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

(Harper Lee) In the Media: 8th February 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.

You would have had to be living somewhere with no media access since Tuesday not to know that after 55 years, Harper Lee has a ‘new’ novel coming out. Go Set a Watchman is the prequel/sequel/first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, discovered in a bank deposit box and set to be published on both sides of the Atlantic in July. There’s probably already been as many words written about the book as there are in it. Harper Lee’s/Go Set a Watchman‘s week in the media went something like this:

On Tuesday, The Bookseller broke the news, then ‘About that new Harper Lee novel…‘ was published on the Lawyers, Guns & Money blog. Vulture published, ‘Read Harper Lee’s 5 Amazing Nonfiction Pieces‘ with links to them all before Jezebel ran ‘Be Suspicious of the New Harper Lee Novel‘ and The Guardian ended the day with ‘Harper Lee to publish new novel, 55 years after To Kill a Mockingbird‘.

Wednesday began with Vulture publishing an interview with Lee’s editor which Mallory Ortberg responded to in The Toast with ‘Questions I Have About the Harper Lee Editor Interview‘. Judith Claire Mitchell wrote about her dream date with Atticus Finch on the 4th Estate website. The Atlantic published, ‘Harper Lee: The Sadness of a Sequel‘ while The Guardian said, ‘Harper Lee is excited about new book, says agent after sceptics raise doubts‘. Electric Literature came in with ‘Should We Hold the Horses on the Harper Lee Celebration?‘; Buzzfeed gave us ‘12 Beautifully Profound Quotes From “To Kill A Mockingbird”‘, while The Huffington Post ended the day with ‘12 Women On What Harper Lee’s Work Has Meant To Them‘.

By Thursday morning, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian was telling us ‘Let’s not assume Harper Lee is being exploited. Atticus Finch wouldn’t‘ and then a new statement arrived and was reported in The Bookseller, ‘Harper Lee ‘happy as hell’ with book reaction‘. The Guardian reacted to the statement with, ‘Harper Lee’s ‘lost’ novel was intended to complete a trilogy, says agent‘. Then Lincoln Michel came in with ‘Harper Lee And Exploitation In The Name Of Literature‘ on Buzzfeed, while The Telegraph asked ‘Could there be a third Harper Lee novel?‘; the Times Literary Supplement ran a piece titled ‘Harper Lee: happy as hell‘ and cartoonist Emily Flake drew ‘What Harper Lee’s Really Been Up To All These Years‘ for The New Yorker

The Huffington Post began Friday by asking ‘Is The New Harper Lee Novel A Mistake?: Author Idolatry And “Go Set a Watchman”‘, followed by Sarah Churchwell in The Guardian telling us ‘Why To Kill a Mockingbird Is Overrated‘. The Guardian also ran, ‘Harper Lee book news leaves home town surprised, bemused and sceptical‘ before Slate stated, ‘Don’t Publish Harper Lee’s New Novel, HarperCollins‘. Flavorwire went for ‘Harper Lee’s New Book: The Case for Optimism‘ and Salon started speculating on the content of the novel, ‘“Scout is a lesbian”: Some modest theories on what Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” follow-up will hold‘. The Guardian finished the day with, ‘Harper Lee and the vexed question of who owns an author’s work‘; Yahoo interviewed one of Lee’s friends, ‘Harper Lee was fine the day before sequel announced‘ and the Wall Street Journal wrapped it up with ‘Harper Lee Bombshell: How News of Book Unfolded‘.

The only news since then came on Saturday when the cover of Go Set a Watchman was revealed. Here’s Bookriot on it.

The other person to have a bit of a week in the limelight is Kelly Link whose latest short story collection Get in Trouble was published in America this week (it’s out in the UK next month). She’s interviewed on Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly and NPR Books. You can read ‘The Summer People‘ from Get in Trouble via Random House or ‘Stone Animals‘ from Magic for Beginners on Electric Literature

Elsewhere, there’s been a reoccurring theme of friendship (thanks to Longreads for pointing this out): Anne Helen Peterson wrote ‘The Genius of Taylor Swift’s Girlfriend Collection‘ on Buzzfeed; Claire Comstock-Gay wrote the story ‘I Knew I Loved You‘ published in Midnight Breakfast; Jennifer Weiner wrote ‘Mean Girls in the Retirement Home‘ in The New York Times; Meghan O’Connell wrote ‘Trying to Make Mom Friends Is the Worst‘ in The Cut; Nicole Soojung Callaghan wrote ‘Friendship and Race and Knowing Your Place‘ in The Toast; Freddie Moore wrote, ‘Is Every Unhappy Friendship Unhappy In Its Own Way? On Emily Gould’s Friendship and Lindsay Hunter’s Ugly Girls‘ on Electric Literature

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Eva Wiseman, ‘Why are creative women dismissed as ‘quirky’?‘ in The Observer
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Why page 3 should go‘ in The Times
• Emma Dabiri, ‘Afrofuturism: An invitation to dance, or a provocation to insurgency?‘ on Media Diversified
• Diane Watt, ‘#mylgbtbooks 1-7 February‘ on Storify
• Emma Healey, ‘By 16, I had already made several plans to end my life‘ in The Sunday Times
• Roxane Gay on The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates and writing difference in The New York Times
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Caitlin Takes New York‘ in The Times
• Anne Enright, ‘How the World Reads Irish Writers‘ in The Irish Times
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘Lights Out in Nigeria‘ in The New York Times
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘Colleen McCullough’s obituary shows looks aren’t everything. Unless you’re a woman‘ in The Guardian
• Jillian Dunham, ‘The Real Reason Women Freeze Their Eggs‘ in The Cut
• Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa, ‘Nancy Hamilton and Helen Kellor‘ on Something Rhymed
• Maria Konnikova, ‘Is Bilingualism Really an Advantage?‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Macdougall, ‘The Struggle for Equality Goes On‘ in Standard Issue
• Helen Brocklebank, ‘The Jilly Cooper Cure‘ on Mrs Trefusis Takes a Taxi
• Ruth F. Hunt, ‘Disability in Fiction: Would YOU Dare to be Different?‘ on The Single Feather
• Barbara Taylor, ‘My Asylum‘ in Guernica
• Alison Flood, ‘Jane Austen family letters offer ‘deeply personal’ insight into author’s world‘ in The Guardian
• Lauren Van Den Berg, ‘Flight‘ in The Butter
• Ron Rosenbaum, ‘The Other Tolstoy and the Book of Night‘ on Slate
• Alison Herman, ‘Jill Soloway Will Never Be a Perfect Voice for Trans People — So Why Are We Expecting Her to Be?‘ on Flavorwire
• Meghan O’Rourke, ‘Seeing Is Not Believing‘ (On Rachel Cusk) on Slate
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: American Gladiators‘ in The Butter
• Suzanne Ushie, ‘Lipstick, Eyeliner & Everything in Between‘ on Brittle Paper
• Amanda Miska, ‘Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend’s Girlfriend on Facebook‘ in Hippocampus
• Lindy West, ‘What happened when I confronted my cruellest troll‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘We Need Diverse Books: Can Children’s Authors End Publishing Industry Prejudice — and Change the Way America Reads?‘ on Flavorwire
• Kathryn Harrison, ‘The Rise of Joan of Arc‘ on Longreads
• Ann Friedman, ‘The Problem With Those ‘Feminist’ Super Bowl Ads‘ in The Cut
• Henriette Lazaridis, ‘Honey, Would You Read My Book‘ on The Millions
• Kathryn Schulz, ‘On Wintery Mix‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Tanenbaum, ‘What Does ‘Slut’ Mean, Anyway?‘ on The Huffington Post
• Elizabeth Alexander, ‘Lottery Tickets‘ in The New Yorker
• Lois Leveen, ‘Appropriating (F)Acts In Feminist Fiction: Excavating the Life of Mary Bowser‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Can Theresa May make it to the top‘ in The Guardian
• S.M. Hulse, ‘Is The Western Genre Still Relevant Today?‘ on Huffington Post
• Sarah Smarsh, ‘Beyond the Churn‘ in Aeon
• VIDA Roundtable on Misogynist Content and Editorial Responsibility
• Libby Purves, ‘Alice in Wonderland: 150 years on, we still adore her marvellous adventure‘ in The Telegraph
• Roxane Gay, ‘Actually Usher Baby, Shawty Does Mind‘ in The Butter

• Victoria Beale, ‘“You understand it to the point that it almost tears you to pieces”: Growing Up with Mary Gaitskill‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Mistress Trinity, ‘Fifty Shades of Meh: A Real Dominatrix Takes On the Bestseller‘ on Huffington Post
• Laura Bates, ‘On Louisa M. Alcott‘ on Great Lives
• Sara Baume, ‘Spill Simmer Falter Wither‘ on her blog
• Sara Baume, A ‘cautionary tale about what it costs to be a writer‘ in The Irish Times
• Jenny Erpenbeck (tr. Susan Bernofsky), ‘Homesick for Sadness: A Childhood in Incompletion‘ in The Hudson Review
• Katy Waldman, ‘How the Paris Review Snagged the First-Ever In-Person Interview With Elena Ferrante‘ on Slate
• Alison Stine, ‘Could Whisky Save Our Water?‘ in The Butter
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘Silicon Valley sexism: why it matters that the internet is made by men, for men‘ in the New Statesman
• Claire Fallon, ‘Why Everyone’s Talking About ‘The Girl On The Train’‘ on Huffington Post
• Juliet Greenwood, ‘The Story That Changed My Life‘ in The People’s Friend
• Laura Dattaro, ‘Bot Looks Like a Lady‘ on Slate
• Sarah Seltzer and Jillian Mapes, ‘Beyoncé Says “Goodbye to All That”‘ on Flavorwire
• Eva Holland, ‘“It’s Yours”: A Short History of the Horde‘ on Longreads
• Shari Goldhagen, ‘Against being “sponsored”: I never wrote less than when my boyfriend supported me‘ on Salon
• Linda Grant, ‘How I Won the Housing Market (Without Really Trying)‘ in The Guardian
• Kaleigh Rogers, ‘Wikipedia’s Gender Problem Has Finally Been Quantified‘ on Motherboard
• Sara Sheridan, ‘Literary Snobbery‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Frances Ryan, ‘Mind the gap: how charities are mopping up after the government’s failure to care‘ in the New Statesman
• Adèle Geras, ‘Quick Reads‘ on Foyles’ blog
• Sarah Ditum, ‘If you think decriminalisation will make prostitution safe, look at Germany’s mega brothels‘ in the New Statesman
• Caroline Moorhead, ‘Place of Terror‘ in the Literary Review
• Shawn Wen, ‘A Closer Joan‘ in The White Review
• Tracey Thorn, ‘The more attention we pay to childish behaviour, the more we get‘ in the New Statesman
• Amber Sparks, ‘The Internet Is a Hard Place to Be Human: Toward a Better Internet Discourse‘ on Real Pants
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘Lusting Out Loud: Women, Social Media, And Desire‘ on Buzzfeed
• Maria Konnikova, ‘You Have No Idea What Happened‘ in The New Yorker
• Deborah Smith, ‘How Korean Is It?‘ on translating Han Kang’s The Vegetarian on English Pen
• Arabelle Sicardi, ‘My Body, The Unwelcome Relative‘ on Buzzfeed
• Remembering Kathy Acker on The Allen Ginsberg Project
• Rob Williams, ‘Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 148th Birthday: Google celebrates ‘Little House on the Prairie’ author‘ in The Independent
• Katharine Norbury, ‘Walking with my daughter, everything starts to flow‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Jenkins, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey: This enters a new terrain of toxicity – and no feminist can think otherwise‘ in The Independent
• Tishani Doshi, ‘In Defence of Literary Dandies and Dandizettes‘ in Open
• Alison Taylor, ‘What happened when I joined Happn‘ in The Independent
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘‘I lurch from one to the other’ on Motherhood and Writing‘ on One Book Lane
• Katharine Norbury, ‘Pleasures of…January‘ on Caught by the River
• M Lynx Qualey ‘‘Immortal’ Algerian Novelist Assia Djebar Dies, 78‘ on Arabic Literature (includes links to work available online)
• Ijeoma Olou, ‘Why Don’t We Talk About Africa?‘ in The Archipelago
• Elizabeth Weil, ‘What Really Happened to Baby Johan?‘ in Matter
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Labor Pains‘ in the New Republic
• Diana Saverin, ‘The Thoreau of the Suburbs‘ in The Atlantic
• Christina Patterson, ‘I’ve found a little bit of heaven for those who’ve been in hell‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Flood, ‘Laura Ingalls Wilder memoir reveals truth behind Little House on the Prairie‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Bogart, ‘The Price I Pay to Write‘ on Salon
• Jennifer Niven, ‘My Inspiration: Virginia Woolf‘ in The Guardian

The interviews:

• Richelle Mead on Publishers Weekly
• M.J. Carter on Publishers Weekly
• Anya Schiffrin in Guernica
• Lucy Ribchester on The GB Bookshop
• Helen Lederer in The Telegraph
• Katherine Heiny on Longreads
• Mary Pilon in Publishers Weekly
• Angela Neville in The Guardian
• Sarah McGrath (US editor of The Girl on the Train) on Publishers Weekly
• Excerpts from interviews with Hilary Mantel, Lydia Davis and Elena Ferrante in The Paris Review
• Anne Tyler in The Daily Mail and the New York Times
• Roxane Gay in Now
• Rilla Askew on Longreads
• Kim Gordon in GQ
• Jacqueline Wilson in The Guardian
• Margaret Atwood on Slate
• Jennifer Clement on We Love This Book
• Ayelet Tsabari on Room
• Amanda Filipacchi on the Huffington Post
• Miranda July in The Observer and on The Book Show on RTE

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award longlist was announced last weekend. You can read the longlisted stories, including pieces from Ann Beattie, Louise Doughty, Emily Franklin, Rebecca F. John, Yiyun Li, Elizabeth McCracken, Paula Morris, Mary O’Donoghue, Julianne Pachico, Mona Simpson, Erin Soros, E.J. Swift and Madeline Thien here.
• The New Writing 2015 eBook sampler from Scottish Book Trust includes writing from Orla Broderick, Alison Gray, Ann Elizabeth Mackinnon, Juliette Forrest, Lindsay McKrell, Em Strang and Bridget Kursheed.
• ‘Sweetness‘ by Toni Morrison in The New Yorker
• ‘Co-operative‘ by Sarah Barber in Guernica
• The first three chapters of Touch by Claire North
• Three Prose Poems by Sharmistha Mohanty in Granta
• ‘What Grief Feels Like…‘ by Onomarie Uriri on Brittle Paper
• ‘Calcium Commune‘ by Anna Katharina Hahn (tr. Marshall Yarbrough) on n+1
• An extract from The Hourglass Factory By Lucy Ribchester in The Scotsman
• Poems from Her Father’s Daughter by Nessa O’Mahony
• ‘World Is Your‘ by Rosa Campbell on Litro

Or some non-fiction:

• An extract from Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon in The Guardian

The new edition of The Letters Page was published this week including letters (fiction and non-fiction) from Rosa Campbell, Naomi Alderman, Kim Sherwood, Haisu Huang, Emma Chapman, Evelyn Conlon, Melissa Harrison and Karen McLeod.

The lists:

• 5 Great Books to Read in February on Buzzfeed
• 14 Books to Give As Valentine’s Day Gifts This Year on Bustle
• Kim Gordon’s memoir Girl in a Band: 10 things we learned in The Guardian
• 15 Of February 2015’s Best YA Books To Get You Through The Snowy, Cold Weather on Bustle
• 10 Must-Read Books For February on Flavorwire
• 5 Splendid New Short Story Collections on Huffington Post
• The top 10 novels featuring works of art in The Guardian
• 10 Funny Books by Women on Scottish Book Trust
• 7 Fictional Women Whose Life Stories Inspire Us on the Huffington Post
• 9 Books To Read This February in Red magazine
• Your Must-Read Books of 2015 in Paper
• 10 Reasons to Love Vera Brittain on For Books’ Sake
• Top 5 Literary Heroines Every Young Girl Should Meet in The Big Issue