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

On Friday, the death of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird was announced. Obituaries followed from Ed Pilkington and Matthew Teague in The Guardian; Eric Hamburger also in The Guardian; Casey N. Cep in The New Yorker, and The Irish Times, and appraisals of her work from Michiko Kakutani, ‘In Harper Lee’s Novels, a Loss of Innocence as Children and Again as Adults‘ in the New York Times; Sarah Churchwell, ‘Harper Lee: author battled to reconcile racial justice with a racially unjust society‘ and Elaine Showalter, ‘Harper Lee: an American novelist deserving of serious attention‘ both in The Guardian; Michelle Dean, ‘Did Go Set a Watchman spoil Harper Lee’s literary legacy?‘ in The Guardian; Katy Waldman, ‘What Is Harper Lee’s Legacy After Go Set a Watchman?‘ on Slate, and Alex Clark, ‘Why Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird endures to tell its tale of radical change‘ in The Observer

You might have heard that a fortnight ago Beyoncé released a new song ‘Formation’ which she went on to perform at the SuperBowl. Lots of people had lots to say about it. LaSha wrote, ‘Kendrick Lamar won’t face backlash like Beyoncé: Socially conscious art, sexual expression and the policing of black women’s politics‘, Priscilla Ward wrote, ‘White Beyoncé haters don’t get it: “Formation” isn’t “race-baiting” — but it is unapologetically about race‘ both on Salon; Banseka Kayembe wrote, ‘Beyonce Gets Political: Here’s Why it Matters‘ on the Huffington Post; Shantrelle Lewis wrote, ‘“Formation” Exploits New Orleans’ Trauma‘ on Slate; Nikita Richardson did ‘A Deep Dive into the Important, Unapologetic Blackness of Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’‘ on Hello Giggles; Suzanne Moore said, ‘Black Pride at the Super Bowl? Beyoncé embodies a new political moment‘ in The Guardian; The Pool asked, ‘Four women on what Beyoncé’s Formation means to them‘, and Anna Leszkiewicz said, ‘Beyoncé and #BlackLivesMatter: why “Formation” is her most radical release to date‘ in the New Statesman.

Last weekend was Valentine’s Day; there was plenty of writing around that too. Emma Dowling wrote, ‘Love’s Labour’s Cost: The Political Economy of Intimacy‘ on Verso Books; Eleanor Franzén wrote ‘V Daze‘ on Elle Thinks; Eileen Myles, ‘on the Excruciating Pain of Waiting for Love‘ and Heather Haverilesky, ‘What Romance Really Means After 10 Years of Marriage‘ on The Cut; Marie Phillips wrote, ‘What I learnt from a year of being in love‘ and Emer O’Toole shared, ‘The Rules, and how I fell in love‘ both on The Pool; Lauren Duca asked, ‘Is There Such a Thing As a Feminist Marriage Proposal?‘, Laura June revealed, ‘What I Thought Romance Meant, Age 12–Present‘ and Meaghan O’Connell told us, ‘Getting Married in One Week Was the Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did‘ all in The Cut; Emma Flowers wrote, ‘Finding, Nearly Losing and Finally Building Love Across Two Genders‘ on the Huffington Post; Heidi Julavits on ‘My High-School Boyfriend, the Con Artist‘ in The Cut; Tiffany Yannetta wrote, ‘Lights, Camera, Love‘ on the history of dating shows on Racked, and Alana Massey said, ‘Tinder Is the New Meet-Cute‘ in The Cut.

Congratulations to Ríona Judge McCormack who won the inaugural Galley Beggar Press short story competition with ‘Blackburn‘. And The Stella Prize announced its 12 book longlist for 2016.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Janet Ellis,‘I submitted my book under a pseudonym’ in The Telegraph
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘“The first outline was way more weird than the final novel” – on writing 13 Minutes‘ on One Book Lane
• Katherine Clements, ‘The Real Wicked Lady‘ on The History Girls
• Elen Caldecott, ‘Children’s books: a middle class ghetto?‘ in The Guardian
• Grady Hendrix, ‘Beloved: The Best Horror Novel the Horror Genre Has Never Claimed‘ on Tor.Com
• Laura Malonee, ‘The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War‘ on Wired
• Cathy Retzenbrink, ‘Lucy Kalanithi, a mourning wife on her husband’s brilliant legacy‘ on The Pool
• Susan Burton, ‘The Quietly Subversive Fictions of Dana Spiotta‘ in The New York Times
• Lisa Levy, ‘The Fine Grim Line Between Love and Stalking: On the Crime Fiction of Caroline Kepnes‘ on Literary Hub
• AFP, ‘Love, Rage, Silence: Secret Lives of Afghanistan’s Female Poets‘ in The Express Tribune
• Belinda McKeon, ‘The Night that Sylvia Plath Met Ted Hughes‘ on Literary Hub
• Edan Lepucki, ‘The Anxiety of Influence: Children’s Books and Their Grown-Up Counterparts‘ on The Millions
• Emily Harnett, ‘When Art Cannot Console Us In Death‘ on Literary Hub
• Anna Hope, ‘The inspiration for an asylum set on the Yorkshire Moors‘ on the Penguin blog
• Rosalind Harvey, ‘A Response to “Beyond Bolaño and Beyond”‘ on Full Stop
• Lisa McInerney, ‘Writers on Location: on Cork City‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Melissa Keil, ‘When is YA going to shape up to body diversity?‘ in The Guardian
• Maddie Crum ‘Some Books Just Aren’t Made To Be Adapted For The Screen, And That’s OK‘ on Huffington Post
• Gila Lyons ‘Female Friendships and Online Literary Sexism‘ on The Rumpus
• Polly Vernon, ‘All the attention came from women telling me how stupid my book was‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Evans, ‘How writing YA helped me make sense of my childhood‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best nonfiction books: No 3 – No Logo by Naomi Klein (1999)‘ in The Guardian
• Tracy McVeigh, ‘Ferrante fever sees ‘dangerous’ Naples turn into a tourist hotspot‘ in The Observer
• Valerie Grove, ‘My hero: Margaret Forster‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Crompton. ‘Girl, uninterrupted: staging Eimear McBride’s chaotic masterpiece‘ in The Guardian
• William Deresiewicz, ‘Where Have You Gone, Annie Dillard?‘ on The Atlantic
• Kavita Das, ‘On Parsing‘ on VIDA
• Emily Sipiora, ‘Françoise Sagan and Luxury Existentialism‘ in The Northwest Review of Books
• Katie Cotton, ‘Women in picture books: are we there yet?‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Martin Chilton, ‘How Valley of the Dolls went from a reject to a 30-million best-seller‘ in The Telegraph
• Candy Gourlay and Laura Dockrill, ‘Why we love enchantment in children’s books‘ in The Guardian
• Daniel Peña, ‘Octavia Butler’s Notebook Represents All The Anxieties Of Writers Of Color‘ on Ploughshares
• Niina Pollari, ‘The Marvelous Bonfire‘ on Catapult
• Nandini Balial, ‘On Finding Yourself in the Work of Jhumpa Lahiri‘ on Literary Hub
• Siyanda Mohutsiwa, ‘I’m Done With African Immigrant Literature‘ on Okay Africa
• Andrew Harrison, ‘Framed! Meet the creators shaking up modern comics‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Armitstead, ‘Margaret Forster, award-winning author, dies at 77‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Tennant-Moore, ‘The Best Literary Writing About Sex‘ on Literary Hub
• Catherine Nichols, ‘One Weird Trick That Makes a Novel Addictive‘ on Jezebel
• Eleanor Franzén, ‘On Culture: The Dark Side of Beatrix Potter‘ on Litro
• Máire T Robinson, ‘Sheela-na-gigs and writing what you don’t know‘ in The Irish Times
• Chibundu Onuzo, ‘Yes, I’m black. But an ethnic minority? Forget it‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Eight Classic Female Bildungsromane You Should Know About If You Don’t Already‘ in The Toast
• Esther Kuforiji, ‘Stories of Blackness — Chapter 4: Literary Festivals‘ on Medium
• Julia Eccleshare, ‘Gillian Avery obituary‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Liz Dashwood, ‘Grown-ups are allowed to have meltdowns, too‘ on The Pool
• Joyce Maynard, ‘What Luck Means Now‘ in The New York Times
• Erin Lee Carr, ‘Still Rendering‘ on Medium
• Danielle Bacher, ‘My Autistic Brother’s Quest for Love‘ in Esquire
• Bruna Dantas Labato, ‘Notes on Record-Keeping‘ on Ploughshares
• Joanna Horton, ‘Hard Luck: On Motherlessness‘ in The Toast
• Edan Lepuki, ‘The Secret, Magical Underwear That Only Moms Know About‘ in The Cut
• Kim Pittaway, ‘After‘ on Hazlitt
• Jennifer Hanks, ‘Somewhere Across The Sea‘ in Lumen
• Nicolette Loizou, ‘Travelling in Fiji‘ on Litro
• Esther Schor, ‘My Last JDate‘ in Tablet
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘I was driven out of my beloved church by homophobia‘ in The Telegraph
• Marian Keyes , ‘on the Agony of Small Goodbyes‘ on The Pool
• Susan Shapiro, ‘Both Sides Now‘ on Tablet
• Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The Moon Over the River Lethe‘ on Catapult
• Sarai Walker, ‘Yes, I’m Fat. It’s O.K. I Said It.‘ in The New York Times
• Miriam Foley, ‘Remembering Román‘ on Litro
• Susan Daitch, ‘Treasure Hunters‘ on Guernica
• Farah Róisín, ‘Why Them?‘ on Hazlitt

Feminism:

• Anna James, ‘What’s behind the lack of female pilots?‘ on The Pool
• Jia Tolentino, ‘What Should We Say About David Bowie and Lori Maddox?‘ on Jezebel
• Laura Munoz, ‘To Men I Love, About Men Who Scare Me‘ on Medium
• Dolly Alderton, ‘Hey, spurious polls. This is the *perfect* woman‘ on The Pool
• Emma Lindsay, ‘What I Learned From Dating Women Who Have Been Raped‘ on Medium
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘On the sad inevitability of the grown man and the teenage girl‘ on The Pool
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘Companies are to publish their gender pay gaps – but will this lead to financial equality?‘ on the New Statesman
• Louise O’Neill, ‘I wonder if my ex-boyfriends thought female sexuality was something to be laughed at‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Sandra Newman, ‘Woman Facts‘ on McSweeney’s
• Robyn Wilder, ‘Why is the P-word so cringingly awful?‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘The Case of the Missing Perpetrator‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Mayer, ‘The Legend of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp‘ on Berfrois
• Sady Doyle, ‘Progressive‘ on her Tumblr
• Aricka Foreman and Mimi Wong, ‘Except, All Of Us: Women & the Myth of Safety‘ on The Offing
• Laura June ‘When You’re Pregnant, Nothing Seems in Your Control‘ on The Cut

Society and Politics:

• Kyla Marshell, ‘The Other World Where Everyone Lives‘ in The Blueshift Journal
• Elspeth Reeve, ‘The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens‘ on New Republic
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Is a Surrogate a Mother?‘ on Slate
• Alana Massey, ‘Checking Your Date’s Instagram Isn’t ‘Stalking,’ It’s Research‘ on The Cut
• Meena Kandasamy, ‘“I Am An Anti-National…Count Me Out”‘ on Outlook
• Aaminah Khan, ‘I Don’t Need White Progressives Telling Me, A Queer Muslim, About Homophobia In Islam‘ on Harlott
• Lisa Rab, ‘Poverty in Charlotte: ‘It Was Never Okay’‘ in Charlotte Magazine
• Beulah Maud Devaney, ‘Which Cities Would Be Most Likely to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse?‘ on City Metric
• Jihan Crowther ‘What Dating Abroad Taught Me About Stateside Racism‘ on Jezebel
• Jaya Saxena, ‘Some Unorganized Mixed Race Thoughts‘ in The Toast
• Lineal Ajello, ‘More and More War Stories‘ on Guernica
• Susan Gillman, ‘Remembering Slavery, Again‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The new young fogeys‘ in The New Statesman
• Emiko Jozuka, ‘The Woman Who Makes Prosthetic Pinkies for Ex-Yakuza Members‘ on Motherboard

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

• Joy Resmovits, ‘The UCLA gymnast who became a viral sensation by just being herself on the floor‘ in the LA Times
• Elizabeth Day, ‘Happy Valley’s women: flawed, funny and completely brilliant‘ on The Pool
• Elizabeth Sankey, ‘In praise of Ab Fab, female friendship and not caring what other people think‘ on The Pool
• Lorrie Moore, ‘The Shame of Wisconsin‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Superheroes have to deal with the same problems the rest of us do‘ on The Pool
• Alexandra Molotkow, ‘The Uncomfortable Power of Pop-Music Cruelty‘ on The Cut
• Hannah Giorgia, ‘Why Do Black Women In Movies Have To Choose Between A Weave And A Relationship?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Cali Hughes, ‘Red is so much more than a colour. It’s a state of mind.’ on the 4th Estate blog
• Lisa Owens, ‘Does Don’t Tell The Bride actually contain the secrets to a happy life?‘ on The Pool
• Lisa Hix, ‘Out of the Shadow of Aunt Jemima: The Real Black Chefs Who Taught Americans to Cook‘ on Collectors Weekly
• Jamie Lauren Keiles, ‘I’m a Hat Person Now‘ on The Cut

The interviews:

• Elizabeth Strout in The Guardian
• Kelly Link on The Millions
• Elena Ferrante in The Gentlewoman
• Idra Novey on Hazlitt, Electric Literature, Weird Sister and Literary Hub
• Janet Ellis in The Bookseller
• Hilary Spiers on Greenacre Writers
• Ann Neuman and Sheri Fink in Guernica
• Marie Annhearte Baker in Room
• Marjorie Liu in Guernica
• Jhumpa Lahiri on Slate, the Wall Street Journal and  Literary Hub, Parts One and Two
• Belinda McKeon on Electric Literature
• Lucy Kalanithi in The Guardian
• Sara Majka on Electric Literature
• Salena Godden on The Woven Tale Press
• Marina Warner on The Literateur
• Ann Goldstein on NPR
• Antonia Honeywell on Greenacre Writers
• Angela Flournoy on The Rumpus
• Sarah Perry on Radio Praha
• Meg Rosoff in The Guardian
• Han Kang on Literary Hub
• Joanna Walsh in Tank
• Alida Nugent on The Rumpus
• Natasha Wimmey on Broadly
• Caroline Bergvall on Asymptote
• Jo Bloom in Psychologies
• Elizabeth McKenzie on Literary Hub
• Sharon Guskin in The Bookseller
• Cate Kennedy on Paul McVeigh’s website
• Sara Gruen and Sarah McCoy on Salon
• Gillian Slovo in The Observer
• Melissa Green 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

In the Media, November 2015, 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.

We’re still deep in book awards territory this fortnight with a number of winners and shortlists being announced. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Bailey’s Best of the Best for Half of a Yellow Sun. The award prompted pieces from Alice Stride in The Bookseller, an editorial in The Guardian and Anna James on The Pool about why we still need the Bailey’s Prize.

Sarah Waters won Stonewall’s Writer of the Decade; Lydia Davis will receive The Paris Review’s Hadada Award 2016; Kerry Hudson won the Prix Femina for Translated Fiction; Roxane Gay won the PEN Centre USA Freedom to Write Award; Jacqueline Wilson won the JM Barrie Award

The shortlists include the eclectic, female dominates Waterstones’ Book of the Year Award, chosen by Waterstones’ Booksellers; The Guardian First Book Award which Catherine Taylor, one of this years judges, discusses, and The Young Writer of the Year Award (which not only has gender parity, but also an equal split between writers of colour and white writers).

Meanwhile, Arundhati Roy returned her National Award for Best Screenplay, she explains why in The Guardian and Heather Horn investigates why the Prix Goncourt has been awarded to a man 102 times and a woman 11 times on The Atlantic

Irish women have been speaking out about the Abbey Theatre where nine out of ten plays in its 2016 centenary programme are written by men. Emer O’Toole writes about the reaction in The Guardian and Ellen Coyne in The Irish Times while Dr Susan Liddy, academic at the University of Limerick, writes ‘Women and the Irish film industry‘ to The Irish Times.

And if you only read one thing from this fortnight’s list, I highly recommend Jacqueline Rose’s essay, ‘Bantu in the Bathroom: on the trial of Oscar Pistorius‘ in The LRB.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘The books that understand female friendship‘ on The Pool
• Tara Sparling, ‘I Hate Women’s Fiction And I’ll Tell You Why‘ on Tara Sparling Writes
• Samantha Gualito, ‘My Recent Experiences at Literary Events as a PoC‘ on Bookriot
• Natalka Sniadanko (trans. Jennifer Croft) ‘Literature as last bastion: on suppression, solidarity and language in Ukraine‘ in The Guardian
• Alissa Quart, ‘Why Doesn’t America Have An Elena Ferrante?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Perry, ‘East Anglia has “never quite stopped thinking of itself as a Kingdom”‘ on Writers Centre, Norwich
• Eleanor Fitzsimmons, ‘Maeve Brennan‘ on Thresholds
• Huma Qureshi, ‘Writers on the pain of hindsight in publishing: ‘It’s like a bad breakup – you have to move on’‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Galo, ‘Margaret Atwood: ‘In Tolkien, there are hardly any women at all’‘ in The Guardian
• Helen MacKinven, ‘Writing Black Comedy‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Alice Kelly, ‘An unknown First World War story by Edith Wharton‘ on The TLS
• Katherine Lampe, ‘The Greatest Author You’ve Never Read‘ on Rewriting Mary Sue
• Rachel Cooke, ‘There’s more to Patricia Highsmith than Ripley‘ in The Guardian
• Sunny Singh, ‘On Teaching Creative Writing as a Woman of Colour‘ on Sunny Singh Online
• Dawn Foster, ‘I Love Dick is one of the most important books about being a woman – no wonder it’s being dismissed‘ in The Independent
• Lucy Scholes, ‘The Hidden Life of Hotels‘ on the BBC
• Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, ‘The Badass Lady Pilot Who Revolutionized the Art of Food Writing‘ on Mental Floss
• Helen O’Hara, ‘JLaw and Katniss Everdeen, and what they mean for young women‘ on The Pool
• Dodie Bellamy, ‘Digging Through Kathy Acker’s Stuff‘ on Literary Hub
• Jill Dawson, ‘Death and Texas: A journey into Patricia Highsmith‘ on the Royal Literary Fund
• Lisa Hayden, ‘On Translating an “Untranslatable” Book‘ on Literary Hub
• Ellen Banda-Aaku, ‘Please don’t air brush African teen fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Lorrie Moore, ‘Why We Read and Write Short Stories‘ on Literary Hub
• Meredith Jaffe, ‘Middlebrow? What’s so shameful about writing a book and hoping it sells?‘ in The Guardian
• Herta Muller (trans. Jennifer Stern), ‘On the Poetry (and Prisoner’s Life) of Liu Xia‘ on Literary Hub
• Casey N. Cep, ‘Called Back‘ (on Emily Dickinson) on The Paris Review
• Chibundu Onuzo, ‘What I read growing up in Lagos‘ in The Guardian
• Emily Gould, ‘I Love Dick: the book about relationships everyone should read‘ in The Guardian
• Audrey Niffenegger, ‘The night is dark and full of terror…‘ on The Pool
• Marie-Helen Bertino, ‘When Andre Agassi Made Me a Woman (and a Writer)‘ on Literary Hub
• Gloria Steinem, ‘By the Book‘ in The New York Times
• Christine L. Corton, ‘Beyond the pall … how London fog seeped into fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Linda Grant, ‘Obama is right: reading is what connects us to others – even a French puffin‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Tuttle, ‘What Do Writers Owe Readers?‘ on Literary Hub
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Silvina Ocampo‘ in The Guardian
• Jennifer Croft, ‘When an Author You Translate Gets Death Threats‘ on Literary Hub
• Margaret Atwood, ‘Canada: Time in the North‘ in Harper’s Bazaar

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jenny Diski, ‘Who’ll Be Last‘ in The LRB
• Misti Traya, ‘How does an American make friends in England?‘ on The Pool
• Simone Gorrindo, ‘Tiny Little Messes‘ on Vela
• Diana Athill, ‘Lessons‘ in Granta
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘The joy of making a brilliant friend online‘ on The Pool
• Lisa Kolb, ‘The condolences end. Being a widow doesn’t.‘ in The Washington Post
• Christina Tesoro, ‘Firsts— On Lusty Wrong Feelings and Falling in Love‘ on Medium
• Jamilah Lemieux, ‘I Forgot To Find My Husband At A Black University‘ on Buzzfeed
• Shamala Gallagher, ‘On Shining and Staring / On Ruin‘ in The Offing
• Rosie Leonetti, ‘For a Single Mother, an Alternate Reality‘ in The New York Times
• Marisa Bate, ‘Why no-frills walking is the best kind of walking‘ on The Pool
• Meaghan O’Connell, ‘Being a Parent Makes Chores Seem Like Fun‘ in The Cut
• Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart, ‘“Why Won’t Vanessa Get Pregnant?”‘ on Slate
• Hermione Hoby, ‘My Haunted Honeymoon: on Getting Punched by the Ghost of Frieda Kahlo‘ on Literary Hub

Feminism:

• Rose Hackman, ‘‘Women are just better at this stuff’: is emotional labor feminism’s next frontier?‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘The Pope and Netflix Like Maternity Leave for the Wrong Reasons‘ in The Cut
• Sofie Hagen, ‘I hate women. You know the ones: skinny, blonde, who know nothing about football‘ in The New Statesman
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Exploiting Feminism for Profit‘ on Media Diversified
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Lynn Enright, ‘Unravelling the damaging, unhelpful myth of “having it all” ‘ in The Pool
• Rose Eveleth, ‘Why Are Sports Bras So Terrible?‘ on Racked
• Geraldine Bedell, ‘Germaine Greer: still fiery, still outspoken: the feminist lioness‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘‘It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done’: the Irish women forced to travel for abortions‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Nilita Vachani, ‘The Strange, True Story of How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars off His Maid‘ in The Nation
• Julia Carrie Wong, ‘The Bay Area Roots of Black Lives Matter‘ in the San Francisco Weekly
• Anna Pulley, ‘Why I’m Not Buying This Study That Claims All Women Are a Little Gay‘ in The Cut
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Men Explain Hillary to Me‘ on Slate
• Elif Shafak, ‘‘Nationalist and religious extremists are the beneficiaries of cultural boycotts’‘ in The Guardian
• Radhika Sanghani, ‘‘White girls only’: The racist reality of student night life in Britain‘ in The Telegraph
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘So many Brits now live abroad that they’re causing immigration debates. Oh, the irony‘ in The Independent
• Lynsey Addario, ‘The Displaced: Hana‘ in The New Yorker
• Valeria Luiselli, ‘Trespassers on the rooftops: a secret history of Mexico City’s cultural revolutionaries‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schulz,’What We Think About When We Run‘ in The New York Times

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Katie Anderson Howell, ‘Taking Comfort in Futurama‘ on The Rumpus
• Deborah Orr, ‘Forget the V&A – shouldn’t Thatcher’s acolytes be trying to monetise her power suits?‘ in The Guardian
• Phoebe Robinson, ‘How Daria Shaped a Generation of Women (Especially This Black Lady)‘ on Vulture
• Gia Milinovich, ‘Would you ditch a handbag for proper pockets?‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Marilynne Robinson in The Observer
• Fiona Barton in The Bookseller
• Spike Trotman in The Guardian
• Laura Kipnis in The Cut
• Audrey Niffenegger in The Independent
• Karen E. Bender on Literary Hub
• Gillian Flynn in Stylist and The Sunday Times (£)
• Phyllis Nagy (on Patricia Highsmith and the film of Carol) in The Guardian
• Peggy Riley on Rebecca Mascull’s Blog
• Katy Wix in The Guardian
• Attica Locke in Litro
• Hannah Rothschild in The New York Times
• Francesca Lia Block in Luna Luna
• Edna O’Brien in The Irish Times and The New Statesman
• Miranda July in The Guardian
• Tara Ison on Electric Literature
• Elizabeth Gilbert on Literary Hub
• Jenny Diski in The Guardian
• Elissa Washuta on Literary Hub
• Bee Rowlatt in The Guardian
• Kristin Hersh on Electric Literature
• Nuala O’Connor in The Irish Times
• Margo Jefferson in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh in Numéro Cinq
• Jill Bialosky onBookslut
• Frieda Hughes in The Telegraph
• Patricia Cornwell in The Guardian
• Sarah Einstein on The Rumpus
• Kate Beaton in The Independent
• Robin Talley in The Guardian
• Carrie Brownstein on Flavorwire
• Franca Simpson (founder of Calisa Press who only publish work by female Italian writers) in The London Magazine
• Doireann Ní Ghríofa on Emerging Writer
• Mary Gaitskill in The New York Times

The regular columnists:

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

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: 26th April 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

Music, Film and Television:

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

The interviews:

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

If you want some fiction to read:

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

If you want some poetry to read:

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

If you want some non-fiction to read:

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

The lists:

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