In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.
It’s Mothers’ Day in the UK today, so inevitably there’s been lots of writing about mothers – being one, having one, not having one – this week. Contributors including Jackie Kay, Jeanette Winterson and Helen Simpson wrote about ‘… my mother before I knew her‘ inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Before You Were Mine’ in The Guardian; Liz Dashwood asks, ‘What do I *really* want for Mother’s Day?‘ on The Pool; Rivka Galchen talked about ‘The Only Thing I Envy Men‘ in The New Yorker; Robyn Wilder wrote, ‘Maternity leave: the reality versus the expectations‘, Emily Eades wrote, ‘Becoming a mother without your own mother to rely on‘ and Sinéad Gleeson wrote, ‘Mothers, and the pram-in-the-hall problem‘ all on The Pool (Do follow the link to the Anne Enright clip on that last piece. Spot on and very funny); Susan Briante wrote, ‘Mother Is Marxist‘ on Guernica; Kate Townshend asked, ‘Is it possible for a mother and daughter to be *too* close?‘, Samira Shackle said, ‘Returning to my mother’s homeland helped me to make sense of my place in the world‘, Cathy Rentzenbrink said, ‘There is no such thing as a smug mother, we’re all terrified and struggling‘ and Rosalind Powell wrote, ‘I didn’t give birth, but I became a mother‘ all on The Pool; Sarah Turner wrote, ‘Mother’s Day Without Mum‘ on The Unmumsy Mum
Sadly, Louise Rennison died this week. Philip Ardagh wrote, ‘My Hero: Louise Rennison‘ in The Guardian. Shannon Maughan wrote her obituary for Publishers Weekly.
The woman with the most coverage this fortnight is Sanjida Kay with ‘Where’s the Diversity in Grip-Lit?‘ on The Asian Writer; ‘on Switching Genres‘ on The Literary Sofa, and ‘Fairytales‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
Exciting news as forthcoming novels from Jilly Cooper, Zadie Smith and Ali Smith were announced this fortnight.
And I’ve added Kaushana Cauley’s new Intersections column for Catapult to the regulars list at the bottom of the links. It’s well worth a read.
The best of the rest:
On or about books/writers/language:
- Eve Ainsworth, ‘Toxic love: YA’s bad boys need to stay between the covers‘ in The Guardian
- Hanya Yanagihara: ‘Don’t we read fiction exactly to be upset?’ in The Guardian
- Jessie Burton, ‘Success, Creativity and the Anxious Space‘ on her blog
- Claire Fuller, ‘Some things I’ve learned in my year of being published‘ on her blog
- Bree Crowder, ‘Four Young Adult Authors Share Why They Write Funny Books‘ on Bustle
- Karen Swallow Prior, ‘Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self‘ on The Atlantic
- Deborah Moggagh, ‘Man Booker Prize has an unhealthy effect on the market, says author Deborah Moggagh‘ in The Independent
- Claire Fallon, ‘Our Favourite Children’s Books Are Super Problematic‘ on the Huffington Post
- Alison Flood, ‘Tessa Hadley among nine winners of surprise $150,000 literary awards‘ in The Guardian
- Sian Cain, ‘Toni Morrison wins PEN/Saul Bellow award for contribution to American fiction‘ in The Guardian
- Jo Hall, ‘If We Can Imagine Dragons: On Writing Non-Heterosexual Relationships in Fantasy‘ on Holdfast
- Alison Stine, ‘On Poverty‘ on Kenyon Review
- Joan Schenkar, ‘What Patricia Highsmith did for love: ‘The Price of Salt’ and the secrets behind ‘Carol’‘ in the Los Angeles Times
- Louise Walters, ‘I didn’t want to resort to self-publishing, but it’s an exhilarating change‘ in The Guardian
- Gaby Wood, ‘How Karl Ove Knausgaard and Elena Ferrante won us over‘ in The Telegraph
- Moira Redmond, ‘Leap year fear: a literary history of women proposing marriage‘ in The Guardian
- Katy Derbyshire, ‘Women in Translation: Why Does It Matter?‘ on Free Word
- Eva Jurczyk, ‘No More Books by Men‘ on The Awl
- Elizabeth Strassner, ‘How To Tell If You’re In a Flannery O’Connor Story‘ in The Toast
- Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘How to Make Sure Your Writing Is Forgotten‘ on The Rumpus
- Holly Williams, ‘From The Roaring Queen to Downton Abbey: the afterlives of Virginia Woolf‘ in the New Statesman
- Anna North, ‘What Publishing a Novel Taught Me About Life‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
- Kate Jenkins, ‘Harper Lee and the Myth of a Post-Racial America‘ on Literary Hub
- Sian Cain, ‘Fear of Flying still soars above tabloid outrage‘ in The Guardian
- Brigit Katz, ‘These forgotten female crime writers had no time for femme fatales or dowdy housewives‘ on Women in the World
- Idra Novey, ‘Writing While Translating‘ on Literary Hub
- Elizabeth Minkel, ‘Teen readers aren’t in crisis, they’re just making their own rules‘ in The Guardian
- Jaya Saxena, ‘I Know I Should Like Reading More But There Are Things About The Act Of Reading That Make It Very Difficult‘ in The Toast
- Deirdre Sullivan, ‘The seed of Needlework was anger, and I wanted it to feel raw’ in The Irish Times
- Jesmyn Ward remembers Harper Lee: ‘She saw and responded to the humanity of each and every one of us’ on Entertainment Weekly
- Vipash Bansal, ‘Remembering Octavia Butler: 1947-2006‘ on Media Diversified
- Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Elizabeth Taylor‘ in The Guardian
- Brooke Magnanti, ‘Where are the normal women in fiction?‘ on One Book Lane
- Robin Stevens, ‘Boys could enjoy stories about girls, and vice versa – if only we’d let them‘ in The Guardian
- Chelsea G. Summers, ‘A History of Horny‘ on Hazlitt
- Brit Mandello, ‘Dear Joanna Russ: A Letter for an Inimitable Writer‘ on Tor.Com
- Sunny Singh, ‘Why set up a prize for writers of colour?‘ in The Bookseller
- Rory Samantha Green, ‘Born Lucky: my mum Jackie Collins and her wild child alter ego‘ in The Guardian
- Laura Barnett, ‘Finding ideas isn’t usually a problem‘ in The Guardian
- Joanna Cannon, ‘Mental illness is always a problem, so we will always need books about it‘ in The Guardian
- Jonathan Sturgeon, ‘The Paradoxical Legacy of Harper Lee‘ on Flavorwire
- Tricia Tongco, ‘Meet Faith, The Body-Positive Superhero Of Our Dreams‘ on the Huffington Post
- Melissa Harrison, ‘How cars ruined our love of the countryside‘ in The Guardian
- Shelley Harris, ‘The Secret Life of Mothers‘ on the WHSmith Blog
- Morgan Jerkins, ‘Black Women Writers and the Secret Space of Diaries‘ in The New Yorker
Personal essays/memoir:
- Esther Wang, ‘Watching And Reading About White People Having Sex Is My Escape‘ on Buzzfeed
- Megan Galbraith, ‘Sin Will Find You Out‘ on Catapult
- Georgina Kleege, ‘On Being Who I Am: My Life as a Tall Blind Woman‘ in The Toast
- Briallen Hopper, ‘Relying on Friendship in a World Made for Couples‘ in The Cut
- Sarah Resnick, ‘H‘ on n+1
- Rosalind Jana, ‘The One Piece Of Clothing That Makes Me Feel Extraordinarily Sexy‘ on Refinery 29
- Alana Massey, ‘Why I’m Buying a House Without a Family to Put in It‘ on The Cut
- Anna Holmes, ‘I Feel Destined to Be Single, and That’s Okay‘ on The Cut
- Kade Walker, ‘Veronica Dies in Jamaica‘ on The Rumpus
- Ellen Urbani, ‘There Is No Such Thing as a True Story‘ on The Rumpus
Feminism:
- Rebecca Traister, ‘The Single American Woman‘ in The Cut
- Aria Dean, ‘Closing the Loop‘ on The New Inquiry
- Eleanor Ross, ‘Why estate agent sexism could be costing you‘ on The Pool
- Gaby Hinsliff, ‘It’s the £30bn cut you’ve never heard of. And women are bearing the brunt‘ in The Guardian
- Ann Friedman, ‘So You’re a Celebrity Who Calls Yourself a Feminist. Now What?‘ in The Cut
- Linda Chavers, ‘To Black Girls Everywhere‘ on The Offing
- Caroline Paul, ‘Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared?‘ in The New York Times
Society and Politics:
- Caitlin Moran, ‘How to start – and win – an argument online‘ in The Guardian
- Hadley Freeman, ‘So the privately educated are the new underclass? Spare me the sob story‘ in The Guardian
- Chimene Suleyman, ‘Trump has succeeded in an America that is already pre-disposed to racial suspicion‘ on Media Diversified
- Sarah Churchwell, ‘Hillary Clinton’s haters and the glass ceiling of American politics‘ in the New Statesman
- Molly Crabapple, ‘What Life Is Like Inside the Besieged, War-Torn Syrian City of Aleppo‘ on Vice
- Julia Lee, ‘When People of Color Are Discouraged From Going Into the Arts‘ in The Atlantic
- Dorothy Cummings McLean, ‘Marriage Is an Accomplishment‘ on Quadrapheme
- Kate Spicer, ‘Does where you go to school affect your ability to succeed?‘ on The Pool
- Jamilah King, ‘How Black Women Like Me Reckon With America’s Political Process‘ on Mic
Film, Television, Music, Art, Fashion and Sport:
- Rachel Syme, ‘The Return to Predictability‘ on Complex
- Anna Leszkiewicz ‘The Ghostbusters trailer shows the new film is categorically not aimed at men‘ in the New Statesman
- Emma Brockes, ‘Whether it’s Ali G or Tina Fey, ironic racism just isn’t funny any more‘ in The Guardian
- Venus Williams, ‘Why I’m Going Back to Indiana Wells‘ on The Players’ Tribune
- Joan Smith, ‘Now we know – the BBC’s macho culture protected predatory men for decades‘ in The Guardian
- Allison P. Davis, ‘Why Are White People Trying to Ruin ‘Formation’?‘ on The Cut
- Anohni, ‘Why I Am Not Attending the Academy Awards‘ on Pitchfork
- Gwynne Watkins, ‘Before #OscarsSoWhite: The Forgotten Story of Queer Nation’s 1992 Academy Awards Protest‘ on Yahoo
- Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘Boston Rules‘ on Hazlitt
- Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Kesha: the musical equivalent of the drunk girl in the short dress‘ on The Pool
- Kiva Reardon, ‘Mainstream Creep: Keeping Feminist Film Criticism Subversive‘ on Hazlitt
The interviews:
- Han Kang in The White Review (translated by Deborah Smith)
- Louise O’Neill in Elle
- Helen Stephenson on The Pool
- Chinelo Okparanta on For Books’ Sake
- Tracy Chevalier in The Bookseller and The Telegraph
- Rachel B. Glaser on For Books’ Sake
- Molly Crabapple on Literary Hub
- Shelley Harris on The Writes of Woman and One Book Lane
- Kathleen Spivak on The Rumpus
- Rebecca Traister on Jezebel and Elle (with Roxane Gay)
- Mona Awad on Electric Literature
- Virginia Reeves on Literary Hub
- Jennifer Clement on Pen America
- Monica Wendel on Vida
- Sara Taylor in The Big Issue
- bell hooks (with Emma Watson) in Paper
- Ottessa Moshfegh in The Observer
- Emma Donoghue on Public Books
- Meg Rosoff on Bookanista
- Sarah Ruhl in The New York Times
- Sarah Bakewell on The Bookseller
- Marian Keyes in the Bath Chronicle
- Laura van den Berg and Emily St. John Mandel on the FSG blog
- Joyce Maynard on Literary Hub
- G. Willow Wilson on Black Nerd Problems
- Sharon Horgan on Creative Review
- Elizabeth Kadetsky on The Rumpus
- Lucy Kalanithi in Stylist
- Jacky Fleming on The Pool
- Petina Gappah on NPR
- Carol Tulloch in The Observer
- Caitlin Moran on The Debrief
- Deborah Smith on The Quietus
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