In the Media: November 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.

What else can begin this fortnight’s coverage?

• Lindy West, ‘Blaming political correctness for Trump is like blaming the civil rights movement for Jim Crow‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Shattered‘ in The Cut
• Various, ‘Waking Up in Trump’s America, Part 1‘ in The New Enquiry
• Dayna Tortorici, ‘What Can Feminists Do?‘ on n+1
• Elizabeth Drew, ‘How It Happened‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Mira Jacob, ‘Here’s What I’m Telling My Brown Son About Trump’s America‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘Hillary Clinton didn’t fail us. We failed her‘ in The Guardian
• Various on the US election in The Guardian
• Michelle Dean, ‘Don’t Stop Believin’‘ in New Republic
• Linda Mannheim, ‘after the shock waves of the us elections, how do we locate ourselves?‘ on 3:am
• Heather Wells Peterson, ‘What Can Art Do After Trump?‘ on Literary Hub
• Masha Gessen, ‘Autocracy: Rules for Survival‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Garnette Cadogan, ‘Staying and Fighting, and Finding Strength in Poetry‘ on Literary Hub
• Leslie Jamison, ‘The Day After Trump Won‘ on Granta
• Nicole Chung, ‘The Day After The Election, I Told My Daughter The Truth‘ on Buzzfeed
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘What Is America So Afraid Of?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Laurie Penny, ‘On the Election of Donald J Trump‘ in The New Statesman
• Ashley Weatherford, ‘If Trump Scares You, You’re Getting a Glimpse of What It Feels Like to Be Black in America‘ in The Cut
• Ann Friedman, ‘Finish Your Ugly-Crying. Here’s What Comes Next.‘ in The Cut
• Gloria Steinem, ‘After the election of Donald Trump, we will not mourn. We will organize‘ in The Guardian
• Lindy West, ‘Her Loss‘ in The New York Times
• Lola Okolosie, ‘How to tell the children about Trump? After all, they deserve the truth‘ in The Guardian
• Maureen Langloss, ‘It’s A Man’s World‘ on her blog
• Ayahna Hamilton, ‘“Progress”, Black Women and the US Presidential Election‘ on gal-dem
• Hadley Freeman, ‘I’ve heard enough of the white male rage narrative‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Donald Trump has grabbed America by the pussy, and it’s women who will suffer‘ in the New Statesman
• Amelia Tate, ‘Control, Alt-Right, Retweet: How social media paved the way for President Trump‘ in the New Statesman
• Anne Enright, ‘Never has male anatomy been so waved about in politics‘ in The Irish Times
• Allison Pearson, ‘Why misogyny was The Donald’s trump card‘ in The Telegraph
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Make no mistake – Donald Trump’s victory represents a racist “whitelash”‘ in the New Statesman
• Caroline Crampton, ‘Voting for Trump and Brexit: what the working class revolt is really about‘ in the New Statesman
• Kelcey Parker Ervick, ‘How We Talk About Women’s Lives‘ on Literary Hub
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Time to reclaim language: words are more important than ever in the age of post-truth politics‘ in the New Statesman
• Bridget Minamore, ‘As a woman of colour I foresaw Trump was going to win‘ on The Pool
• Nicole Chung, ‘Parenting the Election‘ on Hazlitt
• Chloé Cooper Jones, ‘Miami Dispatch: Unmoored Realities on the Campaign Trail‘ on Medium
• Pamela Newkirk, ‘The Myth of a Post-Racial America‘ on Literary Hub
• Susan Straight, ‘I Drove 3,582 Miles to Vote for the President‘ on Literary Hub
• Nicole Dennis-Benn, ‘My First Visit to the Church of American Democracy‘ on Literary Hub
• Lauren Elkin, ‘Donald Trump, Anti-Flaneur‘ on Literary Hub
• Barbara Kingsolver, ‘End this misogynistic horror show. Put Hillary Clinton in the White House‘ in The Guardian
• Jill Filipovic, ‘The Men Feminists Left Behind‘ in The New York Times
• Jessa Crispin, ‘Madam Prescient‘ on The Baffler
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, ‘Trump’s Inconvenient Racial Truth‘ in The New York Times
• Olga Khazan, ‘The Lasting Harm of Trump-Style Sexism‘ on The Atlantic
• Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, ‘What Hillary Clinton’s Fans Love About Her‘ in The Atlantic
• Isabel Fonseca, ‘Voters, guns and hurricanes‘ in The TLS
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘New York City Is a Book Conservatives Should Read‘ on Literary Hub
• Emily Harnett, ‘On the Horror of Language, and the Horror of Trump‘ on Literary Hub
• Elaine Showalter, ‘Pilloried Clinton‘ in the TLS

Photograph by Nye’Lyn Tho

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Aminatta Forna, ‘The Many Ways in Which the Heart Can Break‘ on Literary Hub
• Martha Greengrass, ‘Running with the Wolves: An Introduction to The Bloody Chamber‘ on Waterstones
• Jenn Ashworth, ‘A moment that changed me: stealing the book that saved my life‘ in The Guardian
• Sabina Murphy, ‘What Can Historical Fiction Accomplish that History Does Not?‘ on Literary Hub
• Anna Wilson, ‘Full-body Reading’ on Aeon
• Saba Imtiaz, ‘Searching for a 14th-Century Scribe in Modern Jordan‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Schaff, ‘When Your Characters Live Inside Your Childhood Home‘ on Literary Hub
• Kathy Gale, ‘Successful Women‘ in The Bookseller
• Naomi Frisby, ‘Coverage of Experimental Fiction Writing Is a Half-Formed Thing‘ on Tilted Axis
• Gabrielle Bellot, ‘A Young Woman Called Death…‘ on Literary Hub
• Gaby Wood, ‘Elena Ferrante: how to see an invisible author‘ in The Telegraph
• Elena Ferrante, ‘I believe that books, once written, have no need of their authors‘ in The Observer
• Miranda Carter, ‘Dining with death: crime fiction’s long affair with food‘ in The Guardian
• Linda Grant, ‘I can’t write after lunch, in a public place, or when anyone is in the house‘ in The Guardian
• Arisa White, ‘In Praise of Our Black Women Poets‘ on Literary Hub
• Natalie Jerome, ‘Dear next generation…‘ in The Bookseller
• Candice Carty-Williams, ‘I’m Temi? I’m Temi from The Glamma Kids, you know?‘ in The Bookseller
• Margaret Busby, ‘Is it still a case of plus ça change?‘ in The Bookseller
• Ama Josephine Budge, ‘We must constantly question what our own agenda might be‘ in The Bookseller
• Kelsey McKinney, ‘Out of Print: The Original Nancy Drew Novels‘ on Lenny
• Sara Nović, ‘What Does an Artist Look Like?‘ on The James Franco Review
• A.J. Ashworth, ‘Introducing Writers on Rejection: A new series‘ on her blog
• Sarah Domet, ‘The Search for Home in American Fiction‘ on Literary Hub
• Alexander Chee, ‘Elena Ferrante, Private Novelist‘ on New Republic
• Emma-Jane Kirby, ‘Open to Ghosts: Writing The Optician of Lampedusa‘ on Waterstones’ blog
• ‘Virago publishers share the books that made them feminist‘ in Stylist
• Carina del Valle Schorske, ‘On the Perilous Potential of Feminist Silence‘ on Literary Hub
• Elaine Blair, ‘Elena Ferrante: Hiding in Plain Sight‘ in The New York Times
• Tanya Landman, ‘The MPs’ expenses scandal breathed life into history‘ in The Guardian
• Elena Ferrante, ‘What An Ugly Child She Is‘ in The New Yorker
• Lennie Goodings, ‘Feminism, pornography and lots of crying in the loos: 43 years of Virago‘ in The Telegraph
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Why We Love to Be Haunted‘ on Literary Hub
• Evie Gaughan, ‘Gender Bias in the Literary World‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books

Personal essays/memoir:

• Rachel Klein, ‘When the Body Breaks Its Silence‘ on Catapult
• Cari Luna, ‘Under Threat of the Really Big One‘ on Catapult
• Millissa Kingbird, ‘Woman Standing at Rock‘ on The Rumpus
• Nancy Matson, ‘My Low-Wage Job at the Circus‘ on Catapult
• Amy Zhang, ‘Lotus Pods and Jambalaya in Jianguomen: Memory and Change in a Beijing Neighborhood‘ on Catapult
• Salley Vickers, ‘I didn’t love my mum enough to kill her‘ in The Times (£)
• Holly Müller, ‘Fascism and Its Echoes, and the Othering of the Mentally Ill‘ on Literary Hub
• Deborah Jackson Taffa, ‘This American Paradise‘ on The Rumpus
• Jacqueline Doyle, ‘What Did You Say?‘ on Medium
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘All the Things I Thought About When We Were Naming My Nephew (aka A गुलाब by Any Other Name; aka Song for Kian)‘ on Catapult
• Emma Sloley, ‘Nudists Always Play Volleyball‘ on Catapult
• Kally Mays, ‘We, the Hunted: Dogs, Resistance, and Survival‘ on Catapult
• Merritt Tierce, ‘Carved in Wood‘ on The Paris Review
• Louise Penny, ‘The Last Promise‘ on AARP
• Susan Straight, ‘Every Month Is Black History Month‘ on Literary Hub
• Mariam, ‘So, What Generation Immigrant Are You?‘ on Femsplain
• Scaachi Koul, ‘There’s No Recipe For Growing Up‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emma Straub, ‘Teenage Dream‘ on Tin House
• Mikella Clements, ‘When Your Family Business Isn’t a Family‘ on Catapult
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘The Accidental City‘ on Catapult

 

Feminism:

• Sharine Taylor, ‘Body Politics: Beyoncé, Teyana Taylor, and the Liberation of Black Women Through Dance‘ on Noisey
• Mila Kunis, ‘You’ll Never Work In This Town Again…‘ on A Plus
• Olga Khazan, ‘A Diary of Toxic Love‘ on The Atlantic
• ‘Stanford Sexual Assault Case Survivor Emily Doe Speaks Out‘ in Glamour
• Ashley Nelson Levy, ‘Of Course By Now You Know This Story‘ on Catapult
• Megan Garber, ‘How Rom-Coms Undermine Women‘ on The Atlantic
• Claire Heuchan, ‘For the White Woman Who Wants to Know How to be My Friend: A Black Feminist Guide to Interracial Solidarity‘ on Sister Outrider
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘There will always be a place in the world for witches‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Marian Bull, ‘California Dreaming‘ on Eater
• Antonia Juhasz, ‘Inside the Battle Over the Dakota Access Pipeline‘ in Pacific Standard
• Paris Lees, ‘Punching Bags‘ on Vice
• Amy Wollard, ‘Tent Revival‘ on VQR
• Marilynne Robinson, ‘Against Oligarchy‘ on Literary Hub

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

• Dafna Izenberg, ‘In The Air Again‘ on Hazlitt
• Alana Massey, ‘Your Brands and Lovers‘ on Real Life
• Amber Butchart, ‘Why our love affair with leopard print is never going to die‘ on The Pool
• Soraya Roberts, ‘Adrienne Shelly Will Take You There‘ on Hazlitt

The interviews/profiles:

• Jillian Tamaki on Room
• Jenn Ashworth on Wales Arts Review
• Zadie Smith in The Bookseller, Vanity Fair and The Telegraph
• Belle Boggs on The Rumpus
• Anakana Schofield in the New Statesman and on The Writes of Woman
• Malka Older on The Rumpus
• Helena Kelly in The Bookseller
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika in the New Statesman and on The Writes of Woman
• Eimear McBride in the New Statesman
• Rachel Cusk in the New Statesman
• Eleanor Hooker in The Irish Times
• Petina Gappah in The Guardian
• Dodie Bellamy in The White Review
• Alexandra Kleeman in Guernica
• Jade Chang on Electric Literature
• Esmé Weijun Wang on The Rumpus and Catapult
• Ann Patchett in Guernica
• Michelle Tea in BOMB Magazine
• Vi Khi Nao in Electric Literature
• Therese Oneill on The Millions
• Kelly Luce on Electric Literature and Tin House
• Fanny Howe on Literary Hub
• Jane Alison on The Rumpus
• Jasna Ani on Words Without Borders
• Wendy C. Ortiz on Electric Literature
• Cristina Sánchez-Andrade on Bookanista
• M.J. Carter on From First Page to Last
• Anne Carson in The Guardian

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
• Lola Okolosie in The Guardian
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mouthful‘ on Hazlitt
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media: 19th 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.

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was revealed this week. Sarah Shaffi of The Bookseller reports, ‘Experience tells on Baileys Women’s Prize shortlist‘ while Anna James of We Love This Book introduces us to each of the books and invites us to read along in this video.

Other big news was London Book Fair. For readers, this means announcements about new acquisitions from significant writers. Alison Flood in the Guardian reports, ‘Age shall not weary them: Diana Athill, 97, and Edna O’Brien, 84, are stars of London book fair‘ and ‘London book fair excited by Erica Jong’s new novel‘. The Quietus reports on Viv Albertine’s new book and the cover for Patti Smith’s sequel to Just Kids was released this week, see it in The Pool. If you want a glimpse into what goes on at the fair, Antonia Honeywell wrote on her blog about the panel she was part of, ‘Promoting Debut Authors – London Book Fair 14th April 2015‘.

The woman with the most publicity this week is Evangeline Jennings who’s interviewed on The Indie View, Col’s Criminal Library, Quirky Fiction, Omnimystery News and in character as one of the narrators of her short stories, Helen Wheels on Reflections of Reality.

In this week’s Harper Lee news, ‘PRH reveals Harper Lee title page‘ reports Publishers Weekly.

And in this week’s Elena Ferrante news, if you haven’t read anything by her, she’s this week’s Bedtime Bookclub in The Pool where you can read the first five chapters of My Brilliant Friend. Also in The Pool, Viv Groskop asks, ‘Is being a bestseller all in a name?‘ and Cristina Marconi writes, ‘Elena Ferrante versus Italy‘ on Little Atoms.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Elif Batuman, ‘Reading Racist Literature‘ in The New Yorker
• Alice Jolly, ‘My little girl has three mothers‘ in the Daily Mail
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘Why Women Aren’t Having Children‘ in The Atlantic
• Sarah Laskow, ‘The Nun’s Story‘ in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Allison Pearson, ‘Sandwich Woman‘ in The Telegraph
• ‘Stella prize 2015: the shortlisted authors on the stories behind their books‘ in The Guardian
• Amy McDaniel, ‘Frenzied, Zesty, Voracious: A Writing Exchange Between Caracas and Sarajevo‘ on Real Pants
• Jennifer Moses, ‘Literary Louisiana‘ in The New York Times
• Meg Wolitzer, ‘Literary Idol: on Mary McCarthy‘ in The LA Times
• Tracy K. Smith, ‘What Memoir Can Do That Poetry Can’t‘ on Lit Hub
• 2015 Pen Literary Awards Shortlists
• Nick Laird, ‘A New Way of Writing About Race’ (on Claudia Rankine’s Citizen) in the New York Review of Books
• Gina Fattore, ‘How Will I Live? Fame, Money, Day Jobs, and Fiction Writing‘ on The Millions
• Radhika Jones, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘ in Time’s 100 Most Influential People
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Things I’ve Learned About Heterosexual Female Desire From Decades Of Reading‘ in The Toast
• Lily Meyer, ‘Literary Enemies: Ann Patchett v. Zadie Smith‘ on Ploughshares
• Anna Wiener, ‘Millennials, Meet Renata Adler‘ in New Republic
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘A Day In The Life Of A Fictional Female Reporter‘ in The Toast
• Christina Lauren, ‘Romance Novels Are Primed To Make An Impact On Society, So Stop Calling Them “Trashy,” OK?‘ on Bustle
• Mia You, ‘Recreate That Thing!‘ (on Gertrude Stein) on Jacket2
• Sally O’Reilly, ‘The Mindful Writer‘ on Bookanista
• Victoria Patterson, ‘Minding Other People’s Business: On Dawn Powell‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Feeding the Hunger – female writers are storming the male citadels of sci-fi‘ in The Guardian
• Eleanor Arnason, ‘Me and Science Fiction: What Are We, Chopped Liver?‘ on Strange Horizons
• Julie Enszer, ‘“Who You Are”: On Anne Carson’s Short Talks and Reprint Editions‘ on The Rumpus
• Anita Singh, ‘Agatha Christie and the book cover most foul‘ in the Telegraph
• Rachel McIntyre, ‘Why it’s OK to discuss teacher-pupil relationships in teen books‘ in The Guardian
• Nicky Richmond, ‘Whose Small, Unpeopled Life Is It Anyway?‘ (on India Knight’s In Your Prime) on Not Entirely Legal
• Alena Graedon, ‘Print is dead. Long live print!‘ on W&N
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Inside the Mind of Poetry‘ on The Smart Set
• Marisa Wikramanayake, ‘Focus on Australian Women Writers of Ethnic Heritage‘ on Australian Women Writers Challenge
• Rahimeh Andalibian, ‘In My Own Words: Up in the Rose Hotel‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Battle Royale‘ in The Butter
• Amanda Hess, ‘My Haters, Myself: Mastering the art of the haterbrag‘ (on Jennifer Weiner) on Slate
• Sibéal Pounder, ‘My inspiration: on Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch‘ in The Guardian
• Hermione Eyre, ‘on Viper Wine‘ on Waterstones’ blog
• N.K. Jemisin, ‘Not the affirmative action you meant, not the history you’re making‘ (on the Hugo Awards) on Epiphany 2.0
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Outlander & Aye‘ on Real Pants
• Lucy Hounsom, ‘Becoming part of the pattern‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• I.W. Gregorio, ‘One Asian Book is Quite Enough‘ on Diversity in YA
• Rachel Billington, ‘Why I followed my grandfather’s final footsteps at Gallipoli‘ in The Telegraph
• Jess Meacham, ‘An Appreciation of David Foster Wallace’s Conjunctions and Prepositions‘ on her blog
• Lucas Klein, ‘Sinophone Women Write Better‘ on Paper Republic
• Nabina Das, ‘Why don’t we have more women on literary award shortlists?‘ on Scroll.in
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Caught in the parent trap: the fierce social politics of not having children‘ in the New Statesman
• B, ‘A letter to … JK Rowling, whose words gave me a sense of home‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Why We Should All Be Spinsters: Writers Take on a New Feminine Mystique‘ on Slate
• Lynn Kanter, ‘30 Women Novelists You Should Know – #24 Emily Gray Tedrowe‘ on Start with a Story

Personal essays/memoir:

• Samantha Simmonds, ‘Gone in 60 Seconds: That’s All It Takes for My Children to Turn Me From Sane Mild-Mannered Woman to Screaming Harridan‘ on the Huffington Post
• Kaitlyn Wylde, ‘The Corpse of Wall Street‘ on The Rumpus
• Leah Reich, ‘Will You Know It When You Get There?‘ on Medium
• Sali Hughes, ‘Have you got Summer Affective Disorder?‘ in The Pool
• Lucy Mangan, ‘“Why Isn’t This Holiday Making Me Miss Home?”‘ in Stylist
• Sarah C. Baldwin, ‘Build-a-Bear‘ on The Rumpus
• Lauren Laverne, ‘In defence of not wanting to swim with dolphins‘ in The Pool
• Sali Hughes, ‘Madonna has been my life’s guiding light‘ in The Pool
• Tracy Wan, ‘The Best Time I Had Alopecia‘ on The Hairpin
• Annalise Mabe, ‘The Spies‘ in Proximity Magazine
• D.L. Mayfield, ‘When God and Your Mom Think You’re Awesome‘ in The Toast
• Bec Susan Gill, ‘The Diminishing Probability of Kanye West Falling in Love With Me‘ on Medium
• Wayétu Moore, ‘Love/Woman/Thirty‘ on The Rumpus
• Laura Bogart, ‘I can’t forgive my mother‘ on Salon
• Awitin Mo, ‘Out of Fracture‘ on her blog
• Tracy Thorn, ‘Back in front of the cameras this week – and posing doesn’t get any easier‘ in the New Statesman
• Terri Schweitzer, ‘Silent Confrontations in Klamath Basin‘ on Medium

Feminism:

• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Am I beach body ready? Advertisers, that’s none of your business‘ in The Guardian
• Roxane Gay, ‘How to Handle Street Harassment: Don’t “Hey, Baby” Me‘ in Glamour
• Bridie Jabour, ‘Hate selfie sticks, or just young women having fun?‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Virdee, ‘Why Girls Are in Danger of Becoming Second Class Citizens and Why We Need to Act Now‘ on the Huffington Post
• Rachel McGrath, ‘We Need to Talk About Sexual Harassment That Happens at Concerts and Music Festivals‘ on the Huffington Post
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘Ask Polly: Should I Have a Baby or Establish My Career First?‘ in The Cut
• Jessica Testa, ‘What Happens When We Treat Anonymous Stories Of Sexual Assault Like Gossip Items‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Nice try, Maajid Nawaz, but you didn’t go to a lapdancing club because you’re a feminist‘ on Medium
• Rebecca Schiller, ‘Sheila Kitzinger was unafraid to confront female sexuality on a daily basis‘ in The Guardian
• Monica Mark, ‘Chibok kidnapping: stoicism as girls taken by Boko Haram are remembered‘ in The Guardian
• Malala Yousafzai, ‘Malala Letter to Chibok Girls‘ on Scribd
• Maggie Stiefvater, ‘The Anatomy of Rage‘ on her blog
• Samira Ahmed, ‘The girlification of TV characters’ hair‘ in The Pool
• Various, ‘Why Can’t We Accept That Some Women Don’t Want Kids?‘ Zócalo on KCRW
• Amy Gastelum, ‘Miscarriage or Murder?‘ in Guernica
• Chantelle Fiddy, ‘We Need To Talk About Sexual Harassment In Nightclubs‘ in Mixmag
• Lyndsay Kirkham, ‘…I’m No Angel…On Why We Can’t Let Fat People Be Happy‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Syreeta McFadden, ‘The lack of female genitals on statues seems thoughtless until you see it repeated‘ in The Guardian
• Bidisha, ‘The exhibition and sale of Frida Kahlo’s love letters is a grubby violation‘ in The Guardian
• Huma Munshi, ‘George Galloway’s comments on forced marriage are a dangerous abuse of power‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why are we so desperate to find a genetic explanation for sex offenders?‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Friedman, ‘Women Can’t End the Wage Gap on Their Own‘ in The Cut
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Male politicians always play up gender in their races. Hillary Clinton can, too‘ in The Guardian
• Hayley Webster, ‘I want to be a stay at home mum…but it feels impossible‘ on her website
• Sharline Chiang, ‘Could I Have Been Jailed For My Miscarriage?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alison Taylor, ‘We are irretrievably married to ourselves, for richer or poorer‘ in The Independent
• Eva Wiseman, ‘The smiling face of “seaside sexism”‘ in The Observer
• Donna Ladd, ‘A female president would be cool, but I’m not sold on Hillary Clinton yet‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Vanessa Mártir, ‘Color in AW(hite) Place‘ in Side B Magazine
• Nicole Pyler Fisk, ‘Walter Scott, A Black Man, Was Shot To Death — But My White Husband, Also Walter Scott, Is Safe And Sound‘ on Bustle
• Dhanya Nair, ‘An Open Letter to UK Politicians From an Immigrant Woman‘ on the Huffington Post
• Rebecca Atkinson, ‘How David Cameron has betrayed people with disabilities‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Our art schools have become finishing schools for a wealthy few‘ in The Guardian
• Parisa Tabriz, ‘Pwnd: How a Google hacker would hack you‘ on Medium
• Nissa Rhee, ‘Back to War‘ in Guernica
• Jessica Probus, ‘Planning For A Future We Can Actually Imagine‘ on Buzzfeed
• Carolyn Asome, ‘The Style Uniform‘ in The Pool
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Hilary For President: No Joke‘ in The New Yorker
• Jade E. Davis, ‘Black Men Being Killed Is The New Girls Gone Wild‘ on Medium
• Luba Ostashevsky, ‘Sacrificial States‘ in Aeon
• Julie Chinitz, ‘Shiftiness: The Border In Eight Cases‘ on Lit Hub
• Dawn Foster, ‘“Every low-paid interviewee knows their hourly rate to the penny”‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Extending right to buy is the Tories’ zombie Thatcherism at its worst‘ in The Guardian
• Sultanah Parvin, ‘The Straw Man Cometh‘ on Media Diversified
• Palwesha Yusaf ‘The Aid Industry: Can we really get by on doing good with good intentions only?‘ on Media Diversified
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Letting migrants drown in the Mediterranean, is this what the Tories mean by ‘British values’?‘ on Media Diversified
• Deepa Bhasthi, ‘That Mallu Joke: Racism in India, and the Fear of the Outsider‘ in Kindle Magazine
• Caitlin Doughty, ‘The sacred task of caring for the dead should be a normal part of life‘ in The Guardian
• Theresa Brown, ‘Love, Death and Spaghetti‘ in The New York Times
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Why is David Cameron so afraid of single parents?‘ in The Guardian
• Susan Ferriss, ‘Virginia tops nation in sending students to cops, courts: Where does your state rank?‘ on Center for Public Integrity
• Brooke Lee Foster, ‘What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?‘ in the Boston Globe

Music, Film and Television:

• Chantal Braganza, ‘Happy Birthday, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez‘ on The Hairpin
• Angela Clarke, ‘How shouting spoilers at Wolf Hall shows the world has imploded‘ on The Wharf
• Caroline C, ‘Why Della in Raised By Wolves is the best female character on TV right now‘ on Beamly
• Lisa Peet, ‘Punk Rock Indeed: The Two Sides of Viv Albertine‘ on The Millions
• Anna March, ‘Dead girls, killer ratings: “Game of Thrones,” “True Detective” and TV’s epidemic of violence against women‘ on Salon
• Jaya Saxena, ‘The Bride Paradox Of “Four Weddings”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Julie Beck, ‘Dashboard Confessional, or When It Was Cool to Have Feelings‘ in The Atlantic
• Angela Watercutter, ‘Ex Machina Has a Serious Fembot Problem‘ on Wired
• Lili Loofbourow, ‘The Many Faces of Tatiana Maslany‘ in The New York Times
• Laura Goode, ‘The New Ladder: Anatomy of Indie Women’s Picture “Farah Goes Bang”‘ on Indiewire

The interviews:

• Bidisha on Asian Culture Vulture
• Gurkeyrith on The Fem
• Mona Eltahawy in The New York Times
• Attica Locke on Serpent’s Tail and in The Independent
• Lily King on Lit Hub
• Tishani Doshi & Karthika Naïr in Granta
• Monica McClure on the Huffington Post
• Jane Rawson on Australian Writers’ Centre
• Ladan Osman on Black Girl in Om
• K.A. Holt on the Huffington Post
• Alice Stevenson on Bookanista
• Sharma Shields on Okey-Panky
• Sarah Vaughan on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Poetry As Practice Contributors on The Quietus
• Rachel Billington in The Guardian
• Sofi Oksanen in The Guardian
• Kim Moore on Seren Books’ Blog
• Monica Byrne in The Guardian
• Valeria Luiselli on The Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Jenny Offill and Ali Smith on the RTÉ Book Show
• Sam Baker and Lauren Laverne in The Independent
• Toni Morrison in The Independent
• Sarah Helm on Slate
• Rachel Held Evans in The Atlantic
• Roxane Gay on ABC
• Jill Alexander Essbaum on The Rumpus
• Liza Klaussman in The Independent

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘Morning, Noon & Night‘ by Claire-Louise Bennett in The White Review
• ‘Words Escape Me‘ by Claire-Louise Bennett in 3:AM Magazine
• An extract from Preface, or We As Two Separate Planets by Shushan Avagyan (translated by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Wide Shot‘ by Anna Davtyan (translated by Nazareth Seferian) in Words Without Borders
• ‘I’m Not Going to Die‘ by Ani Asatryan (translated by Adrineh Der-Bogossian) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Before Sunrise‘ by Lilit Karapetyan (translated by Nairi Hakhverdi) in Words Without Borders
• ‘A Mansion with Many Rooms‘ by Kutti Revathi (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Revolution Nathan‘ by Dhamayanthi (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘For Your Safety and Enjoyment‘ by Emily Schultz in The Butter
• An extract from Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye on Orion Books
• ‘The Reality Game‘ by Rachael Dunlop
• An excerpt of Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre on The Awl
• ‘The First Six Meters‘ by Vidya Panicker on The Fem
• ‘Theresa Enters‘ by Amy Silverberg in The Offing
• ‘Where Things Are Made‘ by Tera Joy Cole in Blunderbuss
• ‘Right Eye‘ by Isabel Costello on FlashFlood
• An extract from The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett on One Book Lane
• An extract from The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits on Lit Hub
• ‘Major Maybe‘ by Ann Beattie in The New Yorker. She talks about it here.
• ‘Making Babies‘ by Laurie Penny on Motherboard
• ‘House Heart‘ by Amelia Gray on Longreads
• An extract from Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi (translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman) in The Offing
• An excerpt from A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan in The Butter
• ‘The Other Woman‘ by Cath Bore on FlashFlood
• ‘Clowns/Clown‘ by Mati Colarossi (translated by Arabella Bertola)
• ‘Killing Stones‘ by Ananda Devi on PEN American

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘What Did Sriraman Say?‘ by Perundevi (translated by Padma Narayanan and Subashree Krishnaswamy) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Highway‘ by Malathi Maithri (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Three Dreams‘ by Sharmila Seyyid (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Fear‘ by Krishangini (translated by Padma Narayanan and Subashree Krishnaswamy) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Shunaka: Blood Count‘ by Karthika Nair in Granta
• ‘Gone to Pasture/To Speak‘ by Natalie Eilbert in The Offing
• ‘Compromised Field‘ by Shareen Mansfield on The Honeyed Quill
• ‘Humbles‘ by Frances Leviston on Poem Today
• ‘The Handshake‘ by Isabel Rogers on her blog
• ‘A Psalm for the Scaffolders‘ by Kim Moore on Seren Books’ Blog

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematorium by Caitlin Doherty on Canongate
• ‘Small Stories #10‘ by Madeline Witt on The Rumpus
• Extracts from From The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of The Mind in The Offing
• ‘Meet the Stanley Cup‘ by Molly Brooks on The Nib
• An extract from Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy on Macmillan Audio
• An extract from Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris on Lit Hub
• An extract from I’m Very Into You: Correspondence 1995–1996 by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark on Lit Hub

The lists:

• Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
• Anna Freeman’s Stereotype-Busting Women In Historical Fiction on the Huffington Post
• 20 Fascinating Facts About J.K. Rowling You Probably Never Knew in Stylist
• 11 new British crime series on PanMacmillan
• 6 J.K. Rowling Quotes On Failure, Because Failing Well Is A Life Skill That Even The Most Successful Need on Bustle
• Women to Watch: 2015 Edition on BookPage
• Lorraine M. López’s Six Writers On Social Class on Vela
• Five Great Pieces of Advice from J.K. Rowling’s New Book Very Good Lives in Paste
• 5 Books Written by Queer and Trans Women That Set Me Free on Everyday Feminism
• 10 Women’s Books in Translation You Should Be Reading in Litro

In the Media: 19th October 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other noteworthy essays/articles:

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

And the interviews:

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

On translation:

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

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

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

Or some non-fiction:

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

This week’s lists:

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

And my favourite pieces this week:

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