Louise Ettinger | The Writes of Womxn

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 International Women’s Day today and, as you might expect, there have been a number of articles written about and with regards to it. Verso Books published a reading list; in the New Statesman, Stella Creasy said, ‘On International Women’s Day, let’s ask men why progress towards equality is so slow‘; One Book Lane ran a series, ‘The #WonderWomen you need to read about this International Women’s Day‘; Rebecca Winson wrote, ‘We mustn’t forget the revolutionary roots of International Women’s Day‘ in the New Statesman; Somayra Ismailjee, wrote ‘Self-Love Amidst Marginalisation‘ on Media Diversified; Cathy on 746Books wrote, ‘Putting Irish Women Writers Back in the Picture‘ with links to the articles the Irish Times have been running for the past fortnight and their celebratory poster which you can download; Harriet Minter wrote, ‘No need for International Women’s Day? What world do you live in?‘ in The Guardian; Emily Thornberry declared, ‘We Need a New Equal Pay Act‘ in the New Statesman, and Lucy Mangan says, ‘Women take more than enough shit‘ in Stylist.

The Harper Lee story continues, Connor Sheets of AL.com wrote to her and got a response, ‘Harper Lee appears to be fully lucid: She just told me to ‘go away’ via snail mail‘.

And an absolute joy of a series in Vogue: for the whole of March, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie does ‘Today I’m Wearing‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

June Eric-Udorie, ‘How books made me a feminist‘ in The Guardian
Sarah Thomasin, ‘Excluding Transgender People Doesn’t Make Anything Safer for Anyone‘ on LaDIYfest
Kate Mayfield, ‘Women in the Mourning‘ on Death & the Maiden
Alison Taylor, ‘I decided to come clean that we’d shared an ex… and made a lifelong friend‘ in The Independent
Maia Szalavitz, ‘The Drug Lord With a Social Mission‘ on Pacific Standard
Jessica Grose and Hanna Rosin, ‘Two Moody Bitches Discuss Moody Bitches‘ on Slate
Kara Anderson, ‘Why I’m Done With Saying “I’m Sorry” When I Have Nothing To Apologize For‘ on Bustle
Nick Clark, ‘Elif Shafak: Turkish author warns against rise of British nationalism‘ in The Independent
Jean Kim, ‘What a Woman Wants: The Story of My Inchon Aunt‘ on The Toast
Nick Clark, ‘Fay Weldon interview: ‘Abandon your dignity and write a racy page-turner’ in The Independent
Alison Flood, ‘Fay Weldon has misread ebook readers as “non-literary”‘ in The Guardian
Andrea Barrett, ‘Traveling Corpse‘ in The American Scholar
Alissa J.Rubin, ‘Afghan Policewomen Struggle Against Culture‘ in The New York Times
Leslie Jamison, ‘Spin the Globe, Sri Lanka: The Two Faces of Paradise‘ in Afar
Jacqueline Doyle, ‘The Tyranny of Things‘ in Litragger
Jamie Herndon, ‘Jo March Have I Loved: On Identifying With Fictional Women‘ on Bookriot
Allison Pearson, ‘Sandwich Woman: You are not going out on World Book Day dressed like Spiderman…‘ in the Telegraph
Beth McLoughlin, ‘Method and Madness‘ in Aeon
Meaghan O’Connell, ‘True Romance Is Combining Your Finances‘ in The Cut
Laura June, ‘I’m A New Mom — What If I Never Work Full-Time Again?‘ on Buzzfeed
Sally Howe, ‘How to Tell If You Are in a Virginia Woolf Novel‘ on The Toast
Miriam Krule, ‘Elena Ferrante’s Paris Review Interview Finally Convinced Me to Stop Caring Who She Really Is‘ on Slate
Brenda Wineapple, ‘The Brilliance of Sybille Bedford‘ in The New York Review of Books
Laura Munson, ‘Writing in Community: You Don’t Have To Do It Alone‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
Jess Meacham, ‘Books! What Are They Good For?‘ on her blog
Jenny McPhee, ‘Nella Larsen’s Fantastic Motley of Ugliness and Beauty‘ on her blog
Natalya Din-Kariuki, ‘Feminist academics take note: women are not all white and straight‘ in The Guardian
Toby Lichtig, ‘Genderalizations‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
Katrine Marçal, ‘Why women are the worst affected by zero hours contracts‘ in the New Statesman
David MacFarlane, ‘Traces of Mavis‘ (on Mavis Gallant) in The Walrus
Ann Neuman, ‘Their Dying Wishes‘ in The New York Times
Mallory Ortberg, ‘How to Talk to Babies About Post-Structuralism‘ in The Toast
Mallory Ortberg, ‘Advice from Femputer‘ in The Toast
Valeria Costa-Kostritsky, ‘In France, who gets to be a feminist?‘ in The New Statesman
Marcy Cook, ‘Eddie Redmayne And Hollywood’s Cis Problem‘ on The Mary Sue
Diana Souhami, ‘Retelling A Classic Novel — From A Heroine’s Point Of View‘ on the Huffington Post
Rosanna Boscawen, ‘Dark domesticity: the making of the Hausfrau book cover‘ on the Picador blog
A.M. Homes, ‘On Shirley Jackson‘ on the Penguin Blog

Charlotte Gordon, ‘Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley: Rule Breakers‘ on the Penguin Blog
Nina Stibbe, ‘On Nancy Mitford‘ on the Penguin Blog
Rockstar Dinosaur Pirate Princess, ‘Consent: Not actually that complicated‘ on her blog
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘Can porn empower women?‘ in The Guardian
Syreeta McFadden, ‘Black Bodies In White Words, Or: Why We Need Claudia Rankine‘ on NPR
Nikole Hannah-Jones, ‘A Letter from Black America‘ in Politico
Nishta Mehra, ‘Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair‘ in Guernica
Maggie Jones, ‘Why a Generation of Adoptees Is Returning to South Korea‘ in the New York Times
Louise Ettinger, ‘The Birth Mother With No Baby‘ in Dame Magazine
Sarah Menkedick, ‘It’s Not Personal‘ in Vela
Samantha Shannon, ‘What do you think about the portrayal of girls in YA fiction? Good, bad or just right?‘ on her tumblr
Meg Rosoff, ‘Fuelling Creative Minds‘ on Writers’ Centre, Norwich
Marian Keyes, ‘Mind Your Head‘ in The Sunday Times
Louis Wise, ‘The Unknown Great‘ (on Elena Ferrante) in The Sunday Times
Emily Anthes, ‘What Happens to a Lonely Ant?‘ in The New Yorker
Jessa Crispin, ‘Wounded Women‘ in the Boston Review
Susan Bernofsky, ‘on Artists as Translators‘ on The Pew Centre for Arts & Heritage
Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Alan Bennett is right: if you consult the literature, hypocrisy is a very English tradition‘ in the New Statesman
Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘Are they going to say this is fantasy?‘ (on Kazuo Ishiguro) on Book View Cafe
Evelyn Somers, ‘“The Live Wire of the Life”: the Fiction of Tessa Hadley‘ on Bloom
Mallory Ortberg, ‘Signs You May Be Currently Menstruating‘ in The Toast
B.N. Harrison, ‘The Unified Theory of Ophelia: On Women, Writing, and Mental Illness‘ in The Toast
Samantha Tucker, ‘The Dreams of a Million Girls Who Are More: On Beauty‘ in The Butter
Rachel Hills, Laurie Penny, Reni Eddo-Lodge and Jacob Tobia, ‘The 1970s Feminist Who Warned Against Leaning In‘ on Buzzfeed
Chitra Ramaswamy, ‘I love being a housewife and that doesn’t make me any less of a feminist‘ in The Guardian
Various, ‘The Salon of (Hair) Acceptance‘ on Thandie Kay’s website
Liesl Schillinger, ‘Darkness at Midnight‘ on Guernica
Sarah Einstein, ‘On Why I Won’t Take Up the Challenge to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors‘ on Brevity
Amy Shearn, ‘It’s Women Writers, Not Novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard, Who’ve “Struggled”‘ in Dame Magazine
Yalla Tallon-Hicks, ‘Setting the (Lesbian) Bar: Queer Love & Lessons from the Lexington Club in The Toast
Ann Friedman, ‘On Being a Badass‘ in The Cut
Emma Törzs, ‘Other People‘ on Electric Literature
Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Special Oscars Edition‘ in The Butter
Roohi Choudhry, ‘On Island: Journeying to Penal Colonies from Rikers to Robben‘ in The Butter
Claire Hayward, ‘No one was “gay” in the 18th century: why we must not rewrite history with today’s terms‘ in the New Statesman
Rebecca Whitney, ‘Are women hardwired to love thrillers?‘ in the Telegraph
Kathryn Heyman, ‘My mother stayed with my abusive father for 22 years. That’s a lot of bruises‘ in The Guardian
Elliott Holt, ‘This Essay Was Due 25 Years Ago‘ (on Tess of the D’Urbervilles) on Slate

The interviews:

Clare Grogan in The Guardian
Polly Samson in The Guardian
Alexandra Fuller and Ruth Scurr on the Guardian Books’ Podcast
Hanya Yanagihara on Slate
Valeria Luiselli in BOMB Magazine
Plum Johnson in the National Post
Jennifer Jacquet in The Guardian
Tessa Hadley on Bloom
Louise O’Neill on the Inspireland Podcast
Caitlin Moran in Marie Claire Australia
Sarah Manguso in The Guardian
Anthea Bell on A Different Stripe
Elizabeth Gilbert on Dear Sugar
Cecilia Ekback on Mr B’s Emporium
Dorthe Nors on Bookanista
Paula Hawkins on Essential Phil Williams
Tania James in the LA Times
Susmita Bhattacharya on Carys Bray’s website
Rene Denfeld on Foyles’ website
Miranda July on Foyles’ website
Holly Smale in The Guardian
Lily King in Guernica
Sarah Smarsh on Longreads

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

‘He’s Killed the May‘ by Adelaid Crapsey on Quadrapheme
‘Parma Violet‘ by Frances Leviston in The Guardian
An extract from On Elizabeth Bishop by Colm Tóibín on Princeton University Press
‘Pillow‘ by Jana Prikryl in The New York Review of Books
‘The Cola of Oblivion‘ by Achy Obejas in The Butter
Poems from L’Heure Bleue, or The Judy Poems by Elisa Gabbert in Pank Magazine
‘Female Killers‘ by Dorthe Nors on Bookanista
A selection of poems by Michèle Roberts on her website
‘How I Abandoned My Body To His Keeping‘ by Kim Moore on And Other Poems
An extract from Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger (tr. Natasha Lehrer and Cécile Menon) in 3:am Magazine
‘Kinder than Miriam‘ by Kajal Ahmad (tr. Choman Hardi and Mimi Khalvati) on Poetry Translation Centre
‘Diaries: Where Is Their Real Mother?‘ by Jane Eaton Hamilton on Litro
‘Skies‘ by Laura Herbek on Blunderbuss
‘The Waiting Room‘ by Rebecca Burns on Halfway Down the Stairs
‘Water‘ by Meghann Plunkett on the ASDF
‘False River‘ by Paula Morris in Five Dials
‘Static Caravan Holiday‘ by H.L. Foster in Quotidian