In the Media, April 2017, 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.

Photograph by Pari Dukovic

The Handmaid’s Tale is having a moment due to the television serial airing this coming week and the current political situation in America (and beyond).

• Madeleine Davies, ‘The Misogynist Future of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale Feels Terrifyingly Within Reach‘ on Jezebel
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Margaret Atwood, the Prophet of Dystopia‘ in The New Yorker
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Margaret Atwood’s Grimly Relevant Additions to “The Handmaid’s Tale” Audiobook‘ in The New Yorker
• Katrina Onstad, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale: A Newly Resonant Dystopia Comes to TV‘ in The New York Times
• Willa Paskin reviews the show on Slate
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Radical Feminist Aesthetic Of “The Handmaid’s Tale”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emily Temple, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale Adapts More than the Novel: Here Is America‘ on Literary Hub

As one series begins, another ended this week:

• Emma Gannon, ‘It’s time to move on from ‘Girls’…but I’ll always love Lena‘ in Glamour
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘What Was Missing From the Girls Finale‘ on The Atlantic
• Erica Jong, ‘Why Do Female Characters Have to Be “Likeable”‘ on the BBC
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘The final episode of Girls revealed Hannah Horvath’s two most important relationships‘ in the New Statesman
• Halima Marcus, ‘The Very Best Episodes of Girls Are Perfect Short Stories‘ on Electric Literature
• Jia Tolentino, ‘On Finally Watching “Girls”, A Different and Better Show than I’d Been Led to Imagine‘ in The New Yorker
• Elizabeth Wurtzel, ‘Of course ‘Girls’ spoke to my life. Its brilliance is that it could speak to everyone’s‘ in The Washington Post

And in women win prizes, ‘Heather Rose wins the Stella Prize for a novel that wouldn’t ‘let her go’‘ as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Negar Azimi, ‘The Extravagant Jane Bowles: Always on the Edge of Something‘ in The New York Times
• Megan Mayhew Bergman, ‘The Feminine Heroic‘ on The Paris Review
• Joanna Cannon, ‘Breaking and Mending‘ on her blog
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘Sylvia Plath, a voice that can’t be silenced‘ in The Guardian
• Paula Cocozza, ‘21st-century fox: how nature’s favourite outsider seduced the suburbs‘ in The Guardian
• Deidre Coyle, ‘Men Recommend David Foster Wallace to Me‘ on Electric literature
• Meghan Daum, ‘The Quality of Life Report, 2017‘ on VQR
• Adyita Desi, ‘Woman with Power Is Woman Unchecked: Reading Narratives of Indian Women‘ on The Millions
• Lissa Evans, ‘How my novel about film-making was turned into a film‘ in The Guardian
• Merve Fejzula, ‘Zadie Smith and Multiculturalism after Brexit‘ on Black Perspectives
• Elizabeth Fremantle, ‘“Cringing” Historical Novelists: on Mantel at the Oxford Lit Fest‘ on The History Girls
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mourning My Grandfather Through The Velveteen Rabbit‘ on Literary Hub
• Louise Glück, ‘On Realism and Fantasy‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Hopesmith, ‘Women Who Shock‘ on Dead Ink Books
• Terry Huang, ‘Gender Gap in Non-Professional Writer Submissions‘ on The Black List
• Danielle Jackson, ‘Life in North Memphis, and the Women Who Taught Me to Read‘ on Literary Hub
• Lucy Mangan, ‘This way to the ginger pop shop! The day I stepped into the pages of the Famous Five‘ in The Guardian
• Edie Meidav, ‘Discovering the Power of Storytelling in a Tattered Old Pulp Paperback‘ on Literary Hub
• Jennifer Mills, ‘The beauty regimen of a woman writer‘ on Overland
• Eilis O’Hanlon, ‘“She’s a thief who steals others’ hard-won words” – on the plagiarist who stole her novel‘ in The Irish Independent
• Sarah Paretsky, ‘From Joan of Arc to Little Women, A History of Heroes‘ on Literary Hub
• Pamela Paul, ‘Why You Should Read Books You Hate‘ in The New York Times
• Grace Payley, ‘Of Poetry and Women and the World‘ on FSG Work in Progress
• Ella Risbridger, ‘The letters Sylvia Plath wrote to her therapist are not ours to see‘ on The Pool
• Michèle Roberts, ‘The fallen woman: prostitution in literature‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Scholes, ‘The Sisters Who Are Secretly Evil‘ on the BBC
• Doree Shafrir, ‘Not Everyone Is Meant To Have A Book Club‘ on Buzzfeed
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘Literature’s Arctic Obsession‘ in The New Yorker
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Get That Life: How I Became a Writer, Historian, and Activist‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Sarah K. Stephens, ‘What Edith Wharton Taught Me about Marriage‘ on The Millions
• Beth Underdown, ‘Not From Around There: finding a place in historical fiction‘ on Northern Soul
• Saskia Vogel, ‘The Swedish Gangster’s Wife’s Bag‘ on The Paris Review
• Kyle Winkler, ‘Gertrude Stein: Unlikely Comp Teacher‘ on The Millions

Personal essays/memoir:

• Pearl Abraham, ‘Dreams of My Mother for One Last Passover‘ on Literary Hub
• Kerri Arsenault, ‘Growing Up in Maine’s “Cancer Valley”‘ on Literary Hub
• Jami Attenberg, ‘How Sicily Cemented an Unlikely Friendship‘ in The New York Times
• DeMisty D. Bellinger, ‘Tell Me Something Good‘ on The Rumpus
• Katie Booth, ‘The Bathrobe: On Quilting and Memory‘ on Catapult
• Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, ‘The Law of Historical Memory​’ on Catapult
• Elizabeth Crain, ‘On Girls, Trump, and Everyone I Ever Dated Before My Husband‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Ellen, ‘Messages for a Balloon: On Relocation and Families‘ on Catapult
• Jennifer Epperson, ‘When Good Hair Is Natural Hair‘ on Lenny
• Megan Galbraith, ‘Sin Will Find You Out‘ on Catapult
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘I Come from a Place on Your Bucket List‘ in Granta
• Maris Kreizman, ‘My “Sick” Body‘ on Medium
• Andrea Lauren, ‘Don’t Think Twice and the Power of Improvising Through the Unknown‘ on The Rumpus
• Vivien Lee, ‘The Loneliness Recipe‘ on Hazlitt
• Kimberly Melton, ‘Good Hair‘ on Oregon Humanities
• Grace Prassad, ‘Feathers from Home, and Other Family Heirlooms‘ on Catapult
• Elisabeth Sherman, ‘Am I Asian Enough?‘ on Catapult
• Tasha Kerry Smith, ‘Not Everything Legal is Clean‘ on Catapult
• Madeleine Thien, ‘The Land in Winter‘ on Granta
• Lidia Yuknavitch, ‘Civic Memory, Feminist Future‘ on Electric Literature
• Lidia Yuknavitch, ‘I Will Always Inhabit the Waters‘ on Literary Hub
• Iza Wojciechowska, ‘Family Trees‘ on Vela
• Laura Zera, ‘Waiting to Go Home: On Being a Traveler in Trinidad‘ on Catapult

Feminism:

• Laura Bates, ‘What I have learned from five years of Everyday Sexism‘ in The Guardian
• Sady Doyle, ‘Women Don’t Need to Apologize Less—Men Need to Learn How to Apologize‘ in Elle
• Petula Dvorak, ‘On Easter, Mary Magdalene will be maligned as a prostitute. Except she wasn’t‘ in The Washington Post
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘It feels almost impossible to escape the desire to make my body smaller‘ on The Pool
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘Millennial Women Are Conflicted About Being Breadwinners‘ on Refinery29
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Successful, lairy, scary – what does a vulnerable woman look like?‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘When Women Pursue Sex, Even Men Don’t Get It‘ on The Cut
• Maya Harris, ‘Equal Pay Day Isn’t a Holiday. It’s a Call to Fight.‘ on Lenny
• Maddie Holden, ‘Why the Sentiment Behind Cosmopolitan’s Appalling Diet Tweet Is Not Unusual‘ on HighSnobiety
• Rachel Holmes, ‘A new feminist statue is a great idea. Shame they picked the wrong feminist‘ in The Guardian
• Brionne Janae, ‘No One Looks for Black Girls‘ on Bitch Media
• Jennifer McShane, ‘Why We’re Done With The Idea Of “Likeable” Women‘ on Image
• Vonny Moyes, ‘Why sex for rent is not a deal like any other‘ in The National
• Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, ‘The Forgotten Language that Only Women Once Knew‘ on Ozy
• Emer O’Toole, ‘The Sisters of Charity presided over abuse. They must not run a maternity hospital‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Ristow, ‘Why Didn’t I Get Help for Postpartum Depression Sooner?‘ on The Cut
• Sophie Walker, ‘Brexit will be disastrous for women unless we fight the rollback of our rights‘ in The Guardian

Photograph by Adrienne Mathiowetz

Society and Politics:

• Eula Biss, ‘Murder Mystery‘ in The TLS
• Caren Chesler, ‘The Blood of the Crab‘ on Popular Mechanics
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘My generation has to choose between a child or a career. We can’t afford both‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin Flanagan, ‘How Late-Night Comedy Fueled the Rise of Trump‘ on The Atlantic
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Earth Is Not Vengeful—It’s Just Indifferent‘ on Pacific Standard
• Erika Hayasaki, ‘How a Single Gene Could Become a Volume Knob for Human Suffering‘ on Wired
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The viral image of Saffiyah Khan is an antidote to an era of escalating male rage‘ on The Pool
• Kate Imbach, ‘Fairytale Prisoner by Choice: The Photographic Eye of Melania Trump‘ on Medium
• Sarah Kendzior, ‘Trump craves praise. We praise him for bombings. What possibly could go wrong?‘ in The Globe and the Mail
• Sarah Lyall, ‘Will London Fall?‘ in The New York Times
• Eimear McBride, ‘in the West Bank: “All that is human in me recoils from this”‘ in The Irish Times
• Rachel Monroe, ‘#Vanlife, the Bohemian Social-Media Movement‘ in The New Yorker
• Suzanne Moore, ‘In dark times, this image has a glorious message – resistance is not futile‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Nicole Prickett, ‘Free the Roses‘ on Hazlitt
• Jana G. Pruden, ‘A Radical Grief‘ in The Globe and the Mail
• Sarah Scholes, ‘Brain-Altering Science and the Search for a New Normal‘ on Pacific Standard
• Elif Shafak, ‘Turkey could be about to leap from division to despotism‘ in The Guardian
• Sonia Weiser, ‘Do Women Actually Wear Men’s Dress Shirts After Sex?‘ on Racked

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

• Sarah Barker, ‘The Brutality of the Barkley Marathons‘ on Deadspin
• Angelica Jade Bastíen, ‘What the Debate Around Black American and British Actors Gets Wrong‘ on Vulture
• Francine Prose, ‘“Sex and the City” in Hell‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Fariha Róisín, ‘Kids Like Us‘ on Hazlitt
• Donna Seaman, ‘Surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie, Queen of the Bohemian Artists‘ on Literary Hub

The interviews/profiles:

• Sara Ahmed on Literary Hub
• Diana Athill on Lenny Letter
• Jennifer Finney Boylan on Vice
• Durga Chew-Bose in The Guardian and on Literary Hub
• Patty Yumi Cottrell in The Paris Review and on Electric Literature
• Jessa Crispin in The Observer and on Vox
• Rachel Dolezal (interviewed by Ijeoma Oluo) on The Stranger
• Sarah Gerard on Electric Literature
• Zoe Gilbert on The Word Factory
• Camilla Grudova on Minor Literature[s]
• Paula Hawkins on Northern Soul
• L.S. Hilton on The Pool
• Donna Leon in The Guardian
• Deborah Levy in The TLS
• Alia Malek in Gurenica
• Helen McClory on The Skinny
• Lisa McInerney in The Guardian and on TSS Publishing
• Dorthe Nors on The Man Booker Prize and Words Without Borders
• Hanna Nowinski on Teen Vogue
• Sarah Perry in The Radio Times
• Claudia Rankine in The Paris Review
• Emma Ramadan on Conversational Reading
• Samantha Schweblin on Words Without Borders
• Shanthi Sekaran on The Rumpus
• Olivia Sudjic on Flavorwire
• Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan on The Rumpus
• Angie Thomas on The Rumpus
• Mónica de la Torre on Literary Hub
• Laura Waddell on Nothing in the Rule Book
• Joanna Walsh on Review 31
• Lidia Yuknavitch on Electric Literature

The regular columnists:

• Ijeoma Oluo on The Establishment
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• 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
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• 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: 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 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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

On Friday, the death of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird was announced. Obituaries followed from Ed Pilkington and Matthew Teague in The Guardian; Eric Hamburger also in The Guardian; Casey N. Cep in The New Yorker, and The Irish Times, and appraisals of her work from Michiko Kakutani, ‘In Harper Lee’s Novels, a Loss of Innocence as Children and Again as Adults‘ in the New York Times; Sarah Churchwell, ‘Harper Lee: author battled to reconcile racial justice with a racially unjust society‘ and Elaine Showalter, ‘Harper Lee: an American novelist deserving of serious attention‘ both in The Guardian; Michelle Dean, ‘Did Go Set a Watchman spoil Harper Lee’s literary legacy?‘ in The Guardian; Katy Waldman, ‘What Is Harper Lee’s Legacy After Go Set a Watchman?‘ on Slate, and Alex Clark, ‘Why Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird endures to tell its tale of radical change‘ in The Observer

You might have heard that a fortnight ago Beyoncé released a new song ‘Formation’ which she went on to perform at the SuperBowl. Lots of people had lots to say about it. LaSha wrote, ‘Kendrick Lamar won’t face backlash like Beyoncé: Socially conscious art, sexual expression and the policing of black women’s politics‘, Priscilla Ward wrote, ‘White Beyoncé haters don’t get it: “Formation” isn’t “race-baiting” — but it is unapologetically about race‘ both on Salon; Banseka Kayembe wrote, ‘Beyonce Gets Political: Here’s Why it Matters‘ on the Huffington Post; Shantrelle Lewis wrote, ‘“Formation” Exploits New Orleans’ Trauma‘ on Slate; Nikita Richardson did ‘A Deep Dive into the Important, Unapologetic Blackness of Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’‘ on Hello Giggles; Suzanne Moore said, ‘Black Pride at the Super Bowl? Beyoncé embodies a new political moment‘ in The Guardian; The Pool asked, ‘Four women on what Beyoncé’s Formation means to them‘, and Anna Leszkiewicz said, ‘Beyoncé and #BlackLivesMatter: why “Formation” is her most radical release to date‘ in the New Statesman.

Last weekend was Valentine’s Day; there was plenty of writing around that too. Emma Dowling wrote, ‘Love’s Labour’s Cost: The Political Economy of Intimacy‘ on Verso Books; Eleanor Franzén wrote ‘V Daze‘ on Elle Thinks; Eileen Myles, ‘on the Excruciating Pain of Waiting for Love‘ and Heather Haverilesky, ‘What Romance Really Means After 10 Years of Marriage‘ on The Cut; Marie Phillips wrote, ‘What I learnt from a year of being in love‘ and Emer O’Toole shared, ‘The Rules, and how I fell in love‘ both on The Pool; Lauren Duca asked, ‘Is There Such a Thing As a Feminist Marriage Proposal?‘, Laura June revealed, ‘What I Thought Romance Meant, Age 12–Present‘ and Meaghan O’Connell told us, ‘Getting Married in One Week Was the Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did‘ all in The Cut; Emma Flowers wrote, ‘Finding, Nearly Losing and Finally Building Love Across Two Genders‘ on the Huffington Post; Heidi Julavits on ‘My High-School Boyfriend, the Con Artist‘ in The Cut; Tiffany Yannetta wrote, ‘Lights, Camera, Love‘ on the history of dating shows on Racked, and Alana Massey said, ‘Tinder Is the New Meet-Cute‘ in The Cut.

Congratulations to Ríona Judge McCormack who won the inaugural Galley Beggar Press short story competition with ‘Blackburn‘. And The Stella Prize announced its 12 book longlist for 2016.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Janet Ellis,‘I submitted my book under a pseudonym’ in The Telegraph
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘“The first outline was way more weird than the final novel” – on writing 13 Minutes‘ on One Book Lane
• Katherine Clements, ‘The Real Wicked Lady‘ on The History Girls
• Elen Caldecott, ‘Children’s books: a middle class ghetto?‘ in The Guardian
• Grady Hendrix, ‘Beloved: The Best Horror Novel the Horror Genre Has Never Claimed‘ on Tor.Com
• Laura Malonee, ‘The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War‘ on Wired
• Cathy Retzenbrink, ‘Lucy Kalanithi, a mourning wife on her husband’s brilliant legacy‘ on The Pool
• Susan Burton, ‘The Quietly Subversive Fictions of Dana Spiotta‘ in The New York Times
• Lisa Levy, ‘The Fine Grim Line Between Love and Stalking: On the Crime Fiction of Caroline Kepnes‘ on Literary Hub
• AFP, ‘Love, Rage, Silence: Secret Lives of Afghanistan’s Female Poets‘ in The Express Tribune
• Belinda McKeon, ‘The Night that Sylvia Plath Met Ted Hughes‘ on Literary Hub
• Edan Lepucki, ‘The Anxiety of Influence: Children’s Books and Their Grown-Up Counterparts‘ on The Millions
• Emily Harnett, ‘When Art Cannot Console Us In Death‘ on Literary Hub
• Anna Hope, ‘The inspiration for an asylum set on the Yorkshire Moors‘ on the Penguin blog
• Rosalind Harvey, ‘A Response to “Beyond Bolaño and Beyond”‘ on Full Stop
• Lisa McInerney, ‘Writers on Location: on Cork City‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Melissa Keil, ‘When is YA going to shape up to body diversity?‘ in The Guardian
• Maddie Crum ‘Some Books Just Aren’t Made To Be Adapted For The Screen, And That’s OK‘ on Huffington Post
• Gila Lyons ‘Female Friendships and Online Literary Sexism‘ on The Rumpus
• Polly Vernon, ‘All the attention came from women telling me how stupid my book was‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Evans, ‘How writing YA helped me make sense of my childhood‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best nonfiction books: No 3 – No Logo by Naomi Klein (1999)‘ in The Guardian
• Tracy McVeigh, ‘Ferrante fever sees ‘dangerous’ Naples turn into a tourist hotspot‘ in The Observer
• Valerie Grove, ‘My hero: Margaret Forster‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Crompton. ‘Girl, uninterrupted: staging Eimear McBride’s chaotic masterpiece‘ in The Guardian
• William Deresiewicz, ‘Where Have You Gone, Annie Dillard?‘ on The Atlantic
• Kavita Das, ‘On Parsing‘ on VIDA
• Emily Sipiora, ‘Françoise Sagan and Luxury Existentialism‘ in The Northwest Review of Books
• Katie Cotton, ‘Women in picture books: are we there yet?‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Martin Chilton, ‘How Valley of the Dolls went from a reject to a 30-million best-seller‘ in The Telegraph
• Candy Gourlay and Laura Dockrill, ‘Why we love enchantment in children’s books‘ in The Guardian
• Daniel Peña, ‘Octavia Butler’s Notebook Represents All The Anxieties Of Writers Of Color‘ on Ploughshares
• Niina Pollari, ‘The Marvelous Bonfire‘ on Catapult
• Nandini Balial, ‘On Finding Yourself in the Work of Jhumpa Lahiri‘ on Literary Hub
• Siyanda Mohutsiwa, ‘I’m Done With African Immigrant Literature‘ on Okay Africa
• Andrew Harrison, ‘Framed! Meet the creators shaking up modern comics‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Armitstead, ‘Margaret Forster, award-winning author, dies at 77‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Tennant-Moore, ‘The Best Literary Writing About Sex‘ on Literary Hub
• Catherine Nichols, ‘One Weird Trick That Makes a Novel Addictive‘ on Jezebel
• Eleanor Franzén, ‘On Culture: The Dark Side of Beatrix Potter‘ on Litro
• Máire T Robinson, ‘Sheela-na-gigs and writing what you don’t know‘ in The Irish Times
• Chibundu Onuzo, ‘Yes, I’m black. But an ethnic minority? Forget it‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Eight Classic Female Bildungsromane You Should Know About If You Don’t Already‘ in The Toast
• Esther Kuforiji, ‘Stories of Blackness — Chapter 4: Literary Festivals‘ on Medium
• Julia Eccleshare, ‘Gillian Avery obituary‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Liz Dashwood, ‘Grown-ups are allowed to have meltdowns, too‘ on The Pool
• Joyce Maynard, ‘What Luck Means Now‘ in The New York Times
• Erin Lee Carr, ‘Still Rendering‘ on Medium
• Danielle Bacher, ‘My Autistic Brother’s Quest for Love‘ in Esquire
• Bruna Dantas Labato, ‘Notes on Record-Keeping‘ on Ploughshares
• Joanna Horton, ‘Hard Luck: On Motherlessness‘ in The Toast
• Edan Lepuki, ‘The Secret, Magical Underwear That Only Moms Know About‘ in The Cut
• Kim Pittaway, ‘After‘ on Hazlitt
• Jennifer Hanks, ‘Somewhere Across The Sea‘ in Lumen
• Nicolette Loizou, ‘Travelling in Fiji‘ on Litro
• Esther Schor, ‘My Last JDate‘ in Tablet
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘I was driven out of my beloved church by homophobia‘ in The Telegraph
• Marian Keyes , ‘on the Agony of Small Goodbyes‘ on The Pool
• Susan Shapiro, ‘Both Sides Now‘ on Tablet
• Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The Moon Over the River Lethe‘ on Catapult
• Sarai Walker, ‘Yes, I’m Fat. It’s O.K. I Said It.‘ in The New York Times
• Miriam Foley, ‘Remembering Román‘ on Litro
• Susan Daitch, ‘Treasure Hunters‘ on Guernica
• Farah Róisín, ‘Why Them?‘ on Hazlitt

Feminism:

• Anna James, ‘What’s behind the lack of female pilots?‘ on The Pool
• Jia Tolentino, ‘What Should We Say About David Bowie and Lori Maddox?‘ on Jezebel
• Laura Munoz, ‘To Men I Love, About Men Who Scare Me‘ on Medium
• Dolly Alderton, ‘Hey, spurious polls. This is the *perfect* woman‘ on The Pool
• Emma Lindsay, ‘What I Learned From Dating Women Who Have Been Raped‘ on Medium
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘On the sad inevitability of the grown man and the teenage girl‘ on The Pool
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘Companies are to publish their gender pay gaps – but will this lead to financial equality?‘ on the New Statesman
• Louise O’Neill, ‘I wonder if my ex-boyfriends thought female sexuality was something to be laughed at‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Sandra Newman, ‘Woman Facts‘ on McSweeney’s
• Robyn Wilder, ‘Why is the P-word so cringingly awful?‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘The Case of the Missing Perpetrator‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Mayer, ‘The Legend of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp‘ on Berfrois
• Sady Doyle, ‘Progressive‘ on her Tumblr
• Aricka Foreman and Mimi Wong, ‘Except, All Of Us: Women & the Myth of Safety‘ on The Offing
• Laura June ‘When You’re Pregnant, Nothing Seems in Your Control‘ on The Cut

Society and Politics:

• Kyla Marshell, ‘The Other World Where Everyone Lives‘ in The Blueshift Journal
• Elspeth Reeve, ‘The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens‘ on New Republic
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Is a Surrogate a Mother?‘ on Slate
• Alana Massey, ‘Checking Your Date’s Instagram Isn’t ‘Stalking,’ It’s Research‘ on The Cut
• Meena Kandasamy, ‘“I Am An Anti-National…Count Me Out”‘ on Outlook
• Aaminah Khan, ‘I Don’t Need White Progressives Telling Me, A Queer Muslim, About Homophobia In Islam‘ on Harlott
• Lisa Rab, ‘Poverty in Charlotte: ‘It Was Never Okay’‘ in Charlotte Magazine
• Beulah Maud Devaney, ‘Which Cities Would Be Most Likely to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse?‘ on City Metric
• Jihan Crowther ‘What Dating Abroad Taught Me About Stateside Racism‘ on Jezebel
• Jaya Saxena, ‘Some Unorganized Mixed Race Thoughts‘ in The Toast
• Lineal Ajello, ‘More and More War Stories‘ on Guernica
• Susan Gillman, ‘Remembering Slavery, Again‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The new young fogeys‘ in The New Statesman
• Emiko Jozuka, ‘The Woman Who Makes Prosthetic Pinkies for Ex-Yakuza Members‘ on Motherboard

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

• Joy Resmovits, ‘The UCLA gymnast who became a viral sensation by just being herself on the floor‘ in the LA Times
• Elizabeth Day, ‘Happy Valley’s women: flawed, funny and completely brilliant‘ on The Pool
• Elizabeth Sankey, ‘In praise of Ab Fab, female friendship and not caring what other people think‘ on The Pool
• Lorrie Moore, ‘The Shame of Wisconsin‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Superheroes have to deal with the same problems the rest of us do‘ on The Pool
• Alexandra Molotkow, ‘The Uncomfortable Power of Pop-Music Cruelty‘ on The Cut
• Hannah Giorgia, ‘Why Do Black Women In Movies Have To Choose Between A Weave And A Relationship?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Cali Hughes, ‘Red is so much more than a colour. It’s a state of mind.’ on the 4th Estate blog
• Lisa Owens, ‘Does Don’t Tell The Bride actually contain the secrets to a happy life?‘ on The Pool
• Lisa Hix, ‘Out of the Shadow of Aunt Jemima: The Real Black Chefs Who Taught Americans to Cook‘ on Collectors Weekly
• Jamie Lauren Keiles, ‘I’m a Hat Person Now‘ on The Cut

The interviews:

• Elizabeth Strout in The Guardian
• Kelly Link on The Millions
• Elena Ferrante in The Gentlewoman
• Idra Novey on Hazlitt, Electric Literature, Weird Sister and Literary Hub
• Janet Ellis in The Bookseller
• Hilary Spiers on Greenacre Writers
• Ann Neuman and Sheri Fink in Guernica
• Marie Annhearte Baker in Room
• Marjorie Liu in Guernica
• Jhumpa Lahiri on Slate, the Wall Street Journal and  Literary Hub, Parts One and Two
• Belinda McKeon on Electric Literature
• Lucy Kalanithi in The Guardian
• Sara Majka on Electric Literature
• Salena Godden on The Woven Tale Press
• Marina Warner on The Literateur
• Ann Goldstein on NPR
• Antonia Honeywell on Greenacre Writers
• Angela Flournoy on The Rumpus
• Sarah Perry on Radio Praha
• Meg Rosoff in The Guardian
• Han Kang on Literary Hub
• Joanna Walsh in Tank
• Alida Nugent on The Rumpus
• Natasha Wimmey on Broadly
• Caroline Bergvall on Asymptote
• Jo Bloom in Psychologies
• Elizabeth McKenzie on Literary Hub
• Sharon Guskin in The Bookseller
• Cate Kennedy on Paul McVeigh’s website
• Sara Gruen and Sarah McCoy on Salon
• Gillian Slovo in The Observer
• Melissa Green in the Los Angeles Review of Books

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: 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: January 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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

January’s been living up to it’s reputation as the most miserable month in the calendar. There’s been the misogynistic and racist response to Sarah Howe’s Young Writer of the Year Award and TS Eliot Award wins. Poet, Katy Evans-Bush responded with ‘TS Eliot prize row: is winner too young, beautiful – and Chinese?‘ in The Guardian.

The deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman at least inspired some great writing: Stacey May Fowles, ‘Reconciling David Bowie‘ on Hazlitt and Sali Hughes, ‘I’ve had it up to here with the grief police‘ on The Pool. Gwendolyn Smith, ‘Forget Snape – in concentrating on him, we leave out one of the greatest roles Alan Rickman ever performed‘ in The Independent and Daisy Buchanan, ‘Alan Rickman’s Colonel Brandon taught me an important lesson about love‘ on The Pool

In happier news, there were a number of other prize wins for female writers: Kate Atkinson won the Costa Novel Prize; Anuradha Roy won the 2016 DSC prize for south Asian literature; A.S. Byatt won the Erasmus Prize, and the writers shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award were revealed, including Annalisa Crawford, Peggy Riley and Erin Soros.

Glamour welcomed a transgender columnist: Juno Dawson will chart her journey in the magazine. I’ll add Juno’s column to the regular columnists list once it has a permanent URL.

The Observer revealed their New Faces of Fiction for 2016 and Joanna Cannon wrote this great piece – The Monster Under the Bed – about her inclusion.

And the woman with the most publicity of late is Amy Liptrot with ‘I swam in the cold ocean and dyed my hair a furious blue… I was moving upwards slowly‘ in The Guardian; interviews in The Independent and The Pool.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Morgan Jerkins, ‘Writing While Black: On Cliche, Stereotype and the Struggle to Describe Blackness‘ on Literary Hub
• E.V. de Cleyre, ‘On “the Terrible Efficiency of Gaslighting”‘ on Brevity
• Sarah Weinmann, ‘True-crime stories: a centuries-old craze from Ben Franklin to Making a Murderer‘ in The Guardian
• Zetta Elliott, ‘Nobody’s Cheerleader‘ on her blog
• Lauren Groff, ‘on Writing with Lightness‘ on The Atlantic
• Sian Cain, ‘Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing‘ in The Guardian
• Lenika Cruz, ‘The Promising Case of a Non-White Nancy Drew‘ on The Atlantic
• Catherine Lacey ‘on the Inspiration Behind Nobody is Ever Missing‘ on the WHSMITH blog
• Brigid Delaney, ‘A Little Life: why everyone should read this modern-day classic‘ in The Guardian
• Zoe Heller and Francine Prose, ‘Is the Writer’s Only Responsibility to His Art?‘ in The New York Times
• Gideon Lewis-Kraus, ‘The Trials of Alice Goffman‘ in The New York Times Magazine
• Claire Fuller, ‘The Huge, Unwieldy Beast versus Flash Fiction‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Adelle Waldman, ‘The Ideal Marriage, According to Novels‘ in The New Yorker
• Ali Smith ‘on Trumpet by Jackie Kay‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Crompton, ‘Sexism on the stage – meet the women tearing up the script‘ in The Guardian
• Maria Turtschaninoff, ‘Why is feminist fantasy important?‘ in The Bookseller
• Catherine Hokin, ‘The Challenges of Writing Historical Fiction‘ on Helen MacKinven’s blog
• Deborah Smith, ‘On Translating Human Acts by Han Kang‘ on Asymptote
• Alison Glock Cooper and T Cooper, ‘Transgender: identity is never one single thing so tick the box that says ‘other’‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Mah, ‘Elena Ferrante’s Naples, Then and Now‘ in The New York Times
• Chloe Angyal, ‘I Decided Not To Read Books By White Authors For A Year. Conservatives Lost Their Damn Minds‘ on The Huffington Post
• Carmiel Banasky, ‘Topography of a Novel: The Suicide of Claire Bishop‘ on Blunderbuss
• Laura Miller, ‘Ladies of Leisure: The resurgence of the housewife novel‘ on Slate
• Martha Tennent and Maruxa Relaño, ‘How a Mother-Daughter Translation Team Makes it Work‘ on Literary Hub
• Peter Bebegal, ‘Cracking the Codes of Leena Krohn‘ in The New Yorker
• Sarah Lyall, ‘The Author Elizabeth Strout on ‘Lucy Barton’ and How Her Characters Come Into Being‘ in The New York Times
• Isabel Rogers, ‘on What a Poet can teach a Novelist‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Vidhu Aggarwal, ‘“I’m nothing, if not”: An Anecdote of a Jar‘ on VIDA
• Dawn Finch, ‘Why are we still talking about diversity and inclusion?‘ on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure
• Samantha Hunt’s Literary Mixtape: how to be a deranged cult leader in The Guardian
• Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘on the power of poetry and fiction‘ on Legend Press
• Joanna Biggs, ‘Work is where we make friends, exert power, fall in love‘ in The Guardian
• Non Pratt, ‘No taboo should be off limits when writing for teenagers‘ in The Guardian
• Brittany K. Allen, ‘I Wrote the Accent: A Black Writer Considers “Urban Romance”‘ in The Toast
• Laura Miller, ‘Why Fates and Furies was this year’s most talked-about novel‘ in The Guardian
• Cynthia Ozick, ‘The Novel’s Evil Tongue‘ in The New York Times

Personal essays/memoir:

• Alana Massey, ‘Marriage and Two Kids: A Most Scandalous Fantasy‘ in The Cut
• Lydia Kiesling, ‘Death and Heirs: A View from the San Francisco Housing Market‘ on The Millions
• Saigowri Kuruvada, ‘How I Learned To Accept My Self-Harm Scars‘ on Buzzfeed
• Isabel Murray, ‘I’m a Disgusting Sleeper‘ on The Awl
• Rowan Whiteside, ‘Uninvited‘ in Standard Issue
• Jane Campbell, ‘The Long Run‘ on Hazlitt
• Yurina Ko, ‘Little Big Eater Girl‘ on The New Inquiry
• Fleur Smithwick, ‘A response from my mother to the weird kid blog‘ on her blog
• Jen Gann, ‘Why Am I So Sad About Having a Boy?‘ in The Cut
• Monica Sok, ‘On Fear, Fearlessness, and Intergenerational Trauma‘ on VIDA
• Jenny Diski, ‘The Island of lost words‘ on her blog
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Growing Up With White Paranoia: Persecution vs. Privilege‘ on Pacific Standard
• Ellabel Risbridger, ‘#BREAKFREE From Likes: ‘I’ve Grown Up On The Internet’‘ in Marie Claire
• Cris Mazza, ‘A Finished Brain‘ on The Rumpus
• Julianne Smolinski, ‘The Funny Thing About Abusive Relationships‘ on The Cut
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘I’m a Previvor‘ on Catapult
• Nicole Chung, ‘What Goes Through Your Mind: On Nice Parties and Casual Racism‘ in The Toast
• Lauren McKeon, ‘As Women Scorned‘ on Hazlitt
• Kim Brooks, ‘I’m Having a Friendship Affair‘ in The Cut
• Claire Jimenez, ‘Spanish Lessons: On Language Loss and Recovery‘ in The Toast

Feminism:

• Amy Swales, ‘A Story of a Fuck Off Fund‘ on Medium
• Cade Lebron, ‘Liar, Liar: On Writing About Rape Online‘ on Electric Literature
• Jane Marie, ‘On Going Off My Depression Medication During Pregnancy‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Rosamund Urwin, ‘Why do crimes against women always have the same, sad ending?‘ on The Pool
• Kathy Dobie, ‘To Catch a Rapist‘ in The New York Times
• Ann Friedman, ‘The 2015 renaissance of the agony aunt‘ on The Pool
• Nadia Atia, ‘Your fascination with Muslim women’s bodies has a long misogynistic history‘ on Media Diversified

Society and Politics:

• Chimene Suleyman, ‘‘Integration’ or ‘Assimilation’ is a Two-sided Negotiation‘ on Media Diversified
• Afroze Zaidi-Jivraj, ‘What It’s Like Being Muslim In 2016‘ on Media Diversified
• Leena Habiballa, ‘Too Black to be Arab, too Arab to be Black‘ on Media Diversified
• Alicia Eler and Eve Peyser, ‘Tinderization of Feeling‘ on The New Inquiry
• Harriet Alida Lye, ‘The Myth of the Myth of the City of Love‘ on Hazlitt
• Emer O’Toole, ‘How to be a moderately successful person‘ in The Guardian
• Kavita Bhanot, ‘Decolonise, not Diversify‘ on Media Diversified
• Stacia L. Brown, ‘The ugly history of comparing black athletes and animals‘ in The Washington Post

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Lynn Enright, ‘The brilliant feminism of Transparent and Jill Soloway‘ on The Pool
• Jude Rogers, ‘Why we’re wired to love pop music‘ on The Pool
• Hannah McGill, ‘Nora Ephron: queen of hearts‘ on the BFI website
• Michelle Smith, ‘Suffragette reminds us why it’s a lie that feminists need men’s approval‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Maria Griffin, ‘Girls Explain Star Wars to You‘ on Scannain
• Robin James, ‘Hello From the Same Side‘ in The New Inquiry

The interviews:

• Joyce Carol Oates on Electric Literature and in The Guardian
• Lisa Williamson in The Guardian and on Scottish Book Trust
• Amy Gustine on Electric Literature
• Helen Ellis in The New York Times
• Mira Ptacin on Flavorwire
• Chelsea Hodson in Hobart
• Tara Guha on Chouett
• Elizabeth Evans on Guernica
• Diane Williams in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Ann Goldstein (Elena Ferrante’s translator) on Guernica
• Chaitali Sen on The Rumpus
• Valerie Martin in The Guardian
• Eileen Myles in The New York Times
• Liz Lochhead in The Guardian
• Margaret Atwood on Electric Literature
• Emma Donoghue on The Pool
• Sandra Cisneros on The Rumpus
• Lidia Yuknavitch and Anakana Schofield on Electric Literature
• Marlene Van Niekerk in The White Review
• Helen McClory on The Skinny
• Caitlin Moran in Stylist
• Roxane Gay on Sky Blue Window
• Tessa Hadley in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
• Ayisha Malik in The New Statesman
• Samantha Hunt on The Millions
• Claire Fuller on Sarah Jasmon’s blog
• Claudia Rankine in The Guardian
• Amy Poehler 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

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

In the Media: October 2015, 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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

Photograph by Nadya Lev

This fortnight has been dominated by trans issues and feminism. This is largely due (in the UK at least) to the no-platforming of Germaine Greer due to her unpalatable comments about trans women. Sarah Seltzer looks at ‘The Disturbing Trend of Second-Wave Feminist Transphobia‘ on Flavorwire. This coincided with YA author, James Dawson, coming out as a transgender woman in this great piece by Patrick Strudwick on Buzzfeed. I look forward to featuring James and his books on the blog under his yet to be revealed new name and pronoun. Elsewhere, Francesca Mari writes, ‘They Found Love, Then They Found Gender‘ on Matter, Corinne Manning writes about ‘In Defence of the New Censorship‘, discussing the use of singular they on Literary Hub while Laurie Penny explores, ‘How To Be A Genderqueer Feminist‘ on Buzzfeed.

Photograph by Chad Batka

The woman with the most publicity this fortnight is Carrie Brownstein. She’s interviewed in Rolling Stone, Slate, Noisey, The New York Times and The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Francesca Rendle-Short, ‘Focus on Lesbian/Queer Australian Women Writers‘ on Australian Women Writers
• Emily Gould, ‘Our Spoons Came from Woolworths‘ on The Paris Review
• Can Xue, ‘A special kind of performance: on the course of a Chinese writer‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Mosse, ‘Women’s Prize for Fiction: 20 years on – why we need it more than ever‘ in The Telegraph
• Anne Thériault, ‘What I Wish Everyone Knew About Sylvia Plath‘ on The Belle Jar
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘YA or not YA? On writing and reading labels‘ on Live Otherwise
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘US Open & Revisions‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Out with vampires, in with haunted houses: the ghost story is back‘ in The Guardian
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘The enduring appeal of Bridget Jones‘ on The Pool
• Virginia Pasley, ‘The Dueling Universes of Bridget Jones‘ on Medium
• Kate Zambreno and Adrian Nathan West ‘The Pleasure of Following Coincidences: on Marianne Fritz‘ in The Believer
• Claire Harman, ‘“I pine away”… Charlotte Brontë’s romantic obsession‘ in The Guardian
• Leslie Jamison, ‘The Possibilities of the Personal‘ on Nieman Storyboard
• Lily Tuck, ‘True Confessions of an Auto-Fictionist‘ on Literary Hub
• David Mitchell, ‘On Earthsea: A Rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin‘ in The Guardian
• Adam Fitzgerald, ”That’s not poetry; it’s sociology!’ – in defence of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen‘ in The Guardian
• Jennifer Croft, ‘Understanding Difference: On Translating Olga Tokarczuk‘ on Pen American Centre
• Naomi J. Williams, ‘on late starts and lost calls‘ in The Irish Times
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘What Is Fanfiction, Anyway?‘ in the New Statesman
• John Plotz, ‘Le Guin’s Anarchist Aesthetics‘ on Public Books
• Susan Bernofsky, ‘Who’s Getting Translated? Mostly Men‘ on Translationista
• Helen MacKinven, ‘on Setting Her Novel in a Small Town‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Kate Mosse, ‘The wild bunch: on why we love out-of-control women‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Eby, ‘The Brutal Murder of Mary Grace: Peacock
  Love and Death on Flannery’s Farm‘ on Literary Hub
• Jane Smiley, ‘At the end of this trilogy I wept‘ on Literary Hub
• Tanya Landman, ‘Is To Kill a Mockingbird a racist book?‘ in The Guardian
• Susanna Rustin, ‘Joan Brady: “Alger Hiss Was Framed by Nixon”‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Laskow, ‘We Have a Copy of Patricia Highsmith’s Unpublished Essay on Green Wood Cemetery‘ on Atlas Obscura
• Isabel Rogers, ‘How do you get into Fight Club if you pronounce it ‘figghut’?‘ on her blog
• Scott Esposito, ‘Pillars: #4. River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit‘ on Conversational Reading
• Olivia Laing, ‘Separating art from life always needs the most delicate touch‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Emma Jane Unsworth, ‘Suffering the strangeness of sleep paralysis‘ on The Pool
• Elena Ayala-Hurtado, ‘“Adrift between two dialects”: Teaching English in Madrid‘ in The Toast
• Kristen Martin, ‘Investigation, from the Latin investigationem‘ in Guernica
• Daisy Hernández, ‘Colares‘ on The Rumpus
• Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Arch Tait), ‘Boys in Zinc‘ in Granta
• Ella Sackville Adjei, ‘The Terrible Tale Of My Racist One-Night Stand‘ on Buzzfeed
• Susana Morerira Marques (translated by Julia Sanches) from ‘Now and at the Hour of Our Death’ in The Offing
• Jane Smiley, ‘Horse Country‘ in The New York Times
• Molly Langmuir, ‘A Road Trip With My Friend Led to a Nude Photo Shoot‘ on The Cut
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘Caught in the Middle‘ in Guernica
• Masha Gessen, ‘The Memory Keeper‘ on Svetlana Alexievich in The New Yorker
• Joanne Harris, ‘A Writer’s Manifesto‘ on Writers’ Centre Norwich
• Corinne Manning, ‘Myself in Translation: On the Genius of Alison Bechdel‘ on Literary Hub
• Sofi Stambo, ‘Lists‘ on AGNI
• Michele Filgate, ‘Dressing Myself for the First Time‘ on Refinery 29
• Ka Bradley, ‘A Letter of Enquiry Regarding a Possible Purchase‘ in The Offing
• Scherezade Siobhan, ‘Llamada‘ on Real Pants

Feminism:

• Sophia Benoit, ‘A list of things I wish women’s magazines would publish‘ in The Guardian
• Sabeena Akhtar, ‘Education, not Liberation!‘ on The Poco Book Reader
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘The damage done by demonising single mothers‘ on The Pool
• Frances Ryan, ‘A disabled woman’s struggle is any woman’s struggle‘ in The Guardian
• Akwugo Emejulu, ‘From #BlackLivesMatter to Anti-Austerity: Women of Colour and the Politics of Solidarity‘ on Verso Books Blog
• Emer O’Toole, ‘Suggestions for stock photos in abortion articles‘ in The Irish Times
• Jina Moore, ‘Women Refugees Fleeing Through Europe Are Told Rape Is Not A Real Issue‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Dohrmann, ‘Lost Girls: Women, sex, and the Arab Spring‘ in Harper’s
• Brittney Cooper, ‘The gun crisis we aren’t talking about: Black women are under attack — and America doesn’t care‘ on Salon
• Rebecca Traistor, ‘The Game Is Rigged‘ in The Cut
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Taking Up Space‘ on Girl Lost in the City
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘Women’s pain: do we need to scream to be heard?‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Rachel Nuwer, ‘The Tragic Tale of Mt. Everest’s Most Famous Dead Body‘ on the BBC
• Kate Taylor, ‘At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’ in The New York Times
• Brittney Cooper, ‘She was guilty of being a black girl: The mundane terror of police violence in American schools‘ on Salon
• Anna Holmes, ‘Has ‘Diversity’ Lost Its Meaning?‘ in The New York Times
• Ellen Berrey, ‘Diversity is for white people: The big lie behind a well-intended word‘ on Salon
• Saima, ‘What’s In a Name?‘ on Medium
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘My atheism does not make me superior to believers. It’s a leap of faith too‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Martin, ‘The Deputy Who Disappeared‘ in Los Angeles Magazine
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The Women’s Equality party has a problem – no one hates it‘ in The Guardian
• Julie Beck, ‘How Friendships Change in Adulthood‘ in The Atlantic
• Apoorva Mandavilli, ‘The Invisible Women With Autism‘ in The Atlantic
• Maya Oppenheim, ‘Not just sourdough: the feminist artisan bakery run by women who are ex-offenders‘ in the New Statesman
• Sarah Graham, ‘Only two sexes? The barefaced lie that makes intersex people like me invisible‘ in The Independent

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Megan Garber, ‘Suffragette and the Perils of Inspiration Porn‘ in The Atlantic
• Leah Finnegan, ‘The Fragile Ears of Men‘ on Joanna Newsom in The Awl
• Hannah Jane Parkinson, ‘The name’s Bond, Jane Bond: what would lesbian 007 look like?‘ in The Guardian
• Jada F. Smith, ‘With ‘Being Mary Jane,’ Mara Brock Akil Specializes in Portraits of Black Women‘ in The New York Times
• Rachel Shabi, ‘Homeland *is* racist. And it has a problem with women‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Cristina Henríquez in Guernica
• Melinda Salisbury on helloiammariam
• Gloria Steinem in The New York Times
• Selma Dabbagh in Guernica
• Sloane Crosley in The New York Times and The Bookseller
• Azar Nafisi on The Millions
• Suzanne Scanlon on Electric Literature
• Garance Doré in The Cut
• Terry Stiastny on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Meera Syal in The Guardian
• Lauren Holmes on Electric Literature
• Jane Smiley on Northern Soul
• Erica Jong in The Observer
• Stacy Schiff in The New York Times
• Helen Simpson in The Guardian
• Edna O’Brien in The Telegraph and The Bookseller
• Carmen Maria Machado on Electric Literature
• Helen MacKinven on Poppy Peacock Pens
• Eileen Myles in the LA Times
• Laura Watkinson on translating Tonke Dragt in The Guardian
• Alex Mar on The Millions and Nerdist
• Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Kelly Sue De Connick on The Pool
• Valeria Luiselli in The White Review
• Marilynne Robinson on The Daily Beast
• Emma Jane Unsworth in The Cut
• Margaret Atwood on Literary Hub, Salon and The Millions
• Sarah Weinman on The Paris Review
• Mary Ruefle on Divedapper
• Yeonmi Park in The Irish 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

In the Media: 15th March 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. 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.

It’s been a great week for women writers and prizes. The Wellcome Prize shortlist was announced on Monday, including four books (of six) by women. Congratulations Miriam Towes, Alice Roberts, Sarah Moss and Marion Coutts. On Tuesday, the twenty-strong Bailey’s Prize longlist was announced. Chair of this year’s judges, Shami Chakrabarti discussed the need for the prize in The Guardian and Buzzfeed created a guide to the longlisted books. The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature has five women (of nine) on the longlist. Congratulations Tanya Shirley, Monique Roffey, Tiphanie Yanique, Elizabeth Nunez and Olive Senior. The PEN/Faulkner award has three women on a shortlist of five. Congratulations Emily St. John Mandel, Jennifer Clement and Jenny Offill. The Stella Prize, the Australian prize for female writers announced its shortlist this week too. Congratulations to Maxine Beneba Clarke, Emily Bitton, Ellen Van Neervan, Sophie Lagune, Jean London and Christine Keneally. Marina Warner won the Holberg Prize 2015. And women won four of the six categories at the National Book Critics Circle Award. Congratulations Marilynne Robinson, Roz Chast, Ellen Willis and Claudia Rankine.

It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today. Jo Hogan writes ‘Surprised by a Jumper: On Being Motherless on Mother’s Day‘ on her blog; Scottish Book Trust list ten books that celebrate pioneering women; Emma Healey wrote, ‘From Offshore to Oranges: a literary tribute to Mother’s Day‘ in the Guardian; Emylia Hall wrote, ‘The Mother of All Years‘ on her blog; Windmill Books published an extract of Charlotte Gordon’s forthcoming book, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley on their website, and Kate Hamer wrote, ‘Literary matriarchs and their daughters, from Little Women to Carrie‘ in the Independent

Two in-depth Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie interviews have been published this week, one in Vogue and the other on Olisa.tv: part one and part two.

The woman with the most publicity this week is Caitlin Moran. She’s interviewed on Buzzfeed and on the British Comedy Guide with her sister Caroline Moran; Pilot Viruet wrote, ‘Caitlin Moran’s UK Series ‘Raised by Wolves’ Is the Teen Sitcom America Needs‘ on Flavorwire; she’s profiled by Vanessa Thorpe in the Observer and her own Times Magazine column this week was ‘What it really means to be a mum‘ which you can listen to for free here.

And the latest on the Harper Lee story: on Wednesday, The Bookseller reported, ‘State investigators interview Harper Lee‘ and on Friday, Lee’s agent issued a statement, The Bookseller reported, ‘Nurnberg blasts ‘shameful’ Lee claims‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Rene Denfeld, ‘Writing the Truth About Criminals‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Hannah Furness, ‘Joanna Trollope: “You cannot be great novelist until after 35”‘ in the Telegraph
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘On the Way to Where You are Going: A Writer’s Patience‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Anuradha Roy, ‘No Longer a Joke‘ in The Telegraph, India
• Kate Williams, ‘introduces you to The Storms of War‘ on One Book Lane
• Elinor Abbott, ‘Rooms I Have Lived In‘ on The Bohemyth
• Louise Walters, ‘One year on from publication and the things I’ve learned‘ on her blog
• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, ‘Cinderella: The Ultimate (Postwar) Makeover Story‘ in The Atlantic
• Alison Flood, ‘New Star Wars novel to feature first lesbian character‘ in The Guardian
• Pandora Blake, ‘Don’t ask if porn “empowers” women – instead, ask if your feminism does‘ in the New Statesman
• Felix Kent, ‘Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: On Weakness, Strength, and Friendship‘ in The Toast
• Lindsey Gates-Markel, ‘He Doesn’t Wanna Be Here‘ on The Rumpus
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: Sick Girl Walking‘ in The Butter
• Sara Bivigou, ‘The Bad Blood: My Life With Sickle Cell Anaemia‘ on Buzzfeed
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Arthur Rimbaud, Dirtbag Laureate‘ in The Toast
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Female Friendship Is Life’s Great, Thwarted Romance in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels‘ on Flavorwire
• Claire Fuller, ‘Big Loves: on Barbara Comyns’s Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead‘ on Memorious Mag
• Melissa Febos, ‘The Book of Hours‘ in StoryQuarterly
• Katharine Quarmby, ‘The taboo of sex and disability: How can we shift the negative images that still dominate society’s attitudes?‘ in the Independent
• Susie Day, ‘Short is sweet: why I love short stories‘ in The Guardian
• Lois Leveen, ‘Appropriating (F)Acts in Feminist Fiction II: Juliet’s Nurse‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘The Bravery of “Basic“‘ on Real Pants
• Anna Cabe, ‘Milking the Bull: On Heroines‘ in The Toast
• Rachel Basch, ‘At The Blue Dolphin: On Mothers and Sons‘ on The Millions
• Kate Graham, ‘The Life and Legacy of Anne Frank‘ in Stylist
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Texts from Blanche DuBois‘ in The Toast
• Kaye Toal, ‘How Finding A Fat YA Heroine Changed My Life‘ on Buzzfeed
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘It’s 2050 And Feminism Has Finally Won‘ in The Toast
• Rebecca Altman, ‘American petro-topia‘ in Aeon
• Frida Berrigan, ‘Uncle Pentagon‘ in Guernica

• Helen Lewis, ‘The Digital Ducking Stool‘ in the New Statesman
• Jill Lepore, ‘Richer and Poorer‘ in The New Yorker
• Lori Day, ‘Aging while female is not your worst nightmare‘ on Feminist Current
• Patricia Scanlan, ‘Should you call time on a toxic friendship?‘ on Gransnet
• Kate Gale, ‘Reading American cities: Los Angeles in books‘ in The Guardian
• Julieanne Smolinski, ‘I Am Not My Internet Personality, and You Probably Aren’t Yours, Either.‘ in The Cut
• Melanie Finn, ‘Writers on Location: Tanzania‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Rose George, ‘A Very Naughty Little Girl‘ on Longreads
• Marcie Bianco, ‘This Feminist Children’s Book Is the Best Way Ever to Teach the ABCs‘ on MiC
• Liska Jacobs, ‘Our Best Work: On Man Ray’s Hollywood Album and Me‘ on The Millions
• Melanie Finn, ‘A Stitch in Time‘ on the Weidenfeld and Nicholson blog
• Olivia Marks, ‘When Did Not Wanting to “Lean In” Become So Taboo?‘ in Vice
• Molly Lambert, ‘Porntopia‘ on Grantland
• Francesca Wade, ‘Happily Ever After‘ in the Times Literary Supplement
• Anne Boyer, ‘Data’s Work is Never Done‘ in Guernica
• Sarah Butler, ‘“A wild blip in the country’s consciousness”: writing the 2011 riots‘ on the Picador Blog
• Alison Herman, ‘Why Tina Fey’s Racial Humor Is So Controversial‘ on Flavorwire
• Allecia Vermillion, ‘The Brief, Extraordinary Life of Cody Spafford‘ on Seattle Met
• Jennifer Gonnerman, ‘The Wrong Way‘ on Mother Jones
• Anna Maxted, ‘Older women are in the spotlight, but the battle for equality is not over‘ in the Telegraph
• Polly Samson, ‘My parents only got married because no one else would have me as a bridesmaid‘ in The Telegraph
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘I’m queer no matter who I’m with. I won’t define myself differently for your comfort‘ in The Guardian
• Chris Kraus, ‘on the Ambiguous Virtues of Art School‘ on Artspace
• Elisa Albert, ‘My friend breastfed my baby‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah McCarry, ‘On Kindness‘ in The Rejectionist
• Lynn Sloan, ‘A Page a Day‘ on Bloom
• Alice Driver, ‘My Own Trap‘ on Vela
• Holly Robinson, ‘Writing Commercial Fiction and Loving It‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘We cannot be outraged by UKIP if we are to support their rhetoric everywhere else‘ on Media Diversified
• Claire Fuller, ‘Things About Canada: Claire Fuller Remembers 1982 Montreal‘ on House of Anansi

The interviews:

• Jane Costello in the Liverpool Echo
• Helen Macdonald on Salon
• Roxane Gay, Germaine Greer, Rayya Elias and Elizabeth Gilbert at the All About Women Festival in The Guardian
• Jaime Loren on Beauty and Lace
• Kim Gordon on Faber Social and on Arts and Ideas
• Iona Grey on Helen Redfern’s blog (plus cake!)
• Susie Day in The Guardian
• Kate Schatz on Buzzfeed
• Toni Morrison in NEA Arts Magazine
• Virginia Boecker on Publishers Weekly KidsCast
• Laura Van Den Berg on The Millions
• Melanie Finn on Orion Books
• Jill Alexander Essbaum in the Wall Street Journal and on Electric Literature
• Sarah Menkedick on Longreads
• Emer O’Toole on Radio Gorgeous
• Rosie Garland on Northern Soul
• Holly Smale on We Love This Book (interviewed by her friend and former housemate Anna James)
• Miranda July in the Irish Times
• Anne Tyler on BBC World Book Club
• Samantha Harvey in The Telegraph
• Clare Fuller on Annethology
• Marie Mutsuki Mockett on Electric Literature
• Sarah Chayes in The Guardian

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘All You Have to Do‘ by Sarah Braunstein in The New Yorker which she discusses here
• ‘For Eliza (My Great Grandmother)‘ by Katrina Naomi on Proletarian Poetry
• An extract from The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson
• ‘A Birthmother’s Catechism‘ by Carrie Etter on Seren Books’ blog
• Five Short Stories by Lydia Davis in Five Dials
• ‘House Proud‘ by Amelia Gray in The White Review
• ‘Pomegranate‘ by Karissa Chen on Guernica
• ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Little Mermaid‘ by Mallory Ortberg in The Toast
• ‘Frost and Fire‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Aunt Mirrie and the Child‘ by Kate Clanchy on BBC Radio 4
• ‘Phantoms Over Paris‘ by Ali Smith in Five Dials
• A new introduction to Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter on Virago

The lists:

• Best Books to Read this March in Red
• The Best Feminist Books For Younger Readers on Bookriot
• Nine books you must read to understand women’s issues in India on Scroll.in
• The Little Free Black Woman’s Library Book List – Volume 1 on The Free Black Woman’s Library
• 20 Wonderfully Miserable Memoirs: A Reading List for the School of Hard Knocks on Entertainment Weekly
• 9 Amazing Female Graphic Novelists, Illustrators And Cartoonists You Should Read on the Huffington Post
• Inspiring Joan Didion Quotes in The Toast
• 50 Great Books About 50 Inspiring Women on Flavorwire
• Sarah Bannan’s Coming of Age Novels on Bookanista (includes an extract from her novel Weightless)
• Sarah Alderson’s Top 10 feminist icons in children’s and teen books in The Guardian
• 25 Essential Books About Death and Grief on Flavorwire
• 13 Things By Women You Can Read In One Sitting on Buzzfeed
• Kelly Sundberg’s Eight Flash Nonfiction Writers on Vela
• Five Fascinating Facts About Sylvia Plath on Interesting Literature
• 26 Contemporary Books That Should Be Taught In High School on Buzzfeed
• 74 Essential Books for Your Personal Library: A List Curated By Female Creatives on Open Culture
• 12 Sick Burns From People Who Didn’t Get The Jane Austen Hype on the Huffington Post

In the Media: 1st March 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. 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.

I’ve spent a fair proportion of this week agog at some of the comment pieces, particularly in regard to the three girls from Bethnal Green who appear to be en route to Syria. Emma Barnett in the Telegraph wrote, ‘Stop pitying British schoolgirls joining Islamic State – they’re not victims‘; Grace Dent in the Independent said, ‘If teenage girls want to join Isis in the face of all its atrocities, then they should leave and never return‘; Mary Dejevsky wrote, ‘If Britons want to join Isis, let them go‘ in The Guardian and Allison Pearson said, ‘Let’s stop making excuses for these ‘jihadi brides‘ in the Telegraph. Judith Wanga responded on Media Diversified with, ‘The Denial of Childhood to Children of Colour‘, as did Chimene Suleyman with, ‘It’s Time To Talk About Why Our Young People Turn Against Their Country‘ and Nosheen Iqbal in The Guardian with, ‘The Syria-bound schoolgirls aren’t jihadi devil-women, they’re vulnerable children‘. Emma Barnett responded with ‘Racists are alive and well in Britain – but I’m not one of them‘ in the Telegraph. Chimene Suleyman also wrote, ‘‘Defining’ Terror, and Why ISIS Suits the West‘ on Media Diversified, prior to these most recent articles.

The Oscar ceremony was another place for some jaw-dropping comments. Megan Kearns wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette Undermined Her Own “Most Feminist Moment” of the Oscars‘ in Bitch Magazine; Betsy Woodruff commented, ‘The Gender Wage Gap Is Especially Terrible in Hollywood‘ on Slate; Maitri Mehta wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette Defends Her Oscars Backstage Comments On Twitter, But Still Misses The Point‘ on Bustle; Jenny Kutner also wrote about Arquette’s tweets on Salon, ‘Patricia Arquette doubles down on equal pay: “Why aren’t you an advocate for equality for all women?”‘; Amanda Marcotte wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette’s Feminism: Only for White Women‘ on Slate; Katie McDonough wrote, ‘“Fight for us now”: What Patricia Arquette got right (and wrong) about equal pay‘ on Salon. Brittney Cooper wrote, ‘Black America’s hidden tax: Why this feminist of color is going on strike‘ in Salon.

Remarks made by one television reporter about Zendaya Coleman’s locs prompted pieces by Loretta de Feo, ‘Why do we feel the need to taunt and judge black hair, rather than embrace it?‘ in Stylist; Jodie Layne, ‘Why Zendaya’s Response To Giuliana Rancic’s Awful ‘Fashion Police’ Comments Is Important‘ on Bustle, and Grisel E.Acosta wrote, ‘“Racism begins in our imagination:” How the overwhelming whiteness of “Boyhood” feeds dangerous Hollywood myths‘ on Salon.

The Brits were written about by Tracey Thorn in the New Statesman, ‘The Brits are so polite these days. One reason? There’s no bands left‘; Bidisha wrote, ‘Madonna is superhuman. She has to be to survive the ugly abuse‘ in The Guardian; while Salena Godden covered both the Oscars and the Brits in ‘Julianne Moore is 54. Madonna is 56.‘ on Waiting for Godden

Writing awards wise, the Sunday Times Short Story Award shortlist was announced and is dominated by women. As is the Walter Scott Prize longlist, released to the public for the first time.

There’s an entire series of articles currently being published in the Irish Times on Irish Women Writers. The link will take you to the round-up so far. While academic Diane Watt has just completed 28 days of LGBT book recommendations. You can read this week’s in a Storify here; links at the bottom of the page will take you to previous weeks.

And the woman with the most publicity this week is Kim Gordon. She’s this week’s New York Times ‘By the Book‘; there’s an excerpt from Girl in a Band in The Cut; you can listen to Gordon herself read an extract on Louder than War; there are five standout moments from her memoir on Slate, and in The New Yorker, Michelle Orange writes about ‘Kim Gordon, Kurt Cobain, and the Mythology of Punk‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• A.N. Devers, ‘Kelly Link Is Beloved, But Still Underrated: A Primer on My Favorite Living Short Story Writer‘ on Longreads
• Michael Schulman, ‘The Second Wave‘ on Wendy Wasserstein in The New Yorker
• Caitlin Moran, ‘It’s Time to Act on Equalty‘ in The Times
• Emily Yoffe, ‘The Hunting Ground‘ on Slate
• Tobias Carroll, ‘Exploring and Rebuilding Genres: Notes on Jo Walton‘ on Electric Literature
• Lisa Miller, ‘Alas, I Will Never Actually De-Clutter My House‘ in The Cut
• Alana Massey, ‘I Know I’m Thin. Why Can’t I Say It?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Suzanna Weiss, ‘Dear Men: My Eating Disorder Was Never About You, So Stop Telling Me “Real Women Have Curves”‘ on Bustle
• Anonymous, ‘Today, I Break My Silence About My Former Eating Disorder‘ on Bustle
• Amanda Hess, ‘How One Dress United the Internet‘ on Slate
• Genevieve Valentine, ‘Catwoman #39: “Better Than He Does Himself”‘ on her blog
• Sarah Kane, ‘Why can’t theatre be as gripping as footie?‘ in The Guardian (archive piece)
• Molly Beer, ‘The Little Giant Sequoia‘ in Terrain.org
• Elizabeth Tannen, ‘What Do You Bring Pauline?‘ in The Rumpus
• Rachael de Moravia, ‘On skin and the self‘ in Minor Literature[s]
• Debbie Howells, ‘On book covers and that next book…‘ on her blog
• Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, ‘How Africa Went from Rising to Becoming a Virus‘ on Brittle Paper
• Michelle Filgate, ‘The Rise Of Independent Booksellers In The Time Of Amazon‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jessie Burton, ‘On Amsterdam‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Fuller, ‘On Giving Your Characters a Hard Time‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Allison Pearson, ‘Sandwich Woman: I’ve always been grateful to Madonna for being older than me‘ in the Telegraph
• Anthea Bell, ‘Translation matters: The unsung heroes of world literature‘ on BBC Arts
• Jane Demuth, ‘How Running Helped Me Explain My Transition To Myself‘ on Buzzfeed
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Fact-checking Grandma‘ in Aeon
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Just why are there so few female artists on music festival line-ups?‘ in the New Statesman
• Maria Konnikova, ‘No, Mornings Don’t Make You Moral‘ in The New Yorker
• Kaye Toal, ‘What I’ve Learned About How To Be A Girl‘ on Buzzfeed
• Rob Spillman, ‘On “Miranda July”‘ in Guernica
• Marjorie Sandor, ‘Unsettled Lives/Unsettling Fictions‘ on the Huffington Post
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Ayn Rand’s You’ve Got Mail‘ in The Toast
• Stephanie Boland, ‘“She blinded me with library science”: why the Feminist Library is more vital than ever‘ in the New Statesman
• P.P. Wong, ‘Will Anyone Read YOUR Book?‘ on Inky Dumbbell
• Laura Bates, ‘Female academics face huge sexist bias – no wonder there are so few of them‘ in The Guardian
• Simone Gorrindo, ‘A Hidden Writing Life‘ in Vela
• Roslyn Bernstein, ‘The Left Front‘ in Guernica
• Alice Munroe, ‘Remember Roger Mortimer‘ in The New Yorker
• Ursula Heise, ‘What’s the Matter with Dystopia‘ on the Huffington Post
• Jenny Diski, ‘Why didn’t you just do what you were told?‘ in the London Review of Books
• Betsy Lam, ‘How to Soften a Fall: On Brokenness and Recovery‘ in The Butter
• Shveta Thakrar, ‘Thorns in my Throat: Writing Through the Scars‘ in The Butter
• Deborah Orr, ‘The big teenage pregnancy drop is a triumph of progressive politics‘ in The Guardian
• Robert Macfarlane, ‘Writing at its peak: How Nan Shepherd brought the Cairngorms to life‘ on BBC Arts
• All Hail Eimear McBride on The Plashing Vole
• Daniel Wainwright, ‘Caitlin Moran’s Raised By Wolves Bus Tour‘ on Native Monster

• Roz Morris, ‘Women Writing Women‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Suzanne Moore asked, ‘Why are we questioning the loyalty of British Muslims? We never ask anyone else‘ in The Guardian.
• Kristin Iverson, ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day: A New Dove Campaign Asks Women to Speak Beautiful‘ in Brooklyn Magazine
• Katherine Heiny, ‘How to Be Married to a Writer‘ on the Huffington Post
• Sady Doyle, ‘Season of the witch: why young women are flocking to the ancient craft‘ in The Guardian
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: Girls on Oxygen‘ in The Butter
• Kristin Chirico, ‘My Boyfriend Loves Fat Women‘ on Buzzfeed
• Lydia Davis, ‘Advice to Young Writers‘ on Electric Literature
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Ancestory & DNA‘ on Real Pants
• Leila Cruickshank, ‘The Least Romantic Relationships in Literature‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Helen Grant and Lydia Syson, ‘Why writing doesn’t have to be a lonely struggle‘ in response to Tim Lott in The Guardian
• Sali Hughes, ‘Date Make-Up and the Morning After‘ on the 4th Estate blog
• Imogen Russell Williams, ‘Teen novelists: the perils and positives of publishing early‘ in The Guardian
• Edan Lepucki, ‘To Be Eaten in Case of Emergency: Inspiration and Comfort for Writers‘ on The Millions
• Sadie Stein, ‘We Have the Stars‘ in The Paris Review
• K.T. Bradford, ‘I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year‘ on XOJane
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘‘All Our Happy Days Are Too Expensive’: Is Sheila Heti’s New Psychodrama an Exercise in Self-Immolation?‘ on Flavorwire
• Laura Miller, ‘Down and dirty fairy tales: How this rediscovered stash of darker-than-Grimm stories destroys our Prince Charming myths‘ on Salon
• Alison Flood, ‘Marvel’s Thor attacks critics who say “feminists are ruining everything”‘ in The Guardian
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Swinging with Absalom‘ in The Butter
• Chloe Benjamin, ‘The End of the End: Writers on Last Lines‘ on The Millions
• Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Who Cares?‘ on Something Rhymed
• Julie Guthman and Becky Mansfield, ‘Plastic People‘ on Aeon
• Marian Wang, ‘Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation‘ in Guernica
• Laura Hudson, ‘Life as a Target‘ on Slate
• Ilyasha Shabazz, ‘What Would Malcolm X Think?‘ in The New York Times
• Janet Manley, ‘I Dedicate This Novel to the Man Who Convinced Me to Stop Writing Silly Genre Fiction and Crank out a Thinly Veiled Memoir‘ in The Toast
• Claire Nielsen, ‘Apartheid’s Final Outpost‘ in Guernica
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘A Wilderness of Waiting‘ in Vela
• Adrienne Celt, ‘The Meaning of the Moon: On Family and Addiction‘ in The Butter
• Liz Prato, ‘What’s So Damn Funny About Death‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Metamorphosis‘ on Clothes, Camera and Coffee
• Rosanna Boscawen, ‘Designing the cover for The Last Act of Love‘ by Cathy Rentzenbrink on the Picador blog
• Zoe Williams, ‘What is the price of tuition fees? A generation’s potential and creativity‘ in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘A Million Dream Maps: The Market‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Maureen O’Connor, ‘It’s Not Sexist to Ask About Clothes on the Red Carpet‘ in The Cut
• Aliyah Saleem, ‘Leaving Islam for Good‘ on her blog
• Deborah Treisman, ‘1965-1975‘ in The New Yorker
• Laurie Becklund, ‘As I Lay Dying‘ in The LA Times
• Yohana Desta, ‘A brief history of female authors with male pen names‘ on Mashable
• Jo Hogan, ‘Confessions of a Book Club Cynic (or, how I finally got round to growing up)‘ on her blog

The interviews:

• Jenny Offill in The Guardian
• Jayinee Basu on Electric Literature
• Sarah Gerard on Between the Covers
• MariNaomi on OkeyPanky
• Elisa Albert on NPR
• Ali Smith in the New Statesman
• Georgia Gould in The Times
• Katherine Heiny on the 4th Estate blog
• Anna Smaill on Hodderpod
• Emer O’Toole (and Panti Bliss) on The Concordian
• Sara Baume in the Honest Ulsterman
• Holly Smale in the Warrington Guardian
• Laura van den Berg on The Rumpus
• Ann Morgan and Han Kang on the Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Louisa Treger in the Washington Independent Review of Arts
• Paula Hawkins on Northern Soul
• Hannah Beckerman on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Emma Hooper in The Globe and The Mail
• Mimi Thi Nguyen in Bluestockings Magazine
• Rafia Zakaria on Slate
• Kate Mayfield on You Wrote the Book
• EJ Koh on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• SJI Holliday on From First Page to Last
• Saskia Vogel in The Quietus

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• Extracts from the Folio Prize shortlisted books (Ali Smith, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Miriam Towes, Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill) in the Telegraph
• ‘Dancing, or beginning to Dance‘ by Sara Baume in the Irish Times
• ‘Limbo‘ by Jen Thorpe on Brittle Paper
• ‘The Afterlife of Trees and Their Lovers‘ by Sumana Roy in Granta
• An extract from ‘Into the Nowhere‘ by Jenny T.Colgan on Men Who Stare at Books
• An extract from Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume in the Honest Ulsterman
• AN extract from Alarm Girl by Hannah Vincent (video) on Myriad Editions
• Bus Station: Unbound (an entire choose your own adventure style novel; free to read but donations are requested) by Jenn Ashworth and Richard Hirst on Curious Tales
• An extract from Turning Japanese by MariNaomi on Okey-Panky

Or some non-fiction:

• An extract from Akademie X by Chris Kraus
• An extract from The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield on Foyles
• An extract from Wasted: How Misunderstanding Young Britain Threatens Our Future by Georgia Gould in The Times
• An extract from One of Us by Åsne Seierstad (translated by Sarah Death) in The Guardian

The lists:

• Nicci Gerrard, Afsaneh Knight, Adele Parks, Emma Freud, Kathy Lette, ‘38 things you should know about being a mum‘ in The Guardian
• 20 Female Harlem Renaissance Writers You Should Know‘ on Flavorwire
• This Winter’s Best Bets on the Huffington Post
• Anne Tyler’s Life in Books on CBC Books
• 10 Books With Steamy Scenes AND Great Writing on Buzzfeed
• The Feminist Books that Inspired Us Part 1 and Part 2 on This Is Africa
• Insults And Put-Downs, Algonquin-Style on the Huffington Post
• Catherine Doyle’s ‘Top 10 bad boys in teen and YA Fiction‘ in The Guardian
• 6 Women Writers to Add to Your Bookshelf on the Huffington Post
• 26 Children’s Books That Celebrate Black Heroes on Buzzfeed
• Books You Need to Get Excited About this Spring on The Debrief
• Kelly Link’s 6 Favorite Books that Warp Reality on The Week

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.