comics aren’t an escape from reality, they help us deal with it‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Landsbaum, ‘How the Success of Marvel’s Female Superheroes Heralds a More Inclusive Age of Comics‘ on Vulture
• Felix Kent, ‘How To Tell If You Are In An ’80s Biography Of A Famous Woman‘ in The Toast
• Meytal Radzinski , ‘WITMonth 2015 Intro Post: FAQs and helpful references‘ on Biblibio
• Lizi Gilad Silver, ‘Please Come with Me on the Yellow Bus for a Field Trip to the Library Where We Will Find Bean Spasms and Other Rare Treasures‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Why Do We Re-Read Our Favorite Books as Kids, and Why Do We Stop When We Get Older?‘ on Flavorwire
• Caitriona Lally, ‘on writing Eggshells: from the dole to a debut novel‘ in The Irish Times
• Karen Gordon, ‘Against Type: Unapologetically Sexual‘ on Rewriting Mary Sue
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Feminists don’t care if you like hot pink, eat salads or shave your crotch‘ in The Guardian
• Polly Vernon, ‘The Hot Feminist Manifesto‘ in The Times

• Rebecca Falkoff, ‘To Translate Is to Betray: On the Elena Ferrante Phenomenon in Italy and the US‘ on Public Books
• Alison Flood, ‘Agatha Christie’s ‘forgotten’ Syrian memoir gets new lease of life‘ in The Guardian
• Natalie Haynes, ‘March of the megabooks: it’s all Donna Tartt’s fault‘ in The Guardian
• Alice Jones, ‘If this is the year of the mega-novel, it’s going to be a very long 12 months‘ in The Independent
• Philip Graham, ‘Trouble Using Light: The Complications of Art in the Fiction of Christine Sneed‘ on The Millions
• Joanna Cannon, ‘The Story Behind Goats and Sheep‘ on her blog
• Sara Nović, ‘What it’s like to be a deaf novelist‘ in The Guardian
• Whitney Phillips, ‘Laugh It Off?‘ on Slate
• Rebecca Mascull, ‘The difficult second novel‘ on Just Write
• Diane Hurlburt, ‘“Bee Theres”: The Mormon YA of My Youth‘ in The Toast
• Lauren Alwan, ‘A Brief History of the Colloquial Title‘ on The Millions
• Iona Grey, ‘The things we should’ve asked‘ on Gransnet
• Kelly Jensen, ‘Depression Has No Straight Lines, Only Lies‘ on Disability in Kidlit
• Ruth Ware, ‘“When I was about thirteen or fourteen, I fell in love”‘ (on Josephine Tay) on the Penguin Blog
• Julia Donaldson, ‘Why hearing children should find out about signing‘ in The Guardian
• Madeline Thein, ‘Why Hong Kong is clamping down on creative writing‘ in The Guardian
• Jami Attenberg, ‘How 15 Minutes Of Internet Fame Did Nothing For My Books‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jessica Anya Blau, ‘My Favorite Women Writers of the 1950s‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Writing Some Stuff & Keeping On Keeping On‘ on Real Pants
• Helen Grant, ‘My inspiration: The Lost World‘ in The Guardian
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: A Fairytale Education‘ on Vintage Books
• Jessica Valenti, ‘You might not think you’re sexist – until you take a look at your bookshelf‘ in The Guardian
• Susan Lannigan, ‘We need to talk about…Day jobs and money‘ on her blog
• Christine Sneed, ‘on The Pleasure of Influence‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book

Personal essays/memoir:

• Rebecca Wait, ‘One woman’s experience of cults‘ in The Pool
• Sali Hughes, ‘What do brilliant, extravagant presents actually mean?‘ in The Pool
• Lauren Laverne, ‘Why everyone needs a list of Cheering-Up Things‘ in The Pool
• Suzanne Moore, ‘In a far corner of the school field, we would defy gravity‘ in the New Statesman
• Clare Archibald, ‘Sweet Sixteen Saturdays‘ on TYCI
• Clare Archibald, ‘Meandering Route of the Muscle Memories‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Eva Holland, ‘Unclimbable‘ in SB Nation
• Susie Cage, ‘What Is A Woman’s Wardrobe Worth?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Eryn Loeb, ‘Return Trip, OBX‘ in Vela
• Martha Stortz, ‘How I Gave Myself Permission To Be Gluten-Free‘ on Buzzfeed
• Upasna, ‘A Girl Without a Country‘ on Rookie
• Maureen O’Connor, ‘De-Cluttering Is the New Juice Cleanse (and Equally Annoying)‘ in The Cut
• Stephanie Butzer, ‘Heat‘ on The Fem
• Alysia Abbott, ‘Fairyland: Memories of a Singular San Francisco Girlhood‘ on Longreads
• Trisha Low, ‘On Being-Hated: Conceptualism, the Mongrel Coalition, the House That Built Me‘ on San Fransisco MOMA
• Storm Persephone Tara-Meiying Liu, ‘How Losing My Sight Helped Me Express My Gender Identity‘ on Vice
• Catherine Santino, ‘Dear college graduates: it’s OK not to know‘ on Hello Giggles
• Rebecca Riley, ‘How I Learned the Meaning of Ableism‘ on The Fem
• Sadie Stein, ‘Bus Pass‘ on The Paris Review Blog
• Ella Wilson, ‘The Therapist Who Saved My Life‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Maria Medina, ‘Iced Cake Frosting‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Sousan Hammad, ‘A Map of Jerusalem‘ in Words Without Borders
• DeLaynna Corley, ‘Motel 6‘ in New Mexico Review
• Alexis Paige, ‘Not a Place on Any Map‘ in New Mexico Review
• Melissa Grunow, ‘Out of Ash‘ in New Mexico Review
• Erika Anderson, ‘Never Write From a Place of Despair‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Elena Dunkle, ‘The Cost of My Teenage Years as an Unrecovered Anorexic‘ on the Huffington Post
• Wendy C. Ortiz, ‘What is Sacred‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Amanda Parrish Morgan, ‘O Martyr My Martyr!‘ on The Rumpus
• Seyward Darby, ‘I was on Amtrak train 188. Afterward, I saw the crash through my fiance’s eyes‘ in The Washington Post
• Jochebed Smith, ‘Swearing Off the Modern Man‘ in The New York Times
• Suzanne Clores, ‘When You Dream Your Husband Is Trying to Kill You‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Eve Barlow, ‘The horrible proof that sexism in the workplace still exists‘ in The Pool
• Isabelle O’Carroll, ‘A comprehensive guide to the sexist world of beer adverts‘ in The Pool
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘Five Fearless Women Who Have Inspired Me To Be A Proud Feminist‘ in Marie Claire
• Mac McClelland, ‘We Learned Together: A Nice Afternoon With The Women Of New Orleans’ Trans Veterans Support Group‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jill Lepore, ‘To Have and To Hold‘ in The New Yorker
• Sharon H. Chang, ‘This Mocha-Caramel-Honey Post-Racial Fantasy Is Making Me Sick‘ on Buzzfeed
• Syreeta McFadden, ‘Revelations About Being Brown In A World Of White Beauty‘ on Buzzfeed
• Paula Cocozza, ‘Actors: go ahead, lie about your age – look how Maggie Gyllenhaal was treated‘ in The Guardian
• Glosswitch, ‘The feminist history of surrogacy: should pregnancy give a woman rights over a baby?‘ in the New Statesman
• Mika Brzezinski, ‘Working Your Value‘ on Medium
• Jessica Roake, ‘I Am a Good Mother‘ on Slate
• Sammy Nickalls, ‘I don’t know if I want to have kids, and that’s OK‘ on Hello Giggles
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Bring back self-defence classes for women – it’s the feminist thing to do‘ in The Guardian
• Meredith Talusan, ‘Women’s colleges should reinvent themselves as havens for trans women‘ in The Guardian
• Tracy King, ‘No, Mad Max: Fury Road is not a feminist masterpiece (but that’s OK)‘ in the New Statesman
• Eva Wiseman, ‘Which body should I try on next?‘ in The Observer
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘With Amal Clooney, We Finally Have the Consummate Feminist Superhero. Let’s Not Ruin It‘ in The Cut
• Nicole Nolan, ‘Boobs, Money, and Plastic Surgery‘ in The Toast
• Talat Yaqoob, ‘29% is Equality‘ on the Huffington Post

Society and Politics:

• Suzanne Moore, ‘Why is it so hard to say sorry?‘ in The Pool
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Call me naive, politicians, but how about saying what you really think?‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hagi, ‘Those Who Leave Somalia Need Remittance Too‘ on Buzzfeed
• Hon Lai Chui, ‘I Just Want To See The Sea‘ (tr. Henry Wei Leung with Louise Law) in The Offing
• Jaimie Lauren Keiles, ‘How To Be Spiritual (If You’re Not)‘ on The Awl
• Amy Maxmen, ‘Frontline health workers were sidelined in $3.3bn fight against Ebola‘ in Newsweek
• Diana Kapp, ‘Why Are Palo Alto’s Kids Killing Themselves?‘ in San Francisco Magazine
• Lisa Miller, ‘Can Racism Be Stopped in the Third Grade?‘ in New York Magazine
• Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, ‘A Woman’s Worth‘ in Granta
• Alexis Coe, ‘By Reason of Insanity‘ in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Anonymous, ‘Confucius say what? Whitewashed by the colorblind‘ on Empathize This
• Lindsey Newhall, ‘Fighting for Identity: The Life of a Transgender Kickboxer in Rural Thailand‘ on Vice
• Katie Roiphe, ‘Why Professors Should Never Have Affairs With Their Students‘ on Slate
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The Breakfast in Bed Café is a desperate cry for help – Ikea should stick to meatballs and sofas‘ in the New Statesman
• Elyssa Goodman, ‘Riding with the Oldest All-Gay, All-Male, All-Riding Motorcycle Club‘ on Vice
• Neda Tehrani, ‘It’s Time To Talk About ‘British Values’‘ on Media Diversified

Film, Television, Music and Fashion:

• Hadley Freeman, ‘My Dirty confession‘ in The Jewish Chronicle
• Karen Krizanovich, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road is a brilliant celebration of women’s power‘ in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘The Curious Conformity Of YouTube’s Beauty Tutorials‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emily Yahr, ‘From guilty pleasure to Emmy Awards: The delightfully weird history of Lifetime movies‘ in The Washington Post
• Deborah Cohen, ‘How Indie Rock Changed the World‘ in The Atlantic
• Kathleen E. Kennedy, ‘What Sansa Stark’s Rape Tells Us About Our Culture‘ on Vice
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Amy Schumer’s coarse, playful comedy explores how women are complicit in their oppression (And forgives them for it.)‘ in the New Statesman
• Kate Aurthur, ‘All 90 Episodes Of “Mad Men” Ranked, From Good To Perfect‘ on Buzzfeed

The interviews:

• Marian Keyes in The Pool (or the 40 minute Director’s Cut)
• Rachel Trezise on London Short Story Festival
• Judy Blume in The Guardian and The New York Times
• Mary Costello on Bloom
• Jodi Picoult on Bustle
• Melissa Harrison on Tania Hershman’s Blog
• Taiye Selasi on Essence
• Hanya Yanagihara on Electric Literature
• Sophia Jansson on Bookanista
• Edna O’Brien in The New York Times
• Anne Enright on The Millions
• S.D. Sykes on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Rainbow Rowell on Buzzfeed
• Honorée Jeffers on The Rumpus
• Kate Atkinson on Our Book Reviews Online
• Sunetra Gupta on Medium
• Kirsty Logan, Vesna Goldsworthy and Anne Enright on Vintage Books Podcast
• Randa Abdel-Fattah on Words Without Borders
• Elenor Kopka on Okey-Panky
• Naomi Novik on Publishers Weekly Podcast
• Keller Easterling in Guernica
• Vivian Gornick on Longreads and in The Observer
• Maggie Nelson on Jezebel
• Alison Layland on Thriller Books Journal
• Dasha Kelly on The Rumpus
• Lynda Barry in The Guardian
• Meera Syal in The Times
• Ashley Ford on IndyStar
• Elaine Feeney in the Honest Ulsterman

If you want some fiction to read:

• The first five chapters of The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marion Keyes in The Pool
• ‘The Edge‘ by Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende in Guernica
• ‘The Biscuit‘ by Jette Harris on The Fem
• ‘Come Make Love With Us‘ by Cari Luna in Midnight Breakfast
• An extract from Uprooted by Naomi Novik on Pan Macmillan
• An extract from Coming Up Roses by Rachel Lucas on Pan Macmillan
• An extract from The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan on The Awl
• ‘Star Bellies‘ by Evelyn Alfred in Literary Orphans
• ‘Survival of the High-Riding Bitch‘ by June Frances Coleman in Literary Orphans
• ‘Fade‘ by Morgan Jerkins in Literary Orphans
• ‘Passive-Aggressive‘ by Naadeyah Haseeb in Literary Orphans
• ‘A Warm Winter‘ by Molly McArdle in Midnight Breakfast
• ‘The Necklace‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Your Baby‘ by Asmaa Alghoul (tr. Kareem James Abu-Zeid) on Words Without Borders
• ‘What Wolves Dream‘ by Olya Stoyanova (tr. Angela Rodel) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Scumbag‘ by Gabrielle Moss in Midnight Breakfast
• ‘The Freezer Chest‘ by Dorthe Nors in The New Yorker and she discusses the story here
• ‘The Murder Stone‘ by Jo Mazelis on Litro

Photograph by Kwesi Abbensetts

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘My Tits Are More Feminist Than Your Tits‘ by Salena Godden on This Is My Jam (or watch it on Youtube (images of tits, obviously))
• ‘A Numbered Graph That Shows How Each Part of the Body Would Fit Into A Chair‘ by Mary Jo Bang in Granta
• ‘No Soft Pink Hands‘ by Helena Chung in Pank
• ‘All They Want Is My Money My Pussy My Blood‘ by Morgan Parker on Literary Hub
• ‘Travel Anatomy‘ by Corinne Gaston in Literary Orphans
• ‘Art | is | Sometimes They Call Me “T”‘ by Teré Fowler-Chapman in Literary Orphans
• ‘The Body on the Interstate‘ by Paige Sullivan in New Mexico Review
• ‘Sharks in Albuquerque‘ by Janna Layton in New Mexico Review
• ‘The haunting of the Oatman Hotel‘ by Leah Angstman in New Mexico Review
• ‘Ways to Divide‘ by Meghan McClure in New Mexico Review
• ‘The Answers That Were Sewn‘ by Jacqueline Markowski in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘After Marvin Bell’s Dead Man poems‘ by Tamra Hays in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Lovesick Woman Spends Week in KFC‘ by Laryssa Wirstuk in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Tree‘ by Jennifer Martelli in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘interstellar‘ by Orooj-e-Zafar in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Final Purification‘ by Kelly Andrews in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• Two Poems by Lauren Gordon in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Shipwreck Survivor Refuses to Speak to CNN‘ by Janeen Pergrin Rastall in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘As It Is‘ by Lauren Camp in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘This is the Healing Part, it Looks Like Setting a Broken Bone‘ by Bri Lopez Donovan in Burn Something
• ‘Force‘ by Irna Landrum
• ‘Women’s Poetry‘ by Daisy Fried in Berfrois
• Three Miley Cyrus Poems by Talin Tahajian in Blunderbuss
• ‘I’m a Young Cowboy and Know I’ve Done Wrong‘ by Catherine Pond in the Boston Review
• ‘For the Officer Who Put the 8-Year-Old Boy in Handcuffs‘ by Katy Richey in The Offing
• ‘No System for Grief‘ by Kimberly Grey on Linebreak
• ‘You Probably Think This Poem Is About You‘ by Tovah Leah Green on Cahoodaloodaling
• ‘How Mike Weston Died‘ by Janet Hagelgans in Thrush

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind by Anne Roiphe on Literary Hub

The lists:

• Female Literarti Pick Summer’s Best Books in Harper’s Bazaar
• 22 Thrilling, Imaginative, and Twisted Genre Books By Women on Flavorwire
• 8 Books To Read Over A Long Holiday Weekend on The Huffington Post
• Kirsty Logan’s Born This Way: 10 great LGBT books for teens on Scottish Book Trust
• SD Sykes’ Five Favourite Historical Crime Novels on the Curtis Brown Book Group Blog
• 6 African novels to fuel your wanderlust on Voices of Africa
• Best Books: May Part One on Quadrapheme

In the Media: 10th 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.

It’s Mother’s Day in 80 countries around the world today. Not surprisingly, there has been a whole range of articles, from a whole range of view points, about mothers and motherhood this week. The Hairpin ran a series including  ‘Mommy Queerest‘ by Sarah Liss; ‘Thoroughly Modern Murdering Mothers; or, Women Who Kill for Their Children‘ by Meredith Haggerty; ‘A Joke, A Story‘ by Naomi Skwarna; ‘Going for the Burn: Revisiting Jane Fonda’s Workouts‘ by Alison Hamm’ ‘Mothers and Moms‘ by Haley Mlotek, and Randi Bergman, ‘The Weirdest Beauty Tips I Learned From My Mom‘.

Tameka Cage-Conley wrote, ‘Motherhood, Art, And Police Brutality‘ on VSB; Amy Shouse wrote ‘My mom never wanted kids‘ on Salon; Anne Enright wrote, ‘When Mother Leaves the Room‘ in The New York Times; Cheryl Strayed wrote, ‘The ‘Painful Personal Toll Lung Cancer Has Taken on My Life’‘ on The Huffington Post; Monica Hessler, ‘The long drive to end a pregnancy‘ in The Washington Post; Mary HK Choi, ‘The Dicks Of Our Lives‘ on Buzzfeed; Mary Elizabeth Williams, ‘Sorry about Mother’s Day, my childfree girlfriends: Moms aren’t any more special (or unselfish) than you‘ on Salon; Edwidge Danticat, ‘A Prayer Before Dying‘ on Literary Hub; Brogan Driscoll, ‘I Refuse to Celebrate ‘Dad Bod’, Until We Appreciate the ‘Mum Bod’ Too‘ on the Huffington Post

Catherine Bennett wrote in The Guardian, ‘It’s dehumanising to be ‘an oven’ for someone else’s baby‘; Jessica Roake wrote, ‘An Ode to the “Mom’s Night Out”‘ on Slate; Rebecca Mead wrote, ‘A Woman’s Place Is on the Internet‘ in The New Yorker; Sophie Heawood wrote, ‘I’ve read all the advice, but I still don’t know – am I raising a serial killer?‘ in The Guardian; Laila K wrote, ‘Up with the kids‘ in The Pool; Dahlia Lithwick, ‘“Bye-Bye, Normal Mommy”‘ on Slate; Christie Watson, ‘The Joy and Pain of Trans-Racial Adoption‘ on Literary Hub; Meagan O’Connell, ‘It’s My First Mother’s Day As a Mom. Now What?‘ in The Cut; Kate Spencer, ‘How I Finally Let Go Of Grief For My Dead Mom‘ on Buzzfeed; Domenica Ruta, ‘Can Having a Child Help Me Get Over My Abusive Mom?‘ in The Cut.

Danah Boyd, ‘I Miss Not Being Scared‘ on Medium; Melissa Duclos, ‘To the Doctor Who Reported Me to Child Protective Services‘ on The Offing; Christopher Frizzelle, ‘The Day Virginia Woolf Brought Her Mom Back to Life‘ on Literary Hub; Lauren Laverne, ‘“Mum” as a diss‘ in The Pool.

And if you’d rather read a book instead, Literary Hub suggests, ‘Five Intense Books for Mother’s Day‘ and the Huffington Post recommends, ‘Mother’s Day Reads: Eight Great Mother Characters in Literature‘.

Photograph by Idil Sukan

In the UK, there was a general election. 3AM Magazine ran a whole series of reactions including, Lauren Elkin, ‘an open letter to mark-francis vandelli‘; Juliet Jacques, ‘london – 2015‘; Eley Williams, ‘rosette manufacture: a catalogue and spotters’ guide‘, and Rachel Genn, ‘you wouldn’t like me when i’m disappointed‘. Other reactions included: Laurie Penny, ‘Don’t give in: an angry population is hard to govern; a depressed population is easy‘ in the New Statesman; Joan Smith, ‘Almost a third of all MPs are now women – a milestone has been reached‘ in The Guardian; Janice Turner, ‘Why the north is in revolt against Labour‘ in The Times; Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘Unfriending Tories on Facebook Is Not the Answer‘ on the Huffington Post

And there were a few pieces written prior to the result that I still think are worth reading: Sam Baker, ‘When voting doesn’t make you feel good‘ in The Pool; Suzanne Moore, ‘By Friday we’ll be reduced to bystanders at a revoltingly macho political stare-off‘ in The Guardian; Concepta Cassar, ‘Food For Thought: Hazlitt, Malthus and the Tragedy of Food Banks‘ in Litro; Katy Guest, ‘Sandi Toksvig’s Women’s Equality Party is a movement for which time has come‘ in The Independent; Salena Godden, ‘Colour-blind: What colour are you?‘ on her blog, and Isabel Rogers’ poem ‘The truth about political correctness‘ on her blog.

I promised myself I wouldn’t mention it but there have been a few good pieces written about the birth of THAT baby: Sian Norris, ‘She’s not like other girls…‘ on Sian and Crooked Rib; Heather Havrilesky, ‘Royal Baby Girl Fated to Lead International Mob of Fake Princesses?‘ in The Cut, and Viv Groskop, ‘She’s a tiny baby, not a Kardashian‘ in The Pool.

Congratulations to Gill Lewis who won the Little Rebels children’s book award with Scarlet Ibis this week; to Emily St. John Mandel who won the Authur C Clarke award, and to Alice Notley who won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Foundation Prize. A gender balanced shortlist was announced for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2015 and a female dominated one for the Branford Boase Award 2015. The ALS Longlist and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Shortlists were also announced.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Katy Derbyshire, some stats about Women in Translation on Women in Translation
• Voula Grand, ‘on The next Gone Girl (The spells stories cast – or don’t)’ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Lois Leveen, ‘All the Years Ahead: On Committing Literary Suicide‘ on The Millions
• Joanna Biggs, ‘My hero: Shulamith Firestone‘ in The Guardian
• Various, ‘‘Get your head out of that book!’ – the children’s stories that inspired leading writers‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Enright, ‘A return to the western shore: on yielding to the Irish tradition‘ in The Guardian]
• Jill Kronstadt, ‘A God in Ruins: Kate Atkinson After Kate Atkinson‘ on Bloom
• Diane Watt, ‘Rethinking the Medieval Canon‘ on The University of Surrey: Women’s Literary Culture and the Medieval Canon
• Jeanette Winterson, ‘Ruth Rendell: memories of a friend who stood by me‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Flood, ‘Archive find shows medieval mystic Margery Kempe’s autobiography ‘doesn’t lie’‘ in The Guardian
• Jordan Kinsley, ‘Rewriting Fairy Tales‘ on Rewriting Mary Sue
• ‘Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightning’: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept on the 4th Estate Blog
• Jill Lepore, ‘Looking at Female Superheroes with 10-year-old Boys‘ in The New Yorker
• Vanessa Lafaye, ‘The Breath of Creativity‘ on Random Things Through My Letterbox
• Josephine Livingstone, ‘Ban Men from Literary Readings‘ in the Gawker Review of Books
• Aminatta Forna, ‘Where Are the West’s Political Novelists?‘ on Literary Hub
• Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore‘ on Something Rhymed
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Made-up worlds (and a worldie maid)‘ on Bookanista
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best novels: No 85 – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1966)‘ in The Guardian
• Lori Lansens, ‘Living with authoritis‘ on Bookanista
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Living Life Through Metaphor: the Necessity of Fiction‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Why We Should All Be Spinsters: Writers Take on a New Feminine Mystique‘ on Flavorwire
• Jason McBride, ‘Losing Control of the Language‘ (on Kathy Acker) on Slate
• Marsha Lederman, ‘Breaking up the Canadian theatre boys’ club: New plays fight the gender gap with all-female casts‘ in The Globe and The Mail
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘We deserve to know about the women who show us what can be done and how to do it’ in The Observer
• Jo Walton, ‘A Great Castle Made of Sea: Why Hasn’t Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Been More Influential?‘ on Tor
• M. J. Carter, ‘on Edgar Allan Poe‘ on Raven Crime Reads
• Marie Phillips, ‘In defence of Amy March‘ in The Pool
• Katherine May, ‘Happily Never After‘ on Aeon
• Jamie Fisher, ‘High Style and Desperate Love: On the Life and Work of Eileen Chang‘ on The Millions
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Dirtbag Tess Of The D’Urbervilles‘ in The Toast
• Leah Ferguson, ‘It’s Like Having An Alter Ego, But Harder‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Alex Clark, ‘25 years of the Encore award: a cure for second-novel syndrome‘ in The Observer
• Kate Taylor, ‘We need to speak up about sexism in the arts‘ in The Globe and The Mail

Personal essays/memoir:

• Lucy Grealy, ‘Autobiography of a Body‘ on Nerve
• Masooma Hussain, ‘Symmetry in Our Misshapenness‘ in The Butter
• Sharisse T. Smith, ‘Hair Trajectory‘ in The Los Angeles Review
• Jenny Zhang, ‘Far Away from Me‘ in Rookie
• Tovah Burnstein, ‘A Woman Like Water‘ in The Butter
• Clarissa Wei, ‘Why I Will Always Love My Ex-Boyfriends‘ on XOJane
• Suzanne Joinson, ‘Dirty Talk and Dostoyevsky on the Night Shift‘ in The New York Times
• Leah Reich, ‘The Tin Woodman‘ on Medium
• Vickie Vertiz, ‘Kissing‘ in The Offing
• Anupa Mistry, ‘That Home Feeling‘ on Hazlitt
• Sali Hughes, ‘Proud to be a prude‘ in The Pool
• Melissa Hughes, ‘Starting Over at 35‘ on Medium
• Jenny Diski, ‘In Gratitude‘ in the London Review of Books (£)
• Jennifer S. Cheng, ‘Hikikomori: Salt Constellations‘ on LIterary Hub
• Mary J. Breen, ‘Childhood: Dollhouses, Solitude, and the Souls in Purgatory‘ in The Toast
• Amelia Gray, ‘Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle‘ on The Morning News
• Sonya Lee, ‘Daisy Duke and the Manosphere‘ on The Rumpus
• Mackenzie Mays, ‘Your Dad is Still Your Dad: On Family and Alcoholism‘ in The Toast
• Thea Goodman, ‘The Elevator Ride‘ on The Rumpus
• Abhilasha Kumar, ‘A Capital Affair‘ in Kindle
• Steph, ‘In celebration of discovering feminism, Caitlin Moran, and chips with curry sauce‘ on Reimagining My Reality
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Kentucky Decadent & Derby Depraved‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Lepiciger, ‘How do you cure homesickness?‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Franklin, ‘How could I not guess that my son would love football?‘ in The Guardian

Feminism:

• Ann Friedman, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s talk about periods‘ in The Pool
• Rebecca Carroll, ‘The Police Hit Black Women With Both Racism and Sexism At Once‘ in The Guardian
• Guilaine Kinouani, ‘The language of distress: Black women’s mental health and invisibility‘ on Media Diversified
• Juniper Fitzgerald, ‘The Price of Knowledge: Discrimination Against Sex Workers In Academia‘ on Tits and Sass
• Katy Waldman, ‘Bitch, I’ll Tell You Why This Sentence Construction Is So Effective‘ on Slate
• Meg Zulch, ‘Why Calling Someone A “Tomboy” Is Hugely Problematic And Reifies Unnecessary Gender Roles‘ on Bustle
• Sayan Bhattacharya, ‘A Room of Her Own‘ in Kindle
• Koli Mitra, ‘Fault(y) Lines‘ in Kindle
• Deepa Bhasthi, ‘The Pakoda-Frying Feminist‘ in Kindle
• Tracy Moore, ‘The Best Time I Left a Used Tampon in a Dude’s Shower‘ in Jezebel
• Maxine Builder, ‘How The Lack Of Asian Models In The Fashion Industry Created A Divide Between My Racial Identity And My Body‘ on Bustle
• Megan Nolan, ‘Why is it so hard to get away from the powerful-man-loves-sweet-young-woman dynamic?‘ in The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Eva Wiseman, ‘Where have all the ghosts gone?‘ in The Observer
• Sarah Maslin, ‘The Price of Nice Nails‘ in The New York Times
• Kate Fagan, ‘Split Image‘ on ESPN
• Sarah Miller, ‘Death to the Maxi Dress: A Manifesto‘ on Jezebel
• Jessica Pressler, ‘Bullsh*t. The art of the sell, a half century after Mad Men‘ in New York Magazine
• Kera Bolonik, ‘America’s ugly whitesplaining epidemic: Baltimore, Freddie Gray and the media’s utter cluelessness‘ on Salon
• Aamina Shakur, ‘Who Are the Rightful Owners of Artifacts of Oppression?‘ on Hyperallergic
• Elisa Veini, ‘Doing Nothing Is an Art‘ in Berfrois
• Megan Garber, ‘Aisle Be Seeing You: The Rise of the Totally Transparent Bridal Gown‘ in The Atlantic
• Viv Groskop, ‘You’re never going to retire‘ in The Pool
• Keiko Lane, ‘Intersections, on the Anniversary of the Rodney King Rebellion‘ on The Rumpus
• Jamilah King, ‘#blacklivesmatter: How three friends turned a spontaneous Facebook post into a global phenomenon‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Noor Alnaqeeb, ‘My Middle East: ‘We should go out there and represent ourselves’‘ on Media Diversified
• Leslie Berlin, ‘Silicon Valley Then and Now: To Invent the Future, You Must Understand the Past‘ on Medium
• Stacia L. Brown, ‘Looking While Black‘ in The New Republic

The interviews:

• Mary Talbot on Escape Books
• Caroline Criado-Perez in The Pool and in The Observer
• Alice Notely on The Poetry Foundation
• Kate Mosse on One Book Lane
• Minette Walters in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh on The Fem
• Maggie Nelson on Salon on The Rumpus, on Literary Hub, on Tin House
• Toni Morrison at Politics and Prose on Slate and in United Hemispheres Magazine
• Heidi Julavits in The Paris Review
• Deborah Install (and Ben and Tang) on Sitting on a Cornflake
• Joanna Biggs on the Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Lauren Olivier in The Guardian
• Kate Atkinson on Front Row on BBC Radio 4
• Jillian Tamaki on Publishers Weekly
• Catherine Lacey in The White Review
• Claire Fuller on Word Mothers
• Anne Marie Macari on The Rumpus
• Sarah Dessen on Bustle
• Ananda Devi in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Amelia Gray on Midnight Breakfast
• Leslie Jamison on Salon
• Sara Novic on BookPage
• Sherry Simon on Drunken Boat
• Mia Alvar on Publishers Weekly
• Collier Nogues on Drunken Boat
• Zoe Pilger on PEN American Centre
• Tasha Kavanagh in The Independent
• Elisa Albert on For Books’ Sake
• Alison Sampson on Broken Frontier
• Lauren Beukes and Joelle Taylor on the For Books’ Sake Podcast
• Lindsay Parnell on Linen Press
• Abi Hynes on The Fem
• Anne Enright on Open Book, BBC Radio 4
• Mona Eltahawy in The Observer
• Mary Norris in The Observer
• Katherine Clements on Rebecca Mascull’s Blog
• Lydia Syson on Rebecca Mascull’s Blog

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The Boy Is Dead‘ by Kathryn Mockler in The Butter
• ‘Hyperbolics‘ an excerpt from The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli in BOMB Magazine
• ‘Infinite Cortex‘ by Clare Archibald in Visual Verse
• An extract from From a Distance by Raffaella Barker on Bloomsbury Publishing
• ‘The Creature‘ by Edna O’Brien on Literary Hub
• ‘From the Paint Stains‘ by Rachel Charlene Lewis in Plenitude
• ‘odds & evens‘ by Candy Sue Ellison in 3:AM Magazine
• Extracts from all the shortlisted novels for the Bailey’s Fiction Prize for Women on We Love This Book
• An extract from Sphinx by Anne Garréta in The Believer
• ‘Bad Sex‘ by Jowita Bydlowska on Numero Cinq
• ‘Mother Wit‘ by Nitasha Kaul in Kindle
• ‘My Life Is a Joke‘ by Sheila Heti in The New Yorker
• ‘CONTINUE? Y/N‘ by Kendra Fortmeyer in The Toast
• ‘Amazing‘ by Erin Fitzgerald in Okey-Panky
• An extract from Girl at War by Sara Novic on Literary Hub
• ‘I’ll Die and Be Right There‘ by Anna Mateeva (tr. Ellen Litman) on Guernica

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘Glass, Ceiling‘ by C.E. Hyun in The Offing
• Three Micros by Caits Meissner in The Offing
• ‘The Mission‘ by Rita Ann Higgins on Poethead
• ‘The Cake‘ by Krystin Gollihue on Blunderbuss
• ‘The Door‘ by Nomi Stone on Guernica
• ‘Selling His Soul‘ by Sophie Hannah in The Guardian
• ‘Dear Dorothy‘ by Suzi F. Garcia in The Offing
• Two Poems by Lauren Gordon on Up the Staircase
• ‘This Was Ugly‘ by Lauren Gordon in Hermeneutic Staircase

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• ‘Scratching Out the City‘ from City Spaces: Filling in Berlin’s Gaps by Annett Groeschner (tr. Katy Derbyshire) in The Offing
• An extract from Between You and Me – Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris in The Observer

Photograph by Cybele Knowles

The lists:

• 19 Great Mysteries for Summer (with 19 Great Plot Twists) on The Oyster Review
• PW Picks: Books of the Week, May 11, 2015 on Publishers Weekly
• 32 Essential Asian-American Writers You Need To Be Reading on Buzzfeed
• 7 Moving, Must-Read Memoirs Coming Out This Year on the Huffington Post
• The Best Graphic Novels I’ve Ever Read on Electric Literature
• 5 Books to Take on Vacation in the Huffington Post
• Here’s the Non-Trashy Summer Books You Need to Be Reading This Year on The Debrief
• 10 (insane) things I learned about the world reading Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” on Salon
• 18 Brilliant Books You Won’t Want To Miss This Summer on the Huffington Post
• The 22 Best F-Bombs From Female Authors in the Huffington Post