In the media is a weekly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous week and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. Also, just a note to make it clear that I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely.
The results of the VIDA count was announced on Monday. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts have counted the number of female and male reviewers in the major literary publications. There are some improvements this year, but overall the picture remains grim. For the first time this year, VIDA published a separate count for Women of Colour, it’s as depressing as you might expect. Reaction came from Hannah Ellis Peterson in The Guardian, ‘Male writers continue to dominate literary criticism, Vida study finds‘; Radhika Sanghani in The Telegraph, ‘Men aren’t better writers than women. Literary mags need to close the book on gender bias‘ and on Bustle, Caroline Goldstein declared, ‘The Results of the 2014 Women of Color VIDA Count Are Problematic‘.
VIDA also produced a handout: Things You Can Do Right Now to Advance Women’s Writing. Immediately after the results of the announcement, good things began to happen in Twitterland; Marisa Wikramamanayake created a ‘Women Who Review‘ database. If you’re a reviewer, you can add yourself to it; if you’re an editor at a literary magazine with a gender balance problem, you can have a look at all the women you could approach with review commissions. Judi Sutherland is getting a group of women reviewers together to send reviews to the TLS, contact her on Twitter if you want to get involved, and Amy Mason created Sister Act Theatre (@SisterTheatre): Support + recommendations of/for women working in UK theatre/performance. Worked with a great woman? Need work? Promoting your show? Tell us.
While all that’s been going on, Katy Derbyshire has been collating ‘Some more statistics on translated fiction‘ on Love German Books.
The other big news this week came from an American report that found the number of women choosing to be child-free has increased. The report coincided with the publication of the Meghan Daum edited essay collection Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids and the launch of the film While We’re Young. It’s triggered a number of articles: Emma Gray at the Huffington Post says, ‘A Record Percentage Of Women Don’t Have Kids. Here’s Why That Makes Sense‘; Jane Marie wrote, ‘Why I Stopped Trying to Be a Supermom and Started Being Myself Again‘ on Jezebel’; Hayley Webster wrote, ‘I had an abortion and didn’t talk about it…and I no longer want to live in shame‘ on her website; Hadley Freeman wrote, ‘Why do we still have to justify the choice to be child-free?‘ in The Guardian; Jessica Valenti asked, ‘Why do we never worry about men’s childlessness and infertility?‘ also in The Guardian
The best of the rest:
On or about books/writers/language:
- Juliet Greenwood, ‘Women and Myths in Storytelling‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
- Laura Miller, ‘Our enduring Tudor obsession: Sex, ambition, wealth and power never go out of style‘ on Salon
- Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best novels: No 81 – The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962)‘ in The Guardian
- Lauren St John, ‘My American West adventure – in pictures‘ in The Guardian
- Jen Calleja, ‘Verfreundungseffekt: Waiting For Something To Happen —Tsou Yung-shan’s The Waiting Room‘ on The Quietus (Includes an extract from the book translated by Michelle Wu
- Rachel Cooke, ‘Stevie Smith, steel soul of the suburbs‘ in The Observer
- Linda Besner, ‘Changing face: The emergence of a new genre of memoir addressing the consequences of a changing planet‘ in The National Post
- Fran Lebowitz, ‘Why Childhood Was a Good Fit‘ in The Wall Street Journal
- Kathryn Schulz, ‘What Part of “No, Totally” Don’t You Understand?‘ in The New Yorker
- Alison Flood, ‘Allison Pearson revisits bestselling heroine in middle age‘ in The Guardian
- Krutika Mallikarjuna & Krystie Lee Yandoli, ‘If Carrie Bradshaw Wrote Her Column In 2015‘ on Buzzfeed
- Jill Alexander Essbaum’s Hausfrau Playlist on The Pool
- Elizabeth Day, ‘Can writing a male character make you think like a man?‘ on The Pool
- Jean Morris, ‘Reading in Translation‘ in Shiny New Books
- Anna Thomasson, ‘Researching A Curious Friendship‘ in Shiny New Books
- Laura Kalpakian, ‘On Writing Three Strange Angels‘ in Shiny New Books
- Rebecca Mascull, ‘Song of the Sea Maid, Science and Setting‘ in Shiny New Books
- Claire Fuller, ‘The Writing of Our Endless Numbered Days‘ in Shiny New Books
- Adèle Geras, ‘A Strange Phenomenon‘ (on Dorothy Whipple) on The History Girls
- Rene Denfeld, ‘Why I Talk to Death Row Criminals‘ on BBC World Service
- Jacob Victorine, ‘How to Translate a Map: Clare Cavanagh: Poetry 2015‘ on Publishers Weekly
- 2015 Best Translated Book Award Fiction Longlist on Three Percent
- Amy Bloom, ‘Literary Tastes‘ on VQR
- Francesca Mari, ‘The Assistant Economy‘ in Dissent
- Michelle Dean, ‘Passing Through‘ (on Nella Larsen) in Lapham’s Quarterly
- Sady Doyle, ‘Before Lena Dunham, there was Anaïs Nin – now patron saint of social media‘ in The Guardian
- Anuradha Roy, ‘The making of books, and of friendships‘ on Scroll In
- 2015 Authur C. Clarke Award Shortlist
- Amanda Holpuch, ‘US postal service delivers misquote on Maya Angelou stamp‘ in The Guardian
- Shane Breslin, ‘So are we really in the middle of an Irish literary renaissance?‘ on Irish Writing Blog
- Parisa Ebrahimi, ‘Why I Fell For Frances & Bernard‘ on Vintage Books
- Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, ‘The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison‘ in The New York Times
- Ane Farsethas, ‘Lydia Davis at the End of the World‘ on Lit Hub
- Mallika Rao, ‘The Kids Are ALL-CAPS‘ on the Huffington Post
- A.M.F. Winn, ‘Not Just an Ugly Face‘ on the Huffington Post
- Niki Browes, ‘The Girl On The Train: Who’s Reading It And Why You Need To‘ in Instyle
- Siobhan Curham, ‘on Empowering Books for Women and Girls‘ on Adventures With Words
- Emily Wolfteich, ‘Saudade and the Untranslatable‘ in Asymptote
- Tessa McWatt, ‘Why read a book (let alone write one)?‘ on Bookanista
- Laura Kipnis, ‘Marry by 30‘ (on Kate Bolick’s Spinster) on Slate
- Kat Brown, ‘Children’s book written by the young Queen Victoria to be published‘ in the Telegraph
- Dinika Amaral, ‘Finding Language in the Code‘ in Guernica
- Claudia Rankine & Beth Loffreda, ‘On Whiteness and the Racial Imaginary‘ on Lit Hub
- Leslie Jamison, ‘This Female Consciousness: On Chris Kraus‘ in The New Yorker
- Jemma Wayne, ‘10 Things You Didn’t Know About After Before‘ on Legend Press
- Candy Gourlay, ‘Growing up I thought Filipinos weren’t allowed to be in books‘ in The Guardian
- Elisa Gabbert, ‘Who Gets to Review? Tranströmer, Ishiguro, and Critical Expertise‘ on Electric Literature
- Anne Lamott shares all that she knows: “Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared” on Salon
- Megan Garber, ‘How to Say ‘Yes’ (by Not Saying ‘Yes’)‘ on The Atlantic
- Jo Hogan, ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers: How Twitter and Book Bloggers Changed My Life‘ on her blog
- Afrikult, ‘Tsitsi Dangarembga‘ on For Books’ Sake
- Colm Tóibín, ‘A tale of two poets, Thom Gunn and Elizabeth Bishop‘ in The Guardian
- Marina Warner, ‘Learning My Lesson‘ on the LRB YouTube
- Jennifer Rankin, ‘Traditional books on paper open a new chapter of success‘ in The Guardian
- Lee Brackstone, ‘How I came to publish Sarah Hall‘ on Faber & Faber
- Kathleen Coyle, ‘Lost in Translation: Norwegian Novelist Regine Normann‘ on For Books’ Sake
- Judith Thurman, ‘Good, Clean Fun: A Revival of “Gigi”‘ in The New Yorker
- J.C. Gabel, ‘Anatomy of a Cover: The Complete Works of Flannery O’Connor‘ in The Paris Review
- The Encore Award Longlist
- Liza Klaussmann, ‘‘A talent for living’: how the Murphys inspired Villa America‘ on the Picador blog
- Matthew Sweet, ‘Memoirs of the Spacewomen‘ on BBC Radio 3
Personal essays/memoir:
- Mary Anne Mohanraj, ‘“Don’t you want to be normal?”‘ on Salon
- Samantha Irby, ‘i’m taking my dead dad on vacation.‘ on bitches gotta eat
- Sarah Miller, ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Woman: My March Madness‘ in The Toast
- Erin Wisti, ‘Showing My Scars: On Self-Harm‘ in The Butter
- Grace Moltini, ‘Beer and Loathing in Deutschland‘ in The Riverter
- Nichole LeFebvre, ‘Love in Lilac Velcro‘ in The Butter
- Sali Hughes, ‘Confessions of an email hoarder‘ on The Pool
- Anna Wiener, ‘Ecstatic Dance: To Fly, To Heal, To Love‘ in The Toast
- Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: I’ll Take a Side of Empathy with Those Cheerios, Please‘ in The Butter
- Huda Hassan, ‘My Mother’s Child‘ on The Hairpin
- Rushaa Louise Hamid, ‘How I Found Myself When My Skin Changed Its Identity‘ on Buzzfeed
- Sali Hughes, ‘When did it become compulsory to enjoy exercise?‘ on The Pool
- Leah Reich, ‘You’d Be So Nice‘ on Medium
- Dana Tommasino, ‘Learn To Cook (in 21 Easy Steps)‘ on The Rumpus
- Susie Boyt, ‘New York: It’s Show Time‘ in Harpers Bazaar
- Katie Rose Guest Pryal, ‘A Mother’s Suicide Attempt and the Guilty Burden of Statistics‘ in The Toast
- Liz Prato, ‘The Terrible Things I Learned About My Dad: On Abuse and the People We Love‘ in The Butter
- Claire Greaves, ‘I Cannot Erase My Existence and Therefore I am Going to Get Better‘ in the Huffington Post
- Charlotte Philby, ‘The darkest secret of my new motherhood‘ in The Guardian
- Alison Taylor, ‘My parents are my greatest love of all‘ in The Independent
- Emylia Hall, ‘Offspring‘ on Book Slam
Feminism:
- Jessica Valenti, ‘It wasn’t Jackie’s job to get the details of her rape correct. It was Rolling Stone’s‘ in The Guardian
- Srishti Dutta Chowdhury, ‘A Decorum of Purity‘ in Kindle Magazine
- Hanna Rosin, ‘Despite Damning Report, Rolling Stone Will Continue “To Do What We’ve Always Done.” Are They Serious?‘ on Slate
- Carolyn Wysinger, ‘First Boi In – Dressing Queer in the Corporate World‘ on Media Diversified
- Sophie Tanner, ‘“‘I’ve Decided To Marry Myself, To Celebrate My Life as a Happy, Single and Self-Fulfilled Woman”‘ in Stylist
- Olga Khazan, ‘Why Some Women Choose to Get Circumcised‘ in The Atlantic
- Lauren Laverne, ‘What is a “real” woman anyway?‘ on The Pool
- Laura Craik, ‘What does plus size even mean?‘ on The Pool
- Helen O’Hara, ‘Why you’re not going to a romcom this weekend‘ on The Pool
- Rebecca Mead, ‘Two Beds and the Burdens of Feminism‘ in The New Yorker
- Lucy Mangan, ‘Why Are Periods Still Shocking‘ in Stylist
- Julia Phillips, ‘Feminism at the End of the World‘ on Jezebel
- Tracy Kuhn, She Wears it Well‘ on Volvo Diaries
- Rebekah Lowin, ‘Photographer teaches daughters: “Strong is the New Pretty”‘ on Today
- Heidi Mirza, ‘Black British feminism then and now‘ on Media Diversified
- Glosswitch, ‘Sussex police’s victim-blaming anti-rape campaign: why is it victims, not rapists, that must change their behaviour?‘ in the New Statesman
- Lottie O’Conor, ‘Is Reddit’s feminist ‘hero’ merely feeding the stereotypes that hold women back?‘ in The Guardian
- Arwa Mahdawi, ‘Sorry Dove, empowerment isn’t a personal care product‘ in The Guardian
- Hayley Krischer, ‘How a New Wave of Feminist Cooking Publications Is Redefining Women’s Relationship to Food‘ on Flavorwire
- Key Ballah, ‘My body is not an invitation‘ on Patheos
- Jessie Thompson, ‘Am I a Joke Feminist?‘ on the Huffington Post
- Barbara Ellen, ‘Men know nothing at all about being sex objects‘ in The Observer
- Anna March, ‘Dead Girls Sold Here‘ on The Rumpus
- Bridget Christie, ‘We’re a nation of armchair activists – and that’s OK‘ in The Guardian
- Matilda Kahl, ‘Why I Wear the Exact Same Thing to Work Every Day‘ in Harpers Bazaar
Society and Politics:
- Emilie Friedlander, ‘How Everlane Turned Hipsters Basic‘ on The Fader
- Ann Friedman, ‘Idle Threads‘ on The Baffler
- Fanny Malinen, ‘We need a new media to tell the real news‘ on New Internationalist
- Shailja Patel, ‘The Road to Garissa‘ in The New Inquiry
- Zoe Williams, ‘The Nicola Sturgeon memo: Westminster’s nasty machinations have been exposed‘ in The Guardian
- Catherine Matusow, ‘The Complicated Truth About Children and Drowning‘ on Houstonia Magazine
- Naomi Wolf, ‘The fastest way to spread extremism is with the censor’s boot‘ in The Guardian
- Kari Mugo, ‘Misfits: Reflections on Identity, Race, and Prejudice‘ in The Toast
- Brinda Bose, ‘The Outsider Within‘ in Kindle Magazine
- Mary Elizabeth Williams, ‘My social media asylum: What I learned during my time away from the trolls (and the brunch pics)‘ on Salon
- Bethany Rutter, ‘Fat can be healthy, so don’t tell me you’re dieting for health reasons‘ in The Guardian
- Emma Sky, ‘Iraq Is Finished‘ on The Atlantic
- Roxane Gay, ‘What the Hell Do We Say Now?‘ in The Butter
- Barbara Ntumy, ‘Why I Challenged Farage on Racism‘ on the Huffington Post
- Nancy Jooyoun Kim, ‘Open Houses: On Race, Identity, and Looking for a Place to Live‘ in The Butter
- Sara Sheridan, ‘Scottish politics offers hope to British voters – and a break from the nastiness‘ in The Guardian
- Samantha Rea, ‘Let Children Be Children – Without Jamming Them Into Gender Roles‘ on the Huffington Post
- Alexis Okeowo, ‘Lagos Must Prosper‘ in Granta
- Alana Semuels, ‘Where the White People Live‘ on The Atlantic
- Bella Mackie, ‘Lady Hale is right – blame should be taken out of divorce‘ in The Guardian
- Bethany Lamont, ‘Outsider Inside‘ on The Hairpin
- Yuliya Komska, ‘My grandparents rejected the Holocaust survivor label. They weren’t alone‘ in The Guardian
- Lionel Shriver, ‘Don’t be so hysterical about sex crimes‘ in The Guardian
- Marina Hyde, ‘The great unvetted public locked out as party leaders tour sanitised Britain‘ in The Guardian
- Caitlin Moran, ‘Why posh boys make me boggle‘ in The Times
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘On The Oba Of Lagos‘ on Olisa
Music and Television:
- Abby Higgs, ‘Getting Awkward with Annie Lennox: Part 1‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
- Hannah Giorgis, ‘Rihanna And The Radical Power Of “Carefree Black Girl” Celebrity‘ on Buzzfeed
- Amanda Ann Klein, ‘The Wonder Years, Memory, and Mourning‘ on Medium
- Suzanne Moore, ‘Girls keep it together in front of their rock’n’roll idols. It’s men who turn into gibbering wrecks‘ in the New Statesman
- Daisy Buchanan, ‘I love Nirvana, but I get why Kurt Cobain’s daughter doesn’t‘ in The Guardian
The interviews:
- Robin Rinaldi in The Independent
- Hilary Mantel on Vulture
- Ursula P. Archer on ACF Digital Salon
- Amelia Gray in Berfrois
- Keren David on Delightful Book Reviews
- Valeria Luiselli on British Council Literature
- Helena Coggan in The Guardian
- Becky Albertalli on Buzzfeed
- Gillian Rose in Times Higher Education
- Caitlin Moran (the Director’s Cut) on The Pool
- Bethany Chase on Women Writers, Women’s Books
- Jane Thynne in Shiny New Books
- Cecilia EkBäck in Shiny New Books
- Sarah Bannan in Shiny New Books
- Lindsay Hawdon on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
- Caitlin Moran (Part Two) on Vice
- Lizzie Skurnick on Longreads
- Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan on the Huffington Post
- Viv Albertine on Weird Sister
- Elizabeth McCracken on Paul McVeigh’s blog
- Joyelle McSweeney in The Believer
- Jill Alexander Essbaum in The Los Angeles Times
- Jenn Ashworth (and Richard Hirst) on The Workshy Fop
- Amanda Jennings on From First Page to Last Page
- Diane Williams on Numéro Cinq
- Sarah Hall on Foyles
- Laura Watkinson on Intralingo
- Nancy Tucker in The Independent
- Jennifer Weiner on CBS News
- Jennifer Michael Hecht on The Rumpus
- Dorothy Koomson on We Love This Book
- Ursula Le Guin on BBC Radio 4
- Attica Locke in the Los Angeles Times
- Heidi Julavits on Vulture
- Kirsty Logan on The List
- Lauren Berry on Deep South Magazine
- Andrea Cohen on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
- Tracey Thorn in The Observer
- Caitlin Moran in The Guardian
- Renée Knight on The Pool
- Jemma Wayne & Lara Pawson on Guardian Books’ Podcast
- Janina Matthewson on Read Her Like an Open Book
If you want some fiction to read:
- An extract from Never Isn’t Long Enough by Diane F. Pickett (YouTube)
- ‘The Good Wife‘ by Devjani Bodepudi in Kindle Magazine
- ‘Apollo‘ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The New Yorker, which she discusses here
- ‘Our Christophers‘ by Sharma Shields on Electric Literature
- ‘Bearish‘ by Leesa Cross-Smith
- An extract from Glory by Rachel Billington on Orion Books
- An extract from The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer on Dead Good Books
- An extract from Disclaimer by Renée Knight on The Pool
- ‘A Story Between Me and Thee on the Occasion of Our Shipwrecking’ and ‘Little Peg Tudor‘ by Rachael Dunlop on Flash! Friday
- ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: Thousandfurs, Or The King Who Wanted To Marry His Daughter‘ by Mallory Ortberg in The Toast
- ‘Other People’s Butter‘ by Tayler Heuston
- ‘The Toddler on the Bus‘ by Helen Croney on Scottish Book Trust
- ‘The Sanded Shard’ by Sara Baume on The Book Show RTÉ Radio 1
- The Ladies of the House by Molly McGrann on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime
- ‘Not Searching‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
- ‘Item Girls‘ by Kuzhali Manickavel in Granta
- ‘Box 30‘ by Rom Tearne on her blog
- An extract from Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent on Liz Loves Books (if you follow the link at the top of the post, you can follow the trail of extracts posted throughout the week)
- ‘Runaway‘ by Laura Kay on Litro
- ‘The New Boyfriend‘ by Kelly Link on A Public Space
- ‘A Fun Home Coda‘ by Alison Bechdel on Vulture
- Short Stories by Laura Barnett on her website
- ‘Paradise Lost‘ by Devjani Bodepudi
- ‘Every Woman to the Rope‘ by Joanna Quinn in The White Review
- ‘Smote, or When I Find I Cannot Kiss You in Front of a Print by Bridget Riley‘ by Eley Williams in The White Review
If you want some poetry to read:
- ‘frances farmer’ & other poems by Afshan Shafi in 3:AM Magazine
- ‘working title‘ by Mahogany L. Browne in Winter Tangerine Review
- ‘Billie‘ (for Billie Holiday) by Salena Godden on The Pool
- Five Poems by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
- ‘Future Biometrics‘ by Jillian Weise in Poetry Magazine
- ‘My Prayer‘ by Agnimita Chatterjee in Kindle Magazine
- Three Poems by Geraldine Clarkson on And Other Poems
- ‘Fuck The Life Abundant‘ Marnie Bullock Dresser in The Fem
If you want some non-fiction to read:
- An Excerpt from Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris on The Millions
- An extract from Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn in The Observer
- An extract from Get It Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics by Zoe Williams in The Guardian
The lists:
- Books for Spring in Shiny New Books
- 5 New Books to Read for Your Grown-Up Spring Break in Glamour
- 32 Perfect Books To Kick Off Your Book Club on Buzzfeed
- Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
- 29 Important Lessons Jane Austen Taught You About Love on Buzzfeed
- 100 Best Books of the Decade so Far in The Oyster Review
- Spring Fiction Preview: 15 Books You Won’t Want to Miss on Read Her Like an Open Book