In the Media, March 2017, Part One

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Lola Okolosie in The Guardian
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mouthful‘ on Hazlitt
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, February 2017

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.

I’ve been a bit lax at compiling these while I’ve focused on my own work. It means this month’s is huge and I haven’t honed in on any topic in particular as the news moves so fast at that moment it feels like an impossible task. Back to fortnightly after this which hopefully will make it slightly easier to digest.

 

On or about books/writers/language:

• Helen Dunmore, ‘Facing mortality and what we leave behind‘ in The Guardian
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Making Space: A Brief History of Literary Salons, Past and Present‘ on Constellation
• George Saunders, ‘Grace Paley, the Saint of Seeing‘ in The New Yorker
• Peternelle van Arsdale, ‘How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Market and Just Write‘ on Literary Hub
• Lauren Elkin, ‘Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London‘ on Longreads
• Varaidzo, ‘From school books to publishing, black girls deserve better representation‘ in the New Statesman
• Ruth Gilligan, ‘Write Like a Girl‘ on Read it Forward
• Francesca Simon, ‘Why I’m writing for World Book Day’ in The Guardian
• Lily Dunn and Zoe Gilbert, ‘We’re given only a handful of these kinds of friendships‘ on Something Rhymed
• Karolina Ramqvist, ‘Writer as Public Figure Vs. The Writer Who Actually Writes‘ on Literary Hub
• Catherine Mayer, ‘on Writing Attack of the Fifty Foot Women‘ on Waterstones Blog
• Yoojin Grace Wuertz, ‘Failure and Patience: Lessons from the Garden for Writers‘ on Literary Hub
• Claudia Roth Pierpoint, ‘Elizabeth Bishop’s Art of Losing‘ in The New Yorker
• Thomas Arnow, ‘Who was Harriette Arnow?‘ on the Penguin Blog
• Anjali Enjeti, ‘The Life and Legacy of Bharati Mukherjee‘ on Literary Hub
• Wei Ming Kam, ‘On the Carnegie, Bookshops and Melinda Lo’s Ash‘ on Gal-dem
• Kerry Clare, ‘Rereading Fear of Flying: On Not Being Pregnant in Mid-Air With Isadora Wing‘ in The Toronto Review of Books
• Susan Hill, ‘Can I be a serious writer, keeping such casual hours?’ in The Guardian
• Nell Zink, ‘Writing for Rejection, And reading Doris Lessing‘ on n+1
• Craig Hubert, ‘On the Many Film Adaptations of the “Unfilmable” Wuthering Heights‘ on Literary Hub
• Ilana Masad, ‘Queer children’s books have a long history that’s only now being told‘ in The Guardian
• Heather O’Neill, ‘Leaving It All on the Page‘ on The Walrus
• Cameron Glover, ‘A Soulful Novel and Me: On Zora Neale Hurston‘ on Catapult
• Maggie Harcourt, ‘Pages in Common‘ on Waterstones Blog
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Rereading The Handmaid’s Tale, One Month Into the Trump Era‘ in The Cut
• Julie Buntin, ‘On Making Things Up: Some True Stories About Writing My Novel‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Perry, ‘In praise of readability‘ in The TLS
• Joanna Cannon, ‘The Story Behind The Trouble with Goats and Sheep‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Lionel Shriver, ‘Dystopia in the next room‘ in The TLS
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘Carson McCullers at 100: a century of American suffering‘ in The Guardian
• Jo Hogan, ‘The Carnegie Medal: Time for a Review‘ on her blog
• Salamisha Tillet, ‘Free Is and Free Ain’t‘ on Public Books
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘The Forgotten Work of Jessie Redmond Fauset‘ in The New Yorker
• Emma Garman, ‘Trilby, the Novel That Gave Us ‘Svengali’‘ on Longreads
• Emily Cooke, ‘Pay to Play: A chronicle of wealth and class in the literary world‘ on Book Forum
• Aminatta Forna, ‘We must take back our stories and reverse the gaze‘ in The Guardian
• Sam Jones, ‘Retrieving an untold story: voices of Spanish female artists finally heard‘ in The Guardian
• Ulka Anjaria, ‘The Goddess of Loss‘ on Boston Review
• Dr. Florence Hazrat, ‘From The Taming of the Shrew to 10 Things I Hate About you: Taming Wild Women in European Culture‘ on Women Are Boring
• Laura Pritchett, ‘The Middle Ages‘ on Bloom
• Fiona Cummins, ‘How I went from Ms Showbiz reporting on celebrity parties to writing a chilling crime thriller‘ in the Daily Mirror
• Katy Waldman, ‘Is My Novel Offensive?‘ on Slate
• Tracy Chevalier, ‘There’s a febrile debate in Trump’s rustbelt. I want to be part of it‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘What Virginia Woolf Forgot To Say‘ on Thrive Global
• Georgia Hunter, ‘We Were The Lucky Ones‘ on Waterstones Blog
• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, ‘A Dyslexic’s Guide to Infinity‘ on The Rumpus
• Maria Russo, ‘Finding America, Both Red and Blue, in the ‘Little House’ Books‘ in The New York Times
• Miranda Emmerson, ‘Mixed-up thinking‘ on Bookanista
• Marta Bausells, ‘Warsan Shire and Beyoncé: Superheroes for Our Time‘ on Literary Hub
• Lisa Williamson, ‘Writing NON-romantic Love for Teens‘ on Foyles
• Alex Clark, ‘I’m no pussy when it comes to swearing‘ in The Guardian
• Rahawa Haile, ‘How Black Books Lit My Way Along The Appalachian Trail‘ on Buzzfeed
• Kate Mosse, ‘It’s never been more important to champion women’s voices‘ on The Pool
• Eva Dolan, ‘The Hierarchy of Victims in Crime Writing‘ on Foyles
• Roxane Gay, ‘The Full Text of ‘Bad Feminist’ Author Roxane Gay’s WI12 Speech‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Claire Fuller, ‘on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Scott Eposito, ‘Understanding America Through Marilynne Robinson‘ on Literary Hub
• Edwidge Danticat, ‘Poetry in a Time of Protest‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Pritchett, ‘The Great West Has More Than One Story to Tell‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘‘It will be called Americanism’: the US writers who imagined a fascist future‘ in The Guardian
• Lucinda Rosenfeld, ‘What Was Chick Lit? A Brief History from the Inside‘ on Literary Hub
• Ela Bittencourt, ‘Poetry Thieves: Translating Hanna Krall and Ewa Lipska‘ on Words Without Borders

Personal essays/memoir:

• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, ‘How Postcards from My Mother Helped Me Survive My Childhood‘ on Literary Hub
• Leah Carroll, ‘My Mother’s Murder‘ on The Cut
• Melissa Febos, ‘When Pursuing True Love Means Breaking Up With Your Best Friend‘ on Refinery29
• Catherine LaSota, ‘Changing Body, Changing Perceptions‘ on Catapult
• Anne Kniggendorf, ‘Gracie Allen and John Denver in Boot Camp‘ on Electric Literature
• Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, ‘Saving Chickens, Saving Myself‘ on Catapult
• Arianna Rebolini, ‘Learning to Cook After Relearning to Eat‘ on Catapult
• Gwen Werner, ‘Daddy Issues‘ on The Rumpus
• Clover Stroud, ‘Travelling alone as a woman was a way of owning my trauma‘ on The Pool
• Lynn Enright, ‘I don’t always know who I am – but that’s OK ‘ on The Pool
• Karen Brown, ‘From Imbibing Spirits to Spiritualist Mediums‘ on Literary Hub
• Erin Corber, ‘Vocabulary Lessons in Bucharest‘ on The Rumpus
• Elisa Gabbert ‘My Grandmother’s Little Room and the Unreality of Memory‘ on Pacific Standard
• Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘Sacred Space: On visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and facing the present‘ on Lenny
• Claire Handscombe, ‘Dance: On Ballet and Impossible Love‘ on Catapult
• Melissa Febos, ‘Reconciliation‘ on Lenny
• Sara Yasin, ‘Muslims Shouldn’t Have To Be “Good” To Be Granted Human Rights‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jowita Bydlowska, ‘Nobody Died‘ on Lenny
• Cass Cross, ‘The Men in My Office‘ on Catapult
• Sophie Warnes, ‘On the unbearableness of existence‘ on Medium
• Megan Margulis, ‘My Daughter’s Suburban Childhood Looks Nothing Like My Urban One‘ on The Cut
• Jessica Grose, ‘The Wait‘ on Lenny
• Marie Phillips, ‘One woman’s attempt to learn the language of love‘ on The Pool
• Allison Grimaldi-Donahue, ‘Translation Beyond Metaphor‘ on Electric Literature
• Sara Noviç, ‘When Good Christian Girls Need Planned Parenthood‘ on The Cut
• Rachel Klein, ‘Losing My Voice and Finding It‘ on Catapult
• Amna Saleem, ‘This Is What I Learned From My Father’s Depression‘ on Buzzfeed
• Lara Williams, ‘Talk to Me Baby‘ on Some Such Stories
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘From unnerving normality to toilet humour: the stages of my mum’s cancer diagnosis‘ in the New Statesman
• Rebecca Varkoe, ‘Let’s Talk About The Immense Privilege (And Struggle) Of Doing What You Love‘ on Junkee
• Patricia Lockwood, ‘A Childhood in the Pro-Life Movement‘ in The New Yorker
• Lorraine Berry, ‘Walking in Memphis‘ on Catapult
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘When Things Go Missing‘ in The New Yorker
• Irina Dumitrescu, ‘Swan, Late‘ on Longreads
• So Sad Today, ‘What if I Never Live My Best Life?‘ on Vice
• Lacy M. Johnson, ‘Trigger‘ in Guernica
• Candice Norwood, ‘When ‘Good Hair’ Hurts‘ in The Atlantic
• Lisa Mecham, ‘Under the Stars: Remaking a Family‘ on Catapult
• Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, ‘What It’s Like to Lose Your Short-Term Memory‘ on Longreads
• Andie Park, ‘Lessons‘ on Medium
• Laine Bruzek, ‘What Happens When Nothing Happens‘ on West Magazine
• Elle Nash, ‘Grief Lozenge‘ on The Fanzine
• Kim Schultz, ‘I fell in love with a refugee – here’s what I learned when the world didn’t love him too‘ on the New Statesman
• Rebecca Schuman, ‘Hello, Lenin? (Berlin, 1997)‘ on Longreads
• Alana Massey, ‘The Rotten, Precious Land‘ on Hazlitt
• Jonatha Kottler, ‘Fat in Every Language‘ in The Cut
• Alexandra Burt, ‘What Remains When Your First Language Fades Away‘ on Literary Hub
• Jen Gann, ‘I Love My Ugly Old Hands‘ on The Cut
• Melissa Febos, ‘Wunderkammer‘ in Vogue
• Bonnie Nadzam, ‘Experts in the Field‘ on Tin House
• Imbolo Mbue, ‘‘With every inch, the challenge multiplies’: me and my afro‘ in The Guardian
• Yemisi Aribisala, ‘People try to squeeze Nigerian food into an all-encompassing African label‘ in The Guardian
• Eileen Myles, ‘Aging Is Feminizing Me and I Hate It‘ in The Cut
• Stacey Dugid, ‘The skirt that gave me back my mojo‘ on The Pool
• Laurie Frankel, ‘When my son became my daughter, the transition was more routine than dramatic‘ in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Jaya Saxena, ‘Explaining My Multiracial Identity (So Others Don’t Do It For Me)‘ on Catapult
• Catherine LaSota, ‘Becoming an Artist and a Parent in NYC‘ on Catapult
• Cat Marnell, ‘How to Murder Your Life‘ on The Cut
• Kayla Rae Whitaker, ‘How I Learned To Date After Drinking‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Most American Thing‘ in The New Yorker
• Kuba Shand Baptiste, ‘It took me 17 years to fall in love with my black hair. Why?‘ on The Pool
• Eva Tenuto, ‘Feeling Unsafe at Every Size‘ on Longreads
• Lori Jakiela, ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker‘ on Electric Literature
• Patricia Bosworth, ‘The Men in My Life‘ on Literary Hub
• Meghan Tear Plummer, ‘Real Life: My Sister, My Brother‘ in Glamour
• Tracy O’Neill, ‘A Scar Is Not a Story‘ on Catapult
• Laila Lalami, ‘Love and Betrayal in America‘ in The New Yorker

Feminism:

• Dayna Tortorici, ‘While the Iron Is Hot‘ in n+1
• Michelle Darmody, ‘From the heart: One woman’s experience of abortion‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Riyan Fergins, ‘Follow the Oil Trail and You’ll Find the Girls‘ on Longreads
• Anita Bhagwandas, ‘The true meaning of beauty is to celebrate our imperfections‘ on The Pool
• Tobi Oredin, ‘As a black woman, I’ve had to unlearn what beauty means to me‘ on The Pool
• Jennilie Brewster, ‘Frozen Ground: On Reporting a Statutory Rape Twenty Years Later‘ on Catapult
• Zoe Samudsi, ‘Remy, Nicki, And The White Feminist Optics Of Black Women’s Beefs‘ on Equality for Her
• Katie Booth, ‘People Mountain, People Sea‘ on Vela
• Deborah Orr, ‘Helen Bailey and the lethal darkness behind this ‘middle-aged woman’ myth‘ in The Guardian
• Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The Trash Heap Has Spoken‘ on Guernica
• E.J. Dickson, ‘Why Did Everyone Act Like I Was Crazy When I Decided to Have a Baby in My 20s?‘ in The Cut
• Jendella Benson, ‘Feminist love will save men too‘ on Media Diversified
• Eve Ensler, ‘Female Fighters Series Re-examines Women’s Rage Around the World‘ on Guernica
• Abbie, ‘It’s Time to Trash Body Positivity‘ on Bullshitist
• Nimmi Gowrinathan, ‘Of Monsters & Women‘ on Guernica
• Yas Necati, ‘As a queer woman I will be marching against Donald Trump this weekend – but for my disabled friends it won’t be that easy‘ in The Independent
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Calling pregnant women ‘hosts’? We’re in an anti-choice Republican dystopia‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Women in public life are now being openly bullied. How has this become normal?‘ in The Guardian
• Jessa Crispin, ‘The Failures of Mainstream Feminism‘ on New Republic
• Sara Ahmed, ‘Smile!‘ on Feminist Killjoys
• Shannon Keating, ‘Can Lesbian Identity Survive The Gender Revolution?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Melissa Denes, ‘‘It’s always high drama. It’s somebody’s life at stake’: inside British rape trials‘ in The Guardian
• Megan Nolan, ‘If British abortion providers turn away Irish women, it will be catastrophic‘ in The Pool
• Glosswitch, ‘What Would Happen if the World’s Women Went on Strike?‘ in the New Statesman
• Andrea Penman-Lomeli, ‘Consuming la Malinche, Destroying the Myth‘ on The New Inquiry
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Case Against Contemporary Feminism‘ in The New Yorker
• Nadine Ajaka, ‘The Casualties of Women’s War on Body Hair‘ in The Atlantic
• Amanda Hess, ‘How a Fractious Women’s Movement Came to Lead the Left‘ in The New York Times
• Naomi Alderman, ‘Utopian thinking: how to build a truly feminist society‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Traister, ‘The Future of the Left Is Female‘ in The Cut
• Sadie Hassler, ‘Three abortions‘ on Standard Issue
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘I may never be ready to stop saying “dude”‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Dana Snitzky, ‘The Ban, The Wall, Bearing Witness‘ on Longreads
• Hannah Black, ‘New World Disorder‘ on Art Forum
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The government can’t pledge support for mental illness – and then backtrack‘ on The Pool
• Elizabeth Weil, ‘The Curse of the Bahia Emerald‘ on Wired
• Claire Heuchan, ‘The parallels between Scottish nationalism and racism are clear‘ in The Guardian
• Tasbeeh Herwees, ‘Resistance In The Time Of Protest Selfies‘ on Good
• Teow Lim Goh, ‘On Borders and Citizens‘ on Catapult
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Labour can’t keep returning to its roots empty handed‘ in The Guardian
• Mehreen Kasana, ‘The Meaning of Allahu Akbar‘ on Hazlitt
• Rumana Ahmed, ‘I Was a Muslim in Trump’s White House‘ on The Atlantic
• Gabrielle Bellot, ‘M*lo Might Be Done, But His Transphobia Lingers‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Larson, ‘The Librarian of Congress and the Greatness of Humility‘ in The New Yorker
• Rachel Cusk, ‘The Age of Rudeness‘ in The New York Times
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘We are overdosing on empathy‘ in The Guardian
• Arifa Akbar, ‘The value we place on romantic love can feel tyrannical – especially if you’re a single woman‘ on The Pool
• Suzanne Moore, ‘It’s liking, not loving, that’s the true challenge in relationships‘ on The Pool
• Diane Abbott, ‘I fought racism and misogyny to become an MP. The fight is getting harder‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Day, ‘What does true love really look like?‘ on The Pool
• Ruth Whippman, ‘Authentic? Try being polite instead‘ in The Guardian
• Deborah Cohen, ‘Before Straight and Gay‘ on The Atlantic
• Lizzie Presser, ‘Below Deck‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Tari Ngangura, ‘How Black History Month Reminds Me How Exhausting It Is To Be Black‘ on Vice
• Caitlin L. Chandler, ‘The Other World‘ on Guernica
• Helen Haft, ‘Telling Memories‘ on Aeon
• Andrea Pitzer, ‘Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports‘ on Longreads
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘White People: I Don’t Want You To Understand Me Better, I Want You To Understand Yourselves‘ on The Establishment
• Lois Parshley, ‘Here Be Dragons: Finding the Blank Spaces in a Well-Mapped World‘ on VQR
• Hina Shamsi, ‘Flying Home From Abroad, a Border Agent Stopped and Questioned Me … About My Work for the ACLU‘ on ACLU
• Tina Nguyen, ‘Trump Grill Could Be the Worst Restaurant in America‘ in Vanity Fair
• Tamara Winfrey Harris, ‘The Real Work of Being an Ally‘ on The Cut
• Nesrine Malik, ‘Suddenly, Muslims are America’s pariahs‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Simons, ‘The Karen road to Nhill‘ on SBS
• Fariah Roísín, ‘What Makes a Border Be?‘ on Hazlitt

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

• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘From Hannah Horvath to Rory Gilmore: the problem with women writers on TV‘ in the New Statesman
• Eva Holland, ‘Bird Man‘ on Longreads
• Lynn Enright, ‘Twentysomething women often win Best Actress. Men in their twenties basically never win Best Actor‘ on The Pool
• Brittney Cooper, ‘Why It’s Important to Recognize That “Moonlight” Was Robbed Of Its Moment‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Awkward Politics of the Oscars‘ in The New Yorker
• Megan Garber, ‘Why Are They ‘Stars’?‘ on The Atlantic
• Jess Goldschmidt, ‘Against La La Land‘ on Guernica
• Ann Powers, ‘The Problem With The Grammys Is Not A Problem We Can Fix‘ on NPR
• Helen O’Hara, ‘TV is better placed to tell love stories than cinema – and its writers have finally realised that‘ on The Pool
• Frances Ryan, ‘I, Daniel Blake is a realistic depiction of life on benefits. Isn’t it?‘ in The Guardian
• Emma Gray, ‘What White Women Can Learn From Adele’s Grammys Speech‘ on the Huffington Post
• Anindita Ghose, ‘What John Berger would say about Beyoncé‘ on Live Mint
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Oh, how I loved you, Johnny Depp. Now I see the purple-tinted truth‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Craik, ‘Why do we judge Victoria Beckham by her husband?‘ on The Pool
• Micha Frazer-Carroll, ‘Why We Should Celebrate Beyoncé’s Pregnancy in the Era of Trump‘ on Gal-Dem
• Danielle Dash, ‘Beyonce, Black Joy & White Women‘ on her website
• Jennifer Keshin Armstrong, ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Feminist Struggle‘ on Longreads
• Dayna Evans, ‘Why Would a Woman Want to Play Football?‘ on The Cut
• Véronique Hyland, ‘Why Won’t We Let Madonna Age the Way She Wants To?‘ on The Cut

The interviews/profiles:

• Susan Hill in The Guardian
• Cara Hoffman on Broadly
• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan on Literary Hub
• Kate Zambreno on The Creative Independent
• Yoojin Grace Wuertz on Electric Literature
• Melissa Febos on Guernica
• Masha Gessen on The Millions
• Zeba Talkhani and Laura Waddell on Minor Literature[s]
• Patty Yumi Cottrell in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Ayòbámi Adébáyò in The Guardian
• Claudia Rankine in The Financial Times
• Claire Fuller in The Chicago Review of Books
• Ethel Rohan on The Millions and on Bustle
• Yiyun Li in The Guardian, on Five Books
• Jane Wong and Aditi Machado on Literary Hub
• Roxane Gay on Brooklyn
• Emily Ruskovich on Electric Literature
• Roshi Fernando on Short Story Award
• Jess Phillips on The Debrief
• Morgan Parker in The Cut
• Liane Moriarty in The Guardian
• Dreda Say Mitchell on Greenacre Writers
• Sara Baume in The Guardian
• Ola Nubi on Ankara Press
• Shappi Khorsandi in The Guardian
• Heather O’Neill on The Millions
• Rachel Cusk in BOMB
• Nina LaCour on The Booklist Reader
• Emma Donoghue on Literary Hub
• Ayelet Waldman in California
• Alice Broadway on Foyles, in The Guardian
• Amanda Owen in The Guardian
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The Guardian
• Margaret Atwood in The Guardian
• Ali Smith in The New York Times
• Lara Pawson on Rhys Tranter
• Christine Hyung-Oak Lee on NPR
• Jade Sharma in The Rumpus
• Alana Massey on Hello Giggles, Hazlitt
• Khairani Barokka on Disability Arts
• Adrian Shirk on Catapult
• Katie Kitamura on Literary Hub
• Camille Pagán in the Huffington Post
• Adania Shiboli on Literary Hub
• Naomi Jackson on The Rumpus
• Katie Khan on In the Words of
• Kyo Maclear on Mcleans
• Kim Hyesoon on Guernica
• Jessica Valenti on The Rumpus
• Elif Shafak in The Guardian, on Foyles
• Erica Ferencik on Electric Literature
• Eimear McBride on Electric Literature
• Sandra Cisneros on Literary Hub
• Shanthi Sekaran on Bookanista
• Ottessa Moshfegh on Lenny

The regular columnists:

• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Lola Okolosie in The Guardian
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mouthful‘ on Hazlitt
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, June 2016, Part One

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

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, May 2016, Part Three

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, May 2016, Part One

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

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

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media, April 2016, Part One

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews:

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

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

In the Media: 24th May 2015

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

The Cannes Film Festival’s been in the spotlight (haha) this week for turning women away from a screening because they were wearing flat shoes. Heels as compulsory footwear for women may or may not (depending which day it is someone asks) be part of their dress policy. Helen O’Hara writes ‘How the 2015 Cannes Film Festival became all about women‘  while Laura Craik asks, ‘Is the tyranny of high heels finally over?‘ both in The Pool. Hadley Freeman wrote, ‘Can’t do heels? Don’t do Cannes‘ in The Guardian, while Elizabeth Semmelhack wrote, ‘Shoes That Put Women in Their Place‘ in The New York Times

The other big feminist story was about ‘wife bonuses’ after Wednesday Martin wrote a piece for the New York Times called, ‘Poor Little Rich Women‘. Amanda Marcotte asked, ‘What’s Wrong With “Wife Bonuses”?‘ in Slate

Awards this week went to the five 2015 Best Young Australian Novelists, three of whom are women, all of whom are women of colour – hurrah for progress. Also in Australia, the shortlist for the Miles Franklin Award was revealed, four of the five shortlisted writers are women. The O. Henry Prize Stories for 2015 were announced. Of the twenty selected, fifteen were by women. You can read those by Dina Nayeri, Molly Antopol and Lynne Sharon Schwartz by clicking on their names.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Bryony Gordon, ‘How to survive Hay Festival‘ in The Telegraph
• Sinclair McKay, ‘Leading Ladies: meet the Queens of Romance‘ in The Telegraph
• Cate Dicharry, ‘Diary of a First-Time Book Tour‘ on Literary Hub
• Kelly Link, ‘Subversive Pleasure‘ (on Angela Carter) in the New York Times
• Katy Waldman, ‘It’s Time to Stop Praising Authors for Being “Good at the Internet”‘ on Slate
• Laurie Uttich, ‘In Defense of ‘Depressing’ Books‘ on the Huffington Post
• Emily M. Keeler, ‘Friends don’t let friends review their friend’s books… do they?‘ in the National Post
• Susanna Rustin, ‘Literary festivals are getting too big for their books‘ in The Guardian
• Various, ‘Take a book holiday with some of our favourite authors!‘ on One Book Lane
• Abie Longstaff, ‘A history of human rights abuses in fairytales‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathan Clarke, ‘Six Possibly True Observations About Renata Adler‘ on The Millions
• Eleanor Morgan, ‘What the Hell Is a Hot Feminist?’ on Vice
• Samantha Langsdale, ‘Simon Pegg is wrong – comics aren’t an escape from reality, they help us deal with it‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Landsbaum, ‘How the Success of Marvel’s Female Superheroes Heralds a More Inclusive Age of Comics‘ on Vulture
• Felix Kent, ‘How To Tell If You Are In An ’80s Biography Of A Famous Woman‘ in The Toast
• Meytal Radzinski , ‘WITMonth 2015 Intro Post: FAQs and helpful references‘ on Biblibio
• Lizi Gilad Silver, ‘Please Come with Me on the Yellow Bus for a Field Trip to the Library Where We Will Find Bean Spasms and Other Rare Treasures‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Why Do We Re-Read Our Favorite Books as Kids, and Why Do We Stop When We Get Older?‘ on Flavorwire
• Caitriona Lally, ‘on writing Eggshells: from the dole to a debut novel‘ in The Irish Times
• Karen Gordon, ‘Against Type: Unapologetically Sexual‘ on Rewriting Mary Sue
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Feminists don’t care if you like hot pink, eat salads or shave your crotch‘ in The Guardian
• Polly Vernon, ‘The Hot Feminist Manifesto‘ in The Times

• Rebecca Falkoff, ‘To Translate Is to Betray: On the Elena Ferrante Phenomenon in Italy and the US‘ on Public Books
• Alison Flood, ‘Agatha Christie’s ‘forgotten’ Syrian memoir gets new lease of life‘ in The Guardian
• Natalie Haynes, ‘March of the megabooks: it’s all Donna Tartt’s fault‘ in The Guardian
• Alice Jones, ‘If this is the year of the mega-novel, it’s going to be a very long 12 months‘ in The Independent
• Philip Graham, ‘Trouble Using Light: The Complications of Art in the Fiction of Christine Sneed‘ on The Millions
• Joanna Cannon, ‘The Story Behind Goats and Sheep‘ on her blog
• Sara Nović, ‘What it’s like to be a deaf novelist‘ in The Guardian
• Whitney Phillips, ‘Laugh It Off?‘ on Slate
• Rebecca Mascull, ‘The difficult second novel‘ on Just Write
• Diane Hurlburt, ‘“Bee Theres”: The Mormon YA of My Youth‘ in The Toast
• Lauren Alwan, ‘A Brief History of the Colloquial Title‘ on The Millions
• Iona Grey, ‘The things we should’ve asked‘ on Gransnet
• Kelly Jensen, ‘Depression Has No Straight Lines, Only Lies‘ on Disability in Kidlit
• Ruth Ware, ‘“When I was about thirteen or fourteen, I fell in love”‘ (on Josephine Tay) on the Penguin Blog
• Julia Donaldson, ‘Why hearing children should find out about signing‘ in The Guardian
• Madeline Thein, ‘Why Hong Kong is clamping down on creative writing‘ in The Guardian
• Jami Attenberg, ‘How 15 Minutes Of Internet Fame Did Nothing For My Books‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jessica Anya Blau, ‘My Favorite Women Writers of the 1950s‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Writing Some Stuff & Keeping On Keeping On‘ on Real Pants
• Helen Grant, ‘My inspiration: The Lost World‘ in The Guardian
• Kirsty Logan, ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: A Fairytale Education‘ on Vintage Books
• Jessica Valenti, ‘You might not think you’re sexist – until you take a look at your bookshelf‘ in The Guardian
• Susan Lannigan, ‘We need to talk about…Day jobs and money‘ on her blog
• Christine Sneed, ‘on The Pleasure of Influence‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book

Personal essays/memoir:

• Rebecca Wait, ‘One woman’s experience of cults‘ in The Pool
• Sali Hughes, ‘What do brilliant, extravagant presents actually mean?‘ in The Pool
• Lauren Laverne, ‘Why everyone needs a list of Cheering-Up Things‘ in The Pool
• Suzanne Moore, ‘In a far corner of the school field, we would defy gravity‘ in the New Statesman
• Clare Archibald, ‘Sweet Sixteen Saturdays‘ on TYCI
• Clare Archibald, ‘Meandering Route of the Muscle Memories‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Eva Holland, ‘Unclimbable‘ in SB Nation
• Susie Cage, ‘What Is A Woman’s Wardrobe Worth?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Eryn Loeb, ‘Return Trip, OBX‘ in Vela
• Martha Stortz, ‘How I Gave Myself Permission To Be Gluten-Free‘ on Buzzfeed
• Upasna, ‘A Girl Without a Country‘ on Rookie
• Maureen O’Connor, ‘De-Cluttering Is the New Juice Cleanse (and Equally Annoying)‘ in The Cut
• Stephanie Butzer, ‘Heat‘ on The Fem
• Alysia Abbott, ‘Fairyland: Memories of a Singular San Francisco Girlhood‘ on Longreads
• Trisha Low, ‘On Being-Hated: Conceptualism, the Mongrel Coalition, the House That Built Me‘ on San Fransisco MOMA
• Storm Persephone Tara-Meiying Liu, ‘How Losing My Sight Helped Me Express My Gender Identity‘ on Vice
• Catherine Santino, ‘Dear college graduates: it’s OK not to know‘ on Hello Giggles
• Rebecca Riley, ‘How I Learned the Meaning of Ableism‘ on The Fem
• Sadie Stein, ‘Bus Pass‘ on The Paris Review Blog
• Ella Wilson, ‘The Therapist Who Saved My Life‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Maria Medina, ‘Iced Cake Frosting‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Sousan Hammad, ‘A Map of Jerusalem‘ in Words Without Borders
• DeLaynna Corley, ‘Motel 6‘ in New Mexico Review
• Alexis Paige, ‘Not a Place on Any Map‘ in New Mexico Review
• Melissa Grunow, ‘Out of Ash‘ in New Mexico Review
• Erika Anderson, ‘Never Write From a Place of Despair‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Elena Dunkle, ‘The Cost of My Teenage Years as an Unrecovered Anorexic‘ on the Huffington Post
• Wendy C. Ortiz, ‘What is Sacred‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Amanda Parrish Morgan, ‘O Martyr My Martyr!‘ on The Rumpus
• Seyward Darby, ‘I was on Amtrak train 188. Afterward, I saw the crash through my fiance’s eyes‘ in The Washington Post
• Jochebed Smith, ‘Swearing Off the Modern Man‘ in The New York Times
• Suzanne Clores, ‘When You Dream Your Husband Is Trying to Kill You‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Eve Barlow, ‘The horrible proof that sexism in the workplace still exists‘ in The Pool
• Isabelle O’Carroll, ‘A comprehensive guide to the sexist world of beer adverts‘ in The Pool
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘Five Fearless Women Who Have Inspired Me To Be A Proud Feminist‘ in Marie Claire
• Mac McClelland, ‘We Learned Together: A Nice Afternoon With The Women Of New Orleans’ Trans Veterans Support Group‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jill Lepore, ‘To Have and To Hold‘ in The New Yorker
• Sharon H. Chang, ‘This Mocha-Caramel-Honey Post-Racial Fantasy Is Making Me Sick‘ on Buzzfeed
• Syreeta McFadden, ‘Revelations About Being Brown In A World Of White Beauty‘ on Buzzfeed
• Paula Cocozza, ‘Actors: go ahead, lie about your age – look how Maggie Gyllenhaal was treated‘ in The Guardian
• Glosswitch, ‘The feminist history of surrogacy: should pregnancy give a woman rights over a baby?‘ in the New Statesman
• Mika Brzezinski, ‘Working Your Value‘ on Medium
• Jessica Roake, ‘I Am a Good Mother‘ on Slate
• Sammy Nickalls, ‘I don’t know if I want to have kids, and that’s OK‘ on Hello Giggles
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Bring back self-defence classes for women – it’s the feminist thing to do‘ in The Guardian
• Meredith Talusan, ‘Women’s colleges should reinvent themselves as havens for trans women‘ in The Guardian
• Tracy King, ‘No, Mad Max: Fury Road is not a feminist masterpiece (but that’s OK)‘ in the New Statesman
• Eva Wiseman, ‘Which body should I try on next?‘ in The Observer
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘With Amal Clooney, We Finally Have the Consummate Feminist Superhero. Let’s Not Ruin It‘ in The Cut
• Nicole Nolan, ‘Boobs, Money, and Plastic Surgery‘ in The Toast
• Talat Yaqoob, ‘29% is Equality‘ on the Huffington Post

Society and Politics:

• Suzanne Moore, ‘Why is it so hard to say sorry?‘ in The Pool
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Call me naive, politicians, but how about saying what you really think?‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hagi, ‘Those Who Leave Somalia Need Remittance Too‘ on Buzzfeed
• Hon Lai Chui, ‘I Just Want To See The Sea‘ (tr. Henry Wei Leung with Louise Law) in The Offing
• Jaimie Lauren Keiles, ‘How To Be Spiritual (If You’re Not)‘ on The Awl
• Amy Maxmen, ‘Frontline health workers were sidelined in $3.3bn fight against Ebola‘ in Newsweek
• Diana Kapp, ‘Why Are Palo Alto’s Kids Killing Themselves?‘ in San Francisco Magazine
• Lisa Miller, ‘Can Racism Be Stopped in the Third Grade?‘ in New York Magazine
• Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, ‘A Woman’s Worth‘ in Granta
• Alexis Coe, ‘By Reason of Insanity‘ in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Anonymous, ‘Confucius say what? Whitewashed by the colorblind‘ on Empathize This
• Lindsey Newhall, ‘Fighting for Identity: The Life of a Transgender Kickboxer in Rural Thailand‘ on Vice
• Katie Roiphe, ‘Why Professors Should Never Have Affairs With Their Students‘ on Slate
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The Breakfast in Bed Café is a desperate cry for help – Ikea should stick to meatballs and sofas‘ in the New Statesman
• Elyssa Goodman, ‘Riding with the Oldest All-Gay, All-Male, All-Riding Motorcycle Club‘ on Vice
• Neda Tehrani, ‘It’s Time To Talk About ‘British Values’‘ on Media Diversified

Film, Television, Music and Fashion:

• Hadley Freeman, ‘My Dirty confession‘ in The Jewish Chronicle
• Karen Krizanovich, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road is a brilliant celebration of women’s power‘ in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘The Curious Conformity Of YouTube’s Beauty Tutorials‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emily Yahr, ‘From guilty pleasure to Emmy Awards: The delightfully weird history of Lifetime movies‘ in The Washington Post
• Deborah Cohen, ‘How Indie Rock Changed the World‘ in The Atlantic
• Kathleen E. Kennedy, ‘What Sansa Stark’s Rape Tells Us About Our Culture‘ on Vice
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Amy Schumer’s coarse, playful comedy explores how women are complicit in their oppression (And forgives them for it.)‘ in the New Statesman
• Kate Aurthur, ‘All 90 Episodes Of “Mad Men” Ranked, From Good To Perfect‘ on Buzzfeed

The interviews:

• Marian Keyes in The Pool (or the 40 minute Director’s Cut)
• Rachel Trezise on London Short Story Festival
• Judy Blume in The Guardian and The New York Times
• Mary Costello on Bloom
• Jodi Picoult on Bustle
• Melissa Harrison on Tania Hershman’s Blog
• Taiye Selasi on Essence
• Hanya Yanagihara on Electric Literature
• Sophia Jansson on Bookanista
• Edna O’Brien in The New York Times
• Anne Enright on The Millions
• S.D. Sykes on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Rainbow Rowell on Buzzfeed
• Honorée Jeffers on The Rumpus
• Kate Atkinson on Our Book Reviews Online
• Sunetra Gupta on Medium
• Kirsty Logan, Vesna Goldsworthy and Anne Enright on Vintage Books Podcast
• Randa Abdel-Fattah on Words Without Borders
• Elenor Kopka on Okey-Panky
• Naomi Novik on Publishers Weekly Podcast
• Keller Easterling in Guernica
• Vivian Gornick on Longreads and in The Observer
• Maggie Nelson on Jezebel
• Alison Layland on Thriller Books Journal
• Dasha Kelly on The Rumpus
• Lynda Barry in The Guardian
• Meera Syal in The Times
• Ashley Ford on IndyStar
• Elaine Feeney in the Honest Ulsterman

If you want some fiction to read:

• The first five chapters of The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marion Keyes in The Pool
• ‘The Edge‘ by Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende in Guernica
• ‘The Biscuit‘ by Jette Harris on The Fem
• ‘Come Make Love With Us‘ by Cari Luna in Midnight Breakfast
• An extract from Uprooted by Naomi Novik on Pan Macmillan
• An extract from Coming Up Roses by Rachel Lucas on Pan Macmillan
• An extract from The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan on The Awl
• ‘Star Bellies‘ by Evelyn Alfred in Literary Orphans
• ‘Survival of the High-Riding Bitch‘ by June Frances Coleman in Literary Orphans
• ‘Fade‘ by Morgan Jerkins in Literary Orphans
• ‘Passive-Aggressive‘ by Naadeyah Haseeb in Literary Orphans
• ‘A Warm Winter‘ by Molly McArdle in Midnight Breakfast
• ‘The Necklace‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Your Baby‘ by Asmaa Alghoul (tr. Kareem James Abu-Zeid) on Words Without Borders
• ‘What Wolves Dream‘ by Olya Stoyanova (tr. Angela Rodel) in Words Without Borders
• ‘Scumbag‘ by Gabrielle Moss in Midnight Breakfast
• ‘The Freezer Chest‘ by Dorthe Nors in The New Yorker and she discusses the story here
• ‘The Murder Stone‘ by Jo Mazelis on Litro

Photograph by Kwesi Abbensetts

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘My Tits Are More Feminist Than Your Tits‘ by Salena Godden on This Is My Jam (or watch it on Youtube (images of tits, obviously))
• ‘A Numbered Graph That Shows How Each Part of the Body Would Fit Into A Chair‘ by Mary Jo Bang in Granta
• ‘No Soft Pink Hands‘ by Helena Chung in Pank
• ‘All They Want Is My Money My Pussy My Blood‘ by Morgan Parker on Literary Hub
• ‘Travel Anatomy‘ by Corinne Gaston in Literary Orphans
• ‘Art | is | Sometimes They Call Me “T”‘ by Teré Fowler-Chapman in Literary Orphans
• ‘The Body on the Interstate‘ by Paige Sullivan in New Mexico Review
• ‘Sharks in Albuquerque‘ by Janna Layton in New Mexico Review
• ‘The haunting of the Oatman Hotel‘ by Leah Angstman in New Mexico Review
• ‘Ways to Divide‘ by Meghan McClure in New Mexico Review
• ‘The Answers That Were Sewn‘ by Jacqueline Markowski in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘After Marvin Bell’s Dead Man poems‘ by Tamra Hays in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Lovesick Woman Spends Week in KFC‘ by Laryssa Wirstuk in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Tree‘ by Jennifer Martelli in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘interstellar‘ by Orooj-e-Zafar in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Final Purification‘ by Kelly Andrews in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• Two Poems by Lauren Gordon in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘Shipwreck Survivor Refuses to Speak to CNN‘ by Janeen Pergrin Rastall in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘As It Is‘ by Lauren Camp in Up the Staircase Quarterly
• ‘This is the Healing Part, it Looks Like Setting a Broken Bone‘ by Bri Lopez Donovan in Burn Something
• ‘Force‘ by Irna Landrum
• ‘Women’s Poetry‘ by Daisy Fried in Berfrois
• Three Miley Cyrus Poems by Talin Tahajian in Blunderbuss
• ‘I’m a Young Cowboy and Know I’ve Done Wrong‘ by Catherine Pond in the Boston Review
• ‘For the Officer Who Put the 8-Year-Old Boy in Handcuffs‘ by Katy Richey in The Offing
• ‘No System for Grief‘ by Kimberly Grey on Linebreak
• ‘You Probably Think This Poem Is About You‘ by Tovah Leah Green on Cahoodaloodaling
• ‘How Mike Weston Died‘ by Janet Hagelgans in Thrush

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind by Anne Roiphe on Literary Hub

The lists:

• Female Literarti Pick Summer’s Best Books in Harper’s Bazaar
• 22 Thrilling, Imaginative, and Twisted Genre Books By Women on Flavorwire
• 8 Books To Read Over A Long Holiday Weekend on The Huffington Post
• Kirsty Logan’s Born This Way: 10 great LGBT books for teens on Scottish Book Trust
• SD Sykes’ Five Favourite Historical Crime Novels on the Curtis Brown Book Group Blog
• 6 African novels to fuel your wanderlust on Voices of Africa
• Best Books: May Part One on Quadrapheme

In the Media: 12th April 2015

In the media is a weekly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous week and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. 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.

The results of the VIDA count was announced on Monday. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts have counted the number of female and male reviewers in the major literary publications. There are some improvements this year, but overall the picture remains grim. For the first time this year, VIDA published a separate count for Women of Colour, it’s as depressing as you might expect. Reaction came from Hannah Ellis Peterson in The Guardian, ‘Male writers continue to dominate literary criticism, Vida study finds‘; Radhika Sanghani in The Telegraph, ‘Men aren’t better writers than women. Literary mags need to close the book on gender bias‘ and on Bustle, Caroline Goldstein declared, ‘The Results of the 2014 Women of Color VIDA Count Are Problematic‘.

VIDA also produced a handout: Things You Can Do Right Now to Advance Women’s Writing. Immediately after the results of the announcement, good things began to happen in Twitterland; Marisa Wikramamanayake created a ‘Women Who Review‘ database. If you’re a reviewer, you can add yourself to it; if you’re an editor at a literary magazine with a gender balance problem, you can have a look at all the women you could approach with review commissions. Judi Sutherland is getting a group of women reviewers together to send reviews to the TLS, contact her on Twitter if you want to get involved, and Amy Mason created Sister Act Theatre (@SisterTheatre): Support + recommendations of/for women working in UK theatre/performance. Worked with a great woman? Need work? Promoting your show? Tell us.

While all that’s been going on, Katy Derbyshire has been collating ‘Some more statistics on translated fiction‘ on Love German Books.

The other big news this week came from an American report that found the number of women choosing to be child-free has increased. The report coincided with the publication of the Meghan Daum edited essay collection Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids and the launch of the film While We’re Young. It’s triggered a number of articles: Emma Gray at the Huffington Post says, ‘A Record Percentage Of Women Don’t Have Kids. Here’s Why That Makes Sense‘; Jane Marie wrote, ‘Why I Stopped Trying to Be a Supermom and Started Being Myself Again‘ on Jezebel’; Hayley Webster wrote, ‘I had an abortion and didn’t talk about it…and I no longer want to live in shame‘ on her website; Hadley Freeman wrote, ‘Why do we still have to justify the choice to be child-free?‘ in The Guardian; Jessica Valenti asked, ‘Why do we never worry about men’s childlessness and infertility?‘ also in The Guardian

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Juliet Greenwood, ‘Women and Myths in Storytelling‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Laura Miller, ‘Our enduring Tudor obsession: Sex, ambition, wealth and power never go out of style‘ on Salon
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best novels: No 81 – The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962)‘ in The Guardian
• Lauren St John, ‘My American West adventure – in pictures‘ in The Guardian
• Jen Calleja, ‘Verfreundungseffekt: Waiting For Something To Happen —Tsou Yung-shan’s The Waiting Room‘ on The Quietus (Includes an extract from the book translated by Michelle Wu
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Stevie Smith, steel soul of the suburbs‘ in The Observer
• Linda Besner, ‘Changing face: The emergence of a new genre of memoir addressing the consequences of a changing planet‘ in The National Post
• Fran Lebowitz, ‘Why Childhood Was a Good Fit‘ in The Wall Street Journal
• Kathryn Schulz, ‘What Part of “No, Totally” Don’t You Understand?‘ in The New Yorker
• Alison Flood, ‘Allison Pearson revisits bestselling heroine in middle age‘ in The Guardian
• Krutika Mallikarjuna & Krystie Lee Yandoli, ‘If Carrie Bradshaw Wrote Her Column In 2015‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jill Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau Playlist on The Pool
• Elizabeth Day, ‘Can writing a male character make you think like a man?‘ on The Pool
• Jean Morris, ‘Reading in Translation‘ in Shiny New Books
• Anna Thomasson, ‘Researching A Curious Friendship‘ in Shiny New Books
• Laura Kalpakian, ‘On Writing Three Strange Angels‘ in Shiny New Books
• Rebecca Mascull, ‘Song of the Sea Maid, Science and Setting‘ in Shiny New Books
• Claire Fuller, ‘The Writing of Our Endless Numbered Days‘ in Shiny New Books
• Adèle Geras, ‘A Strange Phenomenon‘ (on Dorothy Whipple) on The History Girls
• Rene Denfeld, ‘Why I Talk to Death Row Criminals‘ on BBC World Service
• Jacob Victorine, ‘How to Translate a Map: Clare Cavanagh: Poetry 2015‘ on Publishers Weekly
• 2015 Best Translated Book Award Fiction Longlist on Three Percent
• Amy Bloom, ‘Literary Tastes‘ on VQR
• Francesca Mari, ‘The Assistant Economy‘ in Dissent
• Michelle Dean, ‘Passing Through‘ (on Nella Larsen) in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Sady Doyle, ‘Before Lena Dunham, there was Anaïs Nin – now patron saint of social media‘ in The Guardian
• Anuradha Roy, ‘The making of books, and of friendships‘ on Scroll In
• 2015 Authur C. Clarke Award Shortlist
• Amanda Holpuch, ‘US postal service delivers misquote on Maya Angelou stamp‘ in The Guardian
• Shane Breslin, ‘So are we really in the middle of an Irish literary renaissance?‘ on Irish Writing Blog
• Parisa Ebrahimi, ‘Why I Fell For Frances & Bernard‘ on Vintage Books
• Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, ‘The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison‘ in The New York Times
• Ane Farsethas, ‘Lydia Davis at the End of the World‘ on Lit Hub
• Mallika Rao, ‘The Kids Are ALL-CAPS‘ on the Huffington Post
• A.M.F. Winn, ‘Not Just an Ugly Face‘ on the Huffington Post
• Niki Browes, ‘The Girl On The Train: Who’s Reading It And Why You Need To‘ in Instyle
• Siobhan Curham, ‘on Empowering Books for Women and Girls‘ on Adventures With Words
• Emily Wolfteich, ‘Saudade and the Untranslatable‘ in Asymptote
• Tessa McWatt, ‘Why read a book (let alone write one)?‘ on Bookanista
• Laura Kipnis, ‘Marry by 30‘ (on Kate Bolick’s Spinster) on Slate
• Kat Brown, ‘Children’s book written by the young Queen Victoria to be published‘ in the Telegraph
• Dinika Amaral, ‘Finding Language in the Code‘ in Guernica
• Claudia Rankine & Beth Loffreda, ‘On Whiteness and the Racial Imaginary‘ on Lit Hub
• Leslie Jamison, ‘This Female Consciousness: On Chris Kraus‘ in The New Yorker
• Jemma Wayne, ‘10 Things You Didn’t Know About After Before‘ on Legend Press
• Candy Gourlay, ‘Growing up I thought Filipinos weren’t allowed to be in books‘ in The Guardian
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Who Gets to Review? Tranströmer, Ishiguro, and Critical Expertise‘ on Electric Literature
• Anne Lamott shares all that she knows: “Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared” on Salon
• Megan Garber, ‘How to Say ‘Yes’ (by Not Saying ‘Yes’)‘ on The Atlantic
• Jo Hogan, ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers: How Twitter and Book Bloggers Changed My Life‘ on her blog
• Afrikult, ‘Tsitsi Dangarembga‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Colm Tóibín, ‘A tale of two poets, Thom Gunn and Elizabeth Bishop‘ in The Guardian
• Marina Warner, ‘Learning My Lesson‘ on the LRB YouTube
• Jennifer Rankin, ‘Traditional books on paper open a new chapter of success‘ in The Guardian
• Lee Brackstone, ‘How I came to publish Sarah Hall‘ on Faber & Faber
• Kathleen Coyle, ‘Lost in Translation: Norwegian Novelist Regine Normann‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Judith Thurman, ‘Good, Clean Fun: A Revival of “Gigi”‘ in The New Yorker
• J.C. Gabel, ‘Anatomy of a Cover: The Complete Works of Flannery O’Connor‘ in The Paris Review
• The Encore Award Longlist
• Liza Klaussmann, ‘‘A talent for living’: how the Murphys inspired Villa America‘ on the Picador blog
• Matthew Sweet, ‘Memoirs of the Spacewomen‘ on BBC Radio 3

Personal essays/memoir:

• Mary Anne Mohanraj, ‘“Don’t you want to be normal?”‘ on Salon
• Samantha Irby, ‘i’m taking my dead dad on vacation.‘ on bitches gotta eat
• Sarah Miller, ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Woman: My March Madness‘ in The Toast
• Erin Wisti, ‘Showing My Scars: On Self-Harm‘ in The Butter
• Grace Moltini, ‘Beer and Loathing in Deutschland‘ in The Riverter
• Nichole LeFebvre, ‘Love in Lilac Velcro‘ in The Butter
• Sali Hughes, ‘Confessions of an email hoarder‘ on The Pool
• Anna Wiener, ‘Ecstatic Dance: To Fly, To Heal, To Love‘ in The Toast
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: I’ll Take a Side of Empathy with Those Cheerios, Please‘ in The Butter
• Huda Hassan, ‘My Mother’s Child‘ on The Hairpin
• Rushaa Louise Hamid, ‘How I Found Myself When My Skin Changed Its Identity‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sali Hughes, ‘When did it become compulsory to enjoy exercise?‘ on The Pool
• Leah Reich, ‘You’d Be So Nice‘ on Medium
• Dana Tommasino, ‘Learn To Cook (in 21 Easy Steps)‘ on The Rumpus
• Susie Boyt, ‘New York: It’s Show Time‘ in Harpers Bazaar
• Katie Rose Guest Pryal, ‘A Mother’s Suicide Attempt and the Guilty Burden of Statistics‘ in The Toast
• Liz Prato, ‘The Terrible Things I Learned About My Dad: On Abuse and the People We Love‘ in The Butter
• Claire Greaves, ‘I Cannot Erase My Existence and Therefore I am Going to Get Better‘ in the Huffington Post
• Charlotte Philby, ‘The darkest secret of my new motherhood‘ in The Guardian
• Alison Taylor, ‘My parents are my greatest love of all‘ in The Independent
• Emylia Hall, ‘Offspring‘ on Book Slam

Feminism:

• Jessica Valenti, ‘It wasn’t Jackie’s job to get the details of her rape correct. It was Rolling Stone’s‘ in The Guardian
• Srishti Dutta Chowdhury, ‘A Decorum of Purity‘ in Kindle Magazine
• Hanna Rosin, ‘Despite Damning Report, Rolling Stone Will Continue “To Do What We’ve Always Done.” Are They Serious?‘ on Slate
• Carolyn Wysinger, ‘First Boi In – Dressing Queer in the Corporate World‘ on Media Diversified
• Sophie Tanner, ‘“‘I’ve Decided To Marry Myself, To Celebrate My Life as a Happy, Single and Self-Fulfilled Woman”‘ in Stylist
• Olga Khazan, ‘Why Some Women Choose to Get Circumcised‘ in The Atlantic
• Lauren Laverne, ‘What is a “real” woman anyway?‘ on The Pool
• Laura Craik, ‘What does plus size even mean?‘ on The Pool
• Helen O’Hara, ‘Why you’re not going to a romcom this weekend‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Two Beds and the Burdens of Feminism‘ in The New Yorker
• Lucy Mangan, ‘Why Are Periods Still Shocking‘ in Stylist
• Julia Phillips, ‘Feminism at the End of the World‘ on Jezebel
• Tracy Kuhn, She Wears it Well‘ on Volvo Diaries
• Rebekah Lowin, ‘Photographer teaches daughters: “Strong is the New Pretty”‘ on Today
• Heidi Mirza, ‘Black British feminism then and now‘ on Media Diversified
• Glosswitch, ‘Sussex police’s victim-blaming anti-rape campaign: why is it victims, not rapists, that must change their behaviour?‘ in the New Statesman
• Lottie O’Conor, ‘Is Reddit’s feminist ‘hero’ merely feeding the stereotypes that hold women back?‘ in The Guardian
• Arwa Mahdawi, ‘Sorry Dove, empowerment isn’t a personal care product‘ in The Guardian
• Hayley Krischer, ‘How a New Wave of Feminist Cooking Publications Is Redefining Women’s Relationship to Food‘ on Flavorwire
• Key Ballah, ‘My body is not an invitation‘ on Patheos
• Jessie Thompson, ‘Am I a Joke Feminist?‘ on the Huffington Post
• Barbara Ellen, ‘Men know nothing at all about being sex objects‘ in The Observer
• Anna March, ‘Dead Girls Sold Here‘ on The Rumpus
• Bridget Christie, ‘We’re a nation of armchair activists – and that’s OK‘ in The Guardian
• Matilda Kahl, ‘Why I Wear the Exact Same Thing to Work Every Day‘ in Harpers Bazaar

Society and Politics:

• Emilie Friedlander, ‘How Everlane Turned Hipsters Basic‘ on The Fader
• Ann Friedman, ‘Idle Threads‘ on The Baffler
• Fanny Malinen, ‘We need a new media to tell the real news‘ on New Internationalist
• Shailja Patel, ‘The Road to Garissa‘ in The New Inquiry
• Zoe Williams, ‘The Nicola Sturgeon memo: Westminster’s nasty machinations have been exposed‘ in The Guardian
• Catherine Matusow, ‘The Complicated Truth About Children and Drowning‘ on Houstonia Magazine
• Naomi Wolf, ‘The fastest way to spread extremism is with the censor’s boot‘ in The Guardian
• Kari Mugo, ‘Misfits: Reflections on Identity, Race, and Prejudice‘ in The Toast
• Brinda Bose, ‘The Outsider Within‘ in Kindle Magazine
• Mary Elizabeth Williams, ‘My social media asylum: What I learned during my time away from the trolls (and the brunch pics)‘ on Salon
• Bethany Rutter, ‘Fat can be healthy, so don’t tell me you’re dieting for health reasons‘ in The Guardian
• Emma Sky, ‘Iraq Is Finished‘ on The Atlantic
• Roxane Gay, ‘What the Hell Do We Say Now?‘ in The Butter
  
• Barbara Ntumy, ‘Why I Challenged Farage on Racism‘ on the Huffington Post
• Nancy Jooyoun Kim, ‘Open Houses: On Race, Identity, and Looking for a Place to Live‘ in The Butter
• Sara Sheridan, ‘Scottish politics offers hope to British voters – and a break from the nastiness‘ in The Guardian
• Samantha Rea, ‘Let Children Be Children – Without Jamming Them Into Gender Roles‘ on the Huffington Post
• Alexis Okeowo, ‘Lagos Must Prosper‘ in Granta
• Alana Semuels, ‘Where the White People Live‘ on The Atlantic
• Bella Mackie, ‘Lady Hale is right – blame should be taken out of divorce‘ in The Guardian
• Bethany Lamont, ‘Outsider Inside‘ on The Hairpin
• Yuliya Komska, ‘My grandparents rejected the Holocaust survivor label. They weren’t alone‘ in The Guardian
• Lionel Shriver, ‘Don’t be so hysterical about sex crimes‘ in The Guardian
• Marina Hyde, ‘The great unvetted public locked out as party leaders tour sanitised Britain‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Why posh boys make me boggle‘ in The Times
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘On The Oba Of Lagos‘ on Olisa

Music and Television:

• Abby Higgs, ‘Getting Awkward with Annie Lennox: Part 1‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Hannah Giorgis, ‘Rihanna And The Radical Power Of “Carefree Black Girl” Celebrity‘ on Buzzfeed
• Amanda Ann Klein, ‘The Wonder Years, Memory, and Mourning‘ on Medium
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Girls keep it together in front of their rock’n’roll idols. It’s men who turn into gibbering wrecks‘ in the New Statesman
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘I love Nirvana, but I get why Kurt Cobain’s daughter doesn’t‘ in The Guardian

 

The interviews:

• Robin Rinaldi in The Independent
• Hilary Mantel on Vulture
• Ursula P. Archer on ACF Digital Salon
• Amelia Gray in Berfrois
• Keren David on Delightful Book Reviews
• Valeria Luiselli on British Council Literature
• Helena Coggan in The Guardian
• Becky Albertalli on Buzzfeed
• Gillian Rose in Times Higher Education
• Caitlin Moran (the Director’s Cut) on The Pool
• Bethany Chase on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Jane Thynne in Shiny New Books
• Cecilia EkBäck in Shiny New Books
• Sarah Bannan in Shiny New Books
• Lindsay Hawdon on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Caitlin Moran (Part Two) on Vice
• Lizzie Skurnick on Longreads
• Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan on the Huffington Post
• Viv Albertine on Weird Sister
• Elizabeth McCracken on Paul McVeigh’s blog
• Joyelle McSweeney in The Believer
• Jill Alexander Essbaum in The Los Angeles Times
• Jenn Ashworth (and Richard Hirst) on The Workshy Fop
• Amanda Jennings on From First Page to Last Page
• Diane Williams on Numéro Cinq
• Sarah Hall on Foyles
• Laura Watkinson on Intralingo
• Nancy Tucker in The Independent
• Jennifer Weiner on CBS News
• Jennifer Michael Hecht on The Rumpus
• Dorothy Koomson on We Love This Book
• Ursula Le Guin on BBC Radio 4
• Attica Locke in the Los Angeles Times
• Heidi Julavits on Vulture
• Kirsty Logan on The List
• Lauren Berry on Deep South Magazine
• Andrea Cohen on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Tracey Thorn in The Observer
• Caitlin Moran in The Guardian
• Renée Knight on The Pool
• Jemma Wayne & Lara Pawson on Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Janina Matthewson on Read Her Like an Open Book

If you want some fiction to read:

• An extract from Never Isn’t Long Enough by Diane F. Pickett (YouTube)
• ‘The Good Wife‘ by Devjani Bodepudi in Kindle Magazine
• ‘Apollo‘ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The New Yorker, which she discusses here
• ‘Our Christophers‘ by Sharma Shields on Electric Literature
• ‘Bearish‘ by Leesa Cross-Smith
• An extract from Glory by Rachel Billington on Orion Books
• An extract from The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer on Dead Good Books
• An extract from Disclaimer by Renée Knight on The Pool
• ‘A Story Between Me and Thee on the Occasion of Our Shipwrecking’ and ‘Little Peg Tudor‘ by Rachael Dunlop on Flash! Friday
• ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: Thousandfurs, Or The King Who Wanted To Marry His Daughter‘ by Mallory Ortberg in The Toast
• ‘Other People’s Butter‘ by Tayler Heuston
• ‘The Toddler on the Bus‘ by Helen Croney on Scottish Book Trust
• ‘The Sanded Shard’ by Sara Baume on The Book Show RTÉ Radio 1
• The Ladies of the House by Molly McGrann on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime
• ‘Not Searching‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Item Girls‘ by Kuzhali Manickavel in Granta
• ‘Box 30‘ by Rom Tearne on her blog
• An extract from Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent on Liz Loves Books (if you follow the link at the top of the post, you can follow the trail of extracts posted throughout the week)
• ‘Runaway‘ by Laura Kay on Litro
• ‘The New Boyfriend‘ by Kelly Link on A Public Space
• ‘A Fun Home Coda‘ by Alison Bechdel on Vulture
• Short Stories by Laura Barnett on her website
• ‘Paradise Lost‘ by Devjani Bodepudi
• ‘Every Woman to the Rope‘ by Joanna Quinn in The White Review
• ‘Smote, or When I Find I Cannot Kiss You in Front of a Print by Bridget Riley‘ by Eley Williams in The White Review

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘frances farmer’ & other poems by Afshan Shafi in 3:AM Magazine
• ‘working title‘ by Mahogany L. Browne in Winter Tangerine Review
• ‘Billie‘ (for Billie Holiday) by Salena Godden on The Pool
• Five Poems by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
• ‘Future Biometrics‘ by Jillian Weise in Poetry Magazine
• ‘My Prayer‘ by Agnimita Chatterjee in Kindle Magazine
• Three Poems by Geraldine Clarkson on And Other Poems
• ‘Fuck The Life Abundant‘ Marnie Bullock Dresser in The Fem

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An Excerpt from Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris on The Millions
• An extract from Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn in The Observer
• An extract from Get It Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics by Zoe Williams in The Guardian

The lists:

• Books for Spring in Shiny New Books
• 5 New Books to Read for Your Grown-Up Spring Break in Glamour
• 32 Perfect Books To Kick Off Your Book Club on Buzzfeed
• Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
• 29 Important Lessons Jane Austen Taught You About Love on Buzzfeed
• 100 Best Books of the Decade so Far in The Oyster Review
• Spring Fiction Preview: 15 Books You Won’t Want to Miss on Read Her Like an Open Book

In the Media: 5th April 2015

In the media is a weekly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous week and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. 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.

As In the Media seems to be growing by the week, I’ve divided it into more categories. Comments welcome on what you think of the change and whether you’d prefer different/more section headings.

The big news this week is the launch of The Pool, a free, online resource written by women, for women. Writer and broadcaster, Lauren Laverne and writer and former Red magazine editor, Sam Baker are the women behind it, The Guardian ran a piece about the site earlier in the week. ‘Drops’ of content are released during the day; each piece tells you approximately how long it will take you to read/listen to/watch, and you can search by content or by time if you’ve only got a few minutes.  You can also sign up for an account which allows you to save articles to your ‘scrapbook’ either to read later or refer back to.

I’ve dipped in a few times this week and I love it; it’s clearly organised with some great contributors. My picks so far would be the book section (of course), where you can read the opening of Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Girl and the opening of Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum. There’s also an interview with Essbaum and 10 Things You Need to Know About Anne Tyler as well as an article by Baker about why good books often end up making bad films.

Elsewhere on the site, I’ve enjoyed Sam Baker’s ‘Does this mean I’m not allowed to be a LEGO any more?‘; Lauren Laverne’s blog, ‘Is being a teenager harder than ever before?‘; Sali Hughes’ ‘Why every woman needs a solo playdate‘ and ‘Is it ever OK to commit liticide?‘ (although I winced through the whole of that one); Holly Smale’s ‘Why can’t we just get over Cinderella?‘; Gaby Hinsliff’s ‘What would happen if men didn’t have the vote?‘; Stacey Duguid’s ‘Flares if you care‘ where Duguid goes around high street shops trying flares on like you do when you’re shopping (as opposed to raiding the magazine’s fashion cupboard); an extract from Lynsey Addario’s It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, and Laurene Laverne’s interviews with Caitlin Moran and Kim Gordon.

In Harper Lee news, ‘Harper Lee elder abuse allegations declared ‘unfounded’ by Alabama‘ says The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers:

• Hannah Rosefield, ‘Barbara Pym and the New Spinster‘ in The New Yorker
• Amy Jenkins, ‘Waving or drowning? On her debt to Stevie Smith‘ in The Guardian
• Kimberley Francisco, ‘On (Not) Reading Science Fiction as a Teenage Girl‘ on Stacked Books
• Jenny McAuley, ‘Jane Austen invented #RealisticYA fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Man Booker International Prize draws together variety of best from literature world‘ in The National
• Lucy K. Shaw, ‘April Mixtape‘ on Electric Literature
• Jill Alexander Essbaum, ‘Writers on Location: on Zürich‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Laxmi Hariharan, ‘Why the hero of my YA dystopian novel had to be an angry young Indian girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Cuthbertson, ‘How Assumedly White Characters are a Disservice to, well, Everyone‘ in The Missouri Review
• Alison Flood, ‘The Girl on the Train racks up express sales of 2m in three months‘ in The Guardian
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘How “The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing” Shaped My Twenties‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Gilmartin, ‘The rise of the short Irish Story‘ in The Irish Times
• Molly McGrann, ‘Prostitution in post-war London: a different kind of independence‘ on Picador Blog
• Sarah Hilary, Shelley Harris and Sinéad Moriarty, ‘Richard & Judy Book Club Authors: What Are They Up To Now?‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Christine Dwyer Hickey, ‘My Life in Books‘ on Atlantic Books’ Pinterest
• Sonya Vatomsky and Kia Groom, ‘Saving “Saving Anne Sexton”: In Which Dead Women are Used as Props (Again)‘ in Quaint Magazine
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Does Magic Stand for Privilege in Harry Potter?‘ on Flavorwire
• Eve Johnson, ‘Sonnets And Unrealities: Björk And ee cummings‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Val McDermid, ‘Why crime fiction is leftwing and thrillers are rightwing‘ in The Guardian
• Alexander McCall Smith, ‘The Secret of the Jane Austen Industry‘ in the Wall Street Journal
• Roopa Farooki, ‘Monsters in Caves‘ on Royal Literary Fund
• Suzannah Gillman, ‘Will the Real Cheryl Strayed Please Stand Up?‘ on The Gloria Sirens
• Edan Lepucki, ‘Beyond Binaries: On ‘Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids’‘ on The Millions
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘6 Fairy Tales That Need A Shakeup‘ on the Huffington Post
• Chris Ayers, ‘Extinctathon‘ ‘a new series, drawn from Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam trilogy, that illustrates the corporate horrors of the trilogy’s fictional dystopia’
• Lindy West, ‘Herland: the forgotten feminist classic about a civilisation without men‘ in The Guardian
• Madhvi Pankhania, ‘Miles Franklin award longlist 2015: eight out of 10 nominees are women‘ in The Guardian
• Ron Charles, ‘Marilynne Robinson confident about a fourth Gilead novel‘ in The Washington Post
• Joshua Farrington, ‘Three debut novels on Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize shortlist‘ (all by women) in The Bookseller
• Keija Parssinen, ‘Writing Out of Rage (How Sexual Politics Inspired “The Unraveling of Mercy Louis”)‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Coming to America‘ in The Butter
• Kristi York Wooten, ‘How 1980s Atlanta Became the Backdrop for the Future‘ in The Atlantic
• Byddi Lee, ‘How to get ahead in self-publishing: No 1 – you need a lot of hats‘ in The Irish Times
• Leslie Jamison And Catherine Lacey’s E-mail Conversation About Narcissism, Emotional Writing And Memoir-Novels on the Huffington Post
• Victoria Finan, ‘Independent Bookshop Week book awards 2015 shortlist announced‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘The pleasure and pain of being a Folio prize judge‘ in The Guardian
• Dorthe Nors, ‘A form close to home‘ on English PEN
• Emily Midorikawa & Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers‘ on Something Rhymed

Personal essays/memoir:

• Eva Wiseman, ‘Living with your parents when you are a parent yourself‘ in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood, ‘It’s midnight. Dare I open the sealed trapdoor in my house?‘ in The Guardian
• Dani True, ‘True Romantic #5: The Hope Chest‘ on The Rumpus
• Mary H.K. Choi, ‘Eat Pray Roll‘ on Matter *Flashing images throughout
• Sierra-Crane Murdoch, ‘Sugar Days‘ in VQR Online
• Marika Seigel, ‘On Being the Mom of “the Foreign Kid”‘ in The Butter
• Shan Wang, ‘“Happy Birthday” and Other Things My Mom and I Don’t Say‘ in The Toast
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘A Queer Hoosier on Still Loving Indiana‘ on Talking Points Memo
• Rebecca Riley, ‘How I Learned The Meaning Of Ableism‘ in The Fem
• Saudamini Deo, ‘My Name Is Red‘ in Kindle
• Lauren Apfel, ‘I called him pathetic, he accused me of ruining his life: What children did to our marriage‘ in Salon
• Roxane Gay, ‘Having a Heart, Being Alive‘ in The Butter
• Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Open Heart, Open Sky‘ in The Butter
• Alexis Paige, ‘The Right to Remain‘ on The Rumpus
• Lindsay Tapscott, ‘Letter from Montreal: The City Undressed‘ on Maisonneuve
• Shannon Fandler, ‘Unprepared In Appalachia‘ on Vela
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Variations on Crying‘ in The Butter
• Ruth Dawkins, ‘Now You Are Six‘ on Dorkymum
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘Driving in Greater Noida‘ in Granta
• Jennifer Weiner, ‘All Grown Up and In Charge of the Seder‘ in The New York Times
• Kristen Hanley Cardozo, ‘Three Months Without Breathing‘ on Archipelago
• Lavinia Greenlaw, ‘On Not Totally Seeing a Total Solar Eclipse‘ in The New Yorker
• Chelsea Biondolillo, ‘Not Travel Writing‘ on Vela

Feminism:

• Stephanie St. John, ‘“Mad Men” eulogies: Peggy Olson, feminist hero‘ on Salon
• Lili Loofbourow, ‘The Many Faces of Tatiana Maslany‘ in The New York Times
• Sybil Baker, ‘The DrunkenBoat Fiction Count for 2013‘ in DrunkenBoat
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why I changed my mind about porn‘ in the New Statesman
• Sabine Heinlein, ‘The Answer Is Never‘ on Longreads
• Anna Cafolla, ‘I’m a girl and I have periods, whether Instagram likes it or not‘ in The Independent
• Cate Burlington, ‘Things My Male Tech Colleagues Have Actually Said to Me, Annotated‘ in The Toast
• Doreen St Felix, ‘The Prosperity Gospel of Rihanna‘ in Pitchfork
• Lucy-Anne Holmes, ‘If you want to write about feminism online, be ready to take on the haters‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Don’t stress out. Our kids are just fine when their mothers work late‘ in The Guardian
• Shannon Reed, ‘The Historical Feminist Roundtable, Bucket List Edition‘ on Buzzfeed
• Susan Cox, ‘Of course men want children more than women do‘ on Feminist Current
• Snigdha Poonam, ‘Kidnap, rape and ‘honour’ killings: on the road with a female reporter in rural India‘ in The Guardian
• Julie Bindel, ‘What Andrea Dworkin, the feminist I knew, can teach young women‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Social media is protecting men from periods, breast milk and body hair‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why rape suspects should not remain anonymous‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Friedman, ‘Can a New Law Really Change the Way College Students Hook Up?‘ in Cosmopolitan

Society:

• Katy Reckdahl, ‘The Lost Children of Katrina‘ in The Atlantic
• Linda Vaccariello, ‘This Is How We Lose Them‘ in Cincinnati Magazine
• Helen Lewis, ‘Life is full of people with bad ideas and awful opinions. Try to meet as many at university as you can‘ in the New Statesman
• Sophie McBain, ‘Why are so many people using food banks?‘ in the New Statesman
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Dear Nigel Farage – children will play if we close roads, not borders‘ in The Guardian
• Germaine Greer, ‘At the centenary of Gallipoli; an interrogation of the myth of Australian nationhood‘ in the New Statesman
• Samantha Ellis, ‘Theatre should reflect society – and boldly imagine ways for it to change‘ in The Guardian
• Grace Dent, ‘In case you were wondering what it’s like to not always look down at your phone, I can tell you‘ in The Independent
• L.V. Anderson, ‘We Should Have a Better Condom by Now. Here’s Why We Don’t.‘ on Slate
• Meredith Talusan, ‘Being transgender in a transphobic society leads to moments of sheer desperation‘ in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman, ‘Electrified‘ in The New Yorker
• Olivia Laing, ‘The future of loneliness‘ in The Guardian
• Brittney Cooper, ‘The right’s made-up God: How bigots invented a white supremacist Jesus‘ on Salon
• Lily Lynch, ‘Forgetting Resistance In The Balkans‘ on Balkanist
• Laura Trethewey, ‘Collective Independents‘ on Maisonneuve
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Films about queer women rarely stray from “lesbian drama” clichés – but things are improving‘ in the New Statesman
• ER Truitt, ‘Preternatural Machines‘ on Aeon
• Glosswitch, ‘How can a memoir convey the damage done by eating disorders, without passing it on?‘ in the New Statesman
• Rebecca Harris, ‘The loneliness epidemic: We’re more connected than ever – but are we feeling more alone?‘ in The Independent
• Momtazza Mehri, ‘Black, British & Muslim; We’re not just a “Complication”‘ on Media Diversified
• Jennifer Hensley, ‘Pills, Pills, Pills – There Is No Medicine‘ on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• Vanessa Hua, ‘The Dim Sum Revolution‘ in San Francisco Magazine
• Bella Qvist, ‘So Ruby Tandoh came out? It won’t be the last time‘ in The Guardian
• Jetta Rae, ‘What ‘Passing’ Says About Our Expectations of Women – And Why This Trans Woman’s Getting It Wrong on Purpose‘ on Everyday Feminism

Music:

• Cath Bore, ‘In Defence of the Smash Hits Centerfold‘ on her blog
• Linda Grant, ‘It’s not always easy to be a Joni Mitchell fan, but her illness devastates me‘ in The Guardian
• Lisa Peet, ‘Viv Albertine, Side One and Side Two‘ on Bloom
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘Why do we mock teenage girls who love One Direction when Top Gear fans are just the same?‘ in the New Statesman
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘A Love Song & Some Stubbornness‘ on Real Pants

The interviews:

• Lynsey Addario in The Guardian
• Kim Gordon in The Irish Times
• Barbara Klein Moss on Bloom
• Jessica Valenti in The Cut
• Trish Hopkinson in The Fem
• Amy Butcher in The Fem
• Meghan Daum on the Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour and the Huffington Post and Jezebel
• Lydia Davis in The New York Times
• Fatima Bhutto on NPR
• Johanna Basford on NPR
• Alexandra Sokoloff on Grab This Book
• Teri Terry in The Guardian
• Amber Tamblyn on the Huffington Post
• Margret Aldrich on Publishers Weekly
• Caitlin Moran on Vice
• Alice Stevenson on Bookanista
• Renée Knight in The Telegraph
• Lauren Van Den Berg on Paul McVeigh’s Blog
• Paula Hawkins on Booktopia
• Xiaolu Guo on Penguin Blog
• Teresa K. Miller on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• Cush Jumbo in The Guardian
• Hollie Poetry in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara in Vogue

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The First Meeting of the People of Unintentional Color Support Group‘ by Gayle Brandeis
• An extract from The Long Weekend by Veronica Henry
• ‘Fall From Oysters‘ by Susan Sanford Blades on Little Fiction
• ‘Small Stories #8‘ by Madeline Witt on The Rumpus
• An extract from Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Little Red Hen‘ in The Toast
• An extract from The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman
• ‘Escape, Release, and Return‘ by Leslie Baum on Guernica
• ‘Voyage of the Coral Princess‘ by Kasia Juno in Guts Magazine
• ‘Me and the Devil‘ by Eimear McBride on BBC Radio 4
• An extract from Sphinx by Anne Garréta in 3:AM Magazine
• An extract from The Language of Paradise by Barbara Klein Moss
• ‘The Slanted Life of Emily Dickinson‘ by Rosanna Bruno
• ‘Dirty Thirties’ and ‘Rugby‘ by Terese Svoboda in Numéro Cinq

Photograph by Jane Feng

 

If you want some poetry to read:

• from The Devastation by Melissa Buzzeo in Trickhouse
• ‘It Must Have Got Lost In The Mail‘ by Susannah Betts on Vagabond City Journal
• Two Poems by Khadijah Queen in The Offing
• ‘Beat Poem‘ by Leslie Maxwell in Blunderbuss Magazine
• ‘—moLt shEd‘ by Rebecca Y. Lee in Vagabond City Journal
• ‘What Breaks First‘ by Jynne Dilling Martin in The New York Review of Books
• ‘To Proceed You Must First Understand‘ by Barbara Jane Reyes on The Rumpus
• ‘Carousel‘ by Gabrielle Bates
• ‘The Medium‘ by Elaine Feinstein in the TLS
• ‘April Fools’ Day‘ by Elaine Feinstein in The Guardian

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein on Penguin Books Blog
• An extract from Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts and Daring to Act Differently by Emer O’Toole on the Irish Post
• An extract from A Day’s Work by Joanna Biggs in the London Review of Books (£)

The lists:

• 5 Great Books To Read In April on Buzzfeed
• 10 Must-Read Books for April on Flavorwire
• Diane Pickett’s The 10 Commandments of Southern Writers on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• 7 Books About Friendship That Prove This Relationship Is The Most Important One You’ll Have in Your Lifetime on Bustle
• Here are the the most magical things JK Rowling has ever done in The Independent
• 12 Writers On The Women Authors Who Inspired Them on Buzzfeed
• The Very Best LGBT Books You Need to Read Right Now on The Debrief
• JK Rowling’s life advice: ten quotes on the lessons of failure in The Guardian
• Molly McGrann’s Top 10 things I learned while writing The Ladies of the House on Female First
• 24 books for a year of reading only work by women in The Washington Post
• 14 Illuminating Quotes From “The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing” on Buzzfeed

In the Media: 15th 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.

This week it’s been almost impossible to escape Fifty Shades of Grey and the commentary surrounding it. Girl on the Net wrote ‘Is 50 Shades of Grey abuse?‘ on her blog; Leslie Bennets wrote, ‘Sex, Lies and Fifty Shades‘ for EW; Janice Turner wrote ‘At last, a man who knows what women want‘ in The Times, while Eva Wiseman went with ‘Why Fifty Shades finds itself in a world of pain‘ in The Observer.

And the pieces about and around the ‘new’ Harper Lee novel keep coming; The Guardian reported ‘Harper Lee ‘hurt and humiliated’ by Mockingbird sequel controversy‘; Salon reported on ‘Harper Lee and America’s silent abuse epidemic‘; Sadie Stein wrote, ‘Hot Stove‘ in The Paris Review; The New Yorker went with ‘Harper Lee and the Benefit of the Doubt‘; McSweeney’s ran ‘Harper Lee’s Letters to Her Editor After the Publication of To Kill a Mockingbird‘; The Los Angeles Times asked ‘Is Harper Lee’s new book headed for Hollywood?‘; while the Huffington Post asked ‘What Did Atticus Finch Think of the Civil Rights Movement?‘

There’s also been a focus on women’s deaths with the launch of The Femicide Census. Karen Ingala Smith wrote, ‘Femicide is a leading a cause of premature death for women – why aren’t we doing more?‘ and Sarah Ditum, ‘Why we need a Femicide Census‘ both in the New Statesman, while Parker Marie Malloy wrote ‘Trans Women of Color Deserve to Be Mourned as Much as Leelah Alcorn‘ on Slate.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Megan Garber, ‘Foucault That Noise: The Terror of Highbrow Mispronunciation‘ in The Atlantic
• Siobhan Phillips, ‘Beauty Work: Lessons in Ballet‘ in The Toast
• Emily Parker, ‘Writing Under Embargo: The Challenges of Controlled Information in Cuba‘ on Discourse in Progress
• Lee Siegel, ‘The Poet’s Keeper: Rereading Eileen Simpson’s “Poets in Their Youth”‘ in The New York Times
• Jaclyn Voran, ‘The Rise of the Teenage Breast Reduction‘ in The Atlantic
• Alana Semuels, ‘Is Ending Segregation the Key to Ending Poverty?‘ in The Atlantic
• Tara Ison, ‘How to lose your virginity: What movies taught me about sex and vulnerability‘ on Salon
• Perks, ‘Paul Dacre Leaves House Wearing Unflattering Suit, Sporting High Forehead Haircut and No Make Up‘ in the Evening Harold (I don’t know the gender of the person who wrote this but figured it was worth it for the Daily Mail ridiculing.)
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Here I Am, In Your House‘ on her blog, Publishing for Humans
• Snigdha Poonam, ‘The Fixer‘ in Granta
• Melissa Harrison, on The Fish Ladder and female nature writers on Caught By the River
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Reckless‘ on her blog Clothes, Camera and Coffee
• Ann Morgan, ‘All the world’s a page: One woman’s year-long quest to read a book from every country‘ in The Independent
• Glosswitch, ‘Paternity leave: why we should stop romanticising fatherhood‘ on the New Statesman
• Lissa Evans, ‘I’m Serious About This‘ on Commonwealth Writers
• Paul Collins, ‘Vanishing Act‘ on Barbara Newhall Follett in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Yvonne Roberts, ‘Depression and the fragility of the strong, silent male‘ in The Guardian
• Gayle Lazda, ‘Valentine’s Day is Over: Celebrating the Literary Spinster‘ on BookMachine
• Marjorie Brennan, ‘We’ll talk openly about sex – but why are periods still a taboo subject?‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Marissa Higgins, ‘No Results Found‘ in Guernica
• Megan Garber, ‘But Seriously, ‘”Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?”‘ in The Atlantic
• Emily Bolton, ‘“My Macabre Passion”: The Musical Saw‘ in The Toast
• Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘Joni Mitchell Wants to Define Her Own Legacy — So Why Don’t We Let Her?‘ on Flavorwire
• Juhanna Rogers, ‘Lessons I’ve Learned as a Black Woman World Traveler‘ on For Harriet
• Suzanne Moore, ‘The Baftas don’t even bother with tokenism any more‘ in The Guardian
• Dianca London Potts, ‘I, Tituba: Working as a Historical Reenactor in Salem‘ in The Toast
• Miranda Ward, ‘Dream Body‘ in Vela
• Katherine Heiny, ‘With Writing, Opportunity Comes From Small Moments‘ on The Atlantic
• Sadie Stein, ‘Into the Weekend‘ on Elizabeth Bowen in The Paris Review
• Francine Prose, ‘The Case for Hollywood History‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘Democracy, Deferred‘ on The Atlantic
• Stella Newman, ‘Stella’s Dream Valentine’s Date‘ on Handwritten Girl
• Helen Lewis, ‘Beyond the pink bus: why we still need to talk about “women’s issues”‘ on the New Statesman
• Margaret Sullivan, ‘The Times and Transgender Issues (Part 1 of 2): On Pronouns‘ in The New York Times
• Maria Popova, ‘Joan Didion’s Favorite Recipes‘ on Brainpickings
• Amy Collier, ‘A Paint Company Describes White Paint Colors‘ in The Toast

• Katy Phillips, ‘My Feminist Engagement (And Why I Won’t Crash Diet to be a Bride)‘ on Vagenda
• Lisa Gardner, ‘on Researching for Crash & Burn‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘What The Happiest Woman In The World Looks Like‘ in The Toast
• Emily Gould, ‘What Would Laurie Colwin Do?: On Eating and Contentment‘ in The Toast
• Rob Dunn, ‘The Hearts of Mary Shelley‘ in the Huffington Post
• Helen Harris, ‘Where are all the grandparents in modern fiction?‘ in The Guardian
• Kait Heacock, ‘I Spent A Year Following #ReadWomen2014, And I Learned 5 Big Lessons From Reading Female Voices‘ on Bustle
• Emily Bullock, ‘Double English‘ on Bookanista
• Deborah McKinlay, ‘In Praise of Love Letters‘ on One Book Lane
• Alexander McCall Smith, ‘Very Barbara Pym‘ in The Guardian
• Bethany Black, ‘As a Trans Woman, You Find That Your Stories Are Rarely Told‘ in the Huffington Post
• Anthony Lawton, ‘Rosemary Sutcliff’s account of her First Love‘ on Slightly Foxed
• Tanya Landman, ‘YA – A Double Edged Sword?‘ on The History Girls
• Robin Black, ‘One of the Most Difficult Things About this Career‘ on Gulf Coast
• Diana Walter, ‘How To Tell If You Are In A Logic Puzzle‘ in The Butter
• Terese Svoboda, ‘The Too Small House: Lola Ridge and I‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Hannah Beckerman, ‘A Year in the Life of a Debut Novelist‘ on the Huffington Post
• Aminatta Forna, ‘Don’t judge a book by its author‘ in The Guardian
• Gail Rebuck, ‘Reflecting on Women in Publishing‘ in The Bookseller
• Andrew Dickson, ‘Sarah Kane: a Blast from the past‘ in The Guardian
• Francine Prose, ‘on the Modern Classic Novel A House and its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett‘ on NYBooks (PDF)
• Alissa Nutting ‘on Sara Woods’ Sara or the Existence of Fire‘ on Electric Literature
• Myriam Francois-Cerrah, ‘Feminism has been hijacked by white middle-class women‘ in the New Statesman
• Jennifer Weiner responds to Jonathan Franzen’s latest comments on her blog
• Brooke Jarvis, ‘Homeward‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Cat Winters, ‘US Suffragettes in YA Fiction‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Mashaal Mir, ‘Chapel Hill shooting: Would the media have covered the tragedy if Twitter didn’t exist, and what would have happened if the murderer was Muslim?‘ in The Independent
• Marion McGilvary, ‘The importance of my work ‘family’‘ in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Think you don’t have a racist bone in your body?‘ in The Guardian
• Lorrie Moore, ‘Our Date with Miranda‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Diane Watts #mylgbtbooks 8-14 February on Storify
• Kathryn Hughes, ‘Angela Brazil: dorm feasts and red-hot pashes‘ in The Guardian
• Colin Stokes, ‘Pride and Prejudice in the Club‘ in The New Yorker
• Louise O’Neill, ‘Single White Female‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Jennifer Weiner, ‘Great! Another Thing to Hate About Ourselves‘ in the New York Times
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘A Stone for My Great-Grandmother‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Van Den Berg on the complex writing process behind Find Me on Read Her Like an Open Book

The interviews:

• Fay Weldon in The Guardian
• Susan Daniel in The Times of India
• Kelly Link on The Millions
• Liu Yu in The New York Review of Books
• Sarah Gerard on Electric Literature
• Fay Weldon web chat on The Guardian
• Ann Pancake on Bloom
• Virginia Burges on Bookbag
• Roxane Gay on Poets & Writers
• Eva Holland on Longreads
• Cate Marvin on American Microreviews and Interviews
• Meghan Daum on Forth
• Sara Baume in The Irish Times
• Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters, creators of Lumberjanes on Comic Alliance
• Katherine Heiny in The Observer
• Anne Tyler in The Observer

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• An extract from The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yoojoo (tr. Janet Hong) on PEN American Centre
• ‘The Tree Planted By Water‘ by Megan Byrne on Necessary Fiction
• ‘Labyrinth‘ by Amelia Gray in The New Yorker which she discusses here
• An excerpt from Sister Golden Hair by Darcey Steinke on Hypertext
• An excerpt from Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley by Ann Pancake on Bloom
• ‘Forest fire, supper time‘ by K.T. Billey on Blunderbuss
• ‘The Transparency Project‘ by Alissa Nutting on Guernica
• ‘There Is an Angel Inside Me I’m Constantly Shocking‘ by Sabrina Tom in the New Orleans Review
• ‘Making Monuments‘ by Christine Murray on Poethead
• ‘The Bottomless Pit‘ by Sharma Shields on Electric Literature
• An extract from The Longest Fight by Emily Bullock on Bookanista
• An extract from Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor on Penguin Random House Canada
• ‘The Time Being‘ by Antonia Honeywell (a prequel story to The Ship) on Whole Story Audiobooks
• ‘Penelope‘ by Sarah Thomasin on Three Drops Poetry
• ‘formal place setting‘ by Sophie Collins and Livia Franchini in 3:AM Magazine
• ‘Happy Valentines‘ by Amie Taylor on The 1033 Project
• ‘Driveways‘ by Kathryn Ailes in Quotidian
• ‘The House Made of Sugar‘ by Silvina Ocampo (tr. Daniel Balderston) on Longreads

The lists:

• The 2015 Amelia Bloomer Project List (Best Feminist Books for Children and Young Adults) on Amelia Bloomer
• Five Books Which Romanced Me on Louise Marley’s blog
• 6 Awesome YA Books Coming in February on the Huffington Post
• The top 10 books about addiction in The Guardian
• 10 Reasons to Love Edna O’Brien on For Books’ Sake
• 2015 Fiction Preview, Part 2: 15 Books to Add to Your Spring List on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Maggie Nelson’s Six Non-Fiction Writers in Vela
• 19 Unforgettable Children’s Books That Celebrate Diversity on Buzzfeed
• 10 Young American Poets Changing the Face of Poetry on The Culture Trip
• 19 Stories About Love in The Riveter
• Six Books by Black Women We’re Looking Forward to in 2015 on For Harriet

My favourite pieces this week:

• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Red & Lipstick‘ on Real Pants
• Naomi Alderman, ‘A Fat Person Making a Fitness App Is Like a Nun Giving Sex Advice, Right?‘ on Matter
• Emma Green, ‘Helen Keller Puts the Smackdown on Mansplaining‘ on The Atlantic
• Emma Jane Unsworth, ‘Holidays for one: why I love to hit the road alone‘ in The Guardian