In the Media, April 2017, Part Two

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

Photograph by Pari Dukovic

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

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

As one series begins, another ended this week:

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Photograph by Adrienne Mathiowetz

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

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

In the Media, April 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.

Photograph by Murdo MacLeod

 

Women have been dominating the prize wins for the past fortnight. Hollie McNish won the Ted Hughes Prize and Kiran Millwood Hargrave won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize with The Girl of Ink and Stars.

While The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced. Rebecca May Johnson writes ‘Notes on . . . the Baileys Women’s Prize‘ (and reading women more generally) in the Financial Times. There are interviews with several of the longlisted writers on the prize’s site: Madeleine Thien, Naomi Alderman, Linda Grant, Yewande Omotoso, Heather O’Neill, Fiona Melrose, Eimear McBride, Emma Flint.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Claire Armistead, ‘Is Hilary Mantel’s view of historical fiction out of date?‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Bernhard, ‘Writing Behind Walls‘ on Catapult
• Catherine La Sota, ‘Reading Across America: A Scene Grows in Queens‘ on Literary Hub
• Alicia Maria Meier, ‘Marta Rojals’s “The Faithful,” and the American JASP‘ on Words Without Borders
• Megan Hunter, ‘Fiction to see the world through‘ in The TLS
• Vincent Scarpa, ‘The Uncanny Magic of Joy Williams, in a Single Paragraph‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura Waddell, ‘Is it time for a Handmaid’s Tale sequel, to reckon with the Trump era?‘ in The Guardian
• Aaron Bady, ‘Has Imbolo Mbue Written the Great American Novel?‘ on Literary Hub
• Mallory Soto, ‘Laura Kinney, Literary Fiction, and Coming-of-Age‘ on Bookriot
• Emily Temple, ‘A Brief History of Robots‘ on Literary Hub
• Terri Kapsalis, ‘Hysteria, Witches, and the Wandering Uterus: A Brief History‘ on Literary Hub
• Ayana Mathis, ‘On Impractical Urges‘ in Guernica
• Sophie Hughes, ‘Ferrante Fever and Knausgaard nuts‘ in The TLS
• Amelia Ayrelan Iuvino, ‘What Does it Mean to Set Your Novel at Harvard?‘ on Literary Hub
• Margaret Atwood, ‘on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in the Age of Trump‘ in The New York Times
• Edmund Gordon, ‘In Which Angela Carter Gives No Fucks‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘The Dark Morality of Fairy-Tale Animal Brides‘ on The Atlantic
• Fiona Taylor, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale: The Lost Pence Prequel‘ in The New Yorker
• Sarah Blackwood, ‘Parenting by the Books: ‘Little Women’‘ on The Hairpin
• Emily Temple, ‘Life Advice from Adrienne Rich‘ on Literary Hub
• Danika Ellis, ‘Let’s Talk About Star-Crossed: Why We Need Bisexual Kids Books, Backlash or Not‘ on Bookriot
• Naomi Alderman, ‘Dystopian dreams: how feminist science fiction predicted the future‘ in The Guardian
• Jami Attenberg, ‘Stop Reading My Fiction as the Story of My Life‘ in The New York Times
• Salena Godden, ‘How I Did It‘ on The Poetry School
• Scarlett Thomas, ‘Why I was wrong about children’s fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Ellen Feldman, ‘A Brief Literary History of Birth Control‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura Kaye, ‘on portraying England from a foreigner’s perspective‘ on the Literary Sofa
• Valerie Derbyshire, ‘Beauty and the Beast was originally a feminist fable disguised as marriage guidance‘ on The Conversation
• Bidisha, ‘The great contradiction‘ in The TLS
• Teri Vlassopoulos, ‘When I Think About Giving Up Writing‘ on Catapult
• Alexandra Alter, ‘New Crop of Young Adult Novels Explores Race and Police Brutality‘ in The New York Times
• Jami Attenberg, ‘Topography of a Novel: All Grown Up‘ on Blunderbuss
• Kathryn Heyman, ‘Fairytales are not just harmless, innocent fun. They need to be interrogated‘ in The Guardian
• Susan Braudy, ‘‘Sisters in Misery’: What It Was Like to Interview Joan Didion at Home in 1977‘ on Jezebel

Personal essays/memoir:

• Kim McLarin, ‘Outrunning Eshu: On Finally Seeking Treatment for Depression‘ on Literary Hub
• Marissa Bate, ‘Adventures aren’t always on the other side of the world‘ on The Pool
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘I’ve been an agony aunt since I could talk‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Turner, ‘How Do You Inherit Anxiety?‘ on Catapult
• Meg Elison, ‘El Hugé‘ on Catapult
• Melissa Febos, ‘Playing Cupid for a Gay Friend on a (Mostly) Straight Cruise‘ in The New York Times
• Ethel Rohan, ‘Bringing It Back Up‘ on The Hairpin
• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘Your Chroma‘ on RTÉ
• Melinda Salisbury, ‘Was my grandmother a witch?‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Jo Burns, ‘Writing, Risk, and Moonshine‘ on Electric Literature
• Dionne Ford, ‘Don’t Call Slaves “Immigrants”‘ on Literary Hub
• Melissa Wyse, ‘Learning to Live Alone Through the Legacy of Mary Tyler Moore‘ in The Rumpus
• Whitney Templeton, ‘The Evolution of a Trigger‘ on The Rumpus
• Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes, ‘Life and Breath: On Pregnancy and the Spirit World‘ on Catapult
• Gillian Jacobs, ‘I Can’t Have Enough Mothers‘ on Lenny
• Dina Nayeri, ‘How Love Ends: Scenes from a Refugee Hotel‘ on Electric Literature
• Maria Browning, ‘Doll in Shadow‘ on Guernica
• Xialou Guo, ‘Leaving the Village: on Traumatic Uprooting‘ on Literary Hub
• Alys Fowler, ‘There is no such thing as coming out: it’s a daily negotiation‘ in The Guardian
• Eve Peyser, ‘Trump, Trolls, and Rediscovering My Jewish Identity‘ on Vice
• Porochista Khakpour, ‘Why this Persian New Year is different‘ on CNN
• Ashley Ford, ‘Seeing My Body with Fresh Eyes‘ on Cup of Jo
• Laurie Frankel, ‘We adopted by choice not necessity‘ in The Guardian
• Ella Wilson, ‘Take Care: Mothers, Daughters, and Inheriting Self-Hatred‘ on Catapult
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘I am 32, successful and I am in therapy. This is why‘ on The Pool

Feminism:

• Helen Charman, ‘Literary Representations of Maternity‘ on Women Are Boring
• Heather Kirn Lanier, ‘Superbabies Don’t Cry‘ on Vela
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Infantilizing Ways We Talk About Women’s Ambition‘ in The New Yorker
• Leslie Jamison, ‘In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale‘ in The New York Times
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Of Course Donald Trump Doesn’t Think Bill O’Reilly Did Anything Wrong‘ in The Cut
• Salimah Perkins, ‘Choosing Sides‘ on Queen Mob’s Tea House
• Minda Honey, ‘Women of Color in Wide Open Spaces‘ on Longreads
• Jess Zimmerman, ‘Why Is Male Anger So Threatening?‘ in Dame
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Mike Pence doesn’t eat alone with women. That speaks volumes‘ in The Guardian
• Phoebe Maltz Bovy, ‘It’s time to drop the vagina as a protest symbol‘ in The Washington Post
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘How America Fails Black Girls‘ in The New York Times
• Sandra Newman, ‘Why men rape‘ on Aeon
• Mia Violet, ‘Taking Selfies As A Form Of Self Care‘ on Femsplain
• Brittney McNamara, ‘White Women Are Less Likely to Protect Black Women From Sexual Assault, Study Finds‘ in Teen Vogue
• Roe McDermott, ‘There is no perfect victim. And there is no perfect way to respond to sexual assault‘ on The Pool
• Morgan M Page, ‘Trans Women Shouldn’t Have To Constantly Defend Their Own Womanhood‘ on Buzzfeed
• Cathy Young, ‘The Other Women’s Movement‘ on Foreign Policy
• David Smith, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on transgender row: “I have nothing to apologise for”‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Jeanette Winterson, ‘We need to be more imaginative about modern marriage‘ in The Guardian
• Taffy Brodesser-Akner, ‘The High Price of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Life‘ in the New York Times
• Monica Mark, ‘Poor, Gifted and Black‘ on Buzzfeed
• Diana Darke, ‘A sarin attack and a swing in US policy‘ in The TLS
• Carla Bruce-Eddings, ‘Am I Going to Have Another Baby?‘ in The Cut
• Emily Holleman, ‘Is Hillary Clinton a Modern-Day Cleopatra?‘ on Literary Hub
• Hannah Goldfeld, ‘The Cool Brooklyn Dentist Who Wants Your Teeth to Look As Nice As Her Instagram Feed‘ in The Cut
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Labour is weak and immoral – as shown by Livingstone’s refusal to apologise‘ in The Guardian
• Alana Semuels, ‘Why It’s So Hard to Get Ahead in the South‘ in The Atlantic
• Zara Rahman, ‘Where Are You Really From‘ on Real Life
• Jeanne de Montbaston, ‘My Daughter’s Birth‘ on Reading Medieval Books
• Linda Besner, ‘Sleep Country‘ on Real Life
• Hilary Mantel, ‘The Tories will never confess to their social wrecking age‘ in The New Statesman
• Alana Massey, ‘Broken Links‘ on Aeon
• Sim Bajwa, ‘Multiculturalism hasn’t failed – but the rhetoric surrounding immigration has become poisonous‘ on The Pool
• Elena Passarello, ‘The Sense of an Endling‘ on Longreads
• Lisa Miller, ‘John Hinckley Left the Mental Hospital Seven Months Ago‘ in New York Magazine

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

• Jonatha Kottler, ‘Shopping at size 24: ‘The sales assistant shakes her head at me’‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin McDonnell, ‘On Homeland‘s Carrie Mathison, Mental Illness, & the “Ugly Cry”‘ on Weird Sister
• Sophie Atkinson, ‘Feminism and the Pursuit of Relentless Happiness‘ on Electric Literature
• Christine Vines, ‘The Damage of ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’‘ on Electric Literature
• Laura McKeon, ‘Dressing Like Ladies‘ on Hazlitt
• Rachel Klein, ‘Smurfette’s Roots‘ on Hazlitt
• Lauren Schwartzberg, ‘Why Millennial Pink Refuses to Go Away‘ in The Cut
• Amy Wallace, ‘The Hollywood Exec and the Hand Transplant That Changed His Life‘ in Los Angeles Magazine
• Catherine Love, ‘Offside: the shocking moment female footballers were banned for 50 years‘ in The Guardian

The interviews/profiles:

• Durga Chew-Bose on Hazlitt
• Edna O’Brien on Kenyan Review
• Eleni Sikelianos in Numeró Cinq
• Sarah Waters in The Guardian
• Ursula K. Le Guin on Electric Literature
• Claire Fuller on Reading Women
• Julie Buntin on Electric Literature
• Ariel Levy on Electric Literature and The Fifth Sense
• Angie Thomas in The Guardian and The Cut
• Deb Olin Unferth on Electric Literature
• Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo in The Bookseller
• Valeria Luiselli in Brooklyn
• Aura Xilonen on Electric Literature
• Ana Marie Cox on Literary Hub
• Wioletta Greg and Eliza Marciniak on The Man Booker Prize
• Fay Weldon in The Guardian
• Brit Bennett on The Millions
• Marina Benjamin on Slate
• Maggie Nelson in The Cut
• Katie Kitamura in The LA Times
• Megan McDowell on Literary Hub
• Emma Richler on Maisonneuve
• Eve Ainsworth on Bookriot
• Anna Journey on Electric Literature
• Eileen Myles in The Irish Times
• Eula Bliss in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Khadijah Queen on The Rumpus
• Emily Robbins on Hazlitt
• Helen McClory on Burning House Press
• Lidia Yuknavitch on Pen America
• Patty Yumi Cottrell on Literary Hub
• Nell Stevens in Vogue

The regular columnists:

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

In the Media, March 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, May 2016, Part Two

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

It seems there’s been a return to traditional topics this fortnight. Having children (or not) and body image are back at the top of the agenda. On the former, Daisy Buchanan wrote, ‘I’m economically infertile, and I’ve made peace with that‘ on The Pool; Stephanie Merritt, ‘Sheryl Sandberg admits she did not get how hard it is to be a single mother‘ on The Pool; Ashley Patronyak, ‘A Slight Risk‘ in Guernica; Jordan Rosenfeld, ‘On Discovering Real Mothers on the Page‘ on Literary Hub; Diana Abu-Jaber, ‘Motherhood vs. Art: There Is No Wrong Choice‘ on Literary Hub; Rivka Galchin, ‘Why Does Literature Hate Babies‘ on Literary Hub; Willa Paskin, ‘Speak, Motherhood‘ on Slate; Jennifer Gilmore,’I’m Glad My Mother Worked‘ on The Cut, and Louise O’Neill, ‘I think I would be a good mother; I just don’t want to be one‘ in The Irish Examiner.

Discussions about body image seems to be around the publication of two new books: Shrill by Lindy West and Dietland by Sarai Walker. West wrote, ‘The ‘perfect body’ is a lie. I believed it for a long time and let it shrink my life‘ in The Guardian. Walker was interviewed in The Bookseller and The Pool. And Mallory Ortberg wrote, ‘“We would have paid her the same if she weighed 500 pounds”: Publishing, Weight, and Writers Who Are “Hard To Look At”‘ in The Toast

And then there was this: the men-only bookclub who only read books about men. LV Anderson at Slate decided to tell us all off for being outraged about it, ‘Feminists Shouldn’t Roll Our Eyes at Men-Only Books Clubs. We Should Applaud Them‘.

This fortnight saw the deaths of Sally Brampton and Geek Love author, Katherine Dunn. Kathryn Flett wrote, ‘Sally Brampton – the woman who made ‘Elle girls’ the new normal‘ in The Guardian and Daisy Buchanan wrote, ‘Depression is not a battle that can be won or lost‘ on The Pool.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Bethanne Patrick, ‘I Am Jessa Crispin’s Problem with Publishing‘ on Literary Hub
• Kate Morton, ‘I wrote The House at Riverton during my baby’s nap times‘ in The Telegraph
• Micah Perks, ‘How My Best Friend Willa Cather Helped Me Beat Stage Fright‘ on Literary Hub
• Alison Flood, ‘Kate Mosse speaks up for European literature in face of Brexit‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘The Diminution of Women Writers: An American Tradition‘ on Literary Hub
• Flora Willis, ‘Let Me Be Frank: I Love Dick, So Sad Today, The Argonauts and ‘confessional’ literature‘ on Serpent’s Tail
• Brooke Hauser, ‘Take It or Leave It: Guidebooks for Single Girls‘ on The Millions
• Louisa Treger, ‘From Violinist to Writer‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Andrew Dickson, ‘‘The strange thing is we howled with laughter’: Sarah Kane’s enigmatic last play‘ in The Guardian
• Jami Attenberg, ‘Appreciating the View‘ on Lenny
• Sian Cain, ‘Lionel Shriver: Donald Trump’s too far-fetched for fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Dana Schwartz, ‘Why Hasn’t ‘The Late Show’ Invited Any Female Novelists?‘ on Observer
• Eileen Pollack, ‘Why Fiction Needs More Women Scientists‘ on Literary Hub
• Ali Smith, ‘History of violence: on Alan Garner‘ in the New Statesman
• Alexandra Alter, ‘Masters of Prose Warm Up to Children’s Picture Books‘ in The New York Times
• Charlotte Geater, ‘When Romance Comics Hated Women‘ on Women Write About Comics
• Marni Graff, ‘Using Crime Fiction to Present Fully Formed Muslim Characters‘ on Literary Hub
• Edna O’Brien, ‘Is literature a dying animal?‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Enright, ‘On Writing‘ on the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
• Martin Chilton, ‘Valley of the Dolls: from reject to 30-million best-seller‘ in The Telegraph
• Hannah Gersen, ‘No More Dead Mothers: Reading, Writing and Grieving‘ on Literary Hub
• Elina Penner, ‘‘Disney For Adults’: How Trashy Romance Novels Conquered the World‘ on Broadly
• Jennifer R. Bernstein, ‘Why Literature Needs Psychology‘ on Literary Hub
• Katherine Cowdry, ‘Sharlene Wen-Ning Teo wins inaugural Deborah Rogers Writers’ Award‘ in The Bookseller
• Linda Grey Sexton, ‘Diving Deep to Explore the Wreck: Linda Gray Sexton on the Path to Inspiration‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Emma Donoghue, ‘“I’ve ended up having a family as well as being a lesbian. I thought it would be one or the other”’ in The Guardian
• Dorothy Koomson, ‘It breaks my heart to see library closures‘ in The Telegraph
• Jia Tolentino, ‘Sheesh, There’s a Reason Women Are ‘Totally Crushing It’ At the Confessional Essay‘ on Jezebel
• Joan Didion, ‘California Notes‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Katherine Cowdry, ‘McInerney, McCrea, Rochester shortlisted for Desmond Elliott Prize‘ in The Bookseller
• Lorraine Berry, ‘‘They’: the singular pronoun that could solve sexism in English‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Women Writers You Should Know: Alice Dunbar-Nelson‘ in The Toast
• Lionel Shriver’s guide to dystopia in The Telegraph
• Maaza Mengiste, ‘What Is the Writer’s Place in a Violent World?‘ on Literary Hub
• Lydia Millet, ‘Love Is Boring and Hard to Write About, And Yet…‘ on Literary Hub
• Hope Jahren, ‘Lab Girl‘ on Powell’s Books
• Casey N. Cep, ‘What Two Forgotten Pieces Tell Us About Harper Lee‘ in The New Yorker
• Michele Filgate, ‘Writers, The Loneliest Artists of All‘ on Literary Hub
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘The Point of Tangency‘ on The Smart Set
• Holly Smale, ‘Why children and teens need funny books‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Hogg, ‘“Cool Girls” don’t like Hillary: What “Gone Girl” and “30 Rock” taught me about politics, feminism and smashing the dude-bro patriarchy‘ on Slate
• Pamela Erens, ‘Labored Prose‘ on Slate
• Lucy Delap, ‘Bookselling and the Feminist Past‘ on OUP
• Nicole Lee, ‘Roxane Gay on Lemonade: ‘by the power of Beyoncé, I’ll overcome my fear’‘ in The Guardian
• Yvette Edwards, ‘The Anti-Canon: Douglas Hall’s In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750-86‘ on Influx Press

Personal essays/memoir:

• Melissa Broder, ‘Taking off the mask of OK-ness, and tweeting about my anxiety‘ on The Pool
• Ana Castillo, ‘When Two Feminists of Color Fall in Love‘ on Literary Hub
• Alana Massey, ‘What Happened When I Finally Made Money‘ in Elle
• Rachel Monroe, ‘The Cat Psychic‘ on Hazlitt
• M.K. Hall, ‘Go Boldly, Dear Dreamer‘ on The Rumpus
• Rebecca Schiff, ‘Why I Quit Online Dating‘ on The Cut
• Elizabeth Day, ‘What a year of living out of a suitcase taught me‘ on The Pool
• Natashia Deón, ‘My Son’s Lifelong Silence Has Taught Me To Listen‘ on Buzzfeed
• Rivka Galchen, ‘My Friends’ Moms‘ in The New Yorker
• Rebecca Worby, ‘The Desert Half‘ on Catapult
• Bernadette Murphy, ‘Evolve or Die‘ on The Rumpus
• Sara Pascoe, ‘I’ve started getting “hangover shame” – only for my entire adolescence‘ in the New Statesman
• Nina Stibbe, ‘A love letter to Leicester‘ in The Telegraph
• Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, ‘Optimus Prime and Me‘ in The Atlantic
• Kat Chow, ‘In My Mom’s Shoes‘ on Lenny
• Alyson Foster, ‘The View from the Fourth Floor‘ on Guernica
• Anna March, ‘You’re Just a Sinner I Am Told: Prince & the Sexual Revolution‘ on The Rumpus
• Sara Elizabeth Grossman, ‘Pastures‘ on Blunderbuss

Feminism:

• Dayna Evans, ‘Why Does the Media Keep Giving Abusive Men Platforms for Redemption?‘ in The Cut
• Laura June, ‘How Do I Avoid Giving My Daughter Body Issues?‘ in The Cut
• Jendella Benson, ‘Why are black girls killing each other – or trying to?‘ on Media Diversified
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The key to being a successful woman? Knowing what not to do‘ in The Guardian
• Anna Sillman, ‘Kelly Ripa, Sharon Osbourne, and the Power of the Personal Day‘ in The Cut
• Jamilah Lemieux, ‘bell hooks and the Sour ‘Lemonade’ Review‘ on Ebony
• Florina Rodov, ‘The Homemade Abortion: a Caged Bird, a Quinceaneara, and the American Dream‘ on Electric Literature
• Varaidzo, ‘Conversations About Consent: Why ‘No Means No’ Is Not Enough‘ on Gal-Dem
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘Sex Talk for Muslim Women‘ in The New York Times
• Dolly Alderton, ‘What women actually want‘ on The Pool
• Laura Maw, ‘Rhythms of Fear‘ on Hazlitt

Society and Politics:

• Erika Adams, ‘Remote Year Promised to Combine Work and Travel. Was It Too Good to Be True?‘ on Atlas Obscura
• Melanie Thernstrom, ‘When Do You Give Up On Treating a Child With Cancer?‘ in The New York Times Magazine
• Jenn Abelson, Bella English, Jonathan Saltzman, and Todd Wallack, ‘Private Schools, Painful Secrets‘ in The Boston Globe
• Ruby Tandoh, ‘The Unhealthy Truth Behind ‘Wellness’ and ‘Clean Eating’‘ in Vice
• Anna Merlan, ‘Inside Superstar Machine, Which Ex-Members Say Is a Cult Preying on New York’s Creative Women‘ on Jezebel
• Andrea Maurer, ‘Dear Sun, Please Shine On Us‘ in Guernica
• Nadia Shireen, ‘Waking up in Sadiq’s London‘ on The Pool
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The revenge revival: how public displays of vengeance became an industry‘ in the New Statesman
• Patricia Engel, ‘Cuba Crónica‘ on Catapult
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘Sadiq Khan may not represent a win for all Muslims, nor should he‘ on Media Diversified
• Eva Holland, ‘Cruising Through the End of the World‘ on Pacific Standard
• Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover, ‘‘You Want a Description of Hell?’ Oxycontin’s 12-Hour Problem‘ in The LA Times
• Rebecca J. Rosen, ‘The Circles of American Financial Hell‘ in The Atlantic
• Rebecca Asher, ‘Boys face just as much social pressure as girls‘ on The Pool
• Syreeta McFadden, ‘We’re in an amazing black cultural moment. Cue predictable white backlash‘ in The Observer

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

• Olivia Laing, ‘David Wojnarowicz: still fighting prejudice 24 years after his death‘ in The Guardian
• Keah Brown, ‘Love, Disability, and Movies‘ on Catapult
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘“I’m done taking pictures”: Justin Bieber, fandom and mental health‘ in the New Statesman
• Carrie Brownstein, ‘Call Me Crazy‘ in The New Yorker
• Jamie Moore, ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade Is Made for Readers‘ on BookRiot
• Chloe Cadwalladr, ‘Why working-class actors are a disappearing breed’ in The Observer
• Hannah Ewens, ‘How ‘The Craft’ Realized the Power of Teen Girls and Made Witchcraft Cool‘ on Vice
• Alexandra Molotkow, ‘Teen Music Is Wasted on the Teens‘ on The Cut
• Ira Boudway and Kate Smith, ‘The Braves Play Taxpayers Better Than They Play Baseball‘ on Bloomberg
• Brogan Driscoll, ‘Put It Away, Madonna: We Like Our Older Women Invisible And Devoid Of Sexuality‘ on the Huffington Post

The interviews/profiles:

• Veronica Roth in The Guardian
• Louise Erdrich in The New York Times and Publishers Weekly
• Paula Whyman on Bloom
• Sara Pascoe on Standard Issue
• Lionel Shriver in The Bookseller and The Guardian
• Sophie Kinsella in The Guardian
• Ally Hilfiger in The Cut
• Yi Shun Lai on Write by Night
• Andi Zeisler in The Guardian
• Jesse Crispin in The Guardian and on Vulture
• Leslie Jamison on Literary Hub
• Hayley Webster on All the Words
• Sarah Perry on All the Words
• Shelley Harris on All the Words
• Fiona Melrose on All the Words
• Keris Stainton on All the Words
• Helen McClory on All the Words
• Melissa Broder in The Guardian
• Abbey Clancy in The Telegraph
• Janine di Giovanni in The Paris Review
• Zadie Smith on Refinery 29
• Harriet Reuter Hapgood on Buzzed
• Lydia Millet on Electric Literature
• Brenda Miller on The Rumpus
• Sarah Mlynowski and Shannon Hale on Publishers Weekly
• Fiona Sampson on Literateur
• Robin Black on Electric Literature
• Lisa McInerney on The Desmond Elliott Prize
• Esmé Weijun Wang on Bookslut
• Pamela Erens on The Millions
• Geling Yan on China in WW2
• Margo Jefferson in Vogue
• Lydia Davis in The Los Angeles Review of Books

The regular columnists:

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

My Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016 Wishlist

It’s almost time! The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist will be announced next Tuesday, 8th March. Once again, I’ll be shadowing the prize and for the second year running, I’ll be doing so with a panel. I’ll introduce you to the members of that panel on Friday.

For now though, here are the books I’d like to see appear on Tuesday’s list. They’re a combination of books I’ve loved and those I’m keen to read based on what I’ve heard about them so far. I’ve had to cull this list significantly to keep it to 20 books so, as usual, anything’s possible with the real one!

To be eligible, books have to be written in English and first published in the UK between 1st April 2015 and 31st March 2016. Publishers can enter three full length novels per imprint plus anything eligible by writers who have previously won the prize.

I’ve reviewed the first eleven titles – click on the covers to go to my reviews – and read the next three as well (reviews coming soon).

 

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: 17th 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.

Two excellent UK prizes – the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize announced their longlist and shortlist, respectively this week. The former has eleven women on a longlist of fifteen. Yes, that does say ELEVEN, that’s 75% of the shortlist (well, 73.3 if you’re being pedantic). And the latter is an ALL WOMEN shortlist of three, from a longlist of ten that had gender parity. Excellent news.

You can read interviews with two of the Desmond Elliot shortlisted writers, Cary Bray and Emma Healey, in The Bookseller

Two important pieces about sexual abuse and victim blaming were published this week: Hayley Webster ‘31 years have passed with me thinking I asked for it…but what if I didn’t‘ on her blog and Lizzie Jones, ‘Sexual Assault: Society, Stop With the Slut Shaming‘ on The Huffington Post.

 

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Meytal Radzinski, ‘Women in Translation: The grim improvement of 2014‘ on Bibliblio
• Eve Ainsworth, ‘Why I wanted to tell the bully’s story‘ in The Guardian
• S.D. Sykes, ‘Memento Mori… Remember that you have to die‘ in Shots
• Laura Miller, ‘You Belong to Me: The fanfiction boom is reshaping the power dynamic between creators and consumers.’ on Vulture
• Kathryn Schulz, ‘Outside In‘ (on Nell Zink) in The New Yorker
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Crime and Violence: Those who do not flinch‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Sophie Hannah, ‘No one should condescend to Agatha Christie – she’s a genius‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Spicer, ‘Why is the term dadbod so brilliantly perfect?‘ in The Pool (more about neologisms than the concept of dadbod itself)
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘Why I stopped wearing the hijab‘ in The Pool
• Rebecca Bowler, ‘Dorothy M Richardson deserves the recognition she is finally receiving‘ in The Guardian
• Cheryl Strayed and Pankaj Mishra, ‘Is There a Double Standard for Judging Domestic Themes in Fiction?‘ in The New York Times
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘Signs That Agatha Christie Is About To Murder You‘ in The Toast
• Laura Miller, ‘Fairy tales, fantasy and dangerous female desire: Celebrating Angela Carter, the literary link between Bros. Grimm and “50 Shades”‘ on Salon
• Joanna Cabot, ‘On Reading a Book You Don’t Like‘ on TeleRead
• Susan Price, ‘Reviving the Female Canon‘ in The Atlantic
• Susan Harlan, ‘Great House Therapy: Elizabeth & Darcy’s Neither Formal Nor Falsely Adorned Pad of Privilege‘ in The Toast
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Killer Women festival: The female crime novelists transforming how the publishing industry works‘ in The Independent
• Maria Farrer, ‘Why teenagers have to take terrible risks in YA literature – and in real life too‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Lavery, ‘Why Libraries Are Important To Me‘ on her blog
• Suzi Henderson, ‘The Great Literature Gender Gap‘ on The Inflectionist

• Hannah Depp, ‘Meghan Daum, Live in the Capital‘ on Literary Hub
• Melissa Moorer, ‘This Writer’s On Fire: Sofia Samatar‘ in The Butter
• Ali Hope, ‘Mary Hocking reading week 1st-7th June‘ on her blog
• Sara Nović, ‘Topography of a Novel: Girl at War‘ on Blunderbuss
• B.E. Andre, ‘How to Make the Truth Palatable‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• SD Sykes, ‘on writing crime during the time of a great plague‘ on Crime Files
• Sarah Bannan, ‘Can we do it? Yes, we can: on daring to use the first person plural‘ in the Irish Times
• M. Lynx Qualey, ‘Is There a Renaissance in Arabic Children’s Literature?‘ on Arabic Literature (in English)
• Sadie Stein, ‘Booksellers Week‘ on The Paris Review Blog
• Marian Palaia, ‘The Real World vs The MFA‘ on Literary Hub
• Jami Attenberg, ‘This week’s con.‘ on Tiny Letter
• Nicole Lee, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘Fear of causing offence becomes a fetish’‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Baby-Sitters Club vs. Sweet Valley High‘ in The Butter
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘World in 2050: Women in Power‘ on Literary Hub
• Frances Wilson, ‘The nourishing blood of the novelist‘ in the New Statesman
• Lauren Laverne, ‘My own personal Wonderland‘ in The Pool
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘The Forgotten Brontë Sister‘ in The Toast
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Books Are My Love Language & How to Treat Yourself‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘Fantasy and Reality – Where Do You Draw the Line?‘ on the Huffington Post
• Cerrie Burnell, ‘Every child deserves to have their life represented in books‘ in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Are you talking to me? Writing under a new identity‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Jill Lepore, ‘Women in Science Fiction‘ on The New Yorker Podcast
• Bridget Penny, ‘an ostentation of solitariness: looking for the wilderness in abney park cemetery‘ in 3AM:Magazine
• Alice Bolin, ‘Miss Marple vs. the Mansplainers: Agatha Christie’s Feminist Detective Hero‘ on Electric Literature
• Naomi Frisby, ‘Reading Ourselves‘ on Fiction Uncovered

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jesmyn Ward, ‘Cracking the Code‘ in The New Yorker
• Julie Brister, ‘Large as Life‘ on Slate
• Sali Hughes, ‘There’s no such thing as TMI‘ in The Pool
• Laura June, ‘The Little Things‘ in The Awl
• Meridith De Avila Khan, ‘A Girl and Her Books: On the Loss of Sweet Briar College‘ on The Millions
• Sophie Heawood, ‘I’ve fallen out of love with music‘ in The Guardian
• Leah Reich, ‘The Birth of Uncool‘ on Medium
• Deborah Landau. ‘When I Got Pregnant At 40, Time Slowed Down‘ on Buzzfeed
• Myfanwy Collins, ‘Bruise: On Living with the Fear of Dying‘ in The Butter
• Monica Heisey, ‘Walt‘ on Maisonneuve
• Sadie Stein, ‘Like Rain on Your Wedding Day‘ on The Paris Review Blog
• Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Bored to Broken‘ in The Butter
• Shirley Muir, ‘Out of the Blackness‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Ailidh Lennon, ‘“I wanted a house with a garden and chickens”‘ in The Pool
• Cyn Vargas, ‘I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Sofia Soter Henriques, ‘Nossa Família‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Samantha Hunt, ‘There Is Only One Direction‘ in The Cut
• Bryony Gordon, ‘‘I’m coming out of the mental health closet for my daughter’‘ in The Telegraph
• Leslie Nipkow, ‘How I became fat: “It’s tough to be a bad-ass girl in a dainty world”‘ on Salon
• Sarah Royal, ‘The Best Time I Was The Only Passenger Aboard A Cargo Freighter Container Ship Across the Pacific Ocean‘ on The Hairpin
• Jessica Valenti, ‘It’s great to have a vacation. And even better when you leave kids at home‘ in The Guardian

Feminism:

• Dawna I. Ballard and Sunshine Webster, ‘Why Women ‘Having It All’ Is an Empty Concept‘ on Medium
• Erika Hall, ‘Across the River and Into the Woods‘ on Medium
• Lauren Dozier, ‘The Inconsistent Acceptance of Black Beauty‘ on The Huffington Post
• Emily Mitchell, ‘A Boy My Sister Dated in High School‘ in Guernica
• Tracy Moore, ‘Single Mom By Choice: A Great Option for ‘Strong-Ass Bitches’‘ in Jezebel
• Anna Merlan, ‘‘Suck Dick, Fight or Quit Doing Gay Shit’: The Texas Prison Rape Problem‘ on Jezebel
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘What Makes a Good or Bad Female Role Model?‘ in Stylist
• Danielle Brooks, ‘How I Learned to Love My Body‘ in Glamour
• Minda Honey, ‘Empty Beds, Empty Wombs: Life Beyond the Blueprint‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Olga Kazan, ‘Into the Body of Another‘ in The Atlantic
• Ann Friedman, ‘What Getting Your Nails Done Really Means‘ in The Cut
• Sarah Tomlinson, ‘My conflicted relationship with female beauty‘ on Salon
• Christina Tesoro, ‘I’m a Bitch and Proud of It‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Louise Foxcroft, ‘The diet industry has exploited our health fears for centuries – here’s how‘ in The Guardian
• Elissa Strauss, ‘The Rise of “Mama”‘ on Longreads
• Louise Raw, ‘Why Are We So Afraid of the Idea of Women in Power‘ on Morning Star

Society and Politics:

• Zoe Williams, ‘What does the new government mean for women?‘ in The Pool
• Lyndsey Gilpin, ‘Women Making Whiskey: An 800-Year History‘ in The Atlantic
• Susan Berfield, ‘Chinese Maternity Tourists and the Business of Being Born American‘ on Bloomberg
• Aude Konan, ‘Why Black people in France are still invisible‘ on Media Diversified
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘Coming of Age in the Time of the Hoodie‘ on AGNI
• Anna Holmes, ‘The Underground Art of the Insult‘ in The New York Times
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Is it just me, or did you receive loads more online dating attention on post-election Sunday?‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Jones, ‘“Farkhunda is Our Sister”‘ in Guernica
• Jean Friedman Rudovsky, ‘The Ecotourism Industry Is Saving Tanzania’s Animals and Threatening Its Indigenous People‘ in Vice
• Emma Green, ‘American Religion: Complicated, Not Dead‘ in The Atlantic
• Helen Macdonald, ‘Spies in the Sky: On How Birds Reflect Our National Anxieties‘ in The Guardian
• Roisin Kiberd, ‘Will love win in Ireland?‘ in The Pool
• Alexis Gumbs, ‘an element of radical waywardness‘ in The Offing
• Sarah Maslin, ‘Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers‘ in The New York Times
• Abby Tomlinson, ‘I’ll always be a Milifan. Ed was the best prime minister we never had‘ in The Guardian
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Teenage girls are far smarter than we give them credit for‘ in The Pool

Film, Television, Music and Fashion:

• Anne Helen Petersen, ‘In Praise Of Betty Draper, Difficult Woman‘ on Buzzfeed
• Caroline Framke, ‘The Ascendancy of the ‘Awkward Older Sister’‘ in The Atlantic
• Jiayang Fan, ‘Chinese Whisperers‘ in The Awl
• Samira Sawlani, ‘What fresh hell is this? ‘The Princess of North Sudan; more scary tale than fairy tale’‘ on Media Diversified
• Jenn Lyons, ‘Women of the Wasteland – Mad Max: Fury Road‘ on her blog
• Alice Coote, ‘My life as a man‘ in The Guardian
• Eliana Dockterman, ‘How TV Sex Got Real‘ in Time
• Marissa Bate, ‘So, Hollywood thinks women aren’t superheroes?‘ in The Pool
• Jessica Winter, ‘David Letterman Raised Me‘ on Slate
• Sady Doyle, ‘Age of Robots: How Marvel Is Killing the Popcorn Movie‘ on Medium
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Why I owe it all to 1980s movies‘ in The Guardian

The interviews:

• Anne Enright in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Victoria Dahl in Jezebel
• Helen Macdonald on Electric Literature
• Sara Nović on Electric Literature
• Suzanne Scanlon in BOMB Magazine
• Aine Greaney on The Fem
• Margaret Jull Costa on Foyles’ Blog
• Jessica Hopper in The Hairpin and on Salon
• Lisa Kleypas on Jezebel
• Nell Zink on Literary Hub and on the Huffington Post
• Sora Kim-Russell on London Korean Links
• Kate Atkinson in The Globe and The Mail
• Amanda Palmer in Standard Issue
• Joanne Harris on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Sarah Govett on Teen Librarian
• Toni Morrison on Goodreads
• Cal Moriarty on Orenda Books
• Elisa Gabbert on Okey-Panky

 

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘A Millennial Revenge Fantasy‘ by Jamie Lauren Keiles on The Hairpin
• The first five chapters of The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North in The Pool
• ‘Ghosts & Cyborgs‘ by Lyndsey Ellis in The Offing
• ‘Film Previews on a Plane: The Helpful Summaries‘ by Margaret Atwood in The National Post
• ‘Thanksgiving in Connecticut‘ by Katherine Bell on The Fem
• An extract from A Tale of Two Besties by Sophia Rossi on HelloGiggles
• An extract from My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff on Literary Hub
• ‘The Kind of Water I Like‘ by Lillian Akampurira Aujo on Sooo Many Stories
• ‘McCarthy and Woolf‘ by Chella Courington in Cacti Fur
• ‘Juke Joint Banshee‘ by Patty Templeton on Urban Fantasist
• ‘The Wretched Pet‘ by Betty McIntyre on Urban Fantasist
• ‘The Ice-Cream Van‘ by Jessica Patient on Urban Fantasist

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘Extinction‘ by Jackie Kay in The Guardian
• ‘A Reading in New York‘ by Claire Potter in the New Statesman
• ‘[I can’t bear anymore what happens to the body]‘ by Victoria Lynne McCoy in The Offing
• ‘Words Like Applesauce‘ by Bethany Mary in The Fem
• ‘Thing is an Amen‘ by Rachael Katz in The Offing
• ‘Black Words Matter‘ Four poems by Baltimore Students on Real Pants
• ‘in this story…‘ by Lisa Marie Basile in Berfrois
• Six by Elisa Gabbert on Okey-Panky

The lists:

• 47 Books Every College Grad Should Read on Buzzfeed
• 10 Books to Read This Summer in the Wall Street Journal
• 8 reasons you absolutely have to watch Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in The Pool
• Judith Claire Mitchell’s Top 10 (unconventional) ghosts in literature in The Guardian
• Books of the Week, May 18, 2015 on Publishers Weekly
• Amelia Gray’s 10 Best Dark Books on Publishers Weekly
• 13 Best Quotes from Adichie’s Pen Festival Lecture on Brittle Paper
• 4 Small Press Books to Read in May (All-Women Edition) on BookRiot
• Kirsty Logan’s Seven New(ish) Island Books on The Island Review
• 11 Teen Books About Growing Up in Scotland on Scottish Book Trust
• Sarah Menkedick’s Four Books on Early Motherhood on Vela
• 12 Feminist Books ‘Mad Men’s Joan And Peggy Could Have Used To “Burn This Place Down” on Bustle

In the Media: 25th January & 1st 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.

Thanks to everyone who said such lovely things last week after I lost the In the Media post and to everyone who offered suggestions to stop it happening again. I think I have a solution and it seems to have worked well this week.

The morning after last week’s last minute loss, I realised that all was not entirely lost; all the articles I’d linked to that hadn’t saved were in my laptop history, so I recovered the remainder of last week’s post (apologies if you received an email with a half-done post in it, it posted when I retrieved it) and relinked all the articles, then added this weeks. The result of that is this bumper issue. Enjoy!

This week saw the death of Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds, as well as 23 other books, and a neuroscientist. Steve Dow remembers her in The Guardian; Alison Flood gave her tribute with ‘Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds helped me get over heartbreak‘ also in The Guardian, and in response to that obituary (I’m not linking to it) Rebecca Shaw wrote ‘We’ll celebrate a woman for anything, as long as it’s not her talent‘ in The Guardian while Liz Kearney responded with ‘You may be a best-selling writer, but never forget that you’re still fat and ugly‘ in The Irish Independent.

It’s been a fortnight filled with awards. Last week, Claudia Rankine became the first person ever to be nominated for two National Critics Circle Awards in the poetry and criticism categories; her editor tells The Washington post why she’s a ‘genius’ and Jonathon Sturgeon tells us why the double nomination is ‘the correct decision’ on Flavorwire;  While Jhumpa Lahiri won the DSC Prize. Here’s ‘Six things you should know about Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland’ on Scroll.in

This week, it’s been the turn of the Costa Awards. Helen Macdonald won the overall award for the fantastic H is for Hawk. Here’s an interview she gave to The Times last week; you can watch her talking about the book here; you can listen to an audio excerpt and read her piece ‘On Ringing Wild Goshawks’ on Vintage Books, and discover the six books that made her in The Guardian. You can also watch the short films made of the other finalists: Emma Healey; Kate Saunders; Ali Smith. Zoe Gilbert won the Short Story Award with Fishskin, Hareskin. With Joanne Meek, Lucy Ribchester, Jane Healey and Paula Cunningham also shortlisted. You can read all the shortlisted stories here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Other exciting news for female writers is the launch of #ReviewWomen2015, following the success of the #ReadWomen2014 campaign. Hannah Beckerman explains why she wants more books by female writers, especially commercial fiction, to be reviewed in the broadsheets in the Huffington Post. Anne Enright became the first Laureate for Irish Fiction in a unanimous decision and in China came the discovery of a new poet, ‘dubbed China’s Emily Dickinson‘, Want China Times reports on Yu Xihua.

There’s been a wave of feminist articles this fortnight, partly thanks to The Sun newspaper appearing to stop publishing pictures of topless women on p3 and then declaring it a joke by the middle of the week. Sarah Ditum wrote, ‘The “return” of Page 3: the Sun revels in the chance to make women with opinions look stupid‘ in the New Statesman; Marina Hyde responded with, ‘No more t*ts in the Sun – a campaign we can all get behind‘ in The Guardian. Elsewhere, Sophie Heawood wrote, ‘If Björk can’t stop a man stealing the limelight, what hope is there for the rest of us?‘ in The Guardian; Eleanor Catton wrote a statement on her website following a media furore in New Zealand about comments she made about the government; Louise O’Neill related, ‘My journey to feminism‘ in The Guardian; Elisabeth Camp asked ‘Should I let my daughter wear pink?‘ in Aeon; Jami Attenberg recounted her time passing as a man, ‘Track Changes‘ in The New York Times; Bayan Perazzo wrote ‘The Burden of Being Female in Saudi Arabia‘ on Muftah; Rose George declared, ‘My period may hurt: but not talking about menstruation hurts more‘ in The Guardian; Arabelle Sicadi wrote, ‘A Bridge Between Love And Lipstick: Queering the beauty industry‘ on Buzzfeed; Jeanne de Montbaston responded to an Alison Wolf article (link in the piece) with ‘What the Hell kinds of Feminists are you Reading, Alison Wolf‘ on Reading Medieval Books; Lucy Magan says, ‘Let’s Silence the Voice That Tells Us We Can’t‘ in Stylist; Marina Sofia looked at the new Barbie Princess Power on her blog; Rebecca Carroll wrote, ‘I was six when a man first touched me. I didn’t speak up until I was an adult‘ in The Guardian; Jia Tolentino wrote, ‘Rush After ‘A Rape On Campus’: A UVA Alum Goes Back to Rugby Road‘ on Jezebel; Homa Mojtabai listed ‘Reasons You Were Not Promoted That Are Totally Unrelated to Gender‘ on McSweeney’s; C M Meadows-Haworth, ‘Reading Audre Lorde Is Changing My Life‘ on A Room of Our Own; Chika Unigwe wrote, ‘Why Nigeria is failing its citizens over Boko Haram attacks‘ in Litro; Maddie Crum told us ‘Why Virginia Woolf Should Be Your Feminist Role Model‘ on Huffington Post; Brandi Bailey selected ‘The Best Feminist Picture Books‘ on Book Riot, Monique Wilson said, ‘Critics of the Vagina Monologues must acknowledge its transformative powers‘ in The Guardian, Alison Flood told us ‘Why I hate the Little Miss books‘ in The Guardian, Sarah Ditum also told us, ‘I ain’t afraid of no girls: why the all-female Ghostbusters will be good for Hollywood‘ in the New Statesman; Max Cairnduff wrote, ‘Looking back on #readwomen2014 and my favourite reads of the year‘ on his blog; Hannah Renowden shares, ‘2015 – When I got angered by a reading list so read it. Also, crochet.‘ on her blog, and Isabel Rogers read and took down Mike Buchanan’s Justice for Men and Boys (and the women who love them) Party Election Manifesto on her blog.

And a number about class following James Blunt’s open letter to Chris Bryant. Sarah Perry responded with, ‘James Blunt has misunderstood the relationship between privilege and success‘ in The Independent and Suzanne Moore with, ‘What James Blunt doesn’t understand about the politics of envy‘ in The Guardian. Other issues surrounding class were covered by Lisa McKenzie, ‘The estate we’re in: how working class people became the ‘problem’‘ in The Guardian; Lucy Mangan, ‘If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath‘ also in The Guardian; Nicola Morgan asked, ‘Why fund libraries when it’s all online?‘ on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure; Harriet Williamson said, ‘Every time I visit the job centre, the staff treat me like a subhuman‘ in the New Statesman; Grace Dent said, ‘When rents are so high that you have to share a bed with a stranger, surely the revolution can’t be far off‘ in The Independent, and Kathryn Hughes wrote, ‘Yes, Kirstie Allsopp, littering’s bad. But then so is self-righteousness‘ in The Guardian

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Zoe Williams, ‘Wolf Hall: A Lesson in the triumph of low birth over hierarchy‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Oscars 2015: All about Eve? In today’s films, it’s more like All About Adam‘ in The Guardian
• Kim Kankiewicz, ‘The Watcher and the Watched‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘Three thousand reasons to choose your reading carefully‘ in The Guardian
• Tiffany Midge, ‘Part One: Redeeming the English Language (Acquisition) Series‘ in The Butter
• Rene Steinke celebrates the profound influence of independent bookstores on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Mary Wollstonecraft, ‘On Poetry, and Our Relish for the Beauties of Nature‘ on Berfrois
• Judith Lennox, ‘Loneliness and the Long-Distant Granparent‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Clash of the Titans‘ in The Butter
• Sasha Dugdale, ‘The Necessity of Translation‘ on Commonwealth Writers
• Priscilla Ward, ‘I’m tired of suppressing myself to get along with white people‘ on Salon
• Susanna Basso (tr. Mati Colarossi), ‘On translation‘ on Parallel Texts
• Elizabeth Haynes, ‘Closer Than You Think‘ on her blog
• Diane Mehta, “And She Went On Her Way Rejoicing” (On Muriel Spark) on The Rumpus
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Anxiety & Comfort‘ on Real Pants
• Brittany Wilmes, ‘Growing Up‘ in The Butter
• Rosie Gray, ‘France’s Far-Right Party Seizes the Moment – And the Youth‘ on Buzzfeed
• Dan Piepenbring, ‘A Dissatisfaction with Life‘ (on Patricia Highsmith) in The Paris Review
• Trisha Ready, ‘How Listening to Music and Fighting with Susan Sontag Helped Me Cope with Chemo‘ on The Stranger
• Dinah Jeffries, ‘The Hidden Psychology of a Writer‘ on her blog
• Eva Wiseman, ‘Questions to Make You Fall in Love‘ in The Guardian
• Nina Martyris, ‘Auden, Rabelais, and “Charlie Hebdo” in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Zoe Heller, ‘Rape on the Campus‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Amanda Foreman, ‘Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium‘ in Smithsonian
• Sophie Heawood, ‘A little bit of hatred can take you a long way‘ in The Guardian
• Kat Brown, ‘Depression made me feel ‘appalling — I couldn’t bear my own company’ in The Times
• Catherine Taylor on Elena Ferrante on Open Book
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Eventually, I took a driving test. But Mister Much didn’t think much of my motoring skills‘ in the New Statesman
• Paula McLain, ‘I Was Always, Always Looking for More‘ in Good Housekeeping
• Virginia Woolf on E.M. Forster in Berfrois
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘I understand why people believe sexual predators before victims. I did‘ in The Guardian
• Sybil Baker, ‘The History of the Wanderer‘ in The Critical Flame
• Lauren Westerfeld, ‘Mother Maps‘ on The Butter
• Ruth Graham, ‘Chandler Bing Is the Worst Thing About Watching Friends in 2015‘ on Slate
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Trouble with “It Girls”‘ on Buzzfeed

• Shelley Harris, ‘Writing a hero from the inside‘ on Isobel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Shruti Ravindran, ‘A circus of the senses‘ in Aeon
• Sadie Stein, ‘More things in heaven and earth‘ in The Paris Review
• Tracy Borman, ‘Big bad Wolf: Why have we fallen for Thomas Cromwell?‘ on BBC Arts
• Rene Denfeld, ‘The Other Side of Loss‘ on The Manifest-Station
• Soo Na Pak, ‘Woman‘ in The Butter
• Jonathan Gibbs, ‘The Art of the Novella challenge 11: The Awakening‘ on Melville House
• E.B. Bartels, ‘Freedom, My Dear‘ in The Butter
• Evan McMurry, ‘The stunning weirdness of Ayn Rand: Why her newfound popularity makes no sense‘ on Salon
• Susanna Daniel, ‘What took you so long? The quiet hell of 10 years of novel writing‘ on Slate
• Randon Billings Noble, ‘The Heart as a Torn Muscle‘ in Brevity
• Heather Sellers, ‘Fun for Everyone Involved‘ in Brevity
• Jennifer Sinor, ‘One Hundred Days in India‘ in Brevity
• Fleda Brown, ‘Home Bodily Repair Kit‘ in Brevity
• Jenny Boully, ‘I Remain Very Sorry For What I Did to the Little Black Kitten‘ in Brevity
• Sarah Freligh, ‘Lessons of the Body‘ in Brevity
• Anna Journey, ‘For Great-Aunt Jeannette, Who Donated Her Body to Science‘ in Brevity
• Anna B. Sutton, ‘Carolina/Tennessee‘ in Brevity
• Ginny MacDonald, ‘Go, Jim Dandy‘ in Brevity
• Jen Palmares Meadows, ‘Imprint‘ in Brevity
• Lisa Nikolidakis, ‘Landlines‘ in Brevity
• Margo Barnes, ‘Falling‘ in Brevity
• Lessa Cross-Smith, ‘Other Boys & High School Hearts‘ on Real Pants
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Some Notes on Packing‘ on Real Pants
• Stassa Edwards, ‘From Aesop to doge‘ in Aeon
• Sadie Stein, ‘Common Colds‘ in The Paris Review
• Samantha Lyon, ‘Gender Inequality in the World of Children’s Books‘ on The Inflectionist
• Alex Clark, ‘TV books programmes: if nobody watches them, make better ones‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathan Diaz, ‘Hello, Cruel World: Silvina Ocampo Is Argentina’s Literary Middle Child‘ on Flavorwire
• S.L. Huang, ‘On the Subject of Unlikeable Woman Protagonists‘ on Chuck Wendig’s blog
• Gemma Todd, ‘The Life of a Mobile Librarian‘ on the Picador Blog
• Wiam El-Tamami, ‘Cairo: September 2014‘ in Granta
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘Such a Stoic‘ in The New Yorker
• Dan Piepenbring, ‘Speaking Bluntly‘ (A letter from Colette) in The Paris Review
• Jill Dawson ‘The Life You Save May be Your Very Own‘ on Fat Is a Feminist Issue on Platform 505
• Jessica Levine, ‘On Writing About Sex: Is It Necessary‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book

• Lizzy Kremer, ‘The Stories Writers Tell‘ on her blog
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Single parents don’t need anonymous generosity but public respect‘ in The Guardian
• Corrine Duyvis, ‘Why Strong Characters Aren’t All That‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Ann Bauer, ‘“Sponsored” by my husband: Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from‘ on Salon
• Becca Rose, ‘The Third Generation‘ in The Butter
• Lydia Kiesling, ‘I Would Do This for You: The Narrative Possibilities of Leaked Emails‘ on The Millions
• Sarah Hollowell, ‘This is an Essay About a Fat Woman Being Loved and Getting Laid‘ in The Butter
• Margo Rabb, ‘In My Cat’s Death, a Human Comfort‘ in The New York Times
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘The Book That Changed My Life‘ on Novelicious
• Christopher Fowler, ‘Invisible ink no 259: Female short story writers‘ in The Independent
• Nicole Wolverton, ‘Mourning New York: Cari Luna and The Revolution of Every Day‘ on Bloom
• Rachel Aviv, ‘Your Son Is Deceased‘ in The New Yorker
• Vanessa Curtis, ‘On the 30,000 lost Jews of Riga‘ in The Guardian
• Nicolette Jones, ‘The renaissance of Beatrix Potter’s great rival‘ in The Telegraph
• Hermione Lee, ‘Alice Munroe’s Magic‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Helen Oyeyemi, ‘Born Out of Rapt Distraction: On Silvina Ocampo’s “Thus Were Their Faces”‘ on The Millions
• Roxane Gay, ‘Living with my parents in Florida, it’s difficult to feel like an adult‘ in The Guardian
• Samantha Tucker, ‘Kitchen Remodel‘ in Guernica
• Lucy Mangan, ‘There Are No Life Hacks for Love‘ in Stylist
• Claudia Smith, ‘Basic. Bitch‘ in The Butter
• Pallavi Aiyar, ‘The Foreign Correspondent‘ in Granta
• Sara Majka, ‘Cities I’ve Never Lived In‘ in Guernica
• Sara Gerard, ‘On Helen Keller Really Lived and The Wallcreeper:
  How Should a Woman Behave?‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Dana Stevens, ‘Tumbling into the Screen‘ on Slate
• Emily Gould, ‘How Being Pregnant Ruined Shopping For Me‘ on Fast Company
• Vanessa M. Gezari, ‘Why it pays to work the fringes‘ on Lynsey Addario in the Columbia Journalism Review
• Roger Tagholm, ‘Why “Gone Girl?” Why Not “Gone Woman?”‘ on Publishing Perspectives
• Charlotte Higgins, ‘Leonora Carrington: wild at heart‘ in The Guardian
• Beth Miller, ‘There’s a difference in living and living well‘ on her blog
• Joan Didion, ‘on Writing and Revising‘ on The New York Public Library Podcast
• Helen Brocklebank, ‘The Books that Built Samantha Ellis‘ on Mrs Trefusis Takes a Taxi
• Kavita Bhanot, ‘Too Asian, Not Asian Enough‘ on Media Diversified
• Angela Köckritz, ‘They Have Miao‘ on Zeit Online
• Sarah B. Boyle, ‘Reports from the Field: A Textbook Case of Diversity: How Educational Publishing Skims the Surface‘ on VIDA
• Anna Maxymiw, ‘Making Gains‘ in Masionneuve
• Megan Mayhew Bergman, ‘Bring In the Old: The Writer as Collector‘ on Ploughshare
• Maya Jaggi, ‘Literature has Liberated Africa’s Authors‘ in The Financial Times

The interviews:

• Katie Coyle on Flavorwire
• Eula Bliss on Salon
• Mary Gaitskill in BOMB Magazine
• Vanessa Lafaye on Bookaholic Confessions
• Gurinder Chadha in The Guardian
• Kate Bernheimer on The Brooklyn Rail
• Mary Kay Zuravleff on Fiction Writers Review
• Paula Hawkins on Writer’s Bone and in The New York Times
• Sarah Gerard in Interview Magazine and in Vice
• Danielle Steele in T Magazine
• Chelsea Hodson and Juliet Escoria on Emily Books
• Tiphanie Yanique on Publishers Weekly
• Emma Hooper on Open Book
• Samantha Harvey on Salon
• Janet Mock on Queer of Gender and Bitch Media
• Peyton Marshall on Annethology
• Molly Peacock on Maisonneuve
• Miranda July on Longreads and The Millions and in The Cut
• Polly Coles and Liz Jensen on Something Rhymed
• Cari Luna on Bloom
• Shelley Harris on Novelicious
• Muriel Spark on Toby Litt’s blog twice
• Joyce Carol Oates in The Independent
• Kelly Link in The New York Times
• Jenny Ashcroft on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Jennifer Niven in The Guardian
• Wendy Ortiz in Mutha Magazine
• Dylan Landis on Electric Literature
• Mindy Kaling in Stylist
• Lena Dunham in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Celeste Ng on Radio Gorgeous and Novelicious
• Lucy Ribchester, Elisabeth Gifford and Lucy Hughes-Hallett on Book Talk
• Frances Vick in Shiny New Books
• Sophia Tobin in Shiny New Books
• Adèle Geras in Shiny New Books
• Lynn Sloan on Bloom
• Lynne Segal in The Observer

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘Olikoye‘ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Matter
• ‘Idaho‘ by Isabel Rogers on her blog
• ‘Hummers‘ by Amy Gottfried in Blunderbuss
• ‘The Garden Party‘ by Katherine Mansfield on The Centre for Fiction
• ‘Body as Device‘ by Brandi Wells in The Butter
• ‘Ellen Says No‘ by Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart in The Butter
• An extract from The Serpent Papers by Jessica Cornwell
• Five stories from Carys Bray’s Sweet Home on BBC Radio 4 Extra
• ‘Blood and Water‘ by Elizabeth Muchemwa on Brittle Paper
• ‘Alt Vices‘ by Michelle Dove in Guernica
• ‘Alice‘ by Elizabeth Harrower in The New Yorker and she discusses the story here
• ‘steph n deaf‘ by Jay Merrill in 3:am magazine
• An extract from The Undertaking by Audrey Magee in the Irish Times
• ‘Performance Art‘ by Manjula Padmanabhan in Granta
• An excerpt from Principles of Navigation by Lynn Sloan on Bloom
• ‘Miss Havisham’s Disability Application Is Denied‘ by Olga Oksman on McSweeney’s
• Three Poems by Yvonne Green on And Other Poems
• ‘The Moth Mother‘ by Joanne Harris on her blog
• An extract from Campari for Breakfast by Sara Crowe on Novel Kicks
• ‘For the Love of Squirrels‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Tell Us a Story, Grandma‘ by Natalie Wise in The New Yorker
• ‘The Secret Lives of Shoes‘ by Atoke on Brittle Paper
• ‘t.w. gore‘ by Helen McClory on Litro
• ‘My Son Is a Good Man‘ by Rosanna Boscawen on Litro
• ‘And So It Begins‘ by Lara Williams on Litro
• ‘An Unsolved Mystery Of Quantum Mechanics‘ by Beatrice Garland on Visual Verse
• ‘Heel Drags‘ by Susan Gray on Visual Verse
• ‘Please Come‘ by Jennifer Falkner on Visual Verse
• ‘The Last Leg‘ by Hazel Mason on Visual Verse
• ‘Crossing the Line‘ by Avalina Kreska on Visual Verse
• ‘Stuck‘ by Samantha Newbury on Visual Verse
• ‘In a Rush‘ by Catherine Lødøen on Visual Verse
• ‘Sketch of an Abandoned Journey‘ by Linda Ashok on Visual Verse
• ‘Parallels of Time‘ by Pauline Suett Barbieri on Visual Verse
• ‘Poem for Isaac‘ by Freya Dean on Visual Verse
• ‘Towards the Penal Colony‘ by Corrine Lawrence on Visual Verse
• ‘Limbs Anonymous‘ by Judith A. Daniel on Visual Verse
• ‘The Rainforest‘ by Olive Lowena on Visual Verse
• ‘Coney Island Cap‘ by Jennifer Albon Burns on Visual Verse
• ‘What Happened in the Hold‘ by Lindsey Grundnicki on Visual Verse
• ‘Over the Limit‘ by Sue Ellis on Visual Verse
• ‘Moonlit Road‘ by Sarah Doughty on Visual Verse
• ‘Colgate‘ by Isadora Vibes on Visual Verse
• ‘Circles and Lines‘ by Sarah Salway on Visual Verse
• ‘Crossing the Line‘ by Birgita Orel on Visual Verse
• ‘Yarn‘ by Shirley Anne Cook on Visual Verse
• ‘Bad Habit‘ by Wendy Choi on Visual Verse
• ‘Arrival‘ by Georgina Joss on Visual Verse
• ‘No Overtaking‘ by Sally Hepplewhite on Visual Verse
• ‘Blinders‘ by Grace Black on Visual Verse
• ‘Found‘ by Luciana Francis on Visual Verse
• ‘Gateway‘ by Olivia Sprinkled on Visual Verse
• ‘Return‘ by Elizabeth Rogers on Visual Verse
• ‘Love‘ by Jennifer Harvey on Visual Verse
• ‘Shadows of the Showgirl‘ by Clare Archibald on Visual Verse
• Three Stories by Chiara Barzini in BOMB Magazine

Or some non-fiction:

• Feminist Radical Thinkers: A Sampler from Verso Books
• An extract from Girl in a Band: A Memoir by Kim Gordon in Vogue
• An extract from The Fish Ladder by Katharine Norbury in The Observer

The lists:

• The Seven Ages of Women in Virago Modern Classics and Persephone titles on heavenali’s blog
• Novelicious Picks…Books that Are Creating a Buzz (Part 1) on Novelicious
• 10 Great Psychological Thrillers That Are As Good As Gone Girl on Buzzfeed
• Miranda July’s Bookshelf on Strand Books
• 25 Books By Women To Help Diversify Your Bookshelves And Expand Your Horizons, Because #WeNeedDiverseBooks on Bustle
• A sonnet of Canadian women writers on Lynn Kanter’s blog
• 11 Books on Inspiring Women to Read This Year That’ll Completely Energize You to Hit Your Goals on Bustle
• 50 Essential Literary Biographies on Flavorwire
• Bleak Books to Read in January in Vanity Fair
• Diverse voices: the 50 best culturally diverse children’s books in The Guardian
• These Female Contemporaries Weren’t Afraid of Virginia Woolf on The Daily Beast
• 21 Scottish Novels to Look Forward to in 2015 on Scottish Book Trust
• 15 YA Writers on Their Favorite Book for Adults on Flavorwire
• 30 Legendary Literary Mean Girls We Love to Hate on Flavorwire
• Ten Classic ‘Chick-Lit’ Novels All Romantic Fiction Fans Should Read in Stylist
• Girl Canon: 50 Essential Books About the Female Experience
• 14 Novels About Muslim Life That Shouldn’t Be Missed on Buzzfeed
• 10 beautiful quotes from The Diary of a Young Girl in The Guardian
• Female Writers Who Won Nobel Prizes on Galley Cat
• Best Snow Day Reads: 19 Page-Turners To Enjoy While Snowed In in the Huffington Post
• Vivian French’s Top Ten Evil Characters on My Book Corner
• 50 Books Guaranteed to Make You More Interesting on Flavorwire
• 10 Must Read Female Writers From the Middle East on The Culture Trip
• 30 Women Novelists You Should Know – #21 Wendy Lee on Lynn Kanter’s blog
• 12 Books To Read If You Loved ‘The Girl On The Train’ (That Aren’t ‘Gone Girl’) in Bustle

and Diane Watt is spending February recommending LGBT reads on her Twitter account using the hashtag #mylgbtbooks

In the Media: 18th January 2015

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

It’s been another grim week for news. There’s been some insightful commentary from a number of female writers on the big stories though:

Charlie Hebdo and terrorism was written about by Caitlin Moran in The Times; while in The Guardian, Natasha Lehrer wrote ‘The Threat to France’s Jews‘; Hadley Freeman covered the same issue alongside the UK’s antisemitism survey, and Suzanne Moore declared ‘Add faithophobia to my crimes: I have no respect for religions that have little respect for me‘. On Reimagining My Reality, Steph wrote ‘Charlie Hebdo, freedom of speech, and male privilege‘ whilst on Media Diversified, Cristine Edusi wrote, ‘Ongoing terrorism in Nigeria is not a novel, the use of children as human bombs is #WeAreAllNigeria‘.

The Stuart Kerner case was commented on by Janice Turner in The Times; Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian, and Antonia Honeywell on her blog.

The lack of diversity in the Oscar nominees was written about by Roxane Gay in The Butter

And if that’s all made you thoroughly miserable/angry, here’s Sophie Heawood on Clooney’s Golden Globes speech and her daughter’s first day at nursery and Hadley Freeman on ‘How Amy Poehler and Tina Fey made the Golden Globes the first feminist awards ceremony‘ both in The Guardian.

Speaking of award winners, Hilary Mantel’s having another moment with the BBC television adaptation of Wolf Hall beginning this week. She’s in The Guardian, writing about the TV version; while John Mullan, also in The Guardian, profiles her ‘strange and brilliant fiction‘, while Kirstie McCrum tells us ‘What TV series like Wolf Hall can teach us about history‘ on Wales Online.

Joan Didion’s stint as a model for Celine has also been big news again this week. Adrienne LaFrance writes about fashion and loss in Didion’s work for The Atlantic; Molly Fischer tells us ‘Why Loving Joan Didion Is a Trap‘ on The Cut; Lynne Segal talks about ‘Invisible Women‘ in the LRB; Haley Mlotek declared ‘Free Joan Didion‘ in The Awl and Rachel Cooke says ‘That’s so smart‘ in The Observer, while Brainpickings revealed ‘Joan Didion’s Favorite Books of All Time, in a Handwritten Reading List‘.

 

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Jeanette Winterson on the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian
• Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘How Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith Use Technology: An Excerpt from Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors‘ on Flavorwire
• Tracey Thorn, ‘Do we really want to watch P J Harvey drinking tea and plugging in studio leads?‘ in The New Statesman
• Susan Lanigan, ‘My Mental Health and Experience with Depression‘ on her blog
• Marilynne Robinson ‘On Edgar Allan Poe‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Emma Healey, ‘My hero: Dorothea Tanning‘ in The Guardian
• Katy Derbyshire, on Greta Kuckhoff and translating Mein Kampf on her blog
• Cheryl Strayed, ‘Why Are We Obsessed with the Great American Novel?‘ in The New York Times
• Sadie Stein, ‘The Interview or Those Moments When You Feel Like You’ve Mastered Adulthood‘ in The Paris Review
• Maggie Doherty, ‘Cool Confessions: On Lydia Davis‘ in n+1
• Luiza Sauma, ‘Paris in the Amazon, 1941‘ in The Butter
• Andrea Woodhouse, ‘When the Waves Overturned Grief‘ in Guernica
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Anne Brontë: Giving the Forgotten Sister and Badass Feminist Author Her Due‘ on Flavorwire
• Kamila Shamsie sails to Antarctica in The Guardian
• Tiffany Stanley, ‘Jackie’s Goodbye‘ in National Journal
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘It’s a Man’s World, Now What?‘ on Role Reboot
• Joanna Chen, ‘What the Trees Reveal‘ in Guernica
• Tara Murtha, ‘I Didn’t Just Scream‘ in The Butter
• Melissa Harrison, ‘Acquainted with the night‘ on Tales of the City
• Nomi Eve and Stephanie Feldman, ‘Why We Write Jewish Historical Fiction‘ in Moment Magazine
• Robin Boylorn, ‘Now that white people have declared ‘bae’ over, black people can use it in peace‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Ribchester, ‘Edwardian Fashion and The Hourglass Factory‘ on Books and the City
• Francine Prose, ‘They’re Watching You Read‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Rachel Hamada, ‘We Need New Stories, Part one and part two‘ on This Is Africa
• Alana Massey, ‘Being Winona in a World Made for Gwyneths‘ on Buzzfeed
• Wayétu Moore, ‘The Evolution of Bernice‘ in Guernica
• Sarah Emily Duff, ‘Not for all the tea‘ on Tangerine and Cinnamon
• Thea Traff, ‘Nadia Sablin’s “Aunties”‘ in The New Yorker
• Stacey Parker Le Melle, ‘Comfort Stations‘ on The Butter
• Hannah Pittard, ‘You’re (Not) My Favorite‘ on The Millions

• Karen Yossman, ‘Margaret Keane and Big Eyes: Why are we always so ready to believe women’s success is a lie?‘ on The New Statesman
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘On Styling Tricks‘ on Real Pants
• Rachel Kushner, ‘Diary: Bad Captains‘ in the LRB
• Emma Carroll, ‘My Family and Other Emigrants‘ on Girls Heart Books
• Lesley McDowell, ‘When the Midlist Is Where You Want to Be‘ on her blog
• Rebecca Whitney, ‘Domestic Noir Is Bigger Than Ever‘ in The Independent
• Maddie Crum, ‘Rejected Cover Designs for Edith Pearlman’s Honeydew‘ on Huffington Post
• Mark Perry, ‘Who’s Afraid of Alice Childress, Part 1‘ on Playmakers Repertory Company: From Page to Stage
• Vivian French, ‘My Inspiration‘ in The Guardian
• Ellie Gordon-Moershel, ‘How to Make a Recreational Women’s Ice Hockey Team‘ on The Butter
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Razors Pain You: What Dorothy Parker teaches us about our addiction to female suffering‘ in The New Statesman
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Baseballese & Adorableness‘ on Real Pants
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘This Woman Wrote a Book with Almost No Male Characters and Women Love It‘ on Buzzfeed
• Stephen Burt, ‘Author, Feminist, Pioneer: The Unlikely Queen of Sci-Fi‘ on NPR
• Mandy Len Catron, ‘To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This‘ in The New York Times
• Patricia Nicol, ‘The bad girls’ club‘ in The Sunday Times
• ‘New Faces of Fiction, 2015‘ in The Guardian
• Fiona McBennett, ‘Meet Irish Women Behind Publishing Powerhouses‘ in the Irish Independent
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘How do you like me now?‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Gayle Forman, ‘on why we need to talk about depression‘ in The Guardian
• Jason Weiss, ‘Silvina Ocampo‘ in Granta
• Elizabeth Drew, ‘Selma vs. History‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Anna Maria Hong, ‘On I, Let‘ on Drunken Boat
• Karen Yossman, ‘From Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn: why dead women make the ideal brand ambassadors‘ in the New Statesman
• Shelley Harris, ‘Bam! Pow! Scream!‘ in The Independent
• Chelsea Cain, ‘What Inspired Me to Write Thrillers‘ on Blinkbox
• Mo Daviau, ‘The Cardigan‘ on The Butter
• Elizabeth Svoboda, ‘The Power of Story‘ in Aeon
• Elizabeth Day, ‘I Was Sold into Sexual Slavery‘ in The Observer
• Emma Warren, ‘A Year in Oxleas Wood: December‘ on Caught by the River
• Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, ‘A River Runs Through It‘ in The Believer

The interviews:

• Edith Pearlman in The New York Times
• Gill Hoffs on WordMothers
• Susan Howe on Poetry Foundation
• Lucy Wood in The Independent
• Eileen Miles in Vol.1 Brooklyn
• Sophia Toibin on Tales from the Reading Room
• Martine Bailey on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Lisa Williamson on Queer YA
• Paula Hawkins in Time, on Books and Reviews and on The Book Trail
• Judith Claire Mitchell on 4th Estate
• Roxane Gay on Salon
• Sharon Hogan (and Rob Delaney) in The Guardian
• Rebecca Bradley on Kelly Florentia’s blog
• Rene Denfeld on Sweatpants and Coffee
• Rachel Cusk in Vogue
• Shalini Boland in The Guardian
• Moira Young on Scottish Book Trust
• Alice Sebold on the Picador blog
• Keren David on We Love This Book
• Emily St. John Mandel on The Takeaway
• Tiphanie Yanique on Electric Literature
• Judith Butler in The New York Times
• Eva Dolan on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row
• Morgan McCarthy on The Right Stripes
• Pamela Paul on The Daily Beast
• Miranda July on NPR
• Emma Healey on Huffington Post

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘The Storm‘ by Kate Chopin on Biblioklept
• ‘Dude Watchin’ with the Brontës‘ on Hark, a vagrant
• ‘The Hydraulic Theory of Families‘ by Elisa Casseri (tr. Mati Colarossi) on Parallel Texts
• ‘Seeder‘ by Rahawa Haile in The Butter
• ‘Waiting for Dark‘ by Mia Funk on Litro
• ‘Cities I’ve Never Lived In‘ by Sara Majka in Guernica
• ‘My Little Feminequist Pony‘ by Anne Thériault on Ravishly
• ‘South Korean Ferry Accident‘ by EJ Koh on Thought Catalog
• ‘Day 38‘ an extract from Wild by Cheryl Strayed on Bookanista
• ‘Fairy Poems‘ by Laura Madeline Wiseman on Empty Mirror
• Two poems by Minal Hajratwala in Granta
• ‘Indigo Gets Married‘ by Jami Attenberg in Guernica
• ‘Notes from the Island‘ by Akumbu Uche on Brittle Paper
• ‘For Sale‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• Two poems by Doireann Ní Ghríofa on And Other Poems
• Extracts from Black Rainbow by Rachel Kelly (partially read by Dominic West)
• ‘Goldilocks‘ by Angela Readman on Ink Sweat and Tears
• ‘The Quantum Theory of Suffering or Why I Look at the Moon‘ by Natalie Diaz on Guernica
• ‘Hopper’s Women‘ by Emily Carroll in Guernica
• Extract from The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett on One Book Lane
• Two poems by Heather Altfeld on Electric Literature
• ‘Colored Hats‘ by Gertrude Stein in The Guardian
• ‘Anna and Sigm‘ by Sharon Kivland in 3:am

The lists:

• 7 of Margaret Atwood’ Apocalypses, Ranked from Pretty Survivable to Totally Terrifying on Bustle
• Arab Women Writers Recommend Their Favorite Arab Women Writers on Arabic Literature (in English)
• 24 Things No One Tells You About Book Publishing, Curtis Sittenfeld on Buzzfeed
• First Fiction Spring 2015: Anticipated Debuts on Publishers Weekly
• The Best Marriage Plots in Novels on Huffington Post
• From Zadie Smith to Helen Oyeyemi and Emily Brontë, bestselling female authors who nailed their biggest hit novels under the age of 30 in Stylist
• Best Books to Read in 2015 in Harper’s Bazaar
• 2015 Fiction Preview, Part 1: 30 Books to Keep You Warm This Winter on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Ankara Press Debuts 6 African Romance Novels That Are Better Than Mills & Book on Brittle Paper
• 10 Books to Read This January in Red
• 6 Hot Romances Coming in January on Huffington Post
• Your 7-Day African Literary Make-Over on Brittle Paper

And the best things I’ve read this week:

• Mariya Karimjee, ‘Damage‘ (on FGM) on The Big Roundtable
• Daniel Dalton rewrites Harry Potter from Hermione’s point of view, ‘Hermione Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy‘ (I know it was written by a man but I’m justifying it by 1. source text written by a woman; 2. feminism.)
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘How to Interview a Woman Writer‘ in The Toast