In the Media, December 2015

Posted on December 13, 2015 by naomifrisby

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

In the Media: October 2015, Part Two

Posted on November 1, 2015 by naomifrisby

Photograph by Nadya Lev

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

Photograph by Chad Batka

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

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

The interviews:

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

The regular columnists:

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

In the Media: 18th January 2015

Posted on January 18, 2015 by naomifrisby

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

It’s been another grim week for news. There’s been some insightful commentary from a number of female writers on the big stories though:

Charlie Hebdo and terrorism was written about by Caitlin Moran in The Times; while in The Guardian, Natasha Lehrer wrote ‘The Threat to France’s Jews‘; Hadley Freeman covered the same issue alongside the UK’s antisemitism survey, and Suzanne Moore declared ‘Add faithophobia to my crimes: I have no respect for religions that have little respect for me‘. On Reimagining My Reality, Steph wrote ‘Charlie Hebdo, freedom of speech, and male privilege‘ whilst on Media Diversified, Cristine Edusi wrote, ‘Ongoing terrorism in Nigeria is not a novel, the use of children as human bombs is #WeAreAllNigeria‘.

The Stuart Kerner case was commented on by Janice Turner in The Times; Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian, and Antonia Honeywell on her blog.

The lack of diversity in the Oscar nominees was written about by Roxane Gay in The Butter

And if that’s all made you thoroughly miserable/angry, here’s Sophie Heawood on Clooney’s Golden Globes speech and her daughter’s first day at nursery and Hadley Freeman on ‘How Amy Poehler and Tina Fey made the Golden Globes the first feminist awards ceremony‘ both in The Guardian.

Speaking of award winners, Hilary Mantel’s having another moment with the BBC television adaptation of Wolf Hall beginning this week. She’s in The Guardian, writing about the TV version; while John Mullan, also in The Guardian, profiles her ‘strange and brilliant fiction‘, while Kirstie McCrum tells us ‘What TV series like Wolf Hall can teach us about history‘ on Wales Online.

Joan Didion’s stint as a model for Celine has also been big news again this week. Adrienne LaFrance writes about fashion and loss in Didion’s work for The Atlantic; Molly Fischer tells us ‘Why Loving Joan Didion Is a Trap‘ on The Cut; Lynne Segal talks about ‘Invisible Women‘ in the LRB; Haley Mlotek declared ‘Free Joan Didion‘ in The Awl and Rachel Cooke says ‘That’s so smart‘ in The Observer, while Brainpickings revealed ‘Joan Didion’s Favorite Books of All Time, in a Handwritten Reading List‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

Jeanette Winterson on the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian
Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘How Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith Use Technology: An Excerpt from Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors‘ on Flavorwire
Tracey Thorn, ‘Do we really want to watch P J Harvey drinking tea and plugging in studio leads?‘ in The New Statesman
Susan Lanigan, ‘My Mental Health and Experience with Depression‘ on her blog
Marilynne Robinson ‘On Edgar Allan Poe‘ in The New York Review of Books
Emma Healey, ‘My hero: Dorothea Tanning‘ in The Guardian
Katy Derbyshire, on Greta Kuckhoff and translating Mein Kampf on her blog
Cheryl Strayed, ‘Why Are We Obsessed with the Great American Novel?‘ in The New York Times
Sadie Stein, ‘The Interview or Those Moments When You Feel Like You’ve Mastered Adulthood‘ in The Paris Review
Maggie Doherty, ‘Cool Confessions: On Lydia Davis‘ in n+1
Luiza Sauma, ‘Paris in the Amazon, 1941‘ in The Butter
Andrea Woodhouse, ‘When the Waves Overturned Grief‘ in Guernica
Sarah Seltzer, ‘Anne Brontë: Giving the Forgotten Sister and Badass Feminist Author Her Due‘ on Flavorwire
Kamila Shamsie sails to Antarctica in The Guardian
Tiffany Stanley, ‘Jackie’s Goodbye‘ in National Journal
Soraya Chemaly, ‘It’s a Man’s World, Now What?‘ on Role Reboot
Joanna Chen, ‘What the Trees Reveal‘ in Guernica
Tara Murtha, ‘I Didn’t Just Scream‘ in The Butter
Melissa Harrison, ‘Acquainted with the night‘ on Tales of the City
Nomi Eve and Stephanie Feldman, ‘Why We Write Jewish Historical Fiction‘ in Moment Magazine
Robin Boylorn, ‘Now that white people have declared ‘bae’ over, black people can use it in peace‘ in The Guardian
Lucy Ribchester, ‘Edwardian Fashion and The Hourglass Factory‘ on Books and the City
Francine Prose, ‘They’re Watching You Read‘ in The New York Review of Books
Rachel Hamada, ‘We Need New Stories, Part one and part two‘ on This Is Africa
Alana Massey, ‘Being Winona in a World Made for Gwyneths‘ on Buzzfeed
Wayétu Moore, ‘The Evolution of Bernice‘ in Guernica
Sarah Emily Duff, ‘Not for all the tea‘ on Tangerine and Cinnamon
Thea Traff, ‘Nadia Sablin’s “Aunties”‘ in The New Yorker
Stacey Parker Le Melle, ‘Comfort Stations‘ on The Butter
Hannah Pittard, ‘You’re (Not) My Favorite‘ on The Millions

Karen Yossman, ‘Margaret Keane and Big Eyes: Why are we always so ready to believe women’s success is a lie?‘ on The New Statesman
Elisa Gabbert, ‘On Styling Tricks‘ on Real Pants
Rachel Kushner, ‘Diary: Bad Captains‘ in the LRB
Emma Carroll, ‘My Family and Other Emigrants‘ on Girls Heart Books
Lesley McDowell, ‘When the Midlist Is Where You Want to Be‘ on her blog
Rebecca Whitney, ‘Domestic Noir Is Bigger Than Ever‘ in The Independent
Maddie Crum, ‘Rejected Cover Designs for Edith Pearlman’s Honeydew‘ on Huffington Post
Mark Perry, ‘Who’s Afraid of Alice Childress, Part 1‘ on Playmakers Repertory Company: From Page to Stage
Vivian French, ‘My Inspiration‘ in The Guardian
Ellie Gordon-Moershel, ‘How to Make a Recreational Women’s Ice Hockey Team‘ on The Butter
Sarah Ditum, ‘Razors Pain You: What Dorothy Parker teaches us about our addiction to female suffering‘ in The New Statesman
Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Baseballese & Adorableness‘ on Real Pants
Ashley C. Ford, ‘This Woman Wrote a Book with Almost No Male Characters and Women Love It‘ on Buzzfeed
Stephen Burt, ‘Author, Feminist, Pioneer: The Unlikely Queen of Sci-Fi‘ on NPR
Mandy Len Catron, ‘To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This‘ in The New York Times
Patricia Nicol, ‘The bad girls’ club‘ in The Sunday Times
‘New Faces of Fiction, 2015‘ in The Guardian
Fiona McBennett, ‘Meet Irish Women Behind Publishing Powerhouses‘ in the Irish Independent
Lizzy Kremer, ‘How do you like me now?‘ on Publishing for Humans
Gayle Forman, ‘on why we need to talk about depression‘ in The Guardian
Jason Weiss, ‘Silvina Ocampo‘ in Granta
Elizabeth Drew, ‘Selma vs. History‘ in The New York Review of Books
Anna Maria Hong, ‘On I, Let‘ on Drunken Boat
Karen Yossman, ‘From Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn: why dead women make the ideal brand ambassadors‘ in the New Statesman
Shelley Harris, ‘Bam! Pow! Scream!‘ in The Independent
Chelsea Cain, ‘What Inspired Me to Write Thrillers‘ on Blinkbox
Mo Daviau, ‘The Cardigan‘ on The Butter
Elizabeth Svoboda, ‘The Power of Story‘ in Aeon
Elizabeth Day, ‘I Was Sold into Sexual Slavery‘ in The Observer
Emma Warren, ‘A Year in Oxleas Wood: December‘ on Caught by the River
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, ‘A River Runs Through It‘ in The Believer

The interviews:

Edith Pearlman in The New York Times
Gill Hoffs on WordMothers
Susan Howe on Poetry Foundation
Lucy Wood in The Independent
Eileen Miles in Vol.1 Brooklyn
Sophia Toibin on Tales from the Reading Room
Martine Bailey on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
Lisa Williamson on Queer YA
Paula Hawkins in Time, on Books and Reviews and on The Book Trail
Judith Claire Mitchell on 4th Estate
Roxane Gay on Salon
Sharon Hogan (and Rob Delaney) in The Guardian
Rebecca Bradley on Kelly Florentia’s blog
Rene Denfeld on Sweatpants and Coffee
Rachel Cusk in Vogue
Shalini Boland in The Guardian
Moira Young on Scottish Book Trust
Alice Sebold on the Picador blog
Keren David on We Love This Book
Emily St. John Mandel on The Takeaway
Tiphanie Yanique on Electric Literature
Judith Butler in The New York Times
Eva Dolan on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row
Morgan McCarthy on The Right Stripes
Pamela Paul on The Daily Beast
Miranda July on NPR
Emma Healey on Huffington Post

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

‘The Storm‘ by Kate Chopin on Biblioklept
‘Dude Watchin’ with the Brontës‘ on Hark, a vagrant
‘The Hydraulic Theory of Families‘ by Elisa Casseri (tr. Mati Colarossi) on Parallel Texts
‘Seeder‘ by Rahawa Haile in The Butter
‘Waiting for Dark‘ by Mia Funk on Litro
‘Cities I’ve Never Lived In‘ by Sara Majka in Guernica
‘My Little Feminequist Pony‘ by Anne Thériault on Ravishly
‘South Korean Ferry Accident‘ by EJ Koh on Thought Catalog
‘Day 38‘ an extract from Wild by Cheryl Strayed on Bookanista
‘Fairy Poems‘ by Laura Madeline Wiseman on Empty Mirror
Two poems by Minal Hajratwala in Granta
‘Indigo Gets Married‘ by Jami Attenberg in Guernica
‘Notes from the Island‘ by Akumbu Uche on Brittle Paper
‘For Sale‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
Two poems by Doireann Ní Ghríofa on And Other Poems
Extracts from Black Rainbow by Rachel Kelly (partially read by Dominic West)
‘Goldilocks‘ by Angela Readman on Ink Sweat and Tears
‘The Quantum Theory of Suffering or Why I Look at the Moon‘ by Natalie Diaz on Guernica
‘Hopper’s Women‘ by Emily Carroll in Guernica
Extract from The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett on One Book Lane
Two poems by Heather Altfeld on Electric Literature
‘Colored Hats‘ by Gertrude Stein in The Guardian
‘Anna and Sigm‘ by Sharon Kivland in 3:am

The lists:

7 of Margaret Atwood’ Apocalypses, Ranked from Pretty Survivable to Totally Terrifying on Bustle
Arab Women Writers Recommend Their Favorite Arab Women Writers on Arabic Literature (in English)
24 Things No One Tells You About Book Publishing, Curtis Sittenfeld on Buzzfeed
First Fiction Spring 2015: Anticipated Debuts on Publishers Weekly
The Best Marriage Plots in Novels on Huffington Post
From Zadie Smith to Helen Oyeyemi and Emily Brontë, bestselling female authors who nailed their biggest hit novels under the age of 30 in Stylist
Best Books to Read in 2015 in Harper’s Bazaar
2015 Fiction Preview, Part 1: 30 Books to Keep You Warm This Winter on Read Her Like an Open Book
Ankara Press Debuts 6 African Romance Novels That Are Better Than Mills & Book on Brittle Paper
10 Books to Read This January in Red
6 Hot Romances Coming in January on Huffington Post
Your 7-Day African Literary Make-Over on Brittle Paper

And the best things I’ve read this week:

Mariya Karimjee, ‘Damage‘ (on FGM) on The Big Roundtable
Daniel Dalton rewrites Harry Potter from Hermione’s point of view, ‘Hermione Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy‘ (I know it was written by a man but I’m justifying it by 1. source text written by a woman; 2. feminism.)
Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘How to Interview a Woman Writer‘ in The Toast