In the Media, March 2017, 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.

This fortnight’s seen a number of prize lists announced. The big ones for women writers are the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist and the Stella Prize shortlist.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s comments on trans women have prompted a number of responses.

• Thembani Mduli, ‘When Callouts Become Anti-Black: On Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Transphobia, Disposability Culture & British Colonialism‘ on Rest for Resistance
• Rhyannon Styles, ‘The New Girl: A Trans Woman’s View Of White Male Privilege‘ in Elle
• Kuchenga Shenjé, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Transgender Comments Invalidated My Womanhood‘ on gal-dem
• Halle Kiefer, ‘Laverne Cox Responds to Chimamanda Adichie’s Comments About Trans Women and Male Privilege‘ on Vulture
• Jarune Uwujaren, ‘Why Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Comments on Trans Women are Wrong and Dangerous‘ on Unapologetic Feminism
• Racquel Willis, ‘A trans woman’s thoughts on Chimamanda Adichie‘ on Twitter
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is Getting Criticized for Her Comments About Transgender Women‘ on Teen Vogue
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Identity is the issue of our age: so why can’t we talk more honestly about trans women?‘ in The Guardian
• Glosswitch, ‘The debate over Jenni Murray suggests we don’t see older women as “real women”‘ in the New Statesman

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Emine Saner, ‘Books for girls, about girls: the publishers trying to balance the bookshelves‘ in The Guardian
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘When Femininity Is Code for Feelings‘ on Literary Hub
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Were I not a writer, I’d have the peachy, zingy buttocks of Gigi Hadid’ in The Guardian
• Andreá Stella, ‘Clarice Lispector’s Children’s Story Taught Me to Read Her Like An Adult‘ on Literary Hub
• Becky Chambers, ‘My Alien Family: Writing Across Cultures in Science Fiction‘ on Tor.com
• Lorraine Berry, ‘The Man Who Doesn’t Read Women‘ on Signature
• Shaj Mathew, ‘Poetry as Life, Life as Poetry‘ on Guernica
• Jami Attenberg, ‘How Working at a Bookstore Changed My Writing Career‘ on Literary Hub
• Roxane Gay, Aimee Bender, and more ‘On Assault and Harassment in the Literary World‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Brown, ‘How to Escape from Prison‘ in The TLS
• Jhumpa Lahiri, ‘on the Compulsion to Translate Domenico Starnone‘ on Literary Hub
• Madeleine Wattenbarger, ‘Finding a Room of One’s Own in the Mexico City Metro‘ on Literary Hub
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘On Silence, Pornography, and Feminist Literature‘ on Literary Hub
• Alex Clark, ‘Writers unite! The return of the protest novel‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Atwood, ‘on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in the Age of Trump‘ in The New York Times
• Casey Stepaniuk, ‘Meet Your New Favourite Darkly Comic, Magical Realist Writer: Eden Robinson‘ on BookRiot
• Margaret Atwood, ‘on What it’s Like to Watch Her Own Dystopia Come True‘ on Literary Hub
• Larissa Pham, ‘Your Own Private Party: How reading Eve Babitz got me through the depths of winter‘ on The Paris Review
• Alexandra Schwartz, ‘Rereading Paula Fox’s “Desperate Characters”‘ in The New Yorker
• Lauren Oyler, ‘How the Push to ‘Break the Silence’ Fails the Feminist Movement‘ on Broadly
• Candy Royale, ‘Ali Cobby Eckermann’s poetry: inspiring those of us who feel like outsiders‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Carolyn Desalu, ‘The Kitchen Drawer: On Black Families and Suicide‘ on Catapult
• Katherine Laidlaw, ‘A Place of Absorption‘ on Hazlitt
• Anna Graham Hunter, ‘Lying Down With Older Men‘ on Medium
• Valeria Luiselli, ‘On the Choices People Make in Coming to America‘ on Literary Hub
• Nicole Cox, ‘Proper Young Ladies: Writing My Mother’s Shakespeare Essay‘ on Medium
• Funmi Iyanda, ‘Theory of Death” In Conversation with My Mother‘ on Medium
• Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes, ‘Life and Breath: On Pregnancy and the Spirit World‘ on Catapult
• Keph Senett, ‘A Bed of Fists: On Playing Soccer in Moscow‘ on Catapult
• Ashley P. Taylor, ‘Für Bess: On Neighbors, Music Parties, and Growing Up‘ on Catapult
• Jessica Furseth, ‘I Don’t Have Cancer (Yet)‘ on Buzzfeed
• Darcy Steinke, ‘How I Came to the Church of Rock and Roll‘ on Literary Hub
• Jessie Male, ‘Mirror Pain‘ on Guernica
• Nicole Chung, ‘The Worry I No Longer Remember Living Without‘ on Hazlitt
• Nneka Onwuzurike, ‘My Mother’s Name‘ on The Offing

Feminism:

• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘The Misogynistic History of Trying to Understand Women Who Self-Harm‘ on Broadly
• Liza Munday, ‘Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?‘ on The Atlantic
• Zoe Williams, ‘Cuts are a feminist issue. So what would a suffragette do?‘ in The Guardian
• Erin Vanderhoof, ‘How the Combative Beginning of Women’s Studies Shaped Feminist In-Fighting Today‘ on Broadly
• Arianna Rebolini, ‘Heads Up, ‘Slimming’ Is Not a Compliment‘ on Racked
• Jendella Benson, ‘Patriarchy and The Idealisation Of Motherhood‘ on Media Diversified
• Han Yujoo, ‘Misogyny blooming and the universal feminine‘ on The TLS
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Silence and powerlessness go hand in hand – women’s voices must be heard‘ in The Guardian
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Women’s Strike and the Messy Space of Change‘ in The New Yorker
• Joanna Cannon, ‘How to embody the “Be Bold For Change” ethos‘ on The Pool
• Maxine Beneba Clarke, ‘My Feminism‘ on Victoria Women’s Trust

Society and Politics:

• Jess Phillips, ‘I feel sorry for the people of Tatton – I hear their MP is just too busy to care‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Tait, ‘Joining Generation Rent isn’t a quirky choice – it’s our unavoidable state of economic insecurity‘ in the New Statesman
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here’s What You’ve Missed‘ on The Establishment
• Molly Ball, ‘Kellyanne’s Alternative Universe‘ on The Atlantic
• Vera Chok, ‘If you saw a nanny in this BBC interview, what does that say about you?‘ in The Guardian
• Molly Ball, ‘Washington’s Spy Paranoia‘ on The Atlantic
• Julie Beck, ‘This Article Won’t Change Your Mind‘ on The Atlantic
• Sara Noviç, ‘The Right to Remain Silent‘ in The New Enquiry
• Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, ‘“I want to try. Live or die”: how refugees decide whether to make the dangerous trip to Europe‘ in the New Statesman
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘The Making of a Mexican-American Dream‘ on Pacific Standard
• Renata Adler, ‘Brontosaurs Whistling in the Dark‘ in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Alana Semuels, ‘The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America‘ on The Atlantic

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

• Kate Robertson, ‘Why Female Cannibals Frighten and Fascinate‘ in The Atlantic
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘Is Girls Heading Toward a Conventional Happy Ending?‘ on The Atlantic

The interviews/profiles:

• Katie Kitamura in The Guardian
• Rachel Cusk in The Cut
• Jami Attenberg on The Millions, Vogue and Electric Literature
• Rebecca Solnit in Elle
• Ann Goldstein on Hazlitt
• Delia Bell Robinson on Bloom
• Can Xue on Words Without Borders
• Ariel Levy on Longreads and Jezebel
• Ahd Niazy on The Establishment
• Elif Batuman on Vulture and Publishers Weekly
• Megan Bradbury in The Skinny
• Allison Benis White on Electric Literature
• Gwendoline Riley on The Skinny
• Sawako Nakayasu on Asymptote
• Chris Kraus on Ssense
• Angie Thomas in The Bookseller
• Danielle Dutton on Catapult
• Claudia Roden on Food52
• Susan Hill on Waterstones
• Dorthe Nors on The Writes of Woman
• Sharon Olds on Literary Hub
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The Guardian
• Ursula K. Le Guin in The TLS
• Judith Kerr in The Guardian

The regular columnists:

• 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: December 2016

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.

Post-election coverage is still top of the tree this fortnight:

• Lauren Duca, ‘Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America‘ in Teen Vogue
• Jennifer Gonnerman, ‘Fighting for the Poor Under Trump‘ in The New Yorker
• Molly Ball, ‘President Trump’s Perpetual Campaign‘ in The Atlantic
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About‘ in The New Yorker
• Barbara Robidoux, ‘Walk On‘ on The Rumpus
• Hadley Freeman, ‘“Don’t play identity politics!” The primal scream of the straight white male‘ in The Guardian
• Masha Gessen, ‘Trump: The Choice We Face‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Gabrielle Bellot, ‘Finding Empathy in the Face of Hate‘ on Literary Hub
• Alison Stine, ‘Wolves‘ on The Rumpus

The other big story has been the revelation that Maria Schneider was raped in Last Tango in Paris:

• Sali Hughes, ‘The callous abuse of Maria Schneider, and the impunity of Hollywood men‘ on The Pool
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Last Tango’s abuse reveals the broken promise of the 1970s sexual revolution‘ in The Guardian
• Helen Lewis, ‘Maria Schneider’s story is no surprise – Hollywood has always treated women as commodities‘ in the New Statesman
• Jessica Tovey, ‘Bertolucci’s justification for the Last Tango rape scene is bogus. It’s called ‘acting’ for a reason‘ in The Guardian

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Rave Sashayed, On men writing women on but alas! the creature grows degenerate
• Sarah Perry, ‘One day I found myself reciting the opening of the novel. I knew the crisis had come’ in The Guardian
• Zadie Smith, ‘On Optimism and Despair‘ in The New York Review of Books
• G X Todd, ‘Insecurity, fear, frustration and helplessness‘ in The Bookseller
• Amanda Nadelberg, ‘How Do We Pay the Poets?‘ on Literary Hub
• Jesmyn Ward, ‘This Was The Year America Finally Saw The South‘ on Buzzfeed
• Kelly Faircloth, ‘The Sweet, Savage Sexual Revolution That Set the Romance Novel Free‘ on Jezebel
• Ellena Savage, ‘From Hemingway to Kathy Acker: Making Art from the Outside‘ on Literary Hub
• Amanda Michalopoulou, ‘Divided times: how literature teaches us to understand “the other”‘ in The Guardian
• Lamorna Ash, ‘Never mind the typography‘ in The TLS
• Marcy Dermansky, ‘For Writers who Are Also the Mothers of Small Children‘ on Literary Hub
• Chantal Braganza, ‘A User’s Guide to Zadie Smith‘ on Hazlitt
• Miriam Toews, ‘How Pacifism Can Lead to Violence and Conflict‘ on Literary Hub
• Nicole Jankowski, ‘Ernest Hemingway and Me: Reflections of an Insomniac Writer‘ on Catapult
• Katharine Noel, ‘Where Is All the Sibling Literature for Adults?‘ on Literary Hub
• Michael Denneny, ‘Ntozake Shange: On a Brilliant Balance of Anger and Poetry‘ on Literary Hub
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘A Feminist Thoreau‘ on Literary Hub
• Dan Chiasson, ‘Emily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap Poetry‘ in The New Yorker
• Petina Gappah, ‘I was a lawyer, but I forced myself to write before I went to work’ in The Guardian
• Clare Sestanovich, ‘Storytelling vs. Oversharing in the Age of Snapchat: On the Work of Rachel Cusk, Claire Louise-Bennett, and Eimear McBride‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Franklin, ‘Lose yourself in the microworld of the short story‘ on The Pool

 

Personal essays/memoir:

• Courtney Tenz, ‘Integration Class: On Immigrating to Germany‘ on Catapult
• Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, ‘When Denmark Criminalised Kindness‘ in Granta
• Megan Cummins, ‘Plunge‘ on Guernica
• Jacklyn Janeksela, ‘lane-gweedj‘ on [Pank]
• Antonia Honeywell’s Advent Calendar on her blog
• Yemisi Aribsala ‘Kanda for Christmas‘ on The Writes of Woman
• Linda Wells, ‘Spas Aren’t Only About Beauty, Vanity, or Fun. They’re Also About Grief.‘ on The Cut
• Maureen McCauley Evans, ‘A New Light: How My Daughter’s Pregnancy Made Me Rethink Adoption‘ on Catapult
• Amy Beth Wright, ‘A Separate Dream: Faith, Family, and Knowing When to Let Go‘ on Catapult
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane: On Life in Airports and Coming Home‘ on Catapult
• Jennifer Kabat, ‘The Fairytale‘ on Granta
• Sarah Weinman, ‘The Year in Addition and Subtraction‘ in Hazlitt
• Kim Fu, ‘The Year in Hyphenates‘ in Hazlitt
• Meg Elison, ‘On Decades of Diaries: Intimate, Profane, Honest‘ on Literary Hub
• Christine Sneed, ‘“It’s very easy to marry, but not so easy to unmarry a person”‘ on The Pool
• Various, ‘Conversations with grandma: ‘When are you going to get married?’‘ in The Guardian
• Anonymous, ‘The Discovery‘ on Finally Knowing Me

Feminism:

• Sirin Kale, ‘The Irish Government Is Seizing an Increasing Number of Abortion Pills‘ on Broadly
• Alanna Evans, ‘One Delightfully Clever & Slightly Shakespearean Way to Fight Trolls‘ on Flare
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘How white supremacist hatred drives acts of violence against powerful women‘ on Salon
• Wanu Udobang, ‘Remembering to Scream‘ on Brittle Paper
• Pearl Osibu, ‘The Unwomanly Feminist‘ on Brittle Paper
• Paris Lees, ‘Fears around gender-neutral toilets are all in the mind‘ in The Guardian
• Various, ‘Four female writers assess the feminist credentials of classic Disney princess films‘ in Stylist
• Ashley Weatherford, ‘The Irrational History of Hating Stretch Marks‘ in The Cut
• Margaret Talbot, ‘The Attorney Fighting Revenge Porn‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Craik, ‘“It’s OK to allow women to look sexy without baring a breast”‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Rosalind Adams, ‘Intake: Locked On The Psych Ward‘ on Buzzfeed
• Samira Shackle, ‘40 years ago, the “strikers in saris” were smashing the stereotype of submissive Asian women‘ on The Pool
• Samira Shackle, ‘Muslim women are facing discrimination – and broad reports about “integration” won’t help that‘ on The Pool
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Is it OK to have a single-use friendship?‘ on The Pool
• Tele Ogunyemi, ‘We are not “belligerent,” “dark” or “bitter”‘ on Media Diversified
• Marina Hyde, ‘So many lowlights from the life of Zac Goldsmith – so hard to choose‘ in The Guardian
• Erika Hayasaki, ‘Traces of Times Lost‘ in The Atlantic

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

• Leslie Bennetts, ‘Judge Me, Rank Me, Insult Me, Reject Me: The Contradictions, Cruelty and Genius of Joan Rivers‘ on Lenny

The interviews/profiles:

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The Cut and The New York Times
• Ali Smith on the Penguin Blog
• Brit Bennett on Electric Literature
• Eileen Myles, Ruth Ozeki, Porochista Khakpour, Anna March and Alexandra Kleeman on Writing the Body on Literary Hub
• Imbolo Mbue on The Rumpus
• Jessie Greengrass on The Writes of Woman
• Val McDermid on Literary Hub
• Eimear McBride in The TLS
• Jia Tolentino on Catapult
• Danielle Dutton on The Millions
• Mary Gaitskill on The Pool
• Zadie Smith in the New Statesman
• Mary Wisniewski on Electric Literature
• Henrietta Rose-Innes on Electric Literature
• Elizabeth Gilbert in The Cut
• Yemisi Aribisala on The Tiger Tales, Chukus and Kitchen Butterfly
• Hao Jingfang in The New York Times
• Erin Wunker on Room
• Heather Phillipson in The Guardian
• Sarah Perry on Waterstones’ 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
• 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, 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

In the Media, April 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.

There’s been a strong narrative about the abuse of women over the last fortnight. Jessica Knoll wrote a personal and powerful essay about the gang rape which informed the writing of her novel Luckiest Girl Alive. ‘What I Know‘ was published on Lena Dunham’s site Lenny. Daisy Buchanan interviewed Knoll for The Pool. Jia Tolentino looked at the reporting of abuse in ‘Is this the End of the Era of the Important, Inappropriate Literary Man‘ on Jezebel. Helen Walmsley-Johnson wrote ‘The shame of abuse has held me hostage for years‘ on The Pool; Kathryn Joyce wrote ‘Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream‘ on The Huffington Post; Jade Blair wrote, ‘Women Do What They Need To Do To Survive‘ on Hazlitt, and Louise O’Neill wrote ‘Nothing could prepare me for what happened when I published my book‘ on The Pool and ‘What a privilege it is to think that I might have touched other peoples lives in some small way‘ in The Irish Examiner. (The later is O’Neill’s weekly column which I’ve now added to the regulars section at the bottom of the post.)

The 2015 VIDA count for the number of bylines and reviews for female writers in literary magazines was announced. There’s some good news in some areas but, overall, there’s still a long way to go. Rachel McCarthy James followed this with, ‘Women in Publishing 100 Years Ago: A Historical VIDA Count: Representation and Gender (Im)Balance in 1916‘ on Literary Hub

The longlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize was announced with seven books by female writers in the running.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Sara Barrett, ‘I have autism and the lack of authentic autistic voices in books angers me‘ in The Guardian
• Narwali Serpell, ‘Africa Has Always Been Sci-Fi‘ on Literary Hub
• Boris Kachka, ‘Claudia Rankine Challenges White Teachers, Pities White Racists in AWP Keynote‘ on Vulture
• Jane Mendlesohn, ‘Why I Wrote a Novel About Sex Trafficking‘ on Literary Hub
• Kate Tempest, ‘It’s difficult to look at words as pegs to hang a plot from’ in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh, ‘On Self-Writing‘ in the Irish Times
• Harriet Reuter-Hapgood, ‘“I wake up panicked at 2am every night”: an author reveals what it’s (really) like to write a debut novel‘ in Stylist
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Every Meal In Wuthering Heights Ranked In Order Of Sadness‘ in The Toast
• Ros Barber, ‘For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Abbott, ‘14 hour days, marketing and dealing with snobbery: my life as a self-published bestseller‘ on The Guardian
• Brigid Delaney, ‘What we write about when we write about running‘ in The Guardian
• Kelly Kerney, ‘The Impossible Task of Writing Historical Fiction‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Sofia Samatar, ‘On the 13 Words that Made Me a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Gaby Wood, ‘Harper Lee’s letters: priceless literary artifacts or tasteless celebrity memorabilia?‘ in The Telegraph
• Viv Groskop, ‘Celebrating Eat, Pray, Love 10 years on‘ on The Pool
• Mairi Kidd, ‘Access to books and reading should be a right‘ on The Bookseller
• Rachel Kondo, ‘Write How You Like Write: Representing Hawai’i Creole English as a Literary Participant‘ on Electric Literature
• Katie Roiphe, ‘Remembering Susan Sontag’s Final Days‘ on Literary Hub
• Rowan Whiteside, ‘Why I ❤️ Georgette Heyer‘ in Standard Issue
• Leigh Stein, ‘Millennial Days‘ in The New York Times
• David Featherstone, ‘Doreen Massey obituary‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Why those subversive Brontë sisters still hypnotise us‘ in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara, ‘Writing can be lonely‘ in The Telegraph
• Kate Elliott, ‘Writing Women Characters into Epic Fantasy Without Quotas‘ on Tor.Com
• Sara Nović, ‘on how she wrote Girl at War‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Bakewell, ‘At the Existentialist Café‘ on Literary Hub
• Mira Ptacin, ‘Hard Truth and Deep Trauma Behind Bars‘ on Literary Hub
• Shirley Barrett, ‘How to Be a Whaler’s Wife in 1908: Boil Everything, Wash the Clothes in Gin‘ on Literary Hub
• Lucy Mangan, ‘The forgotten genius: why Anne wins the battle of the Brontës‘ in The Guardian
• Danielle Dutton, ‘On Dressing Margaret Cavendish‘ in The Believer
• Vespa Goldsworthy, ‘I started from Gatsby as a Greek dramatist starts from Antigone‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Anita Brookner’s wry, elegant world of disappointed women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Madison Griffiths, ‘An Open Letter to My Vagina: Sex, Pain, and Vaginismus‘ on Vice
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘Running Still‘ in Guernica
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘To Be a Mother, To Be a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Black-McCulloch, ‘Catching the Light‘ on Maisonneuve
• Liz Jackson, ‘Four Years Ago Today, I Fell Out of Bed.‘ on Medium
• Susan Ito, ‘Names‘ on Catapult
• Molly Prentiss, ‘From a California Commune to New York City or, How to Be an Adult Woman in NYC‘ on Literary Hub
• Nandini Balial, ‘Agemus‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Vivian Huyun, ‘I thought assimilation was the key to happiness, but I ended up trapped in a cultural prison‘ in The Guardian
• Abby Higgs, ‘A Conversation with Brandon‘ on Catapult
• Clare Vaye Watkins, ‘How to Escape Your Hometown‘ on Literary Hub
• Patricia Smith, ‘Bazooka Smackdown‘ in Guernica
• Marissa Korbel, ‘No, Lolita‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Katie Daubs, ‘The woman who was trans before her time‘ in The Toronto Star
• Glosswitch, ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s approach to fatherhood is a victory for male supremacy‘ in the New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘There is an epidemic of missing women and girls of colour in the UK‘ on Media Diversified
• Elisa Albert, ‘Confessions of a Radical Doula‘ in The Cut
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘The Slow Fall of the Hot Heroine‘ on The Rumpus
• Jendella Benson, ‘Is It Worth it?: Black Women’s Voices and the Permission to Speak‘ on the Huffington Post
• Laura Bates, ‘Why is travelling alone still considered a risky, frivolous pursuit for women?‘ in The Guardian
• Rosie Fletcher, ‘It’s great that Emma Watson is standing up for feminism – but #HeforShe is the wrong approach‘ in The New Statesman

Society and Politics:

• Bettina Judd, ‘On or about July 10, 2015‘ on The Offing
• Jo Scott-Coe, ‘Listening to Kathy‘ on Catapult
• Ellen Cantarow and Alison Rose Levy, ‘A Fukushima on the Hudson?‘ in Guernica
• Christina Cauterucci, ‘We Expect Women to Have Impostor Syndrome. That’s Why We Can’t Handle Hillary Clinton.‘ on Slate
• Erica Schweigershausen, ‘How Biased Policies Push Black Girls Out of School‘ on The Cut
• Angie Maxwell, ‘Donald Trump and the Lost Cause‘ in VQR
• Miranda Trimmier, ‘Dark Pools‘ on The New Inquiry
• Patricia Lockwood, ‘Lost in Trumplandia‘ in the New Republic
• Zoe Williams, ‘These Tory messages show us why faith has no place in politics‘ in The Guardian
• Elaine Brown, ‘‘A Taste of Power’: The Woman who Led the Black Panther Party‘ on Longreads
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco‘ in The Guardian
• Amanda Chicago Lewis, ‘How Black People Are Being Shut Out of America’s Weed Boom‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emma Green, ‘Black Activism, Unchurched‘ in The Atlantic
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘“Faithful amanuensis”: how the guise of friendship is used to erase lesbian relationships‘ in The New Statesman

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

• Taffy Brodesser-Akner, ‘Water’s Edge‘ on ESPN
• Bronwen Dickey, ‘Dogs of Character: Pride, Prejudice, and the American Pit Bull Terrier‘ in VQR
• Hanna Yusuf, ‘Why the fashion elite needs to stop undermining Muslim women’s choice of clothing‘ in The Pool
• Helen Garner, ‘‘A certain sort of maleness’: on a week spent watching Russell Crowe films‘ in The Guardian
• Ali Smith, ‘The enigma of Giorgione‘ on The Royal Academy of Arts blog
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Unbearable Sadness Of Ben Affleck‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anne Helen Petersen, ‘How Jennifer Garner Went Full “Minivan Majority”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Megha Majumdar, ‘Privileged Nostalgia: On Hollywood, Perception, and the Quest for Authenticity‘ on Electric Literature
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘Unpicking the fascination with the Queen of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow‘ on The Pool
• Zadie Smith, ‘Windows on the Will‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Ella Risbridger, ‘You walk differently in boots – and that’s their power‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Maggie Nelson in The Observer
• Ursula Le Guin on Literary Hub
• Mona Awad on Electric Literature and Tin House
• Jennifer Barber on The Rumpus
• Anne-Marie Slaughter in The Cut
• Attica Locke on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction blog
• Phoebe Fox on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Electric Literature
• Danielle Dutton on Literary Hub
• Marilynne Robinson in The Washington Post
• Donna Leon on the Waterstones blog
• Idra Novey in 3:AM Magazine
• Jackie Copleton on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction blog
• Shelley Harris on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Dawn Tripp on Salon
• Lynn Steger Strong on Electric Literature
• Clio Gray on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction Blog
• Edna O’Brien in The New York Times
• Helen Oyeyemi on Vice
• Camille Rankine in Interview Magazine
• Tracy Chevalier in The Independent
• Angela Flournoy and Kaitlyn Greenidge on Literary Hub
• Antonia Honeywell on Jo Hogan Writes
• Susan Orlean on Broadly
• Sinéad Gleeson on Minnie Melange

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: March 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.

8th March 2016: The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its 2016 longlist, comprised of 20 books that celebrate the best of fiction written by women

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist was announced this fortnight. While former winner, Lionel Shriver declared ‘Women’s literary prizes are ‘problematic’‘.

And the Wellcome Book Prize announced their shortlist with four (out of six) female writers on it, as did the YA Book Prize with eight women writers on its ten book shortlist.

Elena Ferrante is hot news in the literary world once again after Corriere della Sera published an article in which Marco Santagata claimed to know her identity. Rachel Donadio wrote, ‘Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir‘ in The New York Times; Jonathan Sturgeon said, ‘We Already Know the Identity of Elena Ferrante‘ on Flavorwire; Lincoln Michel asked, ‘Why Do We Care Who the “Real” Elena Ferrante Is?‘ on Electric Literature; Stassa Edwards asked, ‘What’s Really Behind Our Obsession Over Unmasking Elena Ferrante?‘ on Jezebel; John Dugdale wrote, ‘Will Elena Ferrante outlast Louisa May Alcott’s secret alter ego?‘ in The Guardian, and Jessica Roy declared, ‘Leave Elena Ferrante Alone‘ in The Cut.

Anita Brookner died. Rebecca Hawkes wrote her obituary while Linda Grant wrote, ‘Why Anita Brookner’s funny, sharp novels got under your skin‘ both in The Telegraph.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Kevin McKenna, ‘Jackie Kay: Scotland’s poet of the people‘ in The Observer
• Elissa Washuta, ‘They Just Dig: On Writing, Coal Mining and Fear‘ on Literary Hub
• Louise Beech, ‘On Life Writing‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Rachel Kessler, ‘When the Apocalypse Is Your Religion‘ on Literary Hub
• Michelle Dean, ‘Why You Should Watch the New Nora Ephron Documentary‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura June, ‘Charlotte Brontë and her Best Friend’s Broken Promise‘ on Jezebel
• Meaghan O’Connell, ‘The Patronizing Questions We Ask Women Who Write‘ in The Cut
• Sara Nović, ‘What it’s like to be a deaf novelist‘ in The Guardian
• M Lynx Qualey, ‘In the Race for Literary Prizes, Is Gender Parity Possible?‘ in The National
• Fiona Noble, ‘YA and children’s books deserve to be judged separately‘ in The Bookseller
• Mimi Wong, ‘Slut Lit & Dismantling “The Fallen Woman”‘ on The Offing
• Boris Kachka, ‘A First-Time Novelist’s 7-Figure Midlife Breakthrough‘ on Vulture
• Claire Armistead, ‘Happiness to mindfulness, via wellbeing: how publishing trends grow‘ in The Guardian
• Jerome Charyn, ‘A Loaded Gun: The Real Emily Dickinson‘ on Longreads
• Belinda McKeon, ‘Dipping the Pen Nib Into Tragedy‘ on Catapult
• Emily Foster, ‘The Monster in the Mirror: On Horror, Disability, and Loving Both at Once‘ on Tor.Com
• Ilana Masad, ‘The First Unappreciated Woman Writer‘ on Broadly
• Sarah Blake, ‘Men Explain Submissions to Me‘ on The Rumpus

• Rosalie Knecht, ‘This Writer: On Social Work and Fiction‘ on Literary Hub
• Doris Grumbach, ‘A Life in Letters: From the New Republic to Iowa to Knopf‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Zaleski, ‘Other Writers’ Mothers: Some Reflections on Representing Family‘ on Vida
• Tracy Chevalier, ‘Past President of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Club‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Nović ‘Sign of the Times‘ in Guernica
• Maddie Crum ‘Unhappily Ever After: How Women Became Seen Not Heard in Our Favourite Fairy Tales‘ on the Huffington Post
• Corrine Duyvis, ‘Fiction, like life, tells disabled people their lives have less value‘ in The Guardian
• Lisa McInerney, ‘Write what you know? Know what you write? I’d rather wing it, thanks‘ in The Irish Times
• Julia Pierpoint, ‘Topography of a novel: on how she wrote Among the Ten Thousand Things‘ in The Guardian
• Valerie Grove, ‘Margaret Forster: A northern lass in NW5‘ in The New Statesman
• Margaret Drabble, ‘My Hero: Elena Ferrante‘ in The Guardian
• Deborah Smith, ‘Only wilful disregard can hide the need to publish more women‘ in The Guardian
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Can Ideas Withstand Shifts in Language?‘ in Guernica
• Pico Iyer, ‘On Annie Dillard‘ on Literary Hub
• Katy Derbyshire, ‘Translated fiction by women must stop being a minority in a minority‘ in The Guardian
• Summer Brennan, ‘The Things We Do to Promote the Books We Write‘ on Literary Hub
• Karen Swallow Prior, ‘Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self‘ on The Atlantic
• Caroline Criado Perez, ‘“Publishing is a women’s world”: Gender inequality in the writing industry‘ on Scottish Pen
• Christina Wodtke, ‘It’s Not Easy Being She‘ on Medium
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Constance Fenimore Woolson: The Forgotten Author Who Inspired Henry James‘ on The Daily Beast

Personal essays/memoir:

• Julienne Grey, ‘What We Remember: One Small Act Replaces the Rest‘ on Electric Literature
• Jess E. Jellsma, ‘Frigid‘ on The Rumpus
• Alison Motluk, ‘A Journey to the Medical Netherworld‘ On Hazlitt
• Kathleen Hale, ‘Surviving the Love Bomb‘ on Hazlitt
• Janice Lee, ‘I Can’t Go On / I’ll Go On‘ on Berfrois
• Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘I Found My Father’s Eulogy In Junk Food‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alana Massey, ‘First the Breakup. Then the Screenshots.‘ in The Cut
• Anakana Schofield, ‘Bold, Open-Minded and Entrepreneurial‘ on the LRB Blog
• Chelsea G. Summers, ‘The Half Dad‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘One Afternoon in Texas‘ on Vela
• Arial Gore, ‘Blood-Red Bougainvillea‘ on The Rumpus
• Ann Patchett, ‘That Family Party Everyone Hated? It Was Mine.‘ in The New York Times
• Jessica Silvester, ‘On an Italian Island, How He Met My Mother‘ in The New York Times
• Jasmine Sanders, ‘Mama‘ on Catapult
• Michelle Levitt, ‘Buckle and Sway‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘Everyday Geography‘ on Vela
• Naomi Gordon-Loeb, ‘Even Lumberjacks Deserve Lotion: Gender in the Locker Room‘ on The Toast

Feminism:

• Helen Walmsley-Johnson, ‘How we think about women and shame‘ in The New Statesman
• Sarah Ditum, ‘A Woman’s Body Is Not a Disgrace‘ in The New Statesman
• Marie Phillips, ‘What would the world look like if men took the pill?‘ in The Pool
• Caitlin Moran,“You were not born scared and self-loathing” in Stylist
• Em LaFave Olson, ‘Why I’m Returning to My Maiden Name‘ on Medium
• Caitlin Moran, ‘I’m sticking my neck out‘ on Adelaide Now
• Rachel Pashley, ‘We’ve placed motherhood on such a high pedestal we’ve forgotten the huge pros of being a child-free woman‘ in The Independent
• Fiammata Rocco, ‘Fiction at its Finest‘ in The Bookseller
• Emer O’Toole, ‘Three ways for feminists to cope with the abuse we face‘ in The Irish Times

Society and Politics:

• Eternity Martis, ‘What It Was Like to Grow Up Fat‘ on Vice
• Olga Khazan, ‘Lean In to Crying at Work‘ in The Cut
• Katy Derbyshire, ‘Berlin, It’s Not Sex All the Time‘ on Literary Hub
• Alena Gradon, ‘Distant Brains‘ in Guernica
• Rukmini Callimachi, ‘To Maintain Supply of Sex Slaves, ISIS Pushes Birth Control‘ in The New York Times
• Chimamanda Adichie. ‘Why can’t he just be like everyone else?‘ on The Scoop
• Erin Allday, ‘Last Men Standing‘ in the San Francisco Chronicle
• Suki Kim, ‘Mr. Rubio’s Neighbourhood‘ in New Republic
• Amena Ziard, ‘There’s More to Saudi Arabia than the Ban on Women Driving‘ on Media Diversified

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

• Elizabeth Day, ‘Happy Valley: female solidarity is stronger than male exploitation‘ on The Pool
• Sara Baume, ‘How to Understand America, One Pattern at a Time‘ on Literary Hub
• Sonia Saraiya, ‘“The Bachelor” is still for white people: A sour fairy tale, fed to millions, that keeps prizing whiteness above all‘ on Salon
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Mark My Words: The Subversive History of Women Using Thread as Ink‘ on Broadly
• Emma Dabiri, ‘Why Zoe Saldana was the wrong black woman to play Nina Simone‘ in The Telegraph

The interviews:

• L.S. Hilton on The Debrief and The Pool
• Deborah Levy in The Guardian
• Cynthia Cruz in Maenad Magazine
• Gillian Slovo in The Independent
• Helen Macdonald in The Washington Post
• Lauren Groff on Longreads
• Rachel Kushner, Rivka Galchen (& Hari Kunzru) on Electric Literature
• Dana Spiotta on Electric Literature
• Morgan Jerkins on BlacQurl
• Joanna Walsh in The Gloss
• Sunny Singh in The TES
• Carol Lovekin on The Writes of Woman
• Sarayu Srivatsa on The Writes of Woman
• Antonia Honeywell on The Writes of Woman
• Sarah Howe in Neue Journal
• Danielle Dutton in The LA Times, in Bomb Magazine and 3am Magazine
• Melissa Broder in Elle
• Anna Moschovakis on Flavorwire
• Jessa Crispin on The Rumpus
• Samantha Hunt on Literary Hub
• Annie Proulx in The New Yorker
• Malorie Blackman in The Bookseller
• Victoria Aveyard in The Guardian
• Mary Oliver on Oprah
• Brooke Magnanti in The Guardian
• Meghan Daum on The Rumpus
• Cressida Cowell, Laura Dockrill (and Philip Ardagh) in The Guardian
• Melissa Harrison in The Herald
• Anne Boyd Rioux on History in the Margins
• Ottessa Moshfegh on Penguin
• Helen Oyeyemi on Broadly
• Annie Dillard on Literary Hub
• Joanna Cannon in Standard Issue
• L.A. Weatherly in The Guardian
• Anjali Joseph on The Asian Writer
• Cassandra Clare 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

In the Media: February 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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

This fortnight, Frances Hardinge became the first children’s author to win the Costa Book of the Year Award since Philip Pullman in 2001. Hardinge’s interviewed in The Guardian. Aria Akbar in The Independent used Hardinge’s win to remind us that adults can and do read children’s books too, ‘Here’s hoping this ‘moment’ for children’s fiction leads to a golden age‘ while Caroline O’Donoghue asked, ‘Why is it so easy to fall in love with children’s books?‘ on The Pool.

The other bookish talking point has been around those titles Marion Keyes named ‘Grip-Lit’ i.e. so gripping you don’t want to stop turning the pages. Alexandra Heminsley writes, ‘Grip-lit, and how the women in crime fiction got interesting‘ on The Pool, while Sophie Hannah says, ‘Grip-lit? Psychological thrillers were around long before Gone Girl‘ in The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Suzanne Joinson, ‘Writing, Travelling and the Creative Act‘ on Literary Hub
• Alison Kinney, ‘In Praise of the DIY Book Party‘ on Literary Hub
• Bridget Read, ‘Janet Malcom: Biased, Mean and Brilliant‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth McKenzie, ‘Surrealism and Decomposition or How I Wrote My Novel‘ on Literary Hub
• Leslie Jamison and Alice Gregory, ‘When Is Criticism Unfair?‘ in The New York Times
• Charlotte Shane, ‘Secrets Among Distractions: The Power of Wimmelbooks‘ on Hazlitt
• Tara Isabella Burton, ‘Dark Books‘ on Aeon
• Hannah Ewens, ‘Remembering Sarah Kane, the Playwright Who Changed British Theater Forever‘ on Vice
• Nayomi Munaweera, ‘A Tale of Two Author Photos: Gender, Race and the Body Represented‘ on Electric Literature
• Lolita Chakrabarti, ‘“Red Velvet”, and what’s wrong with theatre today‘ in The Independent
• Marie Mutsuki Mockett, ‘Our Fairy Tales Ourselves: Storytelling from East to West‘ on Literary Hub
• Jeannine Hall Gailey, ‘The Amazing Disappearing Woman Writer‘ on The Rumpus
• Various, ‘‘Big books by blokes about battles’: Why is history still written mainly by men?‘ in The Guardian
• Tracy Chevalier, ‘My Hero: Charlotte Brontë‘ in The Guardian
• Pankaj Mishra, ‘on Arundhati Roy: Hindu nationalists ​have many ways to silence writers‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Is English literature since 1918 really such a man’s world?‘ in The Guardian
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best nonfiction books: No 1 – The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014)‘ in The Guardian
• Jhumpa Lahiri, ‘I am, in Italian, a tougher, freer writer’ in The Guardian
• Saima Mir, ‘British literature needs black and asian women – and not just as a trend‘ in The Guardian
• Emer O’Toole, ‘A dictionary entry citing ‘rabid feminist’ doesn’t just reflect prejudice, it reinforces it‘ in The Guardian
• AL Kennedy, ‘Doctor Who reminded me how precious storytelling is‘ in The Guardian
• Honor Cargill, ‘What it’s like to write a book with your mum‘ in The Guardian
• Hilary Mantel, ‘on Elizabeth Jane Howard: the novelist she tells everyone to read‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Amy Long, ‘“Mom, I’m Taking Opiates Again, I’m Fine.”‘ on Literary Hub
• Catherine Talese, ‘Travels to Nowhere‘ on Literary Hub
• Jessica Ritchey, ‘Unfathomable Life: A Writer Grieves for Her Father, through Five Movies‘ on RogerEbert.com
• Nancy Westaway, ‘Modern Grief‘ on The Walrus
• Corina Zappia, ‘Mole Biopsies and Other Love Notes‘ on The Rumpus
• Charlotte O’Brien, ‘Plankton (A Body of Stars)‘ on The Rumpus
• Adele Oliviera, ‘Violet‘ on Longreads
• Ariel Lewiton, ‘To Anyang‘ in Guernica
• Elif Batuman, ‘Cover Story: The head scarf, modern Turkey, and me.‘ in The New Yorker
• Miranda Sawyer, ‘I have lived over half of my life‘ in The Guardian

Feminism:

• Emma Winsor Wood, ‘Powerlifter‘ in The Morning News
• Rebecca Mead, ‘“Sexual Politics” and the Feminist Work That Remains Undone‘ in The New Yorker
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘An open letter to Piers Morgan‘ on The Pool
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘Facebook’s “Motherhood Challenge” feels like it’s there to pit women against each other‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Lisa Miller, ‘Who Knows Best‘ in The Cut
• Vesna Plazacic, ‘At Least the Bombs Aren’t Falling‘ on Maisonneuve
• Gina Mei, ‘Who Gets to Wear a Cheongsam?‘ on Racked
• Jill Lepore, ‘Baby Doe‘ in The New Yorker
• Judy Wajcman, ‘Fast-World Values‘ on Aeon
• Tiffany Jenkins, ‘My Secret Life‘ on Aeon

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Soraya Roberts, ‘Winona, Forever‘ on Hazlitt

The interviews:

• Cheryl Strayed on Literary Hub, Part One and Part Two
• Karen Salyer McElmurray on The Rumpus
• Danielle Dutton on The Rumpus
• Helen Ellis on The Rumpus and in The Guardian
• Vickie Stringer on The Rumpus
• Rachel Cantor on Electric Literature
• Molly Crabapple in Guernica
• Margaret Atwood in The Caravan
• Rusty Morrison in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Eva Dolan on Trip Fiction
• Han Kang (and translator Deborah Smith) in The Guardian
• Meg Rosoff in The Independent
• Toni Morrison in The Guardian
• Kit de Waal in The Guardian
• Marissa Meyer in The Guardian
• Claire Vaye Watkins in The Guardian
• Kathy Reichs 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

In the Media: 21st December 2014

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

Lots of end of year round-ups this week, as you might expect. Two great things happened on Twitter: on Saturday morning, the @#ReadWomen2014 account became @#Read_Women and will continue. I say reading books by women is for life, not just for 2014 (I might make that the blog’s subtitle). Proustitute is convening a goodreads group for 2015 and Travelling in the Homeland has begun a list of Indian women writers available in English translation to help you continue and broaden your reading of books by female writers. Secondly, in response to a male dominated piece on hits and misses in the year in publishing in The Guardian, Ursula Doyle, Associate Publisher at Virago started #hitsandmisses which women in publishing then used to respond with their own take on the year. It’s well worth a read to pick up any gems you might have overlooked.

Elsewhere, Electric Literature told us Why 2014 Was the Year of The Essay; The Guardian had The Best Thrillers of 2014; Buzzfeed had The 28 Best Books By Women in 2014; Rabble in Canada had The Best Book Reviews of 2014; The Huffington Post had The Highlights: Best of Fiction 2015 and The Ones to Watch: Best Debut Fiction Coming in 2015 both from Hannah Beckerman; Flavorwire had The Best Non-Fiction Books 2014; Longreads had the Best of 2014: Essay Writing, and The Coast had Top 15 Books of 2014. And more mini-round-ups were published on The Millions. Ones by Rachel Fershleiser, Yiyun Li, Rebecca Makkai, Gina Frangello, Michelle Filgate, Emma Straub, Jean Hanff Korelitz and Tess Malone are particularly interesting in terms of female writers.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Ayana Mathis, ‘What Will Happen to All of that Beauty?‘ in Guernica
• Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, ‘Why I Left My Children‘ on Salon
• Hannah Giorgis, ‘From Ferguson to New York, women are leading protests because all #BlackLivesMatter‘ in The Guardian
• Humera Afridi, ‘The Call of the Dervish‘ in Guernica
• Scott Pack on Zoella and Ghostwriting on his blog
• Zoe Pilger, ‘Freud and Eros‘ in The Independent
• Helen Moffett, ‘Banting, women and rage‘ on Books Live
• Vanessa Vitiello Urquart, ‘Lesbian Dilemma: All My Heros Are Men Who Hated Women‘ on Slate
• Bruce E. Levine, ‘One nation under Galt: How Ayn Rand’s toxic philosophy permanently transformed America‘, on Salon
• Alizah Salario, ‘Loosen the Reigns‘ in The Butter
• Lisa Gruenberg, ‘A Beautiful Day‘ in Ploughshares
• Juliet Jacques, ‘One afternoon in Bishkek‘ on The Dissident Blog
• Sasha Kerr, ‘Losing a Baby – things I’ve learned about miscarriage‘ on The Happy Baby Project
• Christiane Craig, ‘In the funnel of infinity: Life Portraits by Hilda Hilst‘ in The Quarterly Conversation
• Elizabeth Wade, ‘Disarmed‘ in The Butter
• Mindy Hung, ‘Bitter Greens‘ in The Butter
• Catherine Butler, ‘Enchanting Places: Readers and Pilgrimage in the Novels of Diana Wynne Jones‘ on Academia.edu
• Marybeth Seitz-Brown, ‘Uptalk is OK‘ on Slate
• Sadie Stein, ‘Half Magic‘ in The Paris Review
• Brittney Cooper, ‘Listen when I talk to you!‘ on Salon
• Bridget Reed, ‘How She Knows‘ on Penelope Fitzgerald in The Paris Review
• Alex Voakes, ‘The One Feminist Text You Should Have Read, Condensed‘ on The Vagenda (It’s the one my blog’s named after.)
• Emma Straub, ‘How to Write About Real People‘ in Rookie Magazine
• Anita Diamant ‘On the Lows (and Highs) of Book Touring‘ on WSJ
• Libby Robin, ‘No Island Is an Island‘ in Aeon
• Kelly Jensen, ‘Women in Fiction Need More Than the Bechdel Test‘ on Bookriot
• Kylie Cardel, ‘How the Diary Became a Public Way of Getting Personal‘ on Huffington Post
• Anjali Joshi, ‘Are You Going to Give Him a White Name?‘ in The New York Times
• Kit Buchan, ‘Families in literature: The Chance and Hazard Twins in Wise Children by Angela Carter‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Coyote‘ in The New Yorker
• Amy Weldon, ‘The Spinning Self‘ on Bloom
• Alice Sola Kim and Megan McCarron, ‘Double Dare: Point Horror‘ on Electric Literature
• Lucy Mangan, ‘Inexplicable Spouse Rage Is so Normal‘ in Stylist
• Emily St. John Mandel, ‘Don’t Write for Awards‘ in The Atlantic
• Anne Enright, ‘Alexander Fuller’s African Childhood‘ in The Guardian
• Vivian Gornick, ‘Good Feminist‘ in The Boston Review
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Why I’m Giving Up High Heels‘ in The Times (paywall)
• Emer O’Toole, ‘A brain-dead Irish woman’s body is being used as an incubator. Be angry‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Taylor, ‘My Christmas isn’t defined by the fact that I don’t have a husband or boyfriend‘ in The Independent
• Kristiana Kahakauwila, ‘The Writer’s Family Tree: A Tribute to Joyce Carol Oates‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Samantha Lyon, ‘The Evolution of Erotic Fiction‘ on The Infectionist
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies‘ in The New Yorker
• Marian Keyes, ‘Mind your head‘ in The Sunday Times (paywall)
• Jon Snow, ‘Maya Angelou remembered‘ in The Observer
• Richard Coles, ‘PD James remembered‘ in The Observer
• Nicci Gerrard, ‘Sue Townsend remembered‘ in The Observer

The interviews:

• Viv Albertine in Salon
• Elizabeth Wurtzel in Salon
• Emily Gould in The Observer
• Angela Davis in The Guardian
• Sarah Seltzer in The Guardian
• Natasha Wimmer in Granta
• Bae Su-Ah on Three Wise Monkeys
• Danielle Dutton, editor at the Dorothy project on Entropy
• Evelyne Holingue on Kimberly Sullivan’s blog
• Emma Healey in The Globe and The Mail
• Rachel Joyce in The Observer
• Marian Keyes in The Sunday Times (paywall)

If you want some fiction or poetry to read:

• ‘The Gift of the (Da)magi(ng)‘ by Alissa Nutting in Barrelhouse
• ‘Bodies‘ by Miriam Gamble in The Guardian
• Selected Poems by Chi Lingyun in Chinese Literature Today
• ‘God suspected my heart was a geode but he had to make sure‘ by Layla Benitez-James in Guernica
• ‘Terror‘ by Kimiko Hahn in Granta
• ‘Messenger‘ by Robin Beth Schaer in Guernica
• ‘Prayer for Horizon‘ by Gwyneth Lewis in the TLS
• ‘Poems from the Central North States‘ by several women in Persimmon Tree
• ‘Beaten Paths‘ by Paula Reed Nancarrow
• ‘Before Morning‘ by Laura Jean Moore in Pank Magazine
• ‘Lebenslügen‘ by Malerie Willens on Electric Literature
• ‘Permanent Winter‘ by Carrie Etter in Bluestem
• ‘Step 9‘ by Nicole Callihan in Blunderbuss
• ‘The Dreamer‘ by Essie Fox on One Book Lane
• An extract from The Goddess and the Thief by Essie Fox on Soundcloud
• ‘I Can See Right Through You‘ by Kelly Link in McSweeney’s
• ‘The Man in the Moon‘ by Nicola Yoon in The Butter
• ‘The Halifax Slasher‘ by Jac Jemc in The Butter
• An excerpt from Ilona: My Life with the Bard by Jana Juráñová (translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood)
• ‘The Boxing Day Ball‘ by Rachel Joyce in The Observer
• Shabby Doll House’s latest edition ‘The Re-Up‘ is all-female and their biggest edition ever
• And if you’re being nosy on Twitter and reading a conversation between Nicola Barker and Granta editor Max John Porter, you come across sites like Blood Orange Feast, on which Camilla Grudova posts stories.

And the lists:

• Jane Austen in quotes: 30 tips for a successful life in The Guardian
• 50 Books to Cure Heartbreak on Flavorwire
• 21 of the Wisest Things Jane Austen Ever Said on Buzzfeed
• Emma, Cover to Cover in The Paris Review
• Modern Film Adaptations of Jane Austen, Ranked on Huffington Post
• 6 Reasons to Fall in Love with Maggie Stiefvater’s ‘Raven Cycle’ on Buzzfeed

And because it’s Christmas:

• Some of the Best Lit Tweets of Some of the Year on Electric Literature
• A Definitive Ranking of Jane Austen’s Male Hotties on Buzzfeed

In the Media will be taking a two-week break over Christmas and new year. Thank you to everyone who’s read, shared and commented over the last three months.