In the Media: October 2015, Part One

Posted on October 18, 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.

In the media is back in a slightly altered format. You might have spotted a change in the opening paragraph – this feature will now appear fortnightly rather than weekly. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be bigger than it was before, however. When I started this feature, the plan was to focus on fiction writers with published books but as I started to read more widely, I realised how many brilliant women columnists and features writers there are and it seemed ludicrous not to include them. I want to keep supporting them so you’ll notice as you scroll down that I’ve reduced the number of categories but I’ve added a regular columnists category to link to those writers who are consistently good/interesting.

This fortnight’s been all about whitewashing. First there was the Sufragette film which ignored any women of colour involved in the movement. Anita Anand asks ‘Were the Suffragettes racist?‘ in the Telegraph. Victoria Massie tells us about ‘3 black women who fought on the front lines for women’s suffrage‘ on NTRSCTN and a piece on Asian Suffragettes on British Protest at Home and Abroad was highlighted. Eesha Pandit writes, ‘The discomfiting truth about white feminism: Meryl Streep, Amy Poehler & the movement’s long history of racial insensitivity‘ on Salon while Henna Zamurd Butt asks, ‘So Nadiya won the Great British Bake Off, why the big deal?‘ on Media Diversified and Nadia Shireen says, ‘Why the world needs more Nadiyas‘ in The Pool.

And then there was Meg Rosoff who said,“there are not too few books for marginalised young people”. This came at the same time Leila Rasheed posted, ‘A New Scheme Hopes to Promote BME Voices in Children’s Literature‘ on The Asian Writer. Responses to Rosoff came from Camryn Garrett, ‘this is how the industry lives now: five signs that you might be suffering from white privilege’ on For all the Girls Who Are Half Monster; Edi Campbell, ‘SundayMorningReads‘ on Crazy QuiltEdi (whose Facebook page is where Rosoff made her comment); Kaye M, ‘This Is How I Life: An Open Letter to Meg Rosoff‘ on Medium; Radiya Hafiza ‘Why we need mirrors in literature‘ on Media Diversified; KT Horning, ‘Spouting Off While White‘ on Reading While White, and Debbie Reese, ‘About Meg Rosoff’s Next Book‘ on American Indians in Children’s Literature, which includes an up-to-date list of responses so far. And how about this for a radical idea: ‘Is Hermione Granger White?‘ Monika Kothari answers on Slate.

Reactions to Chrissie Hynde blaming herself when she was raped continue. Ann Friedman writes, ‘We Shouldn’t Let Chrissie Hynde Off the Hook So Easily‘ in The Cut while Tracey Thorn says, ‘Chrissie longed to be one of the boys. Unlike us, she didn’t have riot grrrls‘ in The New Statesman.

Finally, while there wasn’t a female winner of the Man Booker Prize, there was a female winner of The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. Congratulations to Kirstin Innes who won for her novel Fishnet. Unfortunately, both the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize shortlists were somewhat lacking in women. Michael Caines offers an alternative all-female shortlist to the latter on the TLS while Cathy Rentzenbrink on blistering form in The Bookseller writes ‘On Noticing‘.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), ‘on Sense and Sensibility‘ in The Guardian
Lucy Durrant, ‘Too Little Too Late: on Jean Rhys‘ on Thresholds
Jane Smiley, ‘History vs Historical Fiction‘ in The Guardian
Stephanie Butland ‘in Praise of the ‘Quiet Book’‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
Justine Jordan, ‘A new Irish literary boom: the post-crash stars of fiction‘ in The Guardian
Jill Bialowsky, ‘What Qualifies as Greatness: On Literary Awards Season‘ on The Millions
Erica Wagner, ‘Gossip, truth and the impossibility of biography‘ in The Guardian
Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), ‘The Author Is Purely a Name‘ in Guernica
Alexandra Pechman, ‘It’s Complicated: on Clarice Lispector and Elizabeth Bishop‘ on Poetry Foundation
Andrea Kleine, ‘The Story of a Murder‘ on Literary Hub
Timothy Snyder, ‘Svetlana Alexievich: The Truth in Many Voices‘ in The New York Review of Books
Naomi Alderman, ‘The first great works of digital literature are already being written‘ in The Guardian
Rebecca Mascull, ‘Reading The Prime Writers‘ on Writers & Artists
Sarah Crossan, ‘How writing about conjoined twins changed the way I wrote‘ in The Guardian
Liz Windhorst Harmer, ‘How to Read Through the Depths of Postpartum Depression‘ on Literary Hub
Jessi Stevens, ‘Against Realism‘ on The Rumpus
Adrian van Young, ‘Flannery O’Connor: A Reading Primer‘ on Electric Literature
Jeanette Winterson, ‘Rewrites Shakespeare‘ on Literary Hub
Ed Vulliamy, ‘Edna O’Brien: from Ireland’s cultural outcast to literary darling‘ in The Guardian
Marlon James, ‘My Hero: Toni Morrison‘ in The Guardian
Kathryn Schulz, ‘Pond Scum‘ on Henry David Thoreau in The New Yorker

Personal essays/memoir:

Emily Eades, ‘Becoming a mother without your own mother to rely on‘ in The Pool
Tami, ‘Tears for my Mom‘ on Medium
Ali Rachel Pearl, ‘On Tinder, Off Sex‘ in The New York Times
Dorthe Nors, ‘A Wolf In Jutland: On the Writing Life in Denmark‘ on Electric Literature
Rebecca Espiloy Baroma, ‘Rainbow Chard‘ in The Offing
Virginia Pye, ‘A Woman Alone in China‘ on Literary Hub
K.L. Carr, ‘This Time Last Year: On Intimacy, Suicidality, and Abuse‘ in The Toast
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘Raised Catholic‘ in The Atlantic
Anonymous, ‘The Tech Exec With Boyfriends on Both Coasts‘ in The Cut
Sarah Manguso, ‘The Grand Shattering‘ in Harper’s
Lacy M. Johnson, ‘On Mercy‘ in Guernica
Anisse Gross, ‘Stalking Murakami‘ on Design Sponge
Pat Lipsky, ‘The Shoes Under the Art World‘ in The Awl
Bettina McKelvey, ‘Fun Ticket‘ on Okey Panky
Abby Higgs, ‘Search me: why did I go looking for my birth mother online?‘ in The Guardian
Rachel Giese, ‘It’s Not Where You Come From, It’s Where You Belong‘ in The Haripin
Sno Flo, ‘In Bruges‘ on Litro
Amanda Fortini, ‘The Great Surrender‘ on GOOD

Feminism:

Reni Eddo-Lodge ‘‘Liberation for some is liberation for none’: on women and black radical movements‘ on Verso Books
Rachel Z. Arndt, ‘The Sexism of American Kitchen Design‘ in The Atlantic
Jane Kramer, ‘Road Warrior: on Gloria Steinem‘ in The New Yorker
Anna Oudra, ‘“Stick person,” “Skinny bitch,” “Giraffe”: Stop bullying me for being thin‘ on Salon
Kai Cheng Thom, ‘Pursuing Happiness As A Trans Woman Of Color‘ on Buzzfeed
Latoya Peterson, ‘#AskHerMore: On Rihannon and interviewing black celebrities‘ on Racialicious
Rebecca Solnit, ‘The Mother of All Questions‘ in Harper’s
Bee Rowlatt, ‘The original suffragette: the extraordinary Mary Wollstonecraft‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

Adia Harvey Wingfield, ‘Being Black—but Not Too Black—in the Workplace‘ in The Atlantic
Beth Alverado, ‘Water in the Desert‘ in Guernica
Molly Crabapple, ‘What Happens When Inmates in Solitary Confinement Blow the Whistle on Their Abuse?‘ in Vice
Emily Greenhouse, ‘Inside the Wesleyan Molly Bust‘ in Rolling Stone
Racquel Willis, ‘The Transgender Dating Dilemma‘ on Buzzfeed
Erika Hayasaki, ‘A Criminal Mind‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
Natalie Shure, ‘The Mystery Of Sacagawea‘ on Buzzfeed
Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Making of John Wayne‘ on Buzzfeed

Film, Television, Music and Fashion:

Elmo Keep, ‘All You Zombies‘ in The Awl
Kate Mossman, ‘“I was killed when I was 27”: the curious afterlife of Terence Trent D’Arby‘ in The New Statesman
Claudia Rosenbaum, ‘How The Fast Times Of The Paparazzi Came To A Screeching Halt‘ on Buzzfeed

The interviews:

Ayisha Malik on The Chronicles of Radiya
Joanna Walsh on LitHub
Nancy Fraser in The New York Times
Sarah Weinman in The Los Angeles Review of Books
Lauren Groff in Vice
Molly Gaudry and Kristina Marie Darling on Critical Flame
Claudia Rankine Part One and Part Two on Literary Hub
Marilynne Robinson interviewed by Barack Obama (yes, you read that correctly) in The New York Review of Books
Ann Beattie on The Millions
Vendela Vida on Bookanista
Beth Miller Part One and Part Two on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
Rainbow Rowell on The Toast
Valynne E. Maetani on Heidicker Writes
Katherine Applegate in The Guardian
Juliet Jacques on Salon
Margaret Atwood on Hazlitt
Louise O’Neill in The New Statesman
Gloria Steinem 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 (this week’s Crush of the Week is Lorrie Moore)
Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
Eva Wiseman in The Observer
Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified

The Good Neighbour – Beth Miller + Q&A

Posted on September 9, 2015 by naomifrisby

Today it’s my pleasure to welcome Beth Miller to the blog. Beth is the author of two novels, When We Were Sisters and The Good Neighbour, both published by Ebury (Random House). She’s also written a non-fiction book, For The Love of The Archers. She is currently sobbing over her third novel. When not sobbing and writing, she teaches writing, stares out of the window, and mucks about on Twitter (@drbethmiller).

Her second novel The Good Neighbour is published tomorrow; to whet your appetite you can read my review below followed by my interview with Beth.

‘My god, you’re a breath of fresh air,’ said Minette.

‘Sounds like you didn’t get on too great with the last people here?’

‘Slight understatement. They were horrible to us. They couldn’t stand the noise. Tilly, you know. They banged on the walls at night.’

‘How horrible. They were pretty stiff when I spoke to them on the phone. Babies are supposed to cry. I bet you’re not even that noisy, are you, gorgeous?’ Cath clucked at Tilly.

‘Not according to the Miltons. They were unfriendly from day one. They never got over the fact that I was pregnant but not married.’

‘Old-school types, huh?’

‘Totally. They behaved as if Abe was some kind of antisocial yob, just because he’s got long hair. I’m sure they used to spy on us from out of your funny round window, when we were in the front garden. We drank champagne, well Prosecco, when we heard they were moving out.’

‘I hope you won’t feel the same way about us.’

‘Definitely not. I’m so glad you’re here.’ Minette raised her mug and chinked it against Cath’s.

The Good Neighbour focuses on two women who end up living next door to each other. Minette, stuck at home with a baby, is bored and frustrated. Tilly’s nine months old but Minette and her partner Abe haven’t had sex since before she was born. To complicate things further, Minette’s noticed that Liam, who lives across the street is very good-looking and, conveniently, he’s at home during the day waiting for his teaching course to begin. With a bit of a nudge from Cath, the inevitable occurs.

Cath, along with her children, has moved next door to Minette. She says they’ve come from ‘up north’. It seems as though she has a lot to cope with: she’s separated from her husband and both of her children have medical issues. Four-year-old Lola has serious allergies and eight-year-old Davey is wheelchair bound due to muscular dystrophy. And then there are all the little things that don’t quite add up: why can’t the children go on the computer? Why does she give them a different answer as to where their dad is? Why does her friend Gina call her Ruby?

The first half of the novel builds slowly as Minette becomes embroiled in her affair with Liam and Cath goes about building a new life for her and her family. But of course, all is not what it seems and the middle of the book is a tipping point where the reader begins to realise what’s going on and can only watch, horrified, as events move quickly towards two equally interesting but very different conclusions for these women.

I found The Good Neighbour interesting for two reasons: firstly, a wheelchair bound key character is unusual and the discussions around Davey’s condition and the adjustments that needed to be made for him were informative. Secondly, Miller’s build-up in the first half of the book is fascinating when you return to it knowing where it’s leading. I enjoyed spotting all the clues as to what Cath was hiding.

If you’re a fan of domestic dramas with elements of psychological thrillers, The Good Neighbour is worth a few hours of your time on a rainy weekend.

Your novel plays on the idea of what makes a good neighbour. Where did the idea come from?

There’s such a lot of media bewailing that we only connect with each other online, oh woe it’s the end of days, etc. But in my experience of living in a small town, I interact with my neighbours on a very regular basis. We take in parcels for each other, feed pets when we’re away, have sets of keys, and generally look out for each other. But actually, we don’t know our neighbours all that well, and we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors…

Eight-year-old Davey uses a wheelchair, which is a significant part of the plot of the book. There’s a lot of discussion at the moment about diverse representations in novels, did this have a bearing on your decision to have a character in a wheelchair?

Not at all. I’m afraid I didn’t even know there were these discussions going on. Him being in a wheelchair worked for the plot, that’s the reason why it’s there.

You write from the point-of-view of three different characters: Cath, Minette and Davey; how challenging is it to ensure each character has their own voice?

It’s very challenging! I found it slightly easier this time than in my first novel (When We Were Sisters) which had two women narrators of around the same age. I had to keep changing lines that sounded too much like the other one. With The Good Neighbour, Davey obviously has a distinctly child-like voice (based a bit on my son!). The challenge was to make Cath and Minette sound different from each other. Cath in particular uses quite a lot of figures of speech, but there was one draft in which I realised that I had given some of these to Minette as well. Ah, the horror! Well, not really a horror as I just used ‘Find and Replace.’ But you know, it was a momentary horror.

The book uses many of the techniques of a psychological thriller, how did you make sure there was enough tension in the first half to keep the reader gripped without giving away too much of the plot?

I don’t know that I did! Others will have to be the judge of that. In fact I do suspect that the beginning is probably a tad slow. Don’t tell my publisher that I said that. Hopefully there are enough distractions in it (snogging, and stuff), to keep the reader going until the top of the rollercoaster. I do think that there’s a point at which the whole thing speeds up mightily, and then it gets rather exciting.

My blog focuses on women writers, who are your favourite female writers?

I have got LOADS. Here are just a few, with my favourite books of theirs. Judy Blume (Wifey), Laurie Colwin (Another Marvelous Thing), Monica Dickens (One Pair of Hands), Norah Ephron (Heartburn), Margaret Forster (Have The Men Had Enough), Anne Patchett (This is the Story of a Happy Marriage), Anne Tyler (Patchwork Planet), and Molly Weir (Shoes Were For Sundays). In alphabetical order so as not to upset any of them.

Thanks to Beth Miller for the interview and to Ebury for the review copy.

In the Media: 25th January & 1st February 2015

Posted on February 1, 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.

Thanks to everyone who said such lovely things last week after I lost the In the Media post and to everyone who offered suggestions to stop it happening again. I think I have a solution and it seems to have worked well this week.

The morning after last week’s last minute loss, I realised that all was not entirely lost; all the articles I’d linked to that hadn’t saved were in my laptop history, so I recovered the remainder of last week’s post (apologies if you received an email with a half-done post in it, it posted when I retrieved it) and relinked all the articles, then added this weeks. The result of that is this bumper issue. Enjoy!

This week saw the death of Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds, as well as 23 other books, and a neuroscientist. Steve Dow remembers her in The Guardian; Alison Flood gave her tribute with ‘Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds helped me get over heartbreak‘ also in The Guardian, and in response to that obituary (I’m not linking to it) Rebecca Shaw wrote ‘We’ll celebrate a woman for anything, as long as it’s not her talent‘ in The Guardian while Liz Kearney responded with ‘You may be a best-selling writer, but never forget that you’re still fat and ugly‘ in The Irish Independent.

It’s been a fortnight filled with awards. Last week, Claudia Rankine became the first person ever to be nominated for two National Critics Circle Awards in the poetry and criticism categories; her editor tells The Washington post why she’s a ‘genius’ and Jonathon Sturgeon tells us why the double nomination is ‘the correct decision’ on Flavorwire; While Jhumpa Lahiri won the DSC Prize. Here’s ‘Six things you should know about Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland’ on Scroll.in

This week, it’s been the turn of the Costa Awards. Helen Macdonald won the overall award for the fantastic H is for Hawk. Here’s an interview she gave to The Times last week; you can watch her talking about the book here; you can listen to an audio excerpt and read her piece ‘On Ringing Wild Goshawks’ on Vintage Books, and discover the six books that made her in The Guardian. You can also watch the short films made of the other finalists: Emma Healey; Kate Saunders; Ali Smith. Zoe Gilbert won the Short Story Award with Fishskin, Hareskin. With Joanne Meek, Lucy Ribchester, Jane Healey and Paula Cunningham also shortlisted. You can read all the shortlisted stories here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Other exciting news for female writers is the launch of #ReviewWomen2015, following the success of the #ReadWomen2014 campaign. Hannah Beckerman explains why she wants more books by female writers, especially commercial fiction, to be reviewed in the broadsheets in the Huffington Post. Anne Enright became the first Laureate for Irish Fiction in a unanimous decision and in China came the discovery of a new poet, ‘dubbed China’s Emily Dickinson‘, Want China Times reports on Yu Xihua.

There’s been a wave of feminist articles this fortnight, partly thanks to The Sun newspaper appearing to stop publishing pictures of topless women on p3 and then declaring it a joke by the middle of the week. Sarah Ditum wrote, ‘The “return” of Page 3: the Sun revels in the chance to make women with opinions look stupid‘ in the New Statesman; Marina Hyde responded with, ‘No more t*ts in the Sun – a campaign we can all get behind‘ in The Guardian. Elsewhere, Sophie Heawood wrote, ‘If Björk can’t stop a man stealing the limelight, what hope is there for the rest of us?‘ in The Guardian; Eleanor Catton wrote a statement on her website following a media furore in New Zealand about comments she made about the government; Louise O’Neill related, ‘My journey to feminism‘ in The Guardian; Elisabeth Camp asked ‘Should I let my daughter wear pink?‘ in Aeon; Jami Attenberg recounted her time passing as a man, ‘Track Changes‘ in The New York Times; Bayan Perazzo wrote ‘The Burden of Being Female in Saudi Arabia‘ on Muftah; Rose George declared, ‘My period may hurt: but not talking about menstruation hurts more‘ in The Guardian; Arabelle Sicadi wrote, ‘A Bridge Between Love And Lipstick: Queering the beauty industry‘ on Buzzfeed; Jeanne de Montbaston responded to an Alison Wolf article (link in the piece) with ‘What the Hell kinds of Feminists are you Reading, Alison Wolf‘ on Reading Medieval Books; Lucy Magan says, ‘Let’s Silence the Voice That Tells Us We Can’t‘ in Stylist; Marina Sofia looked at the new Barbie Princess Power on her blog; Rebecca Carroll wrote, ‘I was six when a man first touched me. I didn’t speak up until I was an adult‘ in The Guardian; Jia Tolentino wrote, ‘Rush After ‘A Rape On Campus’: A UVA Alum Goes Back to Rugby Road‘ on Jezebel; Homa Mojtabai listed ‘Reasons You Were Not Promoted That Are Totally Unrelated to Gender‘ on McSweeney’s; C M Meadows-Haworth, ‘Reading Audre Lorde Is Changing My Life‘ on A Room of Our Own; Chika Unigwe wrote, ‘Why Nigeria is failing its citizens over Boko Haram attacks‘ in Litro; Maddie Crum told us ‘Why Virginia Woolf Should Be Your Feminist Role Model‘ on Huffington Post; Brandi Bailey selected ‘The Best Feminist Picture Books‘ on Book Riot, Monique Wilson said, ‘Critics of the Vagina Monologues must acknowledge its transformative powers‘ in The Guardian, Alison Flood told us ‘Why I hate the Little Miss books‘ in The Guardian, Sarah Ditum also told us, ‘I ain’t afraid of no girls: why the all-female Ghostbusters will be good for Hollywood‘ in the New Statesman; Max Cairnduff wrote, ‘Looking back on #readwomen2014 and my favourite reads of the year‘ on his blog; Hannah Renowden shares, ‘2015 – When I got angered by a reading list so read it. Also, crochet.‘ on her blog, and Isabel Rogers read and took down Mike Buchanan’s Justice for Men and Boys (and the women who love them) Party Election Manifesto on her blog.

And a number about class following James Blunt’s open letter to Chris Bryant. Sarah Perry responded with, ‘James Blunt has misunderstood the relationship between privilege and success‘ in The Independent and Suzanne Moore with, ‘What James Blunt doesn’t understand about the politics of envy‘ in The Guardian. Other issues surrounding class were covered by Lisa McKenzie, ‘The estate we’re in: how working class people became the ‘problem’‘ in The Guardian; Lucy Mangan, ‘If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath‘ also in The Guardian; Nicola Morgan asked, ‘Why fund libraries when it’s all online?‘ on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure; Harriet Williamson said, ‘Every time I visit the job centre, the staff treat me like a subhuman‘ in the New Statesman; Grace Dent said, ‘When rents are so high that you have to share a bed with a stranger, surely the revolution can’t be far off‘ in The Independent, and Kathryn Hughes wrote, ‘Yes, Kirstie Allsopp, littering’s bad. But then so is self-righteousness‘ in The Guardian

The best of the rest articles/essays:

Zoe Williams, ‘Wolf Hall: A Lesson in the triumph of low birth over hierarchy‘ in The Guardian
Rachel Cooke, ‘Oscars 2015: All about Eve? In today’s films, it’s more like All About Adam‘ in The Guardian
Kim Kankiewicz, ‘The Watcher and the Watched‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘Three thousand reasons to choose your reading carefully‘ in The Guardian
Tiffany Midge, ‘Part One: Redeeming the English Language (Acquisition) Series‘ in The Butter
Rene Steinke celebrates the profound influence of independent bookstores on Read Her Like an Open Book
Mary Wollstonecraft, ‘On Poetry, and Our Relish for the Beauties of Nature‘ on Berfrois
Judith Lennox, ‘Loneliness and the Long-Distant Granparent‘ in The Guardian
Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Clash of the Titans‘ in The Butter
Sasha Dugdale, ‘The Necessity of Translation‘ on Commonwealth Writers
Priscilla Ward, ‘I’m tired of suppressing myself to get along with white people‘ on Salon
Susanna Basso (tr. Mati Colarossi), ‘On translation‘ on Parallel Texts
Elizabeth Haynes, ‘Closer Than You Think‘ on her blog
Diane Mehta, “And She Went On Her Way Rejoicing” (On Muriel Spark) on The Rumpus
Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Anxiety & Comfort‘ on Real Pants
Brittany Wilmes, ‘Growing Up‘ in The Butter
Rosie Gray, ‘France’s Far-Right Party Seizes the Moment – And the Youth‘ on Buzzfeed
Dan Piepenbring, ‘A Dissatisfaction with Life‘ (on Patricia Highsmith) in The Paris Review
Trisha Ready, ‘How Listening to Music and Fighting with Susan Sontag Helped Me Cope with Chemo‘ on The Stranger
Dinah Jeffries, ‘The Hidden Psychology of a Writer‘ on her blog
Eva Wiseman, ‘Questions to Make You Fall in Love‘ in The Guardian
Nina Martyris, ‘Auden, Rabelais, and “Charlie Hebdo” in The Los Angeles Review of Books
Zoe Heller, ‘Rape on the Campus‘ in The New York Review of Books
Amanda Foreman, ‘Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium‘ in Smithsonian
Sophie Heawood, ‘A little bit of hatred can take you a long way‘ in The Guardian
Kat Brown, ‘Depression made me feel ‘appalling — I couldn’t bear my own company’ in The Times
Catherine Taylor on Elena Ferrante on Open Book
Suzanne Moore, ‘Eventually, I took a driving test. But Mister Much didn’t think much of my motoring skills‘ in the New Statesman
Paula McLain, ‘I Was Always, Always Looking for More‘ in Good Housekeeping
Virginia Woolf on E.M. Forster in Berfrois
Ijeoma Oluo, ‘I understand why people believe sexual predators before victims. I did‘ in The Guardian
Sybil Baker, ‘The History of the Wanderer‘ in The Critical Flame
Lauren Westerfeld, ‘Mother Maps‘ on The Butter
Ruth Graham, ‘Chandler Bing Is the Worst Thing About Watching Friends in 2015‘ on Slate
Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Trouble with “It Girls”‘ on Buzzfeed

Shelley Harris, ‘Writing a hero from the inside‘ on Isobel Costello’s Literary Sofa
Shruti Ravindran, ‘A circus of the senses‘ in Aeon
Sadie Stein, ‘More things in heaven and earth‘ in The Paris Review
Tracy Borman, ‘Big bad Wolf: Why have we fallen for Thomas Cromwell?‘ on BBC Arts
Rene Denfeld, ‘The Other Side of Loss‘ on The Manifest-Station
Soo Na Pak, ‘Woman‘ in The Butter
Jonathan Gibbs, ‘The Art of the Novella challenge 11: The Awakening‘ on Melville House
E.B. Bartels, ‘Freedom, My Dear‘ in The Butter
Evan McMurry, ‘The stunning weirdness of Ayn Rand: Why her newfound popularity makes no sense‘ on Salon
Susanna Daniel, ‘What took you so long? The quiet hell of 10 years of novel writing‘ on Slate
Randon Billings Noble, ‘The Heart as a Torn Muscle‘ in Brevity
Heather Sellers, ‘Fun for Everyone Involved‘ in Brevity
Jennifer Sinor, ‘One Hundred Days in India‘ in Brevity
Fleda Brown, ‘Home Bodily Repair Kit‘ in Brevity
Jenny Boully, ‘I Remain Very Sorry For What I Did to the Little Black Kitten‘ in Brevity
Sarah Freligh, ‘Lessons of the Body‘ in Brevity
Anna Journey, ‘For Great-Aunt Jeannette, Who Donated Her Body to Science‘ in Brevity
Anna B. Sutton, ‘Carolina/Tennessee‘ in Brevity
Ginny MacDonald, ‘Go, Jim Dandy‘ in Brevity
Jen Palmares Meadows, ‘Imprint‘ in Brevity
Lisa Nikolidakis, ‘Landlines‘ in Brevity
Margo Barnes, ‘Falling‘ in Brevity
Lessa Cross-Smith, ‘Other Boys & High School Hearts‘ on Real Pants
Elisa Gabbert, ‘Some Notes on Packing‘ on Real Pants
Stassa Edwards, ‘From Aesop to doge‘ in Aeon
Sadie Stein, ‘Common Colds‘ in The Paris Review
Samantha Lyon, ‘Gender Inequality in the World of Children’s Books‘ on The Inflectionist
Alex Clark, ‘TV books programmes: if nobody watches them, make better ones‘ in The Guardian
Jonathan Diaz, ‘Hello, Cruel World: Silvina Ocampo Is Argentina’s Literary Middle Child‘ on Flavorwire
S.L. Huang, ‘On the Subject of Unlikeable Woman Protagonists‘ on Chuck Wendig’s blog
Gemma Todd, ‘The Life of a Mobile Librarian‘ on the Picador Blog
Wiam El-Tamami, ‘Cairo: September 2014‘ in Granta
Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘Such a Stoic‘ in The New Yorker
Dan Piepenbring, ‘Speaking Bluntly‘ (A letter from Colette) in The Paris Review
Jill Dawson ‘The Life You Save May be Your Very Own‘ on Fat Is a Feminist Issue on Platform 505
Jessica Levine, ‘On Writing About Sex: Is It Necessary‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book

Lizzy Kremer, ‘The Stories Writers Tell‘ on her blog
Suzanne Moore, ‘Single parents don’t need anonymous generosity but public respect‘ in The Guardian
Corrine Duyvis, ‘Why Strong Characters Aren’t All That‘ on For Books’ Sake
Ann Bauer, ‘“Sponsored” by my husband: Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from‘ on Salon
Becca Rose, ‘The Third Generation‘ in The Butter
Lydia Kiesling, ‘I Would Do This for You: The Narrative Possibilities of Leaked Emails‘ on The Millions
Sarah Hollowell, ‘This is an Essay About a Fat Woman Being Loved and Getting Laid‘ in The Butter
Margo Rabb, ‘In My Cat’s Death, a Human Comfort‘ in The New York Times
Antonia Honeywell, ‘The Book That Changed My Life‘ on Novelicious
Christopher Fowler, ‘Invisible ink no 259: Female short story writers‘ in The Independent
Nicole Wolverton, ‘Mourning New York: Cari Luna and The Revolution of Every Day‘ on Bloom
Rachel Aviv, ‘Your Son Is Deceased‘ in The New Yorker
Vanessa Curtis, ‘On the 30,000 lost Jews of Riga‘ in The Guardian
Nicolette Jones, ‘The renaissance of Beatrix Potter’s great rival‘ in The Telegraph
Hermione Lee, ‘Alice Munroe’s Magic‘ in The New York Review of Books
Helen Oyeyemi, ‘Born Out of Rapt Distraction: On Silvina Ocampo’s “Thus Were Their Faces”‘ on The Millions
Roxane Gay, ‘Living with my parents in Florida, it’s difficult to feel like an adult‘ in The Guardian
Samantha Tucker, ‘Kitchen Remodel‘ in Guernica
Lucy Mangan, ‘There Are No Life Hacks for Love‘ in Stylist
Claudia Smith, ‘Basic. Bitch‘ in The Butter
Pallavi Aiyar, ‘The Foreign Correspondent‘ in Granta
Sara Majka, ‘Cities I’ve Never Lived In‘ in Guernica
Sara Gerard, ‘On Helen Keller Really Lived and The Wallcreeper:
How Should a Woman Behave?‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
Dana Stevens, ‘Tumbling into the Screen‘ on Slate
Emily Gould, ‘How Being Pregnant Ruined Shopping For Me‘ on Fast Company
Vanessa M. Gezari, ‘Why it pays to work the fringes‘ on Lynsey Addario in the Columbia Journalism Review
Roger Tagholm, ‘Why “Gone Girl?” Why Not “Gone Woman?”‘ on Publishing Perspectives
Charlotte Higgins, ‘Leonora Carrington: wild at heart‘ in The Guardian
Beth Miller, ‘There’s a difference in living and living well‘ on her blog
Joan Didion, ‘on Writing and Revising‘ on The New York Public Library Podcast
Helen Brocklebank, ‘The Books that Built Samantha Ellis‘ on Mrs Trefusis Takes a Taxi
Kavita Bhanot, ‘Too Asian, Not Asian Enough‘ on Media Diversified
Angela Köckritz, ‘They Have Miao‘ on Zeit Online
Sarah B. Boyle, ‘Reports from the Field: A Textbook Case of Diversity: How Educational Publishing Skims the Surface‘ on VIDA
Anna Maxymiw, ‘Making Gains‘ in Masionneuve
Megan Mayhew Bergman, ‘Bring In the Old: The Writer as Collector‘ on Ploughshare
Maya Jaggi, ‘Literature has Liberated Africa’s Authors‘ in The Financial Times

The interviews:

Katie Coyle on Flavorwire
Eula Bliss on Salon
Mary Gaitskill in BOMB Magazine
Vanessa Lafaye on Bookaholic Confessions
Gurinder Chadha in The Guardian
Kate Bernheimer on The Brooklyn Rail
Mary Kay Zuravleff on Fiction Writers Review
Paula Hawkins on Writer’s Bone and in The New York Times
Sarah Gerard in Interview Magazine and in Vice
Danielle Steele in T Magazine
Chelsea Hodson and Juliet Escoria on Emily Books
Tiphanie Yanique on Publishers Weekly
Emma Hooper on Open Book
Samantha Harvey on Salon
Janet Mock on Queer of Gender and Bitch Media
Peyton Marshall on Annethology
Molly Peacock on Maisonneuve
Miranda July on Longreads and The Millions and in The Cut
Polly Coles and Liz Jensen on Something Rhymed
Cari Luna on Bloom
Shelley Harris on Novelicious
Muriel Spark on Toby Litt’s blog twice
Joyce Carol Oates in The Independent
Kelly Link in The New York Times
Jenny Ashcroft on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
Jennifer Niven in The Guardian
Wendy Ortiz in Mutha Magazine
Dylan Landis on Electric Literature
Mindy Kaling in Stylist
Lena Dunham in the Los Angeles Review of Books
Celeste Ng on Radio Gorgeous and Novelicious
Lucy Ribchester, Elisabeth Gifford and Lucy Hughes-Hallett on Book Talk
Frances Vick in Shiny New Books
Sophia Tobin in Shiny New Books
Adèle Geras in Shiny New Books
Lynn Sloan on Bloom
Lynne Segal in The Observer

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

‘Olikoye‘ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Matter
‘Idaho‘ by Isabel Rogers on her blog
‘Hummers‘ by Amy Gottfried in Blunderbuss
‘The Garden Party‘ by Katherine Mansfield on The Centre for Fiction
‘Body as Device‘ by Brandi Wells in The Butter
‘Ellen Says No‘ by Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart in The Butter
An extract from The Serpent Papers by Jessica Cornwell
Five stories from Carys Bray’s Sweet Home on BBC Radio 4 Extra
‘Blood and Water‘ by Elizabeth Muchemwa on Brittle Paper
‘Alt Vices‘ by Michelle Dove in Guernica
‘Alice‘ by Elizabeth Harrower in The New Yorker and she discusses the story here
‘steph n deaf‘ by Jay Merrill in 3:am magazine
An extract from The Undertaking by Audrey Magee in the Irish Times
‘Performance Art‘ by Manjula Padmanabhan in Granta
An excerpt from Principles of Navigation by Lynn Sloan on Bloom
‘Miss Havisham’s Disability Application Is Denied‘ by Olga Oksman on McSweeney’s
Three Poems by Yvonne Green on And Other Poems
‘The Moth Mother‘ by Joanne Harris on her blog
An extract from Campari for Breakfast by Sara Crowe on Novel Kicks
‘For the Love of Squirrels‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
‘Tell Us a Story, Grandma‘ by Natalie Wise in The New Yorker
‘The Secret Lives of Shoes‘ by Atoke on Brittle Paper
‘t.w. gore‘ by Helen McClory on Litro
‘My Son Is a Good Man‘ by Rosanna Boscawen on Litro
‘And So It Begins‘ by Lara Williams on Litro
‘An Unsolved Mystery Of Quantum Mechanics‘ by Beatrice Garland on Visual Verse
‘Heel Drags‘ by Susan Gray on Visual Verse
‘Please Come‘ by Jennifer Falkner on Visual Verse
‘The Last Leg‘ by Hazel Mason on Visual Verse
‘Crossing the Line‘ by Avalina Kreska on Visual Verse
‘Stuck‘ by Samantha Newbury on Visual Verse
‘In a Rush‘ by Catherine Lødøen on Visual Verse
‘Sketch of an Abandoned Journey‘ by Linda Ashok on Visual Verse
‘Parallels of Time‘ by Pauline Suett Barbieri on Visual Verse
‘Poem for Isaac‘ by Freya Dean on Visual Verse
‘Towards the Penal Colony‘ by Corrine Lawrence on Visual Verse
‘Limbs Anonymous‘ by Judith A. Daniel on Visual Verse
‘The Rainforest‘ by Olive Lowena on Visual Verse
‘Coney Island Cap‘ by Jennifer Albon Burns on Visual Verse
‘What Happened in the Hold‘ by Lindsey Grundnicki on Visual Verse
‘Over the Limit‘ by Sue Ellis on Visual Verse
‘Moonlit Road‘ by Sarah Doughty on Visual Verse
‘Colgate‘ by Isadora Vibes on Visual Verse
‘Circles and Lines‘ by Sarah Salway on Visual Verse
‘Crossing the Line‘ by Birgita Orel on Visual Verse
‘Yarn‘ by Shirley Anne Cook on Visual Verse
‘Bad Habit‘ by Wendy Choi on Visual Verse
‘Arrival‘ by Georgina Joss on Visual Verse
‘No Overtaking‘ by Sally Hepplewhite on Visual Verse
‘Blinders‘ by Grace Black on Visual Verse
‘Found‘ by Luciana Francis on Visual Verse
‘Gateway‘ by Olivia Sprinkled on Visual Verse
‘Return‘ by Elizabeth Rogers on Visual Verse
‘Love‘ by Jennifer Harvey on Visual Verse
‘Shadows of the Showgirl‘ by Clare Archibald on Visual Verse
Three Stories by Chiara Barzini in BOMB Magazine