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.
News this week from ABC that a Tasmanian writer, Marjorie Davey, has published her first novel at the age of 95. She might be the oldest but she’s not the only woman to be published later in life; Abby Ellin’s article, ‘Finding Success, Well Past the Age of Wunderkind‘ in the New York Times includes Lucille Gang Shulklapper, first published at 60, and Cathy writes about Leland Bardwell: The forgotten woman of Irish literature, first published at 48, on 746Books.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum (give or take) the big news this week was that Zayn Malik left pop band One Direction. Before the news broke, Leesa Cross-Smith wrote ‘One Direction & Other Boy Bands‘ on Real Pants (which had me watching more 1D videos than I’d ever seen before (which was none)) while advertisements for Granta popped up). Anna Leszkiewicz wrote ‘I’m an adult woman with a real boyfriend – and I’m absolutely heartbroken about Zayn Malik quitting One Direction‘ in The Independent, Mackenzie Kruvant wrote, ‘How One Direction Helped Me Find My Girls‘ on Buzzfeed, and Huma Munshi wrote, ‘The Courage of Zayn Malik and Why Strong Men Cry‘ on Media Diversified.
Media Diversified also published an open letter ‘To the organisers of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction‘ regarding Cathy Newman and Grace Dent being members of the judging panel.
Granta, in celebration of their new website, opened up some of their archive, including these letters from Iris Murdoch to Raymond Queneau; ‘Night‘ by Alice Munroe; Sayaka Murata’s ‘A Clean Marriage‘ (tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori), and ‘Hardy Animal‘ by M.J. Hyland
It was the anniversary of Virginia Woolf’s death this week. Daniel Swift wrote ‘Virginia Woolf in the Bomb-scarred City‘ in Five Dials and Louise Brearley read Virginia Woolf’s final letter to her husband in The Telegraph.
And in commemoration of the third anniversary of Adrienne Rich’s death, The Critical Flame have devoted a whole issue to her and her work. The table of contents is here.
Angelina Jolie Pitt turned to writing this week with her ‘Diary of a Surgery‘ in The New York Times. Fay Schopen responded with ‘Angelina Jolie says the decision to deal with her cancer was simple. Mine is not‘ in The Guardian, while Caroline Corcoran wrote about her own experience, ‘I never felt like I’m less of a woman because I don’t have breasts or ovaries‘ in The Independent.
But the woman with the most publicity this week seems to be JK Rowling. ‘JK Rowling says she received ‘loads’ of rejections before Harry Potter success‘ wrote Alison Flood in The Guardian; Stylist ran ‘JK Rowling’s Brilliant Response to Fan Who ‘Can’t See’ Dumbledore as Gay, Plus 9 Times She Owned Twitter‘; Matilda Battersby wrote, ‘JK Rowling defends Dumbledore on Twitter: Seven Things You Might Not Know About the Hogwarts’ Headmaster‘ in The Independent; Chris Mandle wrote, ‘Why we need more fictional gay role models like Albus Dumbledore‘ in The Telegraph and Stylist ran a piece titled, ‘JK Rowling Describes Hitting ‘Rock Bottom’ In a New Book About The Benefits Of Failure‘
In Harper Lee news, the cover of Go Set a Watchman was revealed this week. The Guardian are inviting people to design their own.
Finally, if you want a good reading list of books by women, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize announced its longlist this week, including Anneliese Mackintosh, Stella Duffy, Kirsty Logan, May-Lan Tan, Hilary Mantel and A.L. Kennedy.
The best of the rest articles/essays:
- Katie Barnes, ‘This Is Not My Cinderella‘ on Feministing
- Maggie Tokuda-Hall, ‘My Abortion Was A Hard Choice—But The Right One‘ on Ravishly
- Heather Cromarty, ‘Personal Jesus Built My Hotrod‘ on Queen Mob’s Tea House
- Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best novels: No 79 – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1960)‘ in The Guardian
- Lizzy Kremer, ‘Thinking at Night: Writing into the Silence‘ on Publishing for Humans
- Leslie Reese, ‘Little Leslie’s Report‘ (on Edwidge Danticat’ on Folklore & Literacy
- Brigid Delaney, ‘Leave Gwyneth Paltrow alone! Her website gives me joy‘ in The Guardian
- Jane Bradley, ‘Shapps fell into brand confusion trap‘ (Confusingly, mostly about female writers and pseudonyms) in The Scotsman
- Leo Jay Shire, ‘As a Mixed-Race Woman, in the Game of Racial Top Trumps My Blackness Always Wins‘ on Media Diversified
- Mallika Rao, ‘No Punctuation Is Funnier‘ on The Huffington Post
- Jaya Saxena, ‘The Way to the Heart is Not Through the Liver‘ on Archipelago
- Rivka Galchen, ‘Do Money Woes Spur Creativity or Stifle It?‘ in The New York Times
- Stacey Patton, ‘Loving White People Won’t Fix Racism‘ in Dame
- Roxane Gay, ‘Men You Meet While Traveling By Airplane‘ in The Butter
- Elisa Gabbert, ‘Much Hinges: The joys of using the “wrong comma”‘ on The Smart Set
- Ester Bloom, ‘Dreams of Being a Feminist Housewife‘ on The Billfold
- Maya Dusenbery, ‘Is Medicine’s Gender Bias Killing Young Women?‘ on Feministing
- Casey Plett, ‘Rise of the Gender Novel‘ on The Walrus
- Martha Bayne, ‘Words Fail‘ in The Rumpus
- Kendra Atleework, ‘Why Must One House Burn While Another Is Spared?‘ in Guernica
- Mallory Ortberg, ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Frog Prince‘ in The Toast
- Nathan Smith, ‘Feminist Artifacts: The Archive of Germaine Greer‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
- Meera Syal, ‘Growing up between cultures is tough – until you realise it’s a creative blessing‘ in The Guardian
- Diana Williams, ‘I chose to be a mother at 50: Why would a single, middle-aged woman endure years of fertility treatment to have twins?‘ in The Independent
- Elen Caldecott, ‘My Inspiration: Gillian Cross‘ in The Guardian
- Anjum Hassan, ‘Sisters‘ in Granta
- Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: What My Self-Respect Looks Like‘ in The Butter
- Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘A For Books’ Sake Guide to Literary Self-Care‘ on For Books’ Sake
- Toni Morrison, ‘No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear‘ in The Nation
- Rachel Cusk, ‘Raising Teenagers: The Mother of All Problems‘ in The New York Times
- Eillie Anzilotti, ‘A Life in My Mother’s Clothes‘ in The Toast
- Sarah Seltzer, ‘Beyond Mansplaining: A New Lexicon of Misogynist Trolling Behaviors‘ on Flavorwire
- Joanne Harris, ‘Why I’m Saying “Fuck you” to Clean Reader‘ on her blog
- Lionel Shriver, ‘Why filthy literature should not be cleaned up‘ in The Guardian
- ‘Louise Doughty and Jacqui Lofthouse: Tortoises Rather Than Hares‘ on Something Rhymed
- Jacquie Lawrence, ‘Where have all the lesbians gone in TV and film?‘ in The Guardian
- Natasha Desborough, ‘Why I couldn’t use the phrase ‘camel toes’ in the title of my first novel‘ in The Guardian
- Beulah Maud Devaney, ‘Helpful Spring Cleaning Advice From Gothic Novelist Shirley Jackson‘ on Ravishly
- Brittney Cooper, ‘Black girls’ sexual burden: Why Mo’ne Davis was really called a “slut”‘ on Salon
- Catie L’Heureux, ‘Why I Live in an All-Women Boardinghouse in New York City‘ in The Cut
- Elizabeth Minkel, ‘From the Internet to the Ivy League: Fanfiction in the Classroom‘ on The Millions
- Jenny Diski, ‘Like a Lullaby‘ in The London Review of Books (£)
- Elisa Gabbert, ‘Beauty Is Youth, Youth Beauty‘ on Real Pants
- Emma Frankland, ‘I’m a transgender woman – why shouldn’t I play Hamlet?‘ in The Guardian
- Lucy Hancock, ‘This Is What It’s Actually Like to Go to Private School in the London Suburbs‘ in Vice
- Sarra Manning, ‘In Ross Poldark, we have reached romantic hero nirvana‘ in The Guardian
- Isabel Rogers, ‘Shopping List‘ on her blog
- Rebecca Winson, ‘I don’t give a toss about the number of women in boardrooms‘ on A Bit of Class
- Hannah Giorgis, ‘Many women of color don’t go to the police after sexual assault for a reason‘ in The Guardian
- Frances Ryan, ‘The benefit sanctions regime should be scrapped‘ in The Guardian
- Dorian Lynskey, ‘Kapow! Attack of the feminist superheroes‘ in The Guardian
- Melody Schreiber, ‘Facing the Beast: On Anxiety and Sisterhood‘ in The Toast
- Carmen Maria Machado, ‘O Adjunct! My Adjunct!‘ in The New Yorker
- Mallory Ortberg, ‘Scenes From The Bell Jar And Other Sylvia Plath Works, As Remembered By Someone Who Never Finished Reading Sylvia Plath‘ in The Toast
- Sarah Perry, ‘Lent Talk: Behold the Man‘ on BBC Radio 4 (+ transcript)
- Rachel Smalter Hall, ‘Why I Need a Break From Books About Dead Girls‘ on Book Riot
- Andrea Cornwall, ‘Why gender equality by numbers will never measure up‘ in The Guardian
- Amy Juicebox, ‘The Consequences of Attacking Our Little Black Girls‘ on Blavity
- xTx, ‘Today I am a Lonely, Sexless Book Looking for Love and Understanding‘ in The Butter
- Anna Weiner, ‘The Most Wonderful Staircase‘ in The Offing
- Clare Pollard, ‘All the Amazing Women We’ve Never Heard Of‘ on her blog
- John C. Goodman, ‘……Regina Who? And Other Obscure Women Writers……..‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
- Megan Carpentier, ‘All These Angry Women?‘ in Esquire
- Rene Denfeld, ‘Why we execute people is the big question, not how‘ in The Guardian
- Joshua Rothman, ‘Knausgaard or Ferrante?‘ in The New Yorker
- Nancy Tomich, ‘Elusive Aurora‘ in The Toast
- Anna Fitzpatrick, ‘A Post About Books, Sort Of‘ on The Hairpin
- Suzanne Koven, ‘Cheaters: A Life In Eyewear‘ in The Rumpus
- Stephanie Boland, ‘Shock news: contra to the headlines, people with depression have jobs‘ in the New Statesman
- Maureen O’Connor, ‘How I Became a Hoarder of Discontinued Makeup‘ in The Cut
- Kate Colby, ‘The Itch‘ on The Rumpus
- Jo Chandler, ‘Manus in the Balance‘ in The Monthly
- Michele McPhee, ‘The Monster Next Door‘ in Boston Magazine
- Lisa Hix, ‘The Tragic Life of the Courtesan in Japan’s Floating World‘ on Collectors Weekly
- Suzanne Dean, ‘The Shore: A Cover Story‘ on the Penguin Blog
- Hilary Mantel, ‘How to Play “Wolf Hall”‘ in The New York Review of Books
- Tracey Thorn, ‘Your songs are like your children – you have to wave them off into the world‘ in the New Statesman
- Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘Fiesta Barbie‘ on Hobart
- Sophie Heawood, ‘Stuck on an ice-bound ferry? What a great opportunity for apocalyptic sex‘ in The Guardian
- Parul Sehgal, ‘How ‘Flawless’ Became a Feminist Declaration‘ in The New York Times
- Marina O’Loughlin, ‘‘Something nasty is stirring’: inside Nigel Farage’s battle for South Thanet‘ in The Guardian
- Sasha Marie Storman, ‘The Role of Women in Horror Films‘ on The Inflectionist
- Catherine Chanter, ‘I found my birth mother through the newspaper small ads‘ in The Guardian
- Swetambara Chaudhary, ‘This Photo Was Removed By Instagram. The Owner Writes A Powerful Open Letter In Response‘ on Scoop Whoop
- Anne Thériault, ‘We Need To Stop Devaluing Femininity‘ on Ravishly
The interviews:
- Alison Stone in 3:AM Magazine
- Kim Gordon on Salon
- Bhatupe Mhango-Chipanta on Brittle Paper
- Jane Hirshfield on The Huffington Post
- Michelle Tea on Weird Sister
- Ruth Goodman on The Daily Beast
- Judy Finnigan in Woman
- Nuala Ní Chonchúir on 746Books
- Joanna Briscoe on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
- Alison Bechdel on The Millions
- Abigail Thomas in the Los Angeles Review of Books
- Megham Daum on Flavorwire
- Val McDermid and Kate Tough on Scottish Book Trust
- Evie Wyld on the Penguin Blog
- Sarah Manguso in The Rumpus
- Rachael Herron on Compulsory Podcast
- Judith Butler in The Los Angeles Review of Books
- Ayelet Gundar-Goshen on Bookanista
- Porochista Khakpour on Electric Literature
- Renata Adler in Vice
- Helen Grant on Scottish Book Trust and Author Allsorts
- Sally Green in The Guardian
- Alice Urbino on Broken Frontier
- Johanna Basford on We Love This Book
- Ann Fisher-Wirth on Bloom
- Isabel Wolff on Random House
- Jennifer Jean on DP Life
- Can Xue in BOMB Magazine
- Eva Dolan on Goodreads
- Helen Marshall in Nightmare Magazine
- Sarah Hall in The Guardian
- Naomi Klein in The Independent
- Amelia Gray on Vice
If you want some fiction/poetry to read:
- An extract from Weightless by Sarah Bannan on Bloomsbury Books
- An extract from Binary Star by Sarah Gerard in The Quietus
- An extract from Disclaimer by Renée Knight
- ‘Lunch Poem‘ by Ashleigh Young on Eyelashroaming
- ‘Coach tour on the A99 to Wick‘ by Claire Askew on Scottish Book Trust
- An extract from The Night Falling by Katherine Webb on Orion Books
- ‘I Hope You Sing About Me‘ by Vanessa Willoughby in The Toast
- ‘When Joan Jumped Into the Sea‘ by Elle Nash in The Offing
- ‘Oboe solo for two players‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
- ‘Richard‘ by Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian
- ‘A Poem‘ by Morgan Parker in The Awl
- ‘Beau Soleil‘ by Claire Lombardo in the Atticus Review
- ‘Opposites Detract‘ by Cath Bore on The Fem
- ‘tsunami as misguided kwannon‘ by Lee Ann Roripaugh on The The
- An excerpt from Shadows Over Paradise by Isabel Wolff on Random House
- ‘Keep It In the Ground‘ by Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian
- ‘How to walk past a tree in winter‘ by Shinjini Bhattacharjee on Three Drops from a Cauldron
- ‘The Knot‘ by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin in The Irish Times
- Two Poems by Catherine Pond in Blunderbuss
The lists:
- Top 5 YA Debuts of 2015 on Max and Mummy
- If You Loved ‘Bad Feminist,’ Try Reading These 11 Books, Too on Bustle
- 29 Awesome Books With Strong Female Protagonists on Buzzfeed
- Five books by transgender authors that everyone should read on The Walrus
- 14 Novels About Muslim Life That Shouldn’t Be Missed on Buzzfeed
- Sarah Menkedick’s Four Books on Early Motherhood on Vela
- Quotes from Five African Woman Writers to Help You Jumpstart Your Writing Dreams on Brittle Paper
- 5 Flannery O’Connor Quotes to Live By on Flavorwire
- Feminist Books for Children on For Books’ Sake
- Sophie Kinsella’s Literary Heroines on the Penguin Blog
- Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly