Books of the Year 2016, Part One

As usual I’m dividing my Books of the Year into two parts. Part Two, coming tomorrow will be fiction published in 2016. Part One is fiction published pre-2016 and 2016 non-fiction. If you click on the pictures of the books they will take you to my full review.

Waking Lions – Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston)

Doctor Etian Green finishes a nineteen hour shift at Soroka Hospital, six of which he spent helping to stabilise road traffic accident victims. In the time it takes for him to walk from the hospital ward to his car, he goes from exhausted to adrenaline-fueled. He decides to drive to ‘a particularly challenging SUV track’ he’s read about. Sprinting along, he hits a man and leaves him for dead. The next morning, Sirkit, the man’s wife, appears at his door along with Etian’s wallet which he dropped at the scene. Sirkit offers him a deal but it’s one that will have serious consequences for his home life and his job. Everything in Waking Lions is grey area. Sharp, thoughtful and challenging.

Push – Sapphire

Claireece Precious Jones – Precious to her friends, Claireece to ‘mutherfuckers I hate’ – 16-years-old, five feet nine or ten, two hundred pounds, is pregnant for the second time to her father. Suspended from school, she goes to Each One Teach One, located on the nineteenth floor of a local hotel. Precious tells the story of her time attending the group, in which she learns to read and write, intertwined with that of her family situation. Push could be an unbearable read: every time you think it couldn’t get any darker, it does, but it’s balanced by Precious’ determination and Sapphire’s rendering of Precious’ voice which is pitch perfect and authentic.

One Night, Markovitch – Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (translated by Sondra Silverston)

Yaacov Markovitch and Zeev Feinberg go on the run after Feinberg is caught having sex with the wife of Avraham Mandelbaum, the slaughterer. The deputy commander of the Irgun, a friend of Feinberg’s, sends the pair to Europe where they will marry ‘a Jewish girl’ and bring them back to Palestine, thus circumventing the closed gates of Europe. Once the men return, they will divorce and the women will be free to remain. But Markovitch refuses to divorce his wife, the stunning but cold, Bella Zeigerman. The backbone of the story is that of three women: Bella; Feinberg’s wife, Sonya, and Mandelbaum’s wife, Rachel. Gundar-Goshen uses them to explore the ups-and-downs of marriage, parenthood, war, death …basically all of life is here.

The Glorious Heresies – Lisa McInerney

Maureen kills Robbie O’Donovan when she finds him in her house. As the mother of Cork’s biggest gangster, Jimmy Phelan, she doesn’t need to worry about clearing up her mess. But the mess is bigger than a body and some blood: Robbie’s girlfriend, Georgie, is looking for him and she has problems of her own; Tara Duane, Georgie’s confidant is keen to know everyone’s business and she lives next door to Jimmy’s alcoholic clearer-upper, Tony Cusak. And then there’s Cusak’s son, fifteen-year-old Ryan, who loses his virginity, starts his first long term relationship and begins to step out from the shadow of his alcoholic, violent, widowed father. A bloody entertaining read.

Ruby – Cynthia Bond

Ruby’s returned to Liberty Township, Texas from New York City. Everyone knows she’s mad: she pees in the street and has sex with many of the men in Liberty, but Ruby’s caught the attention of one man who wants to treat her differently; Ephram Jennings is planning to bring Ruby one of his sister’s white lay angel cakes. Ruby’s tortured by the ghosts which have attached themselves to her. As she gives herself to them, we learn about her childhood and the long-standing relationship she has with Jennings’ family. Bleak but threaded with hope and beautiful writing.

 

The Devil in the Marshalsea – Antonia Hodgson

Tom Hawkins, eldest son of a Suffolk gentleman, Oxford graduate, set to join the clergy and inherit his father’s position, finds himself in the Marshalsea for unpaid rent and other debts. He arrives after the widow of Captain Roberts has taken up residence in the debtor’s  prison after Robert’s murder made to look like suicide. Hawkins gets drawn into solving the murder as he deals with his roommate, the despised Samuel Fleet, and the prison’s regime, divided by rich and poor. Intelligent, packed with period detail and plot, bawdy, has a social conscience and some hilarious lines. Entertaining.

 
Pleasantville – Attica Locke

Pleasantville is a neighbourhood in Houston, Texas, built in 1949 “specifically for Negro families of means and class”. As a middle class, politically aware area, it also holds political power, a power which has become legendary over four decades. The story takes place in 1996 in the run-up to Houston’s mayoral election, the results of which might bring Alex Hathorne to office as the city’s first black mayor. As the novel begins the situation is quickly complicated by two events: the first is the abduction of a teenage girl, following a stint distributing campaign leaflets door-to-door in Pleasantville; the second is a break-in at Jay Porter’s office.As the story unravels, all the threads become entwined with the mayoral race at the centre. Locke considers who really runs an election campaign: a matter of business and money – who pays for the campaigns, who dictates strategy – but ultimately, how low people are prepared to go in their desperation for power.

Negroland – Margo Jefferson

Margo Jefferson grew up in Chicago in the 1950s and ’60s. Born to a paediatrician father and a socialite mother, she experienced a particular type of privilege: that of the well-off, educated, black family. Personal experience is interwoven with the history of those Jefferson identifies as belonging to Negroland: Frances Jackson Coppin and Joseph Willson, for example; and cultural commentary on film, television and the media, discussing those black men and women who did appear on and in those mediums and what they came to represent for black communities. Negroland is a superb book which consider the intersections of race, class and gender. It’s a fascinating read and an insight into an underexplored area of society.

The Argonauts – Maggie Nelson

The Argonauts charts Nelson’s relationship with the artist Harry Dodge, including the conception and birth of their son, Iggy, and Dodge’s decision to begin taking testosterone and have top surgery. The Argonauts is not straightforward memoir, it is intellectual argument illuminated by personal experience and supported by academic rigour. It explores love – constructing and maintaining a relationship outside of heteronormativity and maternal love as stepmother and mother (the latter from the point of view of adult child and parent as well as the expectant mother/mother of a young child) – and the body – sex, gender fluidity, pregnancy and birth. Rigorous and fascinating.

The Lonely City – Olivia Laing

Laing examines the idea of being lonely in the busiest place on earth – the city, specifically in her case New York City. Part memoir, part mediation on art, Laing looks at a number of artists who’ve dealt with the theme of loneliness – in their work and often in their private lives too – focusing in on Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Henry Darger and David Wojnarowicz. The Lonely City is a fascinating exploration of what loneliness is; how we attempt to stave it off; why some people are consumed by it, and what its relationship to artistic creation might be.

 

Negroland – Margo Jefferson

“We’re considered upper-class Negroes and upper-middle-class Americans,” Mother says. But most people would like to consider us Just More Negroes.”

Margo Jefferson grew up in Chicago in the 1950s and ’60s. Born to a paediatrician father and a socialite mother, she experienced a particular type of privilege: that of the well-off, educated, black family.

Negroland is my name for a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege or plenty and that most whites would be glad to see them returned to indigence, deference, and subservience. Children there were taught that most other Negroes ought to be emulating us when too many of them (out of envy or ignorance) went on behaving in ways that encouraged racial prejudice.

She explores her personal experience as a member of Negroland beginning with a letter her mother wrote to a friend during her parents’ time stationed at an army base during WW2. The letter ends ‘Sometimes I almost forget I’m a Negro. That’s something, huh?’ Jefferson follows it with the times she’s almost been allowed to forget too and the times when she definitely hasn’t. She takes us with her to summer camp where she’s directed to befriend a black boy; to the private, mostly white, school she and her sister attended; to the neighbourhoods the family lived in – mostly white when they arrived, mostly black within a few years; to the hotel in Atlantic City where they’re put in inferior rooms; to university.

Personal experience is interwoven with the history of those Jefferson identifies as belonging to Negroland: Frances Jackson Coppin and Joseph Willson, for example; and cultural commentary on film, television and the media, discussing those black men and women who did appear on and in those mediums and what they came to represent for black communities.

There are some awful instances of racism and a heart-wrenching moment, reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, when Jefferson confesses ‘she was silly enough to believe her hair would turn blonde when her mother washed it. Fortunately, she aired this belief, and it dies a clean, brisk death’ but there’s also humour. One of my favourite moments comes during a discussion about passing:

Suddenly the fact of racial slippage overwhelmed me. I was excited for days after. I knew something none of my white school friends knew. It wasn’t just that some of us were as good as them, even when they didn’t know it. Some of us were them.

There’s been some discussion this week on Twitter around the idea of ‘identity politics’ and whether they reduce people to characteristics. (If you haven’t come across the debate, Musa Okwonga wrote a point-by-point response to the criticisms on his blog.) As the conversation went on there were some fairly crude comments about levels of privilege in relation to race. I’m going to quote Jefferson at length because I think what she has to say on this, from a self-identified position of privilege, is important:

In Negroland we thought of ourselves as the Third Race, poised between the masses of Negroes and all classes of Caucasians. Like the Third Eye, the Third Race possessed a wisdom, intuition, and enlightened knowledge the other two races lacked. Its members had education, ambition, sophistication, and standardized verbal dexterity.

– If, as was said, too many of us ached, longed, strove to be be be be White White White White WHITE…

– If (as was said) many us boasted over much of the blood des blancs that for centuries had found blatant or surreptitious ways to flow, course, and trickle tepidly through our veins and arteries (cephalic, aortal, renal, femoral, jugular, subclavian, and superior mesenteric)…

– If we placed too high a value on the looks, manners, and morals called the birthright of the Anglo-Saxon…

White people wanted to be white just as much as we did. They worked just as hard at it. They failed just as often. They failed more often. But they could pass, so no one objected.

Negroland is a superb book. Non-fiction books that meld genres seem to be having a bit of a moment but what this one does differently is consider the intersections of race, class and gender in a way I haven’t seen before. It’s a fascinating read and an insight into an underexplored area of society. Highly recommended.

 

Thanks to Granta for the review copy.

In the Media, May 2016, Part Three

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

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

In the Media, May 2016, Part 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

In the Media, November 2015, 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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

We’re still deep in book awards territory this fortnight with a number of winners and shortlists being announced. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Bailey’s Best of the Best for Half of a Yellow Sun. The award prompted pieces from Alice Stride in The Bookseller, an editorial in The Guardian and Anna James on The Pool about why we still need the Bailey’s Prize.

Sarah Waters won Stonewall’s Writer of the Decade; Lydia Davis will receive The Paris Review’s Hadada Award 2016; Kerry Hudson won the Prix Femina for Translated Fiction; Roxane Gay won the PEN Centre USA Freedom to Write Award; Jacqueline Wilson won the JM Barrie Award

The shortlists include the eclectic, female dominates Waterstones’ Book of the Year Award, chosen by Waterstones’ Booksellers; The Guardian First Book Award which Catherine Taylor, one of this years judges, discusses, and The Young Writer of the Year Award (which not only has gender parity, but also an equal split between writers of colour and white writers).

Meanwhile, Arundhati Roy returned her National Award for Best Screenplay, she explains why in The Guardian and Heather Horn investigates why the Prix Goncourt has been awarded to a man 102 times and a woman 11 times on The Atlantic

Irish women have been speaking out about the Abbey Theatre where nine out of ten plays in its 2016 centenary programme are written by men. Emer O’Toole writes about the reaction in The Guardian and Ellen Coyne in The Irish Times while Dr Susan Liddy, academic at the University of Limerick, writes ‘Women and the Irish film industry‘ to The Irish Times.

And if you only read one thing from this fortnight’s list, I highly recommend Jacqueline Rose’s essay, ‘Bantu in the Bathroom: on the trial of Oscar Pistorius‘ in The LRB.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘The books that understand female friendship‘ on The Pool
• Tara Sparling, ‘I Hate Women’s Fiction And I’ll Tell You Why‘ on Tara Sparling Writes
• Samantha Gualito, ‘My Recent Experiences at Literary Events as a PoC‘ on Bookriot
• Natalka Sniadanko (trans. Jennifer Croft) ‘Literature as last bastion: on suppression, solidarity and language in Ukraine‘ in The Guardian
• Alissa Quart, ‘Why Doesn’t America Have An Elena Ferrante?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Perry, ‘East Anglia has “never quite stopped thinking of itself as a Kingdom”‘ on Writers Centre, Norwich
• Eleanor Fitzsimmons, ‘Maeve Brennan‘ on Thresholds
• Huma Qureshi, ‘Writers on the pain of hindsight in publishing: ‘It’s like a bad breakup – you have to move on’‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Galo, ‘Margaret Atwood: ‘In Tolkien, there are hardly any women at all’‘ in The Guardian
• Helen MacKinven, ‘Writing Black Comedy‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Alice Kelly, ‘An unknown First World War story by Edith Wharton‘ on The TLS
• Katherine Lampe, ‘The Greatest Author You’ve Never Read‘ on Rewriting Mary Sue
• Rachel Cooke, ‘There’s more to Patricia Highsmith than Ripley‘ in The Guardian
• Sunny Singh, ‘On Teaching Creative Writing as a Woman of Colour‘ on Sunny Singh Online
• Dawn Foster, ‘I Love Dick is one of the most important books about being a woman – no wonder it’s being dismissed‘ in The Independent
• Lucy Scholes, ‘The Hidden Life of Hotels‘ on the BBC
• Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, ‘The Badass Lady Pilot Who Revolutionized the Art of Food Writing‘ on Mental Floss
• Helen O’Hara, ‘JLaw and Katniss Everdeen, and what they mean for young women‘ on The Pool
• Dodie Bellamy, ‘Digging Through Kathy Acker’s Stuff‘ on Literary Hub
• Jill Dawson, ‘Death and Texas: A journey into Patricia Highsmith‘ on the Royal Literary Fund
• Lisa Hayden, ‘On Translating an “Untranslatable” Book‘ on Literary Hub
• Ellen Banda-Aaku, ‘Please don’t air brush African teen fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Lorrie Moore, ‘Why We Read and Write Short Stories‘ on Literary Hub
• Meredith Jaffe, ‘Middlebrow? What’s so shameful about writing a book and hoping it sells?‘ in The Guardian
• Herta Muller (trans. Jennifer Stern), ‘On the Poetry (and Prisoner’s Life) of Liu Xia‘ on Literary Hub
• Casey N. Cep, ‘Called Back‘ (on Emily Dickinson) on The Paris Review
• Chibundu Onuzo, ‘What I read growing up in Lagos‘ in The Guardian
• Emily Gould, ‘I Love Dick: the book about relationships everyone should read‘ in The Guardian
• Audrey Niffenegger, ‘The night is dark and full of terror…‘ on The Pool
• Marie-Helen Bertino, ‘When Andre Agassi Made Me a Woman (and a Writer)‘ on Literary Hub
• Gloria Steinem, ‘By the Book‘ in The New York Times
• Christine L. Corton, ‘Beyond the pall … how London fog seeped into fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Linda Grant, ‘Obama is right: reading is what connects us to others – even a French puffin‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Tuttle, ‘What Do Writers Owe Readers?‘ on Literary Hub
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Silvina Ocampo‘ in The Guardian
• Jennifer Croft, ‘When an Author You Translate Gets Death Threats‘ on Literary Hub
• Margaret Atwood, ‘Canada: Time in the North‘ in Harper’s Bazaar

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jenny Diski, ‘Who’ll Be Last‘ in The LRB
• Misti Traya, ‘How does an American make friends in England?‘ on The Pool
• Simone Gorrindo, ‘Tiny Little Messes‘ on Vela
• Diana Athill, ‘Lessons‘ in Granta
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘The joy of making a brilliant friend online‘ on The Pool
• Lisa Kolb, ‘The condolences end. Being a widow doesn’t.‘ in The Washington Post
• Christina Tesoro, ‘Firsts— On Lusty Wrong Feelings and Falling in Love‘ on Medium
• Jamilah Lemieux, ‘I Forgot To Find My Husband At A Black University‘ on Buzzfeed
• Shamala Gallagher, ‘On Shining and Staring / On Ruin‘ in The Offing
• Rosie Leonetti, ‘For a Single Mother, an Alternate Reality‘ in The New York Times
• Marisa Bate, ‘Why no-frills walking is the best kind of walking‘ on The Pool
• Meaghan O’Connell, ‘Being a Parent Makes Chores Seem Like Fun‘ in The Cut
• Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart, ‘“Why Won’t Vanessa Get Pregnant?”‘ on Slate
• Hermione Hoby, ‘My Haunted Honeymoon: on Getting Punched by the Ghost of Frieda Kahlo‘ on Literary Hub

Feminism:

• Rose Hackman, ‘‘Women are just better at this stuff’: is emotional labor feminism’s next frontier?‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘The Pope and Netflix Like Maternity Leave for the Wrong Reasons‘ in The Cut
• Sofie Hagen, ‘I hate women. You know the ones: skinny, blonde, who know nothing about football‘ in The New Statesman
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Exploiting Feminism for Profit‘ on Media Diversified
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Lynn Enright, ‘Unravelling the damaging, unhelpful myth of “having it all” ‘ in The Pool
• Rose Eveleth, ‘Why Are Sports Bras So Terrible?‘ on Racked
• Geraldine Bedell, ‘Germaine Greer: still fiery, still outspoken: the feminist lioness‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘‘It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done’: the Irish women forced to travel for abortions‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Nilita Vachani, ‘The Strange, True Story of How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars off His Maid‘ in The Nation
• Julia Carrie Wong, ‘The Bay Area Roots of Black Lives Matter‘ in the San Francisco Weekly
• Anna Pulley, ‘Why I’m Not Buying This Study That Claims All Women Are a Little Gay‘ in The Cut
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Men Explain Hillary to Me‘ on Slate
• Elif Shafak, ‘‘Nationalist and religious extremists are the beneficiaries of cultural boycotts’‘ in The Guardian
• Radhika Sanghani, ‘‘White girls only’: The racist reality of student night life in Britain‘ in The Telegraph
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘So many Brits now live abroad that they’re causing immigration debates. Oh, the irony‘ in The Independent
• Lynsey Addario, ‘The Displaced: Hana‘ in The New Yorker
• Valeria Luiselli, ‘Trespassers on the rooftops: a secret history of Mexico City’s cultural revolutionaries‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schulz,’What We Think About When We Run‘ in The New York Times

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Katie Anderson Howell, ‘Taking Comfort in Futurama‘ on The Rumpus
• Deborah Orr, ‘Forget the V&A – shouldn’t Thatcher’s acolytes be trying to monetise her power suits?‘ in The Guardian
• Phoebe Robinson, ‘How Daria Shaped a Generation of Women (Especially This Black Lady)‘ on Vulture
• Gia Milinovich, ‘Would you ditch a handbag for proper pockets?‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Marilynne Robinson in The Observer
• Fiona Barton in The Bookseller
• Spike Trotman in The Guardian
• Laura Kipnis in The Cut
• Audrey Niffenegger in The Independent
• Karen E. Bender on Literary Hub
• Gillian Flynn in Stylist and The Sunday Times (£)
• Phyllis Nagy (on Patricia Highsmith and the film of Carol) in The Guardian
• Peggy Riley on Rebecca Mascull’s Blog
• Katy Wix in The Guardian
• Attica Locke in Litro
• Hannah Rothschild in The New York Times
• Francesca Lia Block in Luna Luna
• Edna O’Brien in The Irish Times and The New Statesman
• Miranda July in The Guardian
• Tara Ison on Electric Literature
• Elizabeth Gilbert on Literary Hub
• Jenny Diski in The Guardian
• Elissa Washuta on Literary Hub
• Bee Rowlatt in The Guardian
• Kristin Hersh on Electric Literature
• Nuala O’Connor in The Irish Times
• Margo Jefferson in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh in Numéro Cinq
• Jill Bialosky onBookslut
• Frieda Hughes in The Telegraph
• Patricia Cornwell in The Guardian
• Sarah Einstein on The Rumpus
• Kate Beaton in The Independent
• Robin Talley in The Guardian
• Carrie Brownstein on Flavorwire
• Franca Simpson (founder of Calisa Press who only publish work by female Italian writers) in The London Magazine
• Doireann Ní Ghríofa on Emerging Writer
• Mary Gaitskill in The New York Times

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