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, June 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.

It’s impossible to begin with anything other than the Stanford rape case. The victim’s court statement was published on Buzzfeed and went viral. The piece, along with responses from Brock Turner’s father and friends, including a female friend who defended him, have prompted some impassioned and powerful pieces: Louise O’Neill wrote, ‘20 minutes is an awfully long time when you’re the one being raped‘ in the Irish Examiner; Estelle B. Freedman, ‘When Feminists Take On Judges Over Rape‘ in The New York Times; Sarah Lunnie, ‘Maybe the word “rapist” is a problem: The utility of nouns and verbs, or accepting who we are and what we do‘ on Salon; Adrienne LaFrance, ‘What Happens When People Stop Talking About the Stanford Rape Case?‘ on The Atlantic; Kim Saumell, ‘I was never raped but…‘ on Medium; Rebecca Makkai, ‘The Power and Limitations of Victim-Impact Statements‘ in The New Yorker; Roe McDermott, ‘He Said Nothing‘ on The Coven; Glosswitch, ‘Does the outrage over the Stanford rape case do anything to help victims?‘ in the New Statesman

The other big news this fortnight was Lisa McInerney’s debut novel, The Glorious Heresies, taking The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016. Justine Jordan wrote, ‘Sweary Lady’s riot of invention is a well-deserved winner of the Baileys prize‘ in The Guardian. While McInerney wrote about her working day for The Guardian and shared a secret in ‘Bad Behaviourism‘ on Scottish Book Trust

There’s a new series on Literary Hub about women writers in translation. Written by a group of translators, each fortnight they’re looking at a country and the women writers from there yet to be translated into English. So far they’ve covered Germany, China and Italy. I’ve added it to the regulars at the bottom of the page.

And finally, the excellent Jendella Benson has a new column on Media Diversified. This week’s is ‘How to Raise a Champion‘ and I’ve also added her to the list of regulars at the bottom of the page.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Natasha Walter, ‘We’ve been expecting you, Ms Bond: why fiction needs more female spies‘ in The Guardian
• Barbara Donsky, ‘The Power of Nancy Drew‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Kaulie Lewis, ‘Books I Wish I Wrote: On Writerly Jealousy‘ on The Millions
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘Sex, drugs and radical feminism. At 50, Valley Of The Dolls is as relevant as ever‘ on The Pool
• Tessa Hadley, ‘At Home in the Past‘ in The New Yorker
• Peggy Frew, ‘The closest Mum ever came to saying ‘I love you’ – Dad never even came close‘ in The Irish Times
• Joanna Walsh, ‘The N Word – Against the Novel‘ in The Irish Times
• M.J. Carter, ‘Who Were the Infidels‘ on For Winter Nights
• Lisa Dempster, ‘If you doubted there was gender bias in literature, this study proves you wrong‘ in The Guardian
• Rachael Acks, ‘An Open Letter to a Novel I Was Certain I’d Love (And Didn’t)‘ on BookRiot
• Teresa Preston, ‘Where Are All the Single Ladies in Fiction‘ on BookRiot
• Sarah Hepola, ‘What My Parents Really Think About My Memoir of Alcoholism‘ on Literary Hub
• Alix Hawley, ‘Angels of the North: On ‘Happy Valley’ and Anne Brontë‘ on The Millions
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘Beyoncé is not shining a light on African literature – it’s the other way round‘ in The Guardian
• Lionel Shriver’s ‘teenage diary: bad spelling and unreturned affections‘ in The Guardian
• Mo Moulton, ‘Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Barber, and the Story of a Wartime Lemon‘ in The Toast
• Christina Patterson, ‘Memorising Poetry Is an Art of the Heart‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Madison, ‘Dear Broke Reader: Your Sense of Entitlement is Killing Me‘ on her website
• Kelly Kanayama, ‘Even with “inclusive” Shakespeare, whiteness takes priority‘ on Media Diversified
• Rivka Galchen, ‘Where Is Luckily?‘ in The New Yorker
• Mylo Freeman, ‘Black girls can be princesses too, that’s why I wrote my books‘ in The Guardian
• Annie Liontas, ‘Inherit the Word‘ in The New York Times
• JoAnna Novak, ‘The Long Dash‘ on Catapult
• Lucie Whitehouse, ‘Why Strong Female Friendships Are So Important In Literature Today‘ in Bustle
• Kate Angus, ‘How to Tell the Future with Books‘ on Literary Hub
• Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, ‘Writers need new ways of talking about Africa’s past and present‘ in The Guardian
• Amber Sparks, ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Short Story Writers (And Demand They Write a Novel)‘ on Electric Literature
• James Wallace Harris, ‘The Resurrection of Lady Dorothy Mills‘ on BookRiot
• Alison Flood, ‘Yale English students call for end of focus on white male writers‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Tyler, ‘Let’s face it, Shakespeare’s plots are terrible’ in The Guardian
• C.J. Flood, ‘Teen girls have a right to roam too‘ in The Guardian
• Michelle Dean, ‘In Between Daze‘ in The Awl
• Charlotte Eyre, ‘Crossan wins YA Book Prize 2016‘ in The Bookseller
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘Girly Book Covers and Man Book Clubs‘ on Electric Literature
• Saengeeta Bandyopadhyay, ‘My God, so Much Sex?‘ on English Pen (translated by Arunava Sinha)
• Michelle Dean, ‘Read it and keep: is it time to reassess the ‘beach read’?‘ in The Guardian
• Sarra Manning, ‘I Love Books, Let Me Count The Ways…‘ in Red
• Katherine Wilson, ‘How Elena Ferrante made the neglected Naples a must-visit destination‘ on The Pool
• Jonathan Coe, ‘Enid Blyton? She gave me my sense of social justice‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hilary, ‘A Gift for Killing: Patricia Highsmith’s legacy for today’s crime writers‘ on Virago
• Esther Allen, ‘From the Translator: The Song Remains the Same?‘ on Words Without Borders
• Monica Tan, ‘Women and Melbourne writers dominate Miles Franklin 2016 shortlist‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘The mystifying disappearance of children’s author Helen Bailey‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Buchanan, ‘How Shakespeare shaped Greer’s feminist masterpiece‘ on ABC
• Ursula K. LeGuin, ‘Up the Amazon with the BS Machine‘ on Book View Cafe
• Emily Carr, ‘Finding Poems in My Own Labyrinth‘ on Literary Hub
• Gretchen Gerzina, ‘“True Love”: The Victorian (re)discovery that transformed our understanding of black women’s literature‘ on Salon

Personal essays/memoir:

• Melynda Fuller, ‘Rapture of the Deep‘ on The Rumpus
• Claire Hoffman, ‘Growing Up in Meditationland‘ in The Cut
• Tanwi Nandini Islam, ‘How Failure Became My New Beginning‘ in Elle
• Maya Binyam, ‘That Place Becomes a Wound‘ on The Hairpin
• Stephanie Danler, ‘On Losing Something Precious‘ on Literary Hub
• Marina Benjamin, ‘My Daughter, Myself‘ on Aeon
• Rebecca Worby, ‘Expanding the Story‘ in Guernica
• Cathy Day, ‘They Found a Meth Lab in Cole Porter’s Childhood Home‘ on Literary Hub
• Bryony Gordon, ‘How my relationships with men were affected by my mental illness‘ on The Pool
• Allison Moorer, ‘Below The Belt‘ on Guernica
• Rina Caballar, ‘How to Make Polvoron: Growing Up With a Mother Overseas‘ in The Toast
• Soniah Kamal, ‘The Reluctant Writer‘ on Catapult
• Stephanie Wittels Wachs, ‘How to Reinvent Yourself‘ on Medium
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Time, Money, Happiness‘ on The Smart Set
• Gillian B. White, ‘Muhammad Ali and the Importance of Identity‘ on The Atlantic
• Erin Williams, ‘Before I Was A Mother, I Was A Drunk‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Sweeney, ‘Some Girls‘ on Catapult
• Nicole Walker, ‘DNA‘ on The Rumpus
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘The Plus Side to Marrying a Total Stranger‘ on Female First
• Ulrika Campbell, ‘My Mother Told Me I Should Get Breast Implants When I Was 14‘ on XOJane
• Bridget Minamore, ‘The simple joy shared by two women on the road‘ on The Pool
• Marie Phillips, ‘Can you ever truly feel at home in a country you weren’t born in?‘ on The Pool
• Francine Prose, ‘Enthralled by Sicily, Again‘ in The New York Times
• Jane Demuth, ‘This Is to Mother You: On Caring for a Toxic Parent in Her Greatest Time of Need‘ on Longreads

Feminism:

• Marina Benjamin, ‘The ‘middlepause’: what no one tells you about turning 50‘ in The Telegraph
• Alexandra Heminsley, ‘Why BodyForm’s new ad is a game changer‘ on The Pool
• Megan Garber, ‘When Newsweek ‘Struck Terror in the Hearts of Single Women’‘ on The Atlantic
• Robyn Wilder, ‘Finding your place in the mummy-cliques‘ on The Pool
• Helen Phillips, ‘Escaping the Self-Critical Eye for the Sake of My Daughter‘ on Literary Hub
• Holly Brockwell, ‘“There’s not a shadow of regret”: one woman’s diary of her struggle to become voluntarily infertile aged 30‘ in Stylist
• Jessica Valenti, ‘My life as a ‘sex object’‘ in The Guardian
• Orbala, ‘On Conditional Love in Patriarchies and Death to Patriarchy‘ on Freedom from the Forbidden
• Claire Heuchan, ‘Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Racism in the Feminist Movement‘ on Sister Outrider
• Ann Friedman, ‘Pop Feminism Doesn’t Mean the End of the Movement‘ in The Cut
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘When it comes to online abuse, we need to see a fuller picture‘ on The Pool
• Dawn Foster, ‘If I ever see you in the street, I hope you get shot’ on The London Review of Books
• Una Mullally, ‘Shifting Ground‘ in Granta
• Hadley Hall Meares, ‘The invention of the paper bag was a triumph of feminism‘ on Aeon

Society and Politics:

• Alana Massey, ‘Your Parents’ Romantic Lives Don’t Have to Determine Your Own‘ in The Cut
• Sonia Smith, ‘Unfriendly Climate‘ in Texas Monthly
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, ‘Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City‘ in The New York Times Magazine
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘The Brown, Queer, And Poor Are Not The Ones Holding The Left Back‘ in The Establishment
• Mary Milz, ‘Blindsided: A Dream Engagement Turned Nightmare‘ in Indianapolis Monthly
• Alex Mar, ‘What Ever Happened to “The Most Liberated Woman in America”?‘ on Longreads
• Andrea Nguyen, ‘The History of Pho‘ on Lucky Peach
• Ella Risbridger, ‘If I am your “carer”, can I also be your girlfriend, mother or daughter?‘on The Pool
• Kathleen McAuliffe, ‘Disgust Made Us Human‘ on Aeon
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Sexuality today: how we embarked on a new age of freedom and tolerance‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘Citizen Khan‘ in The New Yorker
• Ashley Powers, ‘The Man in the Woods‘ in the California Sunday Magazine
• Lynn Enright, ‘Negotiating the etiquette of love in the airport‘ on The Pool
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘The disastrous message sexism in the Labour party is giving young women voters‘ on The Pool
• Jacinda Townsend, ‘Heteronormativity and the Single Mother‘ in The White Review
• Glosswitch, ‘To ignore someone’s educational background isn’t “fair play” – it perpetuates inequality‘ in the New Statesman
• Olga Khazan, ‘Not White, Not Rich, and Seeking Therapy‘ in The Atlantic
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Hillary Clinton vs. Herself‘ in New York Magazine

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

• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Why, after years of gay-free cartoons, I can’t get excited about Finding Dory’s lesbian couple‘ on the New Statesman
• Chitra Ramaswamy, ‘Why we need more gay characters on screen‘ on The Pool
• Kristen Lopez, ‘How the Weepy Fantasy ‘Me Before You’ Infantilizes the Disabled‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Hall, ‘Watch author Jojo Moyes respond to controversy over the portrayal of disability in Me Before You‘ in Stylist
• Clover Hope, ‘How White Are the Women’s Magazine Covers of 2016 so Far?‘ on Jezebel
• Kat George, ‘Why Missy Elliott’s feminist legacy is criminally underrated‘ on Dazed
• Désirée Wariaro, ‘Beyoncé and Resistance‘ on Media Diversified

The interviews/profiles:

• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney in The New York Times
• Annie Proulx in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal
• Marilynne Robinson on BookRiot
• Nina Stibbe in Red
• Mary Roach in The New York Times
• Christina MacSweeney on Words Without Borders
• Sarah Hepola on Salon
• Rebecca Schiff on The Rumpus
• Stephanie Danler on Literary Hub
• Jessica Valenti on BookRiot and The Pool
• Lynne Kutsukake on Bloom
• Sarah Gerard on The Huffington Post
• Rita Mae Brown on Broadly
• Lydia Millet and Jenny Offill on Slate
• Nell Dunn on The F Word
• Sarah Perry on The History Girls and Five Books
• Yaa Gyasi on NPR
• Lynn Steger Strong on The Rumpus
• Eleanor Wasserberg on Waterstones
• Sylvia Patterson in The Guardian
• Laura Lippman on The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Patricia Engel on Electric Literature
• Hanya Yanagihara on Waterstones and The Bookseller
• Leila Aboulala (and Elnathan John) on Literary Hub
• Emma Jane Unsworth and Rachel B. Glaser on Granta
• Emma Straub on BookRiot and Electric Literature
• Kathleen Alcott in The Guardian
• Julie Myerson on Bookanista
• Emma Cline on The Bookseller
• Weina Dai Randel on History from a Woman’s Perspective
• Joanna Walsh in The Honest Ulsterman
• Helen MacKinven on Christina Banach’s website
• Charlotte Hobson in the Financial Times
• Rebecca Perry in The Honest Ulsterman
• Kimberle Crenshaw in The Guardian
• Alice Walker on Salon

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
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, May 2016, Part Three

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.

Books in translation have been having a moment following Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith winning the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian. They wrote, ‘It is fascinating to ponder the possibili­ties of language‘ for The Guardian; Charles Montgomery wrote, ‘The Triumph of Han Kang and the Rise of Women’s Writing in Korea‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books; Sophie Hughes wrote, ‘On the Joyful Tears of a Translator‘ on Literary Hub. Judith Vonberg writes, ‘Translated fiction is not a genre. Why do bookshops tell us it is?‘ in The New Statesman and Anjali Enjeti asks, ‘Do Americans Hate Foreign Fiction‘ on Literary Hub

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Rose Tremain, ‘Forty Years as a Writer‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Francesca Simon, ‘I’m a mixture of both Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter‘ in The Telegraph
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘To Break the Story, You Must Break the Status Quo‘ on Literary Hub
• Rose Courteau, ‘Team Ladislaw: What Henry James (and Everyone Else) Gets Wrong About Middlemarch‘ on The Millions
• Claire Christian, ‘Self-publish and be sneered at?‘ in The Bookseller
• Hannah Engler, ‘Nora Ephron and Literary Moms‘ on Bookriot
• Sarah LeFanu, ‘on Women’s Writing: A Small Bit of Recent History‘ on Something Rhymed
• Sarah Boxer, ‘Reading Proust on My Cellphone‘ on The Atlantic
• Casey Rocheteau, ‘Literary Juneteenth (or Why I Left The Offing)‘ on The Offing
• Julie Feng, ‘The Weight of the World, The Weight of Words‘ on Winter Tangerine
• Amy Watkin, ‘Harper Lee Would Like a Word With You‘ on McSweeney’s
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘Actually, All Writers Steal‘ on Literary Hub
• Julia Rochester, ‘My fiction is preoccupied with belonging and exile‘ in The Guardian
• Nuzaifa, ‘Muslims Represented in YA Fiction‘ on Word Contessa
• Zara Raab, ‘These Molten Flowers: on Lola Ridge, radical poet and activist‘ on Critical Flame
• Soniah Kamal, ‘When My Authentic Is Your Exotic‘ on Literary Hub
• Glosswitch, ‘Re-reading Wide Sargasso Sea‘ on Glosswatch
• Paula Erizanu, ‘Sarah Crossan wins the Irish children’s book of the year‘ in The Guardian
• Elif Shafak, ‘Writing Fiction is an Act of Faith‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Bridget Read, ‘Jenny Diski, Down the Final Rabbit Hole‘ on Literary Hub
• Melissa Holbrook Pierson, ‘That’s Inspiration!: Rereading Annie Dillard‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Enrique Vila-Matas, ‘The Unstoppable Myth of Alejandra Pizarnik‘ on Literary Hub
• Judith Shulevitz, ‘The Brontës’ Secret‘ on The Atlantic
• Alex Clark, ‘‘No drugs on the bus’: Carol Ann Duffy takes a road trip‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Enright, ‘In search of the real Maeve Brennan‘ in The Guardian
• Milena Busquets, ‘Writing my way out of the loneliness of grief‘ on The Pool
• Laura Miller, ‘Introducing My Ántonia‘ on Slate
• Nina Stibbe, ‘Helena Bonham Carter was cast in a TV series about my life – and all I could do was blag a Harry Potter ticket from her,’ in The Telegraph
• Candace Opper, ‘The Suicide Memoir: True Crime, Mystery and Grief‘ on Literary Hub
• Rebecca Smart, ‘Pride not prejudice’ in The Bookseller
• Nicole Brinkley, ‘“Women built this castle”: An in-depth look at sexism in YA.‘ on YA Interrobang
• Samantha Shannon, ‘An abridged Da Vinci Code implies teens need simple books – they don’t‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Caldwell, ‘On Why Short Stories Matter‘ on Faber & Faber Blog
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘Topography of a Novel: Hold Still‘ on Blunderbuss
• Robin Wasserman, ‘What Does It Mean When We Call Women Girls‘ on Literary Hub
• Rebecca Wait, ‘Following the Leader‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Marianne Tatipo, ‘Young, BAME, and chasing the ‘alternative route into publishing’ dream‘ in The Bookseller
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Lucia Berlin‘ in The Guardian
• Janice P. Nimura, ‘History Never Ends, It Just Gets Retold‘ on Literary Hub
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘How Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love Saved Me‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura Smith, ‘House Hunting with Martha Gellhorn‘ on Hazlitt
• Mikita Brottman, ‘Jane Austen’s Ivory Cage‘ in The American Scholar
• Faye Bird, ‘Why I Wanted to Write About Selective Mutism‘ on Scottish Booktrust
• Chris Kraus, ‘I Love Dick happened in real life, but it’s not a memoir‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jess Carroll, ‘Watch Me Bathe‘ on Hazlitt
• Amy Jones, ‘Stuck in the middle — between body positivity and clean eating‘ on Medium
• Carly Rose, ‘My Journey Into the Woods: What Stephen Sondheim Taught Me About Conceiving a Child‘ on Electric Literature
• Joanna Sing, ‘What I Have Learnt from Being (Occasionally) White-Passing‘ on Gal-Dem
• Nicole Cliffe, ‘How God Messed Up My Happy Atheist Life‘ on Christianity Today
• Eva Hagberg Fisher, ‘Vital Signs‘ on Guernica
• Maggie O’Farrell, ‘‘I have three seconds before she draws blood’: life with extreme eczema‘ in The Guardian
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘The Fierce Triumph of Loneliness‘ on Catapult
• Vanessa Hua, ‘The Sandwich Generation‘ in the San Francisco Chronicle
• Anna March, ‘The Burn‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Katrina Kenison, ‘Solitude: A Reprieve from the Noise of Doing‘ on On Being
• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘Blue Hills and Chalk Bones‘ on Granta
• Nina Stibbe’s letter to her younger self: ‘Try not to have a weave perm’ in The Guardian
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘Do the Deer‘ on Medium
• Rumaan Alam, ‘What Happened When I Tried to Have It All‘ on The Cut

Feminism:

• Katie J.M. Baker, ‘Ethics and the Eye of the Beholder‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alana Massey, ‘The Clique Imaginary‘ in The New Inquiry
• Lena Dunham, ‘Sorry, Not Sorry: My Apology Addiction‘ on Linkedin
• Emma Garman, ‘A Liberated Woman: The Story of Margaret King‘ on Longreads
• Joanna Walsh, ‘“She wore a USB cord instead of a necklace”: whatever happened to Cyberfeminism?‘ in The New Statesman
• Rebecca Reid, ‘GirLand, Habbo Hotel and me: how I learned to masturbate online‘ in The New Statesman
• Lola Okolosie, ‘“Misogynoir is a very real problem and feminism can no longer ignore it”‘ in Stylist
• Laura Maw, ‘Rhythms of Fear‘ on Hazlitt
• Afak Afgun, ‘Women carry a heavier coffin‘ on Sister-Hood
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Stop telling women they’re doing feminism wrong‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘In Defense of Motherhood as Art‘ on Vela
• Sian Norris, ‘The value of women’s silence‘ on Sian and Crooked Rib
• Lasha, ‘bell hooks vs. Beyoncé: What this feminist scholarly critique gets wrong about “Lemonade” and liberation‘ on Salon
• Sari Botton, ‘Unchain My Heart: On the Emotional Effectiveness – and Lingering Sexism – of Jewish Divorce‘ on Longreads
• Lindy West, ‘Why women need to be bigger: on why we all should be loud and proud‘ in Stylist

Society and Politics:

• Charlotte Riley, ‘Working class girls don’t threaten our universities, they enrich them‘ in The New Statesman
• Jessica Contrera, ‘13, right now‘ in The Washington Post
• Daisy Hernández, ‘Kiss of Death‘ in Guernica
• Lindy West, ‘My husband isn’t fat, and that enrages people‘ on The Pool
• Holly Root-Gutteridge, ‘The songs of the wolves‘ on Aeon
• Mary Wang, ‘Seeing Through the Fog, Part Two‘ on Guernica
• Tracy O’Neill, ‘The Long Line to Tonight‘ on Catapult
• Ella Wilks-Harper, ‘There’s a Fine Line Between Tokenism and Diversity‘ on Gal-Dem
• Tracie White, ‘The Puzzle Solver‘ on Stanford Medicine
• Katherine Laidlaw, ‘Hold the Fort‘ on The Walrus
• Sonia Faliero, ‘The Long Rescue‘ in Harper’s
• Mallika Rao, ‘From Nina to Lemonade, Why We’re Still So Bad at Talking About Colorism‘ on Slate
• Deborah Halber, ‘192 Days as John Doe’ on Mosaic
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Racism and misogyny explains why there are so few black women in politics‘ on The Pool
• Christine Baumgarthuber, ‘Dinner with Caligula‘ on The New Inquiry
• Anna Furman, ‘Meeting Edward Said‘ on Guernica

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

• Louise Ridley, ‘Celebrity Injunctions Show ‘Moral Abuse’ Of Courts As They Are ‘Almost Entirely Taken Out By Unfaithful Men’ Say Lawyers‘ on The Huffington Post
• Arielle Bernstein, ‘Beyond the “girl power” anthem: Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and pop’s radical embrace of female vulnerability‘ on Salon
• Elizabeth Daley, ‘Above and Beyoncé‘ on Guernica
• Joanna Sing, ‘Can We Excuse Azealia Banks on Account of Her Bipolar Disorder?‘ on Gal-Dem

The interviews/profiles:

• Miranda Beverly Whittemore on Literary Hub
• Emma Cline on The Bookseller
• Emma Straub in The New York Times
• Mary Gaitskill on Guernica
• Mona Awad on Hazlitt
• Lindy West on Buzzfeed
• Stephanie Danler on Electric Literature, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair and Guernica
• Kit de Waal in The Bookseller
• Rufi Thorpe on Electric Literature
• Fionnuala Kearney on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Rebecca Schiff on Electric Literature
• Svetlana Alexievich on The Millions
• Sarah Perry on Foyles
• MariNaomi on The Millions
• Margo Jefferson in The Observer
• Kelly Link on The Masters Review
• Anakana Schofield on The Gloss
• Teow Lim Goh on The Fem
• Elena Ferrante in The New Yorker
• Rivka Galchen 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
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, May 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.

The last fortnight’s been dominated by death. On Thursday, Jenny Diski died less than two years after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Literary Hub ran ‘Remembering Jenny Diski‘ including pieces from Hayley Mlotek, Michelle Dean, Joanna Walsh, Bridget Read, Laura Marsh, Marta Bausells and Charlotte Shane. The Guardian ran an extract from her cancer diary. Joanne Harris wrote a found poem ‘Opium Ice Cream‘ from Diski’s tweets, and The London Review of Books opened Jenny Diski’s entire archive to non-subscribers.

The previous week comedian Victoria Wood died. A.L. Kennedy declared her, ‘My Hero‘ in The Guardian; Helen Walmsley Johnson wrote, ‘Victoria Wood gave us the gift of being able to laugh at ourselves‘ in The New Statesman

Although he’s not a female writer, Prince also died just over a week ago and so much brilliant writing by women has come from that: Porochista Khakpour, ‘Prince’s Woman and Me: The Collaborators Who Inspired a Generation‘ in the Village Voice; Maya West, ‘A Hierarchy of Love and Loss and Prince‘ on Jezebel; Bim Adewunmi, ‘Celebrating Prince For 48 Hours In Minneapolis‘ on Buzzed; Heather Haverilsky, ‘Prince Showed Me a Whole New Way of Existing‘ on The Cut; Amanda Marcotte, ‘Sexy MFers, unite: The feminist power of Prince’s sex-positive songs‘ on Salon; K.T. Billey, ‘Prince and the queer body: Our dirty patron saint of pop gave me permission to think outside the gender binary‘ on Salon; Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘Surviving a Long Alaskan Winter with Prince‘ on Literary Hub; Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, ‘Prince Spent His Life Elevating and Mentoring Women‘ on Jezebel; Lily Burano, ‘Why Prince Was a Hero to Strippers‘ on The Cut; Ashley Weatherford, ‘Understanding the Politics of Prince’s Hair‘ on The Cut; Mona Hayder, ‘Prince Was a Demigod Who Uplifted the Masses Through Music‘ on Literary Hub; Naomi Jackson, ‘Prince: Finding Joy Outside Conformity‘ on Literary Hub; Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Prince conjured the kind of sex you’d want to have – filthy and fun, and sometimes offensive‘ in The Independent; Tracy King, ‘We should celebrate Prince for championing female musicians‘ in The New Statesman; Laura Craik, ‘“I loved him because of how his music made me feel”‘ on The Pool; Michelle Garcia, ‘Prince gave black kids permission to be weirdos‘ on Vox; Ijeoma Oluo, ‘Prince Was The Patron Saint Of Black Weirdos‘ on The Establishment.

Other brilliant writing about music came from the launch of Beyoncé’s new album Lemonade. Brittany Spanos, ‘How Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Reclaims Rock’s Black Female Legacy‘ in Rolling Stone; Mandy Stadtmiller, ‘How Lemonade Helped Me Talk to My Husband About Cheating‘ on The Cut; Treva Lindsey, ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade Isn’t Just About Cheating, It’s About Black Sisterhood‘ in Cosmopolitan; Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Monica, Becky With The Good Hair, and the power of the Other Woman‘ in The Pool; Diamond Sharp, ‘Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Is an Anthem for the Retribution of Black Women‘ on Vice; Morgan Jerkins, ‘‘Lemonade’ Is About Black Women Healing Themselves and Each Other‘ in Elle; Daisy Buchanan, ‘What can Beyoncé’s Lemonade teach us about love?‘ on The Pool; Vanessa Kisuule, ‘Why Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ Shows a Refinement of her Artistry‘ on Gal-Dem; Carrie Battan, ‘Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” Is a Revelation of Spirit‘ in The New Yorker; Priscilla Ward, ‘Beyoncé’s radical invitation: In “Lemonade,” a blueprint for black women working through pain‘ on Salon; Ezinne Ukoha, ‘I Will Do Better By My Sisters‘ on Medium; June Eric-Udorie, ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and the power it bestows young black women‘ on The Pool; Rafia Zakaria, ‘Warsan Shire: the Somali-British poet quoted by Beyoncé in Lemonade‘ in The Guardian; Juliane Okot Bitek wrote, ‘On the Poet Warsaw Shire, Nobody’s Little Sister‘ on Literary Hub. While Jamila addressed Piers Morgan’s criticisms of the album with ‘Dear Piers…‘ on her blog.

And I wanted to include this story because it’s just lovey: Jessie Burton’s new novel The Muse includes a setting named after Waterstones’ bookseller Leila Skelton. Skelton does the most incredible window displays at the Doncaster shop which are often shared on Twitter.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Catherine Bennett, ‘Modern tribes: the Elena Ferrante fan‘ in The Guardian
• Erika Janik, ‘Women Detectives in Fact and Fiction‘ on Literary Hub
• Amanda Fortini, ‘Why Can’t You Be Sweet?‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Jacqueline Wilson, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Poliner, ‘How Mapping Alice Munro’s Stories Helped Me as a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Churchill, ‘Bring out the Great Gatsby gin and jazz: it’s time to breath new life into the literary lecture‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Barnett, ‘The Joys (and Perils) of Literary Tourism‘ on Literary Hub
• Nakul Krishna, ‘Enid Blyton, moral guide‘ on Aeon
• Summer Brennan, ‘On the Heartbreaking Difficulty of Getting Rid of Books‘ on Literary Hub
• Selin Gökcesu, ‘Jane and I: On Re-Reading Jane Eyre‘ on Electric Literature
• Idra Novey, ‘Learning to Be Embarrassed on the Page‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Moss, ‘Shakespeare for Children‘ on Granta
• Jillian Keenan, ‘Hamlet Was a Bro Who Didn’t Even Like Sex‘ on Literary Hub
• Julianne Ross, ‘You Want a Piece of Me: Elena Ferrante and the Myth that Female Artists Owe Us More than Their Work‘ on MTV
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best nonfiction books: No 13 – The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer (1970)‘ in The Guardian
• Carol Lovekin, ‘on being published in later life‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Nora Zelevansky, ‘How to Write Teen Girl Characters‘ on Literary Hub
• Kit de Waal, ‘Ideas are free, but writing is expensive: how can we ensure disadvantaged voices are heard?‘ in The New Statesman
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Are we sex-literate? Why we should all be writing more about pleasure‘ in The New Statesman
• Aysha Khan, ‘Face-Off‘ in Reorient
• Anne Enright, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘The secret to work/life balance? There isn’t one‘ on The Pool
• Melissa Goodrich, ‘Diving Into the Faery Handbag: On Fabulism‘ on Electric Literature
• Emma Butcher, ‘The secret history of Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë’s private fantasy stories‘ in The Guardian

• Zeffie Gaines, ‘Falling Apart: A Meditation on Love and the Work of Baldwin, Winterson, and Morrison‘ on Electric Literature
• Bridget Read, ‘Charlotte Brontë May Have Started the Fire, But Jean Rhys Burned Down the House‘ on Literary Hub
• Varaidzo, ‘From school books to publishing, black girls deserve better representation‘ in The New Statesman
• Lyndsay Faye, ‘If Jane Eyre Came Out Today Would it Be Marketed as Genre?‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Berry, ‘My Pilgrimage to the House of Brontë‘ on The Millions
• Anna March, Jen Fitzgerald, Ashley Ford and Ashley Perez, ‘Most writers get screwed: We did the math, and it’s true — literary prizes exclude writers outside the campus gates‘ on Salon
• Stephanie Boland, ‘From Enid Blyton to Richard Hoggart: The use of literacy‘ in The New Statesman
• Alexandra Molotokow, ‘Maggie Nelson Refuses to Make Things Simple‘ on The Cut
• Elif Shafak, ‘On Women Writers Transcending Boundaries‘ on the Bailey’s Prize blog
• Ilana Massad, ‘Read Between the Racism: The Serious Lack of Diversity in Book Publishing‘ on Broadly
• Alison Flood, ‘Are most romance novels badly written?‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Flood, ‘Books by earliest women writers in English on display together for first time‘ in The Guardian
• Aya de Leon, ‘Portrait of the #WriterMom as a Member of the Working Class‘ on her blog
• Zoey Cole, ‘Remembering the Great C.D. Wright‘ on Literary Hub
• Virginia Baily, ‘Travels with my Aunt‘ on Virago
• Steph Harmon, ‘Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things wins $50,000 Stella prize‘ in The Guardian
• Bhavneet Kaur, ‘The Poetics of Resistance‘ in Kindle
• Sam Jordison, ‘Virginia Woolf in Brontë country: picking apart the genius in Jane Eyre‘ in The Guardian
• Georgette Mushier, ‘What literacy can do for children in institutions‘ in The New Statesman
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘Why I chose an African publisher over a western one‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘Was Jane Austen a feminist? The answer is in her stories‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Terri White, ‘The story of me and my beehive‘ on The Pool
• Claire Woods, ‘‘As I woke up each morning, my pregnancy screamed at me’‘ in The Irish Times
• Eleanor Franzén, ‘Death Out of Season‘ on Litro
• Alana Massey, ‘My Boyfriend Isn’t My Best Friend — My Cat Is‘ on The Cut
• Lorena Piñeiro, ‘Penance‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Linh Le, ‘How I learned to love my selfie‘ on Hello Giggles
• Lynn Murray, ‘The Carnival of Kid Baseball‘ on Tin House
• Susan Shapiro, ‘The Line Between Professor and Predator Isn’t Always So Clear‘ on The Cut
• Jung Yun, ‘My Fargo‘ on The Atlantic
• Kai Kalia Yang, ‘My Father the Song Poet‘ on Literary Hub
• Alexandra Reisner, ‘Small Bodies‘ on Electric Literature
• Jennifer Fliss, ‘The Day I told My Father to Shoot Himself‘ on Narratively
• Sara Lieberman, ‘Dating in New York Ruined Me for Paris‘ on The Cut
• Christina Crosby, ‘Your Puny, Vulnerable Self‘ on The Offing
• Anca Szilágyi, ‘Used to Be Schwartz‘ on The Rumpus
• Catherine Lloyd Burns, ‘Remembering John the Hotdog Man‘ on Guernica
• Rebecca Schiff, ‘On My Abnormally Quiet Jewish Family‘ on Literary Hub
• Mandy Stadtmiller, ‘I Love My Husband, But I Hate Working With Him‘ on The Cut
• Abigail Rasminsky, ‘I Had a Baby in Europe; Here’s What It Did to Me‘ in The Cut
• Chantal Braganza, ‘A Grief Like This‘ on Hazlitt
• Deborah A. Lott, ‘My Dream of Androgyny‘ on The Rumpus
• Rachel Charlene Lewis, ‘After Sandra Bland‘ on The Normal School
• Marisa Bate, ‘My mum was stalked when I was a child. The impact is lasting on us all‘ on The Pool
• Ella Dawson, ‘Good Girl‘ on Femsplain
• Laura Kasinof, ‘The Violence Was Once Mine‘ on Guernica
• Decca Aitkenhead, ‘The Loneliness of Losing Your Partner‘ on Well Doing

Feminism:

• Megan Garber, ‘Seeing Red: The Rise of Mensesplaining‘ on The Atlantic
• Alexandra Petri, ‘Play the ‘woman card’ and reap these ‘rewards’!‘ in The Washington Post
• Dayna Evans, ‘Here’s What Happens When Men Write About the Gender Pay Gap‘ on The Cut
• Glosswitch, ‘It harms women more than men when dads doing parenting are seen as “babysitters”‘ in The New Statesman
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Can you be a feminist and … ?‘ in The Guardian
• Tobi Oredein, ‘How YouTube became the best place to see black women’s stories‘ on The Pool
• Jennifer Tamyayo, ‘When You Handle Poison‘ in Mice Magazine
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘How to Fight the Patriarchy‘ on Literary Hub
• Ruth Whippman, ‘Sorry, but people need to stop telling women they shouldn’t apologise‘ on The Pool
• Maura Quint, ‘How to Negotiate a Raise (If You’re a Woman)‘ on McSweeney’s
• Eve Barlow, ‘Grimes: I’m not a victim of sexism, I’m a successful producer‘ on The Pool
• Tali Mendelberg and Christopher F. Karpowitz, ‘Are Women the Silent Sex?‘ in The Boston Review
• Jia Tolentino, ‘How ‘Empowerment’ Became Something for Women to Buy‘ in The New York Times
• Isabel Rogers, ‘Top Ten Totty Tips‘ on her blog

Society and Politics:

• Graciela Mochkofsky, ‘The Faithful‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Anna Wiener, ‘Uncanny Valley‘ in n+1
• Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, ‘‘Ban the Box’ Goes to College‘ on The Atlantic
• Jacqueline Rose, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?‘ in The London Review of Books
• Megha Majumdar, ‘Half-Truth and Reconciliation: After the Rwandan Genocide‘ on Literary Hub
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘When it comes to Labour and anti-Semitism, there’s only so much this left-wing Jew can suck it up‘ in The New Statesman
• Abby Rabinowitz, ‘The trouble with renting a womb‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Reiley, ‘From Farm to Fable‘ on Tampa Bay
• Aminatta Forna, ‘The Modern and the Medieval Collide: on Ebola‘ on Literary Hub
• Hope Jahren, ‘On Earth Day, Let Lab Girl Persuade You to Plant a Tree‘ on Slate
• Brigid Delaney, ‘The generation gap is dead. But is the result freedom or oppression?‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘A generation of artists were wiped out by Aids and we barely talk about it‘ in The Guardian
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘There’s an epidemic of missing people of colour who aren’t photogenic enough for us to find‘ in The Independent
• Kendra James, ‘A Black Girl’s Manual to Attending a New England Boarding School‘ in The Toast
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Could Hillary Clinton Ever Have Imagined This?‘ on The Cut
• Lisa Owens, ‘Is this the worst question you can ask someone?‘ on The Pool
• Laurie Goodstein, ‘Sex Abuse and the Catholic Church: Why Is It Still a Story?‘ in The New York Times

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

• Helen O’Hara, ‘25 years on from Thelma and Louise, its spirit of rebellion lives on‘ on The Pool
• Soleil Ho, ‘The Jungle Book’s Complicated Relationship with Imperialism‘ in Bitch
• Suzanne Moore, ‘The Hillsborough verdict shatters the fantasy that class war doesn’t exist‘ in The Guardian
• Anna Silman, ‘Damn, It’s a Good Time for Funny Women on TV‘ on The Cut
• Francine Prose, ‘The Ballad of Slippin’ Jimmy‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Kelly Kanayama, ‘Hollywood’s upcoming films prove it loves Asian culture – as long as it comes without Asians‘ on Media Diversified
• Ana Leszkiewicz, ‘The outrageous sexism on The Island with Bear Grylls might be what makes it a great show‘ in The New Statesman

The interviews/profiles:

• Rebecca Schiff on Electric Literature
• Emily Skillings on the Huffington Post
• Paula Hawkins in The Guardian
• Mylo Freeman on The Pool
• Joanna Walsh on The Literary Sofa
• Shirley Barrett on Electric Literature
• Maggie Mitchell on One Book Lane
• Louise Erdrich in The New York Times
• Susanna Donato on Okey Panky
• Sarai Walker in The Guardian
• Jillian Keenan on Longreads
• Angela Flournoy on Buzzfeed
• Camille Rankine on Grazing Grain Press
• Curtis Sittenfeld on The Millions
• Emma Cline on Publishers Weekly
• Laurie Penny on The Bailey’s Prize blog
• Lisa Owens on Bookanista and in The Bookseller
• Linda Legters on Bloom
• Mary Beard in The Guardian
• Deborah Levy on Foyles’ blog
• Tammy Cohen on The Prime Writers
• Ann Goldstein in Asymptote
• Sara Pascoe on Huffington Post
• Emily O’Neill on Vagabond City
• Joanne Harris on Waterstones
• Jenni Fagan on The Skinny
• Deborah Install on Rebecca Mascull’s blog

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

In the Media, April 2016, Part Two

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

It’s the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. Contributors including Sarah Waters, Margaret Drabble and Jeanette Winterson reflect on Jane Eyre in The Guardian; Samantha Ellis wrote about ‘The Greatest Heroines of All Time‘ on the BBC, and Sam Jordison asked, ‘Reading Jane Eyre: can we truly understand Charlotte Brontë or her heroine today?‘ in The Guardian. The Brontë Blog is doing an excellent job of curating everything and well worth having a look at.

The Guardian commissioned some research into the 70 million comments which have been left on its website since 2006. The results revealed that while the highest commenters are white men, the most abuse was left on articles by eight women writers and two male writers of colour. The only people who seemed surprised were white men. It’s great to have statistical evidence in support of this but listening to female writers and male writers of colour and acting on it might be a good idea too. Jessica Valenti, the most targeted writer wrote, ‘Insults and rape threats. Writers shouldn’t have to deal with this‘.

Andrew Piper and Richard Jean So decided to carry out some analysis regarding the words used in book reviews of books by male and female writers, ‘Women Write About Family, Men Write About War‘ in the New Republic details their findings.

The Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced this week. Hanya Yanagihara has ‘A Little Life – A Photo Story‘ on the Picador Blog; Anne Enright, Elizabeth McKenzie, Hanya Yanagihara and Lisa McInerney are interviewed on the Baileys’ Prize blog, along with longlistees Shirley Barrett, Vesna Goldsworthy, Becky Chambers, Julia Rochester and Kate Atkinson. Some of us (myself included) were shocked that Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins failed to make the shortlist, Eleanor Franzen considers why on Litro.

And in Australia, the Miles Franklin literary award longlist was announced with books by women taking five of the nine slots.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Gillian Flynn, ‘The book that inspired Gone Girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hilary Mantel, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘Most romances are badly written‘ in The Telegraph
• Alison Flood, ‘Miss Peregrine author returns with illustrated collection of fairytales‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘On a Strong 2016 Man Booker International Shortlist, Ferrante Still Looks Like a Sure Thing‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Brown, ‘Leave Peter Rabbit Alone‘ in The Guardian
• Robert Gottlieb, ‘Brilliant, Troubled Dorothy Parker‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Samantha Powell, ‘Fifteen Years Later, Bridget Jones Is Still Teaching Me to Embrace Imperfection‘ on The Cut
• Lynn Steger-Strong, ‘Reader-Based‘ on Catapult
• Tanya Gold, ‘Working as a diarist meant not caring about the people you hurt‘ in The New Statesman
• Alana Massey, ‘Climbing Mount Sontag‘ in Hazlitt
• Alexandra Alter, ‘Curtis Sittenfeld Is No Jane Austen, But She’s O.K. with That‘ in The New York Times
• Louisa Thomas, ‘The Conflicted Early Feminism of Louisa Catherine Adams‘  on Literary Hub
• Hilton Als, ‘Immediate Family: Maggie Nelson’s Life in Words‘ in The New Yorker
• Michelle Dean, ‘The Wreck: Adrienne Rich’s feminist awakening, glimpsed through her never-before-published letters.‘ in New Republic
• Kim Brooks, ‘A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Mom‘ in The Cut
• Anya Groner, ‘Space Tourism in Modern Storytelling‘ on Electric Literature
• Natasha Carthew, ‘I didn’t see working class identity in books when I was growing up, and I don’t see enough now‘ in The Guardian
• Rumaan Alam, ‘Why Wasn’t Great American Novelist Jane Smiley on the Cover of a Magazine?‘ in Literary Hub
• Elena Sheppard, ‘Why I’ve been reading and re-reading “Bridget Jones’s Diary” for 20 years‘ on Hello Giggles
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘How to buy the perfect book for someone else‘ on The Pool
• Esme Weijun Wang, ‘Why My Novel Uses Untranslated Chinese‘ on Literary Hub
• Diane McWhorter, ‘Harper Lee, the National Antidote‘ on Slate
• Bridget Read, ‘On Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, Ten Years Later’ on Literary Hub
• Anne K. Yoder, ‘Fiction Must Be Fed: On Margaret Cavendish, Frida Kahlo, and Marie Curie‘ on The Millions
• Lindsay Merbaum, ‘Not a Real Writer: How Self-Doubt Holds Me Back‘ on Electric Literature
• Laura Miller, ‘I’ll Be There for You: The difficult, dangerous task of writing about a friend‘ on Slate
• Melissa Chadburn, ‘The Girl in the Cabinet (I Read What You Wrote and I Hate You)‘ on Electric Literature
• Hannah Gersen, ‘Gluten-Free Proust‘ on The Millions
• Fatima Bhutto, ‘My Grandfather’s Library, Relic of a Freer Pakistan‘ on Literary Hub
• Ann Patchett, ‘The Bookstore Fights Back‘ on Literary Hub
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Women Writers You Should Know: Constance Fenimore Woolson‘ in The Toast
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘How not to talk about African fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jesse Crispin, ‘The Self-Hating Book Critic‘ on Copper Nickel
• Clare Warner, ‘‘Her nose was straight with a soft tip at the end’ — Writing Race at School‘ on Media Diversified
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘I realised I’d been sold a lie about women’ in The Guardian
• John William Walker Zeiser, ‘The Unsettling Gaze of Han Kang: Examining Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and Human Acts‘ on Electric Literature
• Lynnette Lounsbury, ‘I loved the beat generation. Then I realised it has no place for women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Kat Lister, ‘Saying “No” doesn’t have to be negative‘ on The Pool
• Marina Lucic, ‘Lessons on Hate‘ in Litro
• Lauren Libbert, ‘Losing my mother, then losing the music that could soothe after she’d gone‘ on The Pool
• Maggie Thach Morshed, ‘Shooting in the Dark‘ on Catapult
• Meagan O’Connell, ‘How Did I Wind Up a Housewife in Paradise?‘ on The Cut
• Lydia Kiesling, ‘Throwing Away the Most Beautiful Dress I Ever Owned‘ on The Cut
• Lorena Piñeiro, ‘Penance‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Faith Adiele, ‘All of the Above‘ on The Rumpus
• Mega Majumdar, ‘Laughter as Criticism‘ in Guernica
• Lily Gutierrez, ‘Peaches and Melisande‘ on Motherland
• Lynsey Hanley, ‘How I became middle-class‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Gavino, ‘A Band Named HotdogA Band Named HotdogA Band Named Hotdog‘ on Catapult
• Clare Archibald, ‘Congealed‘ on The Real Story
• Kate Bolick, ‘Afterlives: My Mother’s Breast Cancer, and My Own‘ in The New Yorker
• Kathryn Harrison, ‘On the Impossibility of Seeing Yourself‘ on Literary Hub
• Penny Anderson, ‘What it feels like to do your make-up when you’re blind‘ on The Pool
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘Listening to Old Women‘ in The Toast
• Melissa Broder, ‘How I Discovered the Power of a Hot-Pink Fake Penis‘ in The Cut
• Anissa Helou, ‘Before the War: The Lost Delicacies of Aleppo‘ on Literary Hub
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘My Wedding Was a Disaster, and Yours Will Be, Too‘ on The Cut

Feminism:

• Revati Upadhya, ‘I’m A Woman Who Doesn’t Have Or Want Kids, And I’m Happy‘ on Buzzfeed
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Who would think any good could come from an MP calling a woman ‘totty’?‘ in The Guardian
• Marisa Bate, ‘The everyday bravery of being a woman‘ on The Pool
• Sara Pascoe, ‘Boob jobs are viewed as a decorative tweak, but these women are self-harming’ in The Guardian
• Jill Lepore, ‘The Sovereignty of Women‘ in The New Yorker
• Rachel Aviv, ‘The Cost of Caring‘ in The New Yorker
• Shohana Khan, ‘If Muslim women’s clothing makes them consenting slaves, who are their slave masters?‘ on Media Diversified
• Siobhan Fenton, ‘Today in the UK, a woman was sentenced for the crime of an abortion – yet we act outraged at Donald Trump‘ in The Independent
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Think Donald Trump’s comments are shocking? They’re the law for some UK women‘ in The New Statesman
• Jesse Singal, ‘Is Attachment Parenting a Plot to Force Women Back Into the Home?‘ in The Cut
• Melissa Gira Grant, ‘Heather‘ on Buzzed
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Being a dark-skinned woman and the prejudices we face ‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Erika Hayasaki, ‘In a Perpetual Present‘ on Wired
• Catherine Buni & Soraya Chemaly, ‘The Secret Rules of the Internet‘ on The Verge
• Laura Elizabeth Woollet, ‘In Search of the Darkest Cult in American History‘ on Literary Hub
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘How Teju Cole Helped Me Make Peace with the Nigerian Scam Artist‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘Unnatural Selection‘ in The New Yorker
• Lynn Casteel Harper, ‘On Vanishing‘ in Catapult
• Elizabeth Senja Spackman, ‘Proximal Grief‘ in Guernica
• Pamela Rolloff, ‘The Reckoning‘ in Texas Monthly
• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Ugly Cry‘ in New Republic
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Making money is not a vice, but refusing to contribute tax is‘ in The Guardian
• Paris Lees, ‘Dear Ian McEwan, your ideas about penises are outdated‘ in The Telegraph

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

• Kate Aurthur, ‘How “Nina” Became A Disaster Movie‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Lyall, ‘Swim. Bike. Cheat?‘ on Longreads
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Lost and found: why are we obsessed with stories of young women escaping their kidnappers?‘ in The New Statesman
• Marie Phillips, ‘Kimmy Schmidt, and the unmitigated joy she will bring to your life‘ on The Pool

The interviews/profiles:

• Lisa Owens in The Bookseller
• Robin Black & Natalie Serber on Bloom
• Maggie Nelson in The Guardian
• Michelle de Kretser in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Brit Bennett on Jezebel
• Danielle Dutton in Brooklyn Magazine
• Idra Novey on The Rumpus
• Helen Garner in the Sydney Morning Herald
• Yvette Edwards on the Waterstones’ Blog
• Lynsey Hanley in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman on Literary Hub
• Rachel Traister on The Pool
• Sara Sheridan on From First Page to Last
• Janet Todd in Shiny New Books
• Sharon Guskin in Shiny New Books
• Karen Kovacik on Guernica
• Caitlin and Caz Moran on The Pool
• Maylis de Kerangal in BOMB
• Sophia Bennett in The Guardian
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Literary Hub
• Danielle McLaughlin on Short Fiction
• Jenny Downham on The Bookseller

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