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, November 2015, 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.

We’re still deep in book awards territory this fortnight with a number of winners and shortlists being announced. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Bailey’s Best of the Best for Half of a Yellow Sun. The award prompted pieces from Alice Stride in The Bookseller, an editorial in The Guardian and Anna James on The Pool about why we still need the Bailey’s Prize.

Sarah Waters won Stonewall’s Writer of the Decade; Lydia Davis will receive The Paris Review’s Hadada Award 2016; Kerry Hudson won the Prix Femina for Translated Fiction; Roxane Gay won the PEN Centre USA Freedom to Write Award; Jacqueline Wilson won the JM Barrie Award

The shortlists include the eclectic, female dominates Waterstones’ Book of the Year Award, chosen by Waterstones’ Booksellers; The Guardian First Book Award which Catherine Taylor, one of this years judges, discusses, and The Young Writer of the Year Award (which not only has gender parity, but also an equal split between writers of colour and white writers).

Meanwhile, Arundhati Roy returned her National Award for Best Screenplay, she explains why in The Guardian and Heather Horn investigates why the Prix Goncourt has been awarded to a man 102 times and a woman 11 times on The Atlantic

Irish women have been speaking out about the Abbey Theatre where nine out of ten plays in its 2016 centenary programme are written by men. Emer O’Toole writes about the reaction in The Guardian and Ellen Coyne in The Irish Times while Dr Susan Liddy, academic at the University of Limerick, writes ‘Women and the Irish film industry‘ to The Irish Times.

And if you only read one thing from this fortnight’s list, I highly recommend Jacqueline Rose’s essay, ‘Bantu in the Bathroom: on the trial of Oscar Pistorius‘ in The LRB.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘The books that understand female friendship‘ on The Pool
• Tara Sparling, ‘I Hate Women’s Fiction And I’ll Tell You Why‘ on Tara Sparling Writes
• Samantha Gualito, ‘My Recent Experiences at Literary Events as a PoC‘ on Bookriot
• Natalka Sniadanko (trans. Jennifer Croft) ‘Literature as last bastion: on suppression, solidarity and language in Ukraine‘ in The Guardian
• Alissa Quart, ‘Why Doesn’t America Have An Elena Ferrante?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Perry, ‘East Anglia has “never quite stopped thinking of itself as a Kingdom”‘ on Writers Centre, Norwich
• Eleanor Fitzsimmons, ‘Maeve Brennan‘ on Thresholds
• Huma Qureshi, ‘Writers on the pain of hindsight in publishing: ‘It’s like a bad breakup – you have to move on’‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Galo, ‘Margaret Atwood: ‘In Tolkien, there are hardly any women at all’‘ in The Guardian
• Helen MacKinven, ‘Writing Black Comedy‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Alice Kelly, ‘An unknown First World War story by Edith Wharton‘ on The TLS
• Katherine Lampe, ‘The Greatest Author You’ve Never Read‘ on Rewriting Mary Sue
• Rachel Cooke, ‘There’s more to Patricia Highsmith than Ripley‘ in The Guardian
• Sunny Singh, ‘On Teaching Creative Writing as a Woman of Colour‘ on Sunny Singh Online
• Dawn Foster, ‘I Love Dick is one of the most important books about being a woman – no wonder it’s being dismissed‘ in The Independent
• Lucy Scholes, ‘The Hidden Life of Hotels‘ on the BBC
• Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, ‘The Badass Lady Pilot Who Revolutionized the Art of Food Writing‘ on Mental Floss
• Helen O’Hara, ‘JLaw and Katniss Everdeen, and what they mean for young women‘ on The Pool
• Dodie Bellamy, ‘Digging Through Kathy Acker’s Stuff‘ on Literary Hub
• Jill Dawson, ‘Death and Texas: A journey into Patricia Highsmith‘ on the Royal Literary Fund
• Lisa Hayden, ‘On Translating an “Untranslatable” Book‘ on Literary Hub
• Ellen Banda-Aaku, ‘Please don’t air brush African teen fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Lorrie Moore, ‘Why We Read and Write Short Stories‘ on Literary Hub
• Meredith Jaffe, ‘Middlebrow? What’s so shameful about writing a book and hoping it sells?‘ in The Guardian
• Herta Muller (trans. Jennifer Stern), ‘On the Poetry (and Prisoner’s Life) of Liu Xia‘ on Literary Hub
• Casey N. Cep, ‘Called Back‘ (on Emily Dickinson) on The Paris Review
• Chibundu Onuzo, ‘What I read growing up in Lagos‘ in The Guardian
• Emily Gould, ‘I Love Dick: the book about relationships everyone should read‘ in The Guardian
• Audrey Niffenegger, ‘The night is dark and full of terror…‘ on The Pool
• Marie-Helen Bertino, ‘When Andre Agassi Made Me a Woman (and a Writer)‘ on Literary Hub
• Gloria Steinem, ‘By the Book‘ in The New York Times
• Christine L. Corton, ‘Beyond the pall … how London fog seeped into fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Linda Grant, ‘Obama is right: reading is what connects us to others – even a French puffin‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Tuttle, ‘What Do Writers Owe Readers?‘ on Literary Hub
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Silvina Ocampo‘ in The Guardian
• Jennifer Croft, ‘When an Author You Translate Gets Death Threats‘ on Literary Hub
• Margaret Atwood, ‘Canada: Time in the North‘ in Harper’s Bazaar

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jenny Diski, ‘Who’ll Be Last‘ in The LRB
• Misti Traya, ‘How does an American make friends in England?‘ on The Pool
• Simone Gorrindo, ‘Tiny Little Messes‘ on Vela
• Diana Athill, ‘Lessons‘ in Granta
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘The joy of making a brilliant friend online‘ on The Pool
• Lisa Kolb, ‘The condolences end. Being a widow doesn’t.‘ in The Washington Post
• Christina Tesoro, ‘Firsts— On Lusty Wrong Feelings and Falling in Love‘ on Medium
• Jamilah Lemieux, ‘I Forgot To Find My Husband At A Black University‘ on Buzzfeed
• Shamala Gallagher, ‘On Shining and Staring / On Ruin‘ in The Offing
• Rosie Leonetti, ‘For a Single Mother, an Alternate Reality‘ in The New York Times
• Marisa Bate, ‘Why no-frills walking is the best kind of walking‘ on The Pool
• Meaghan O’Connell, ‘Being a Parent Makes Chores Seem Like Fun‘ in The Cut
• Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart, ‘“Why Won’t Vanessa Get Pregnant?”‘ on Slate
• Hermione Hoby, ‘My Haunted Honeymoon: on Getting Punched by the Ghost of Frieda Kahlo‘ on Literary Hub

Feminism:

• Rose Hackman, ‘‘Women are just better at this stuff’: is emotional labor feminism’s next frontier?‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘The Pope and Netflix Like Maternity Leave for the Wrong Reasons‘ in The Cut
• Sofie Hagen, ‘I hate women. You know the ones: skinny, blonde, who know nothing about football‘ in The New Statesman
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Exploiting Feminism for Profit‘ on Media Diversified
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Lynn Enright, ‘Unravelling the damaging, unhelpful myth of “having it all” ‘ in The Pool
• Rose Eveleth, ‘Why Are Sports Bras So Terrible?‘ on Racked
• Geraldine Bedell, ‘Germaine Greer: still fiery, still outspoken: the feminist lioness‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘‘It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done’: the Irish women forced to travel for abortions‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Nilita Vachani, ‘The Strange, True Story of How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars off His Maid‘ in The Nation
• Julia Carrie Wong, ‘The Bay Area Roots of Black Lives Matter‘ in the San Francisco Weekly
• Anna Pulley, ‘Why I’m Not Buying This Study That Claims All Women Are a Little Gay‘ in The Cut
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Men Explain Hillary to Me‘ on Slate
• Elif Shafak, ‘‘Nationalist and religious extremists are the beneficiaries of cultural boycotts’‘ in The Guardian
• Radhika Sanghani, ‘‘White girls only’: The racist reality of student night life in Britain‘ in The Telegraph
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘So many Brits now live abroad that they’re causing immigration debates. Oh, the irony‘ in The Independent
• Lynsey Addario, ‘The Displaced: Hana‘ in The New Yorker
• Valeria Luiselli, ‘Trespassers on the rooftops: a secret history of Mexico City’s cultural revolutionaries‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schulz,’What We Think About When We Run‘ in The New York Times

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Katie Anderson Howell, ‘Taking Comfort in Futurama‘ on The Rumpus
• Deborah Orr, ‘Forget the V&A – shouldn’t Thatcher’s acolytes be trying to monetise her power suits?‘ in The Guardian
• Phoebe Robinson, ‘How Daria Shaped a Generation of Women (Especially This Black Lady)‘ on Vulture
• Gia Milinovich, ‘Would you ditch a handbag for proper pockets?‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Marilynne Robinson in The Observer
• Fiona Barton in The Bookseller
• Spike Trotman in The Guardian
• Laura Kipnis in The Cut
• Audrey Niffenegger in The Independent
• Karen E. Bender on Literary Hub
• Gillian Flynn in Stylist and The Sunday Times (£)
• Phyllis Nagy (on Patricia Highsmith and the film of Carol) in The Guardian
• Peggy Riley on Rebecca Mascull’s Blog
• Katy Wix in The Guardian
• Attica Locke in Litro
• Hannah Rothschild in The New York Times
• Francesca Lia Block in Luna Luna
• Edna O’Brien in The Irish Times and The New Statesman
• Miranda July in The Guardian
• Tara Ison on Electric Literature
• Elizabeth Gilbert on Literary Hub
• Jenny Diski in The Guardian
• Elissa Washuta on Literary Hub
• Bee Rowlatt in The Guardian
• Kristin Hersh on Electric Literature
• Nuala O’Connor in The Irish Times
• Margo Jefferson in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh in Numéro Cinq
• Jill Bialosky onBookslut
• Frieda Hughes in The Telegraph
• Patricia Cornwell in The Guardian
• Sarah Einstein on The Rumpus
• Kate Beaton in The Independent
• Robin Talley in The Guardian
• Carrie Brownstein on Flavorwire
• Franca Simpson (founder of Calisa Press who only publish work by female Italian writers) in The London Magazine
• Doireann Ní Ghríofa on Emerging Writer
• Mary Gaitskill in The New York Times

The regular columnists:

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

Inter-Media

A few pieces I’ve enjoyed/found interesting in the last month.

Books wise the focus continues on the lack of coverage of books by women and on diversity in publishing. Syl Saller writes, ‘Why women-only initiatives are vital for the arts‘ followed by Alison Flood’s piece, ‘Publisher finds that writers’ influences are mostly male‘ both in The Guardian. The publisher is Sarah Davis-Gough of Tramp Press. Also quoted in the article is Deborah Smith, translator and publisher at Tilted Axis Press. On the And Other Books blog, she explains why Tilted Axis are having a year of publishing women. A woman much in the media of late is Harper Lee. Glynnis MacNichol writes ‘Harper Lee: the ‘great lie’ she didn’t write Mockingbird rears its head again‘ looking not just at Lee but other women who’s authorship has also been questioned.

Kerry Hudson gets angry and offers some solutions on the Writers’ Centre, Norwich’s website, ‘Lost Stories, Unheard Voices – Diversity in Literature‘. (Do read the piece by Nikesh Shukla that’s linked to at the bottom of that page also, you’ll be astonished.) In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Susan Barker, author of The Incarnations, looks at her own experience as someone mixed-race English and Chinese, raised in Britain but writing about China; ‘Should Ethnicity Limit What a Fiction Writer Can Write?‘

It’s unlikely you haven’t noticed that the Man Booker Prize longlist was announced this week. Dawn Foster wrote, ‘Summer’s here – so it’s time to grab a Booker and start reading‘ in The Independent and there are excellent interviews with longlisted authors Hanya Yanagihara and Anna Smaill.

In other recent topics, Roxane Gay writes about the outpouring for Cecil the Lion while Samuel DuBose, Sandra Bland and the 681 other black people killed by police in the USA so far this year. Aisha Mirza asks, ‘London’s super-diversity is a joy. Why would you ever want to leave?‘ in The Guardian.

While Nina Stibbe looks at her experience of moving to the countryside in The Independent, ‘When village life turns nasty: An author reveals the dark heart of the English countryside‘ and Hazel Davis looks at the power of online friendships in Standard Issue, ‘iFriends‘.

Lots of good things on The Pool, as always. Sali Hughes writes, ‘A magazine cover that can make the world better for women‘, ‘“Housing benefit saved me as a teenager”‘ and ‘Hasn’t lying about your age gotten really old?‘. Lauren Laverne asks ‘Is work/life balance a big, fat waste of time?‘, ‘Who’s looking after all those successful men’s kids?‘ and ‘Too busy to sleep?‘. Sam Baker met Amy Poehler and I’m not remotely envious. Honest. Anna James looks at the 10 ways J.K. Rowling changed our lives and Alexandra Heminsley celebrates marketing campaigns finally realising ‘Exercise is not about getting skinny‘.

There’s been a number of other articles about women’s bodies recently. Eva Wiseman looks at the damage done to children through anti-obesity messages, ‘Learning to love our bodies‘ in The Observer. Lindy West writes, ‘My wedding was perfect – and I was fat as hell the whole time‘ in The Guardian and Shelley Harris says, ‘This Woman Can‘ on her blog in relation to Daisy Buchanan’s ‘A Letter I Wrote To Myself About Getting Fat‘ on her blog.

Elizabeth Day’s ‘Stop Calling Women ‘Lovely’!‘ for Elle UK makes me want to punch the air and shout ‘Fuck, yes!’

And being Yorkshire born and bred and having left and returned to the county twice, I love Sophie Heawood’s piece ‘I’ve lived half my life in London, but I’ll always be a Yorkshire lass at heart‘ in The Guardian.

In the Media: 3rd May 2015

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. 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.

There’s an election in the UK this week. As you’d expect, there’s been a number of articles about it, policies and where the previous coalition has left us. Huffington Post have been running a ‘Beyond the Ballot’ series. Contributions include: Vivienne Westwood, ‘The Housing Crisis – Politicians Are Criminals‘ and Denise Robertson, ‘Today, There Are No Housing Lifelines for People Who Fall on Hard Times‘. Media Diversified also have a series called ‘Other Voices’. Contributions include, Maya Goodfellow ‘Why aren’t politicians talking about racial discrimination in the job market?‘ and ‘Letting migrants drown in the Mediterranean, is this what the Tories mean by ‘British values’?‘ and ‘The pro-Tory business letter: a reminder that politics shouldn’t be dominated by a privileged few‘

Elsewhere, Zoe Williams wrote ‘10 big misconceptions politicians have about women‘ in The Pool; Deborah Orr, ‘Scotland is sending a curveball down Westminster way – and it’s not just Labour that will get hit‘ in The Guardian; Gaby Hinsliff, ‘We floating voters may be unenthused but we’re definitely not unprincipled‘ in The Guardian; Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett wrote, ‘Why I’m thinking about spoiling my ballot‘ in the New Statesman; Laura Waddell, ‘Pink Vacuum Politics‘ on Libertine’ Suzanne Moore, ‘Parliament? Over the years I’ve met several powerful men there who have no idea of boundaries‘ in the New Statesman; Hannah Pool asks, ‘Why aren’t black women voting?‘ in The Pool; Suzanne Moore, ‘I’m sick of this estate agent election‘ in The Guardian

Saturday saw the death of crime writer, Ruth Rendell. The Guardian reported her death and ran a series of articles: Val McDermid wrote, ‘No one can equal Ruth Rendell’s range or accomplishment‘; Mark Lawson, ‘Ruth Rendell and PD James: giants of detective fiction‘; Stanley Reynolds wrote her obituary; here she is ‘In Quotes‘ and if you haven’t read anything by her, The Guardian also recommend ‘Five Key Works’ while The Telegraph have, ‘The best of Ruth Rendell: 10 to read, watch and listen to‘.

And then there was that beach body ready advertisement. Responses to which ranged from Gemma Correll, ‘Hilarious Illustrations Show You How to Get “Beach Body Ready”‘ in Stylist; Hadley Freeman, ‘What is a beach body anyway?‘ in The Guardian, and Tara Costello explained, ‘Why I Stripped to Make a Statement‘ on the Huffington Post.

Congratulations to Marion Coutts on winning the Wellcome Prize. Jenny Turner writes in The Guardian as to why Coutts is her hero. The shortlist for the Encore Award was announced and includes Harriet Lane, Amanda Coe, Rebecca Hunt and Deborah Kay Davies. And Gaby Wood was ‘…made Booker’s literary director‘ reports The Bookseller.

And the woman with the most publicity this week is Leesa Cross-Smith who’s the featured writer on Atticus Review. She’s interviewed and has two stories up, ‘My Lolita Experiment‘ and ‘Dandelion Light‘; another in Synaesthesia Magazine, ‘The Darl Inn‘, and her column on Real Pants this week is ‘Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? & Girlfriendships‘.

 

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• John Yau, ‘Language Is Not Colorless: The Amazing Writing of Sawako Nakayasu‘ on Hyperallergic
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘Crush of the week: Toni Morrison‘ in The Guardian
• MJ Carter, ‘We should thank a Devon shoemaker for freedom of the press’ in The Guardian
• Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, ‘“Who Is Cagney Without Lacey?”: The Fug Girls on Writing as a Duo‘ in The Toast
• Neil Gaiman, ‘Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell‘ in The Guardian
• Susanna Clarke ‘on the TV Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: “My own characters were walking about!”‘ in The Guardian
• Masha Gessen, ‘“Paying Attention and Paying Respect Is All That Writers Can Do”‘ on Slate
• Ali Smith, ‘The Joy of Finding Myself Guest Director of Brighton Festival‘ on the Huffington Post
• Doreen St. Félix, ‘Toni Morrison‘ on The Oyster Review
• Lucy Worsley, ‘It doesn’t matter if The Tudors and Wolf Hall are historically inaccurate and a bit silly‘ in the Independent
• Sarah Hilary, ‘Writing a New Crime Series‘ on Headline
• EllaClaire, ‘Teenage opinion: why you should read classic books‘ in The Guardian
• Patrice Gopo, ‘Does Race Matter If Books, Like ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ Touch Your Heart?‘ in The New York Times
• Charlotte Gordon, ‘Why I Teach Mary Wollstonecraft‘ on the Huffington Post
• Louise O’Neill ‘on Lisbeth Salander‘ on We Love This Book
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Boats, Buddhism and the Boom‘ on Foyles
• Hillary Kelly, ‘Bring back the serialized novel‘ in the Washington Post
• Arifa Akbar, ‘How many more books will there be telling me how to be a Muslim?‘ in The Independent
• Lesley McDowell, ‘Do you have to be middle-class to be a writer?‘ on her blog
• Amelia Gray ‘on “Labyrinth”‘ on Real Pants
• Hannah Gersen, ‘The Value of Writing Programs: On Why I Don’t Have an M.F.A.‘ on The Millions
• Mo Moulton, ‘On Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey: An Essay with Personal Interruptions‘ in The Toast
• Charles Wolford, ‘Obsessive Love: Sex in Brontë and Faulkner‘ on Quadrapheme
• Allison Pohle, ‘The Last Days of Ladies’ Home Journal‘ on The Hairpin
• Hannah Furness, ‘Jane Austen’s real Mr Darcy unmasked by historian‘ in The Telegraph
• Alice Audley, ‘Zoella and the YouTuber books you need to buy‘ in The Telegraph
• Hanya Yanagihara, ‘How I Wrote My Novel: A Little Life‘ on Vulture
• Francine Prose, ‘I admire Charlie Hebdo’s courage. But it does not deserve a PEN award‘ in The Guardian
• Julia Copus, ‘A Self Among the Crowd‘ on Royal Literary Fund
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘The Art of the Paragraph‘ on The Smart Set
• Emma Teitel, ‘Why romance novelists are the rock stars of the literary world‘ on Macleans
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Mommie Dearest‘ in The Butter
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Made-up worlds (and a worldie maid)‘ on Bookanista
• Melissa Moorer, ‘This Writer’s On Fire: Lisa Mecham‘ in The Butter
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘What Happens Next: Predicting the Future‘ on Publishing for Humans
• ‘Day and Night I Find Neither Rest Nor Peace’; Charlotte Brontë’s Beautiful Letters On Unrequited Love‘ in Stylist
• Katrina Otuonye, ‘On Deadlines, Failure, and Getting Started‘ on Litro
• Dr Jenny McAuley, ‘on “Vindication of the Writes of Woman” by Mary Wollstonecraft‘ on The History Vault

Personal essays/memoir:

• Alison Taylor, ‘I’ve become part of a new social phenomenon – the boyfriend proposal‘ in The Independent
• Stacey Duguid, ‘Marathon Shopper‘ in The Pool
• Jordana Narin, ‘No Labels, No Drama, Right?‘ in The New York Times
• Michelle García, ‘The War of Forgetting‘ in Guernica
• Allison P. Davis, ‘Boxing Helped Me Tap Into My Inner Rage‘ in The Cut
• Sonya Lea, ‘Shattered‘ in Guernica
• Alana Massey, ‘The Dickonomics of Tinder‘ on Medium
• Casie Brown, ‘The Boy Is Mine‘ on The Hairpin
• Leah Reich, ‘The Cruelest Month‘ on Medium
• Amanda Giracca, ‘The Art of Butchery‘ in Aeon
• Rebecca Harrington, ‘The Apple Watch Is Great for Starting Conversations About the Apple Watch‘ in The Cut
• Alix Johnson, ‘Telling Stories: Secrets, Lies, and Sexual Assault‘ in The Toast
• Vivian Underhill, ‘Steal This Book if You Need To‘ on The Fem
• Sali Hughes, ‘Not going out‘ in The Pool
• Erika Smith, ‘A Return to Babysitting‘ on The Billfold
• Amy Glynn, ‘Desire Lines‘ on Berfrois
• Caolan Madden, ‘I Was Somebody: My Weekend With Miranda July’s App‘ on Weird Sister
• Tracy Moore, ‘My Love Affair with Androgynous Clothes‘ on Jezebel
• Shanrah Wakefield, ‘The Best Time I Burned the Shit Out Of My Hand Whilst Waxing My Box For A Boy‘ on The Hairpin
• Lynsey White, ‘Old Maid‘ on her blog
• Heather Steadham, ‘Firepower‘ in The Butter
• Colleen Kinder, ‘Long Night’s Journey Into Spring‘ in VQR
• Louise Troh, ‘The Tragic Love Story Behind America’s First Ebola Victim‘ in Vanity Fair

Feminism:

• Hattie Crisell, ‘Why is going grey still such a big deal?‘ in The Pool
• Meghan Murphy, ‘On ‘corporate feminism’ and the appropriation of the women’s movement‘ on Feminist Current
• Caitlin Moran, ‘How to Build a Girl‘ in The Times
• Jennifer Purdie, ‘Mormon, Childless, And Constantly Condescended To‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alexandra Duncan, ‘How I Made A Career Out Of Showing People My Cervix‘ on Buzzfeed
• Ann Friedman, ‘Older Women Aren’t Enemies, They’re Envied‘ in The Cut
• Ann Glaviano, ‘Report from the Field: On (Not) Reporting Sexual Violence‘ on VIDA
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘Time, gentlemen: when will the last all-male clubs admit women?‘ in The Guardian
• Siobhan Fenton, ‘Why do British feminists care more about sexist adverts than abortion rights in Northern Ireland?‘ in The Independent
• H. Liang, ‘Advice to my former self: desperate working mother of two young children‘ on Shrink Grows Kids
• Alana Levinson, ‘Girl, Send Me a Frext‘ on Medium
• Julia Alsop, ‘Out of Our Hands‘ on Maisonneuve
• Jessica Roy, ‘A Modest Proposal: How to Close the Gender Wage Gap‘ in The Cut
• Tracey Moore, ‘What Do Men Want? Obedient Wives and Independent Daughters, Apparently‘ on Jezebel
• Mara Lee, ‘Kissing historically‘ on Media Diversified
• Joanne McAlpine, ‘Looking Back: Fragments From Women’s Shelters (1981 – 1996)‘ in The Toast
• Janet Reitman, ‘Abortion Rights at Risk: The GOP Opens a New Front in the War on Women‘ in Rolling Stone
• Jane Merrick, ‘Should wolf-whistling be reported to the Police? If you’re Poppy Smart, then yes‘ in The Independent
• Shani Gilchrist, ‘Why I Talk To My Sons About My Work‘ on Role Reboot
• Vaidehi Mujumdar, ‘The state still controls women’s bodies. Especially brown and black ones‘ in The Guardian
• Joni Edelman, ‘Being Thin Didn’t Make Me Happy, But Being ‘Fat’ Does‘ on Everyday Feminism
• Joan Smith, ‘Women who waive their anonymity are changing our perspective on rape‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Megan Garber, ‘The History of ‘Thug’‘ in The Atlantic
• Meredith Talusan, ‘From A Symbol Of Athletic Power To A Symbol Of Gender Transition‘ on Buzzfeed
• Pilot Viruet, ‘Black Exhaustion‘ on Medium
• Shannon Keating, ‘Coming Out as Gay in Elementary School‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anna Della Subin, ‘In the Light of Ras Tafari‘ in The White Review
• Amie Ferris-Rotman, ‘The Earthquake-Wrecked Town That the Nepali Government Forgot‘ in The Atlantic
• Sharon Harrigan, ‘Foie Gras, the Vegetable‘ in VQR
• Amy Quan Barry, ‘Forty Years Ago Today‘ in the Huffington Post
• Leigh Cowart, ‘The Drug That’s Infecting Indiana‘ on Medium
• Dawn Foster, ‘Free Schools‘ in the London Review of Books
• Minal Hajratwala, ‘A Brief Guide to Gender in India‘ in Granta
• Julie Vuong, ‘What does it feel like to flee your country in an unsafe boat?‘ in The Pool
• Erika Hayasaki, ‘Living with Being Dead‘ on Medium
• Annie Waldman, ‘Scientific Expertise on Lethal Injection Falls Short‘ in Guernica
• Joan Walsh, ‘The hideous white hypocrisy behind the Baltimore “Hero Mom” hype: How clueless media applause excuses police brutality‘ on Salon
• Bella Qvist, ‘Freshly Filtered Favouritism: Why I Wouldn’t Want to Be a Barista at Pret‘ on the Huffington Post
• Maureen Rich Wallace, ‘My Son Belongs in Your Child’s Class‘ on Medium
• Myriam Francois-Cerrah, ‘To talk about race, we need to talk about the problem with “whiteness”‘ in the New Statesman
• Kamila Shamsie, ‘Murdered on the streets of Karachi: my friend who dared to believe in free speech‘ in The Guardian
• Diana Prichard, ‘Cultivating a New Immigrant Narrative‘ on Medium
• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, ‘The Day AIDS Hit the Fashion Industry‘ in The Atlantic
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘Drones — One white death can change everything‘ on Dawn
• Alex Morris, ‘How Exactly Do You Teach Femininity?‘ in The Cut
• Paris Lees, ‘Why the world needs to stop gawping, and support Bruce Jenner’s transition.’ in Cosmopolitan
• Laura Gottesdiener, ‘A Foreclosure Conveyor Belt‘ in Guernica
• Elif Shafak, ‘There is no us and them: remembering the lost Armenians‘ in the New Statesman
• Nancy Cook, ‘When Cities and Suburbs Work Together‘ in The Atlantic
• Morgan Meaker, ‘Gentrification in Brixton: who wins, who loses and who’s to blame?‘ in the New Statesman
• Helen Lewis, ‘The battle for better maternity care shows the limits of the Amazon warehouse approach to medicine‘ in the New Statesman

Music, Film and Television, Personalities:

• Tracey Thorn, ‘In music today, it’s all or nothing – rich at the top or languishing forlornly at the bottom‘ in the New Statesman
• Louisa Thomas, ‘The Boxer and the Batterer‘ on Grantland
• Sally Howe, ‘Pulp Nonfiction: Death (and Life) on Reality TV‘ on Blunderbuss
• Helen O’Hara, ‘Meryl Streep and Rose Byrne are prising open Hollywood for women‘ in The Pool
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Calling Eurovision too gay for a “family show” is as perplexing as it is insidious‘ in the New Statesman
• Lauren Laverne, ‘Katie Hopkins and incendiary opinions are the new celebrity gossip‘ in The Pool
• Agata Pyzik, ‘In Praise of Vulgar Feminism: On Kim Gordon and Courtney Love‘ in n+1

The interviews:

• Sandra Newman on The Writes of Woman
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Wall Street Journal
• Miriam Toews in The Guardian
• Mariel Hemingway in the LA Times
• Sarah Gerard on Literary Hub
• Aimee Bender on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Alexander in the Washington Post
• Lucy K Shaw on Real Pants
• Rachel Holmes on Guernica
• Sarah Waters in the Huffington Post and Culture Whisper
• Meghan Daum on Slate
• Jandy Nelson in The Guardian
• Tracey Thorn in The Pool
• Alison Bechdel in TIME
• Michelle Tea on The Rumpus
• Valeria Luiselli on Literary Hub
• Sarah Lepiciger on Reading Agency
• Darcey Steinke on The Rumpus
• Jillian Tamaki on The Hairpin
• Laura Salters on Sky’s Book Corner
• Hilary Mantel on Fourth Estate
• Carla Berrocal on Broken Frontier
• Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer via Bustle
• Vivian Gornick on Publishers Weekly
• Anna North on One Book Lane
• Janice Galloway in the Falkirk Herald
• Liza Klaussman on The White Company
• Janet Champ on The Toast
• Annelise Finegan on Three Percent
• Kate Hamer on Thriller Books Journal
• Kim Gordon on The Quietus
• Cece Bell in The Guardian

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The Taste of Home‘ by Ola Awonubi on The Reading Life
• An extract from The Green Road by Anne Enright in The Irish Times
• ‘Love Isn’t Easy When You’re the National Anthem‘ by Aoko Matsuda (translated by Jeffrey Angles) in Guernica
• ‘Light‘ by Leslie Nneka Arimah in Granta (Winner of Commonwealth Writers Short Story for Africa)
• ‘Famished Eels‘ by Mary Rokonadravu in Granta (Winner of Commonwealth Writers Short Story for the Pacific)
• An extract from The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld on Orion Books
• ‘Redshift‘ by Erin Calabria in Atlas and Alice
• ‘Chamber in My Heart‘ by Sossity Chiricuzio in Atlas and Alice
• ‘The School of English‘ by Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books
• An extract from The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan on Foyles
• An extract from The Last Summer of Us by Maggie Harcourt on We Love This Book
• An extract from Today I Am a Book by xTx on Literary Hub
• ‘Escape, Release, and Return‘ by Leslie Baum in Guernica
• An extract from Sphinx by Anne F. Garréta (translated by Emma Ramadan) on Electric Literature
• ‘A Satisfying End-of-Relationship Goods Exchange In Three Acts‘ by Maria Yagoda on The Hairpin
• ‘How to Clean a Dollhouse‘ by Betty Capot on Blunderbuss
• ‘A Sheltered Woman‘ by Yiyun Li (Winner of the Times’ Short Story Award)
• An extract from The Sound of a Sundial by Hana Andronikova (translated by David Short) on Body
• An extract from The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer
• ‘How to Hook‘ by Jodi Angel in The Offing
• ‘The Fairy Sword‘ by Laura Madeline Wiseman on The Fem
• An extract from God Help the Child by Toni Morrison on Essence
• ‘Fortune‘ by Erin Lawless on Books With Bunny
• ‘Fincan‘ by Mia Hooper in The Toast
• ‘Normal‘ by Bree in Guernica
• An extract from A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson on the Penguin Blog

If you want some poetry to read:

• Twenty-One Love Poems (The Floating Poem, Unnumbered) by Adrienne Rich on All Poetry
• ‘exodon paradoxus (bucktooth tetra)‘ by Dana Ranga (translated by Monika Cassel) in Guernica
• ‘Backdrop‘ by Andrea Gilham in Atlas and Alice
• Two Poems from Monetized by Alissa Quart on The Offing
• Three Pantoums by Lo Kwa Mei-en in The Offing
• ‘The Advantage of Sexual Cannibalism‘ by Antoinette Nena Villami on CactiFur
• Three Poems by Marika Prokosh on Lemon Hound
• ‘The Bookbinder‘ by Clare Best on Anthony Wilson’s blog
• ‘Whitewashed‘ by Natasha Head on The Tashtoo Parlour
• Two Poems by Sandra Simonds on Fanzine
• ‘Scientific‘ by Marisa Seigel on The Rumpus
• Two Poems by Sharon Olinka in Drunken Boat
• ‘Agression Diary‘ by Annemarie Austin
• ‘Errant Fathers, Stupid Women‘ by Marina Sofia in Think Pink

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swarmy on Literary Hub
• An extract from Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn in The Pool

The lists:

• Books of the Week, May 1, 2015 on Publishers Weekly
• 14 Of The Most Buzzed-About Books Of 2015 on Buzzfeed
• 18 Brilliant Books You Won’t Want To Miss This Summer on the Huffington Post
• 18 Of May 2015’s Best Books To Either Read By Yourself Or Share With Your Mom This Month on Bustle
• 10 Reasons to Love Nella Larson on For Books’ Sake
• 21 Books Every Woman Should Read By 35, Because Reading Keeps You Young (Sort Of) on Bustle
• The June 2015 Indie Next List Preview on American Booksellers Association
• Anne Helen Petersen’s Ten Writers On Entertainment in Vela
• 5 Great Books To Read In May on Buzzfeed
• Best Books April Part Two on Quadrapheme
• Best New Fiction: May 2015 on Typographical Era
• Top 10 books about working life in The Guardian
• Life Lessons from To Kill a Mockingbird on Scottish Book Trust
• 11 Steamy Books for Teens on Scottish Book Trust
• Novelicious Picks…Psychological Thrillers on Novelicious
• Kirsty Logan’s Top Five Literary Circuses on We Love This Book

In the Media: 19th April 2015

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. 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.

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was revealed this week. Sarah Shaffi of The Bookseller reports, ‘Experience tells on Baileys Women’s Prize shortlist‘ while Anna James of We Love This Book introduces us to each of the books and invites us to read along in this video.

Other big news was London Book Fair. For readers, this means announcements about new acquisitions from significant writers. Alison Flood in the Guardian reports, ‘Age shall not weary them: Diana Athill, 97, and Edna O’Brien, 84, are stars of London book fair‘ and ‘London book fair excited by Erica Jong’s new novel‘. The Quietus reports on Viv Albertine’s new book and the cover for Patti Smith’s sequel to Just Kids was released this week, see it in The Pool. If you want a glimpse into what goes on at the fair, Antonia Honeywell wrote on her blog about the panel she was part of, ‘Promoting Debut Authors – London Book Fair 14th April 2015‘.

The woman with the most publicity this week is Evangeline Jennings who’s interviewed on The Indie View, Col’s Criminal Library, Quirky Fiction, Omnimystery News and in character as one of the narrators of her short stories, Helen Wheels on Reflections of Reality.

In this week’s Harper Lee news, ‘PRH reveals Harper Lee title page‘ reports Publishers Weekly.

And in this week’s Elena Ferrante news, if you haven’t read anything by her, she’s this week’s Bedtime Bookclub in The Pool where you can read the first five chapters of My Brilliant Friend. Also in The Pool, Viv Groskop asks, ‘Is being a bestseller all in a name?‘ and Cristina Marconi writes, ‘Elena Ferrante versus Italy‘ on Little Atoms.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Elif Batuman, ‘Reading Racist Literature‘ in The New Yorker
• Alice Jolly, ‘My little girl has three mothers‘ in the Daily Mail
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘Why Women Aren’t Having Children‘ in The Atlantic
• Sarah Laskow, ‘The Nun’s Story‘ in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Allison Pearson, ‘Sandwich Woman‘ in The Telegraph
• ‘Stella prize 2015: the shortlisted authors on the stories behind their books‘ in The Guardian
• Amy McDaniel, ‘Frenzied, Zesty, Voracious: A Writing Exchange Between Caracas and Sarajevo‘ on Real Pants
• Jennifer Moses, ‘Literary Louisiana‘ in The New York Times
• Meg Wolitzer, ‘Literary Idol: on Mary McCarthy‘ in The LA Times
• Tracy K. Smith, ‘What Memoir Can Do That Poetry Can’t‘ on Lit Hub
• 2015 Pen Literary Awards Shortlists
• Nick Laird, ‘A New Way of Writing About Race’ (on Claudia Rankine’s Citizen) in the New York Review of Books
• Gina Fattore, ‘How Will I Live? Fame, Money, Day Jobs, and Fiction Writing‘ on The Millions
• Radhika Jones, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘ in Time’s 100 Most Influential People
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Things I’ve Learned About Heterosexual Female Desire From Decades Of Reading‘ in The Toast
• Lily Meyer, ‘Literary Enemies: Ann Patchett v. Zadie Smith‘ on Ploughshares
• Anna Wiener, ‘Millennials, Meet Renata Adler‘ in New Republic
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘A Day In The Life Of A Fictional Female Reporter‘ in The Toast
• Christina Lauren, ‘Romance Novels Are Primed To Make An Impact On Society, So Stop Calling Them “Trashy,” OK?‘ on Bustle
• Mia You, ‘Recreate That Thing!‘ (on Gertrude Stein) on Jacket2
• Sally O’Reilly, ‘The Mindful Writer‘ on Bookanista
• Victoria Patterson, ‘Minding Other People’s Business: On Dawn Powell‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Feeding the Hunger – female writers are storming the male citadels of sci-fi‘ in The Guardian
• Eleanor Arnason, ‘Me and Science Fiction: What Are We, Chopped Liver?‘ on Strange Horizons
• Julie Enszer, ‘“Who You Are”: On Anne Carson’s Short Talks and Reprint Editions‘ on The Rumpus
• Anita Singh, ‘Agatha Christie and the book cover most foul‘ in the Telegraph
• Rachel McIntyre, ‘Why it’s OK to discuss teacher-pupil relationships in teen books‘ in The Guardian
• Nicky Richmond, ‘Whose Small, Unpeopled Life Is It Anyway?‘ (on India Knight’s In Your Prime) on Not Entirely Legal
• Alena Graedon, ‘Print is dead. Long live print!‘ on W&N
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Inside the Mind of Poetry‘ on The Smart Set
• Marisa Wikramanayake, ‘Focus on Australian Women Writers of Ethnic Heritage‘ on Australian Women Writers Challenge
• Rahimeh Andalibian, ‘In My Own Words: Up in the Rose Hotel‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Battle Royale‘ in The Butter
• Amanda Hess, ‘My Haters, Myself: Mastering the art of the haterbrag‘ (on Jennifer Weiner) on Slate
• Sibéal Pounder, ‘My inspiration: on Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch‘ in The Guardian
• Hermione Eyre, ‘on Viper Wine‘ on Waterstones’ blog
• N.K. Jemisin, ‘Not the affirmative action you meant, not the history you’re making‘ (on the Hugo Awards) on Epiphany 2.0
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Outlander & Aye‘ on Real Pants
• Lucy Hounsom, ‘Becoming part of the pattern‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• I.W. Gregorio, ‘One Asian Book is Quite Enough‘ on Diversity in YA
• Rachel Billington, ‘Why I followed my grandfather’s final footsteps at Gallipoli‘ in The Telegraph
• Jess Meacham, ‘An Appreciation of David Foster Wallace’s Conjunctions and Prepositions‘ on her blog
• Lucas Klein, ‘Sinophone Women Write Better‘ on Paper Republic
• Nabina Das, ‘Why don’t we have more women on literary award shortlists?‘ on Scroll.in
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Caught in the parent trap: the fierce social politics of not having children‘ in the New Statesman
• B, ‘A letter to … JK Rowling, whose words gave me a sense of home‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Why We Should All Be Spinsters: Writers Take on a New Feminine Mystique‘ on Slate
• Lynn Kanter, ‘30 Women Novelists You Should Know – #24 Emily Gray Tedrowe‘ on Start with a Story

Personal essays/memoir:

• Samantha Simmonds, ‘Gone in 60 Seconds: That’s All It Takes for My Children to Turn Me From Sane Mild-Mannered Woman to Screaming Harridan‘ on the Huffington Post
• Kaitlyn Wylde, ‘The Corpse of Wall Street‘ on The Rumpus
• Leah Reich, ‘Will You Know It When You Get There?‘ on Medium
• Sali Hughes, ‘Have you got Summer Affective Disorder?‘ in The Pool
• Lucy Mangan, ‘“Why Isn’t This Holiday Making Me Miss Home?”‘ in Stylist
• Sarah C. Baldwin, ‘Build-a-Bear‘ on The Rumpus
• Lauren Laverne, ‘In defence of not wanting to swim with dolphins‘ in The Pool
• Sali Hughes, ‘Madonna has been my life’s guiding light‘ in The Pool
• Tracy Wan, ‘The Best Time I Had Alopecia‘ on The Hairpin
• Annalise Mabe, ‘The Spies‘ in Proximity Magazine
• D.L. Mayfield, ‘When God and Your Mom Think You’re Awesome‘ in The Toast
• Bec Susan Gill, ‘The Diminishing Probability of Kanye West Falling in Love With Me‘ on Medium
• Wayétu Moore, ‘Love/Woman/Thirty‘ on The Rumpus
• Laura Bogart, ‘I can’t forgive my mother‘ on Salon
• Awitin Mo, ‘Out of Fracture‘ on her blog
• Tracy Thorn, ‘Back in front of the cameras this week – and posing doesn’t get any easier‘ in the New Statesman
• Terri Schweitzer, ‘Silent Confrontations in Klamath Basin‘ on Medium

Feminism:

• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Am I beach body ready? Advertisers, that’s none of your business‘ in The Guardian
• Roxane Gay, ‘How to Handle Street Harassment: Don’t “Hey, Baby” Me‘ in Glamour
• Bridie Jabour, ‘Hate selfie sticks, or just young women having fun?‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Virdee, ‘Why Girls Are in Danger of Becoming Second Class Citizens and Why We Need to Act Now‘ on the Huffington Post
• Rachel McGrath, ‘We Need to Talk About Sexual Harassment That Happens at Concerts and Music Festivals‘ on the Huffington Post
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘Ask Polly: Should I Have a Baby or Establish My Career First?‘ in The Cut
• Jessica Testa, ‘What Happens When We Treat Anonymous Stories Of Sexual Assault Like Gossip Items‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Nice try, Maajid Nawaz, but you didn’t go to a lapdancing club because you’re a feminist‘ on Medium
• Rebecca Schiller, ‘Sheila Kitzinger was unafraid to confront female sexuality on a daily basis‘ in The Guardian
• Monica Mark, ‘Chibok kidnapping: stoicism as girls taken by Boko Haram are remembered‘ in The Guardian
• Malala Yousafzai, ‘Malala Letter to Chibok Girls‘ on Scribd
• Maggie Stiefvater, ‘The Anatomy of Rage‘ on her blog
• Samira Ahmed, ‘The girlification of TV characters’ hair‘ in The Pool
• Various, ‘Why Can’t We Accept That Some Women Don’t Want Kids?‘ Zócalo on KCRW
• Amy Gastelum, ‘Miscarriage or Murder?‘ in Guernica
• Chantelle Fiddy, ‘We Need To Talk About Sexual Harassment In Nightclubs‘ in Mixmag
• Lyndsay Kirkham, ‘…I’m No Angel…On Why We Can’t Let Fat People Be Happy‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Syreeta McFadden, ‘The lack of female genitals on statues seems thoughtless until you see it repeated‘ in The Guardian
• Bidisha, ‘The exhibition and sale of Frida Kahlo’s love letters is a grubby violation‘ in The Guardian
• Huma Munshi, ‘George Galloway’s comments on forced marriage are a dangerous abuse of power‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why are we so desperate to find a genetic explanation for sex offenders?‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Friedman, ‘Women Can’t End the Wage Gap on Their Own‘ in The Cut
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Male politicians always play up gender in their races. Hillary Clinton can, too‘ in The Guardian
• Hayley Webster, ‘I want to be a stay at home mum…but it feels impossible‘ on her website
• Sharline Chiang, ‘Could I Have Been Jailed For My Miscarriage?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alison Taylor, ‘We are irretrievably married to ourselves, for richer or poorer‘ in The Independent
• Eva Wiseman, ‘The smiling face of “seaside sexism”‘ in The Observer
• Donna Ladd, ‘A female president would be cool, but I’m not sold on Hillary Clinton yet‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Vanessa Mártir, ‘Color in AW(hite) Place‘ in Side B Magazine
• Nicole Pyler Fisk, ‘Walter Scott, A Black Man, Was Shot To Death — But My White Husband, Also Walter Scott, Is Safe And Sound‘ on Bustle
• Dhanya Nair, ‘An Open Letter to UK Politicians From an Immigrant Woman‘ on the Huffington Post
• Rebecca Atkinson, ‘How David Cameron has betrayed people with disabilities‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Our art schools have become finishing schools for a wealthy few‘ in The Guardian
• Parisa Tabriz, ‘Pwnd: How a Google hacker would hack you‘ on Medium
• Nissa Rhee, ‘Back to War‘ in Guernica
• Jessica Probus, ‘Planning For A Future We Can Actually Imagine‘ on Buzzfeed
• Carolyn Asome, ‘The Style Uniform‘ in The Pool
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Hilary For President: No Joke‘ in The New Yorker
• Jade E. Davis, ‘Black Men Being Killed Is The New Girls Gone Wild‘ on Medium
• Luba Ostashevsky, ‘Sacrificial States‘ in Aeon
• Julie Chinitz, ‘Shiftiness: The Border In Eight Cases‘ on Lit Hub
• Dawn Foster, ‘“Every low-paid interviewee knows their hourly rate to the penny”‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Extending right to buy is the Tories’ zombie Thatcherism at its worst‘ in The Guardian
• Sultanah Parvin, ‘The Straw Man Cometh‘ on Media Diversified
• Palwesha Yusaf ‘The Aid Industry: Can we really get by on doing good with good intentions only?‘ on Media Diversified
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Letting migrants drown in the Mediterranean, is this what the Tories mean by ‘British values’?‘ on Media Diversified
• Deepa Bhasthi, ‘That Mallu Joke: Racism in India, and the Fear of the Outsider‘ in Kindle Magazine
• Caitlin Doughty, ‘The sacred task of caring for the dead should be a normal part of life‘ in The Guardian
• Theresa Brown, ‘Love, Death and Spaghetti‘ in The New York Times
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Why is David Cameron so afraid of single parents?‘ in The Guardian
• Susan Ferriss, ‘Virginia tops nation in sending students to cops, courts: Where does your state rank?‘ on Center for Public Integrity
• Brooke Lee Foster, ‘What is it like to be poor at an Ivy League school?‘ in the Boston Globe

Music, Film and Television:

• Chantal Braganza, ‘Happy Birthday, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez‘ on The Hairpin
• Angela Clarke, ‘How shouting spoilers at Wolf Hall shows the world has imploded‘ on The Wharf
• Caroline C, ‘Why Della in Raised By Wolves is the best female character on TV right now‘ on Beamly
• Lisa Peet, ‘Punk Rock Indeed: The Two Sides of Viv Albertine‘ on The Millions
• Anna March, ‘Dead girls, killer ratings: “Game of Thrones,” “True Detective” and TV’s epidemic of violence against women‘ on Salon
• Jaya Saxena, ‘The Bride Paradox Of “Four Weddings”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Julie Beck, ‘Dashboard Confessional, or When It Was Cool to Have Feelings‘ in The Atlantic
• Angela Watercutter, ‘Ex Machina Has a Serious Fembot Problem‘ on Wired
• Lili Loofbourow, ‘The Many Faces of Tatiana Maslany‘ in The New York Times
• Laura Goode, ‘The New Ladder: Anatomy of Indie Women’s Picture “Farah Goes Bang”‘ on Indiewire

The interviews:

• Bidisha on Asian Culture Vulture
• Gurkeyrith on The Fem
• Mona Eltahawy in The New York Times
• Attica Locke on Serpent’s Tail and in The Independent
• Lily King on Lit Hub
• Tishani Doshi & Karthika Naïr in Granta
• Monica McClure on the Huffington Post
• Jane Rawson on Australian Writers’ Centre
• Ladan Osman on Black Girl in Om
• K.A. Holt on the Huffington Post
• Alice Stevenson on Bookanista
• Sharma Shields on Okey-Panky
• Sarah Vaughan on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Poetry As Practice Contributors on The Quietus
• Rachel Billington in The Guardian
• Sofi Oksanen in The Guardian
• Kim Moore on Seren Books’ Blog
• Monica Byrne in The Guardian
• Valeria Luiselli on The Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Jenny Offill and Ali Smith on the RTÉ Book Show
• Sam Baker and Lauren Laverne in The Independent
• Toni Morrison in The Independent
• Sarah Helm on Slate
• Rachel Held Evans in The Atlantic
• Roxane Gay on ABC
• Jill Alexander Essbaum on The Rumpus
• Liza Klaussman in The Independent

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘Morning, Noon & Night‘ by Claire-Louise Bennett in The White Review
• ‘Words Escape Me‘ by Claire-Louise Bennett in 3:AM Magazine
• An extract from Preface, or We As Two Separate Planets by Shushan Avagyan (translated by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Wide Shot‘ by Anna Davtyan (translated by Nazareth Seferian) in Words Without Borders
• ‘I’m Not Going to Die‘ by Ani Asatryan (translated by Adrineh Der-Bogossian) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Before Sunrise‘ by Lilit Karapetyan (translated by Nairi Hakhverdi) in Words Without Borders
• ‘A Mansion with Many Rooms‘ by Kutti Revathi (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Revolution Nathan‘ by Dhamayanthi (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘For Your Safety and Enjoyment‘ by Emily Schultz in The Butter
• An extract from Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye on Orion Books
• ‘The Reality Game‘ by Rachael Dunlop
• An excerpt of Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre on The Awl
• ‘The First Six Meters‘ by Vidya Panicker on The Fem
• ‘Theresa Enters‘ by Amy Silverberg in The Offing
• ‘Where Things Are Made‘ by Tera Joy Cole in Blunderbuss
• ‘Right Eye‘ by Isabel Costello on FlashFlood
• An extract from The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett on One Book Lane
• An extract from The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits on Lit Hub
• ‘Major Maybe‘ by Ann Beattie in The New Yorker. She talks about it here.
• ‘Making Babies‘ by Laurie Penny on Motherboard
• ‘House Heart‘ by Amelia Gray on Longreads
• An extract from Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi (translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman) in The Offing
• An excerpt from A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan in The Butter
• ‘The Other Woman‘ by Cath Bore on FlashFlood
• ‘Clowns/Clown‘ by Mati Colarossi (translated by Arabella Bertola)
• ‘Killing Stones‘ by Ananda Devi on PEN American

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘What Did Sriraman Say?‘ by Perundevi (translated by Padma Narayanan and Subashree Krishnaswamy) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Highway‘ by Malathi Maithri (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Three Dreams‘ by Sharmila Seyyid (translated by Lakshmi Holmström) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Fear‘ by Krishangini (translated by Padma Narayanan and Subashree Krishnaswamy) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Shunaka: Blood Count‘ by Karthika Nair in Granta
• ‘Gone to Pasture/To Speak‘ by Natalie Eilbert in The Offing
• ‘Compromised Field‘ by Shareen Mansfield on The Honeyed Quill
• ‘Humbles‘ by Frances Leviston on Poem Today
• ‘The Handshake‘ by Isabel Rogers on her blog
• ‘A Psalm for the Scaffolders‘ by Kim Moore on Seren Books’ Blog

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematorium by Caitlin Doherty on Canongate
• ‘Small Stories #10‘ by Madeline Witt on The Rumpus
• Extracts from From The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of The Mind in The Offing
• ‘Meet the Stanley Cup‘ by Molly Brooks on The Nib
• An extract from Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy on Macmillan Audio
• An extract from Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris on Lit Hub
• An extract from I’m Very Into You: Correspondence 1995–1996 by Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark on Lit Hub

The lists:

• Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
• Anna Freeman’s Stereotype-Busting Women In Historical Fiction on the Huffington Post
• 20 Fascinating Facts About J.K. Rowling You Probably Never Knew in Stylist
• 11 new British crime series on PanMacmillan
• 6 J.K. Rowling Quotes On Failure, Because Failing Well Is A Life Skill That Even The Most Successful Need on Bustle
• Women to Watch: 2015 Edition on BookPage
• Lorraine M. López’s Six Writers On Social Class on Vela
• Five Great Pieces of Advice from J.K. Rowling’s New Book Very Good Lives in Paste
• 5 Books Written by Queer and Trans Women That Set Me Free on Everyday Feminism
• 10 Women’s Books in Translation You Should Be Reading in Litro