In the Media, February 2017

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.

I’ve been a bit lax at compiling these while I’ve focused on my own work. It means this month’s is huge and I haven’t honed in on any topic in particular as the news moves so fast at that moment it feels like an impossible task. Back to fortnightly after this which hopefully will make it slightly easier to digest.

 

On or about books/writers/language:

• Helen Dunmore, ‘Facing mortality and what we leave behind‘ in The Guardian
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Making Space: A Brief History of Literary Salons, Past and Present‘ on Constellation
• George Saunders, ‘Grace Paley, the Saint of Seeing‘ in The New Yorker
• Peternelle van Arsdale, ‘How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Market and Just Write‘ on Literary Hub
• Lauren Elkin, ‘Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London‘ on Longreads
• Varaidzo, ‘From school books to publishing, black girls deserve better representation‘ in the New Statesman
• Ruth Gilligan, ‘Write Like a Girl‘ on Read it Forward
• Francesca Simon, ‘Why I’m writing for World Book Day’ in The Guardian
• Lily Dunn and Zoe Gilbert, ‘We’re given only a handful of these kinds of friendships‘ on Something Rhymed
• Karolina Ramqvist, ‘Writer as Public Figure Vs. The Writer Who Actually Writes‘ on Literary Hub
• Catherine Mayer, ‘on Writing Attack of the Fifty Foot Women‘ on Waterstones Blog
• Yoojin Grace Wuertz, ‘Failure and Patience: Lessons from the Garden for Writers‘ on Literary Hub
• Claudia Roth Pierpoint, ‘Elizabeth Bishop’s Art of Losing‘ in The New Yorker
• Thomas Arnow, ‘Who was Harriette Arnow?‘ on the Penguin Blog
• Anjali Enjeti, ‘The Life and Legacy of Bharati Mukherjee‘ on Literary Hub
• Wei Ming Kam, ‘On the Carnegie, Bookshops and Melinda Lo’s Ash‘ on Gal-dem
• Kerry Clare, ‘Rereading Fear of Flying: On Not Being Pregnant in Mid-Air With Isadora Wing‘ in The Toronto Review of Books
• Susan Hill, ‘Can I be a serious writer, keeping such casual hours?’ in The Guardian
• Nell Zink, ‘Writing for Rejection, And reading Doris Lessing‘ on n+1
• Craig Hubert, ‘On the Many Film Adaptations of the “Unfilmable” Wuthering Heights‘ on Literary Hub
• Ilana Masad, ‘Queer children’s books have a long history that’s only now being told‘ in The Guardian
• Heather O’Neill, ‘Leaving It All on the Page‘ on The Walrus
• Cameron Glover, ‘A Soulful Novel and Me: On Zora Neale Hurston‘ on Catapult
• Maggie Harcourt, ‘Pages in Common‘ on Waterstones Blog
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Rereading The Handmaid’s Tale, One Month Into the Trump Era‘ in The Cut
• Julie Buntin, ‘On Making Things Up: Some True Stories About Writing My Novel‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Perry, ‘In praise of readability‘ in The TLS
• Joanna Cannon, ‘The Story Behind The Trouble with Goats and Sheep‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Lionel Shriver, ‘Dystopia in the next room‘ in The TLS
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘Carson McCullers at 100: a century of American suffering‘ in The Guardian
• Jo Hogan, ‘The Carnegie Medal: Time for a Review‘ on her blog
• Salamisha Tillet, ‘Free Is and Free Ain’t‘ on Public Books
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘The Forgotten Work of Jessie Redmond Fauset‘ in The New Yorker
• Emma Garman, ‘Trilby, the Novel That Gave Us ‘Svengali’‘ on Longreads
• Emily Cooke, ‘Pay to Play: A chronicle of wealth and class in the literary world‘ on Book Forum
• Aminatta Forna, ‘We must take back our stories and reverse the gaze‘ in The Guardian
• Sam Jones, ‘Retrieving an untold story: voices of Spanish female artists finally heard‘ in The Guardian
• Ulka Anjaria, ‘The Goddess of Loss‘ on Boston Review
• Dr. Florence Hazrat, ‘From The Taming of the Shrew to 10 Things I Hate About you: Taming Wild Women in European Culture‘ on Women Are Boring
• Laura Pritchett, ‘The Middle Ages‘ on Bloom
• Fiona Cummins, ‘How I went from Ms Showbiz reporting on celebrity parties to writing a chilling crime thriller‘ in the Daily Mirror
• Katy Waldman, ‘Is My Novel Offensive?‘ on Slate
• Tracy Chevalier, ‘There’s a febrile debate in Trump’s rustbelt. I want to be part of it‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘What Virginia Woolf Forgot To Say‘ on Thrive Global
• Georgia Hunter, ‘We Were The Lucky Ones‘ on Waterstones Blog
• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, ‘A Dyslexic’s Guide to Infinity‘ on The Rumpus
• Maria Russo, ‘Finding America, Both Red and Blue, in the ‘Little House’ Books‘ in The New York Times
• Miranda Emmerson, ‘Mixed-up thinking‘ on Bookanista
• Marta Bausells, ‘Warsan Shire and Beyoncé: Superheroes for Our Time‘ on Literary Hub
• Lisa Williamson, ‘Writing NON-romantic Love for Teens‘ on Foyles
• Alex Clark, ‘I’m no pussy when it comes to swearing‘ in The Guardian
• Rahawa Haile, ‘How Black Books Lit My Way Along The Appalachian Trail‘ on Buzzfeed
• Kate Mosse, ‘It’s never been more important to champion women’s voices‘ on The Pool
• Eva Dolan, ‘The Hierarchy of Victims in Crime Writing‘ on Foyles
• Roxane Gay, ‘The Full Text of ‘Bad Feminist’ Author Roxane Gay’s WI12 Speech‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Claire Fuller, ‘on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Scott Eposito, ‘Understanding America Through Marilynne Robinson‘ on Literary Hub
• Edwidge Danticat, ‘Poetry in a Time of Protest‘ in The New Yorker
• Laura Pritchett, ‘The Great West Has More Than One Story to Tell‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘‘It will be called Americanism’: the US writers who imagined a fascist future‘ in The Guardian
• Lucinda Rosenfeld, ‘What Was Chick Lit? A Brief History from the Inside‘ on Literary Hub
• Ela Bittencourt, ‘Poetry Thieves: Translating Hanna Krall and Ewa Lipska‘ on Words Without Borders

Personal essays/memoir:

• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, ‘How Postcards from My Mother Helped Me Survive My Childhood‘ on Literary Hub
• Leah Carroll, ‘My Mother’s Murder‘ on The Cut
• Melissa Febos, ‘When Pursuing True Love Means Breaking Up With Your Best Friend‘ on Refinery29
• Catherine LaSota, ‘Changing Body, Changing Perceptions‘ on Catapult
• Anne Kniggendorf, ‘Gracie Allen and John Denver in Boot Camp‘ on Electric Literature
• Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, ‘Saving Chickens, Saving Myself‘ on Catapult
• Arianna Rebolini, ‘Learning to Cook After Relearning to Eat‘ on Catapult
• Gwen Werner, ‘Daddy Issues‘ on The Rumpus
• Clover Stroud, ‘Travelling alone as a woman was a way of owning my trauma‘ on The Pool
• Lynn Enright, ‘I don’t always know who I am – but that’s OK ‘ on The Pool
• Karen Brown, ‘From Imbibing Spirits to Spiritualist Mediums‘ on Literary Hub
• Erin Corber, ‘Vocabulary Lessons in Bucharest‘ on The Rumpus
• Elisa Gabbert ‘My Grandmother’s Little Room and the Unreality of Memory‘ on Pacific Standard
• Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘Sacred Space: On visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and facing the present‘ on Lenny
• Claire Handscombe, ‘Dance: On Ballet and Impossible Love‘ on Catapult
• Melissa Febos, ‘Reconciliation‘ on Lenny
• Sara Yasin, ‘Muslims Shouldn’t Have To Be “Good” To Be Granted Human Rights‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jowita Bydlowska, ‘Nobody Died‘ on Lenny
• Cass Cross, ‘The Men in My Office‘ on Catapult
• Sophie Warnes, ‘On the unbearableness of existence‘ on Medium
• Megan Margulis, ‘My Daughter’s Suburban Childhood Looks Nothing Like My Urban One‘ on The Cut
• Jessica Grose, ‘The Wait‘ on Lenny
• Marie Phillips, ‘One woman’s attempt to learn the language of love‘ on The Pool
• Allison Grimaldi-Donahue, ‘Translation Beyond Metaphor‘ on Electric Literature
• Sara Noviç, ‘When Good Christian Girls Need Planned Parenthood‘ on The Cut
• Rachel Klein, ‘Losing My Voice and Finding It‘ on Catapult
• Amna Saleem, ‘This Is What I Learned From My Father’s Depression‘ on Buzzfeed
• Lara Williams, ‘Talk to Me Baby‘ on Some Such Stories
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘From unnerving normality to toilet humour: the stages of my mum’s cancer diagnosis‘ in the New Statesman
• Rebecca Varkoe, ‘Let’s Talk About The Immense Privilege (And Struggle) Of Doing What You Love‘ on Junkee
• Patricia Lockwood, ‘A Childhood in the Pro-Life Movement‘ in The New Yorker
• Lorraine Berry, ‘Walking in Memphis‘ on Catapult
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘When Things Go Missing‘ in The New Yorker
• Irina Dumitrescu, ‘Swan, Late‘ on Longreads
• So Sad Today, ‘What if I Never Live My Best Life?‘ on Vice
• Lacy M. Johnson, ‘Trigger‘ in Guernica
• Candice Norwood, ‘When ‘Good Hair’ Hurts‘ in The Atlantic
• Lisa Mecham, ‘Under the Stars: Remaking a Family‘ on Catapult
• Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, ‘What It’s Like to Lose Your Short-Term Memory‘ on Longreads
• Andie Park, ‘Lessons‘ on Medium
• Laine Bruzek, ‘What Happens When Nothing Happens‘ on West Magazine
• Elle Nash, ‘Grief Lozenge‘ on The Fanzine
• Kim Schultz, ‘I fell in love with a refugee – here’s what I learned when the world didn’t love him too‘ on the New Statesman
• Rebecca Schuman, ‘Hello, Lenin? (Berlin, 1997)‘ on Longreads
• Alana Massey, ‘The Rotten, Precious Land‘ on Hazlitt
• Jonatha Kottler, ‘Fat in Every Language‘ in The Cut
• Alexandra Burt, ‘What Remains When Your First Language Fades Away‘ on Literary Hub
• Jen Gann, ‘I Love My Ugly Old Hands‘ on The Cut
• Melissa Febos, ‘Wunderkammer‘ in Vogue
• Bonnie Nadzam, ‘Experts in the Field‘ on Tin House
• Imbolo Mbue, ‘‘With every inch, the challenge multiplies’: me and my afro‘ in The Guardian
• Yemisi Aribisala, ‘People try to squeeze Nigerian food into an all-encompassing African label‘ in The Guardian
• Eileen Myles, ‘Aging Is Feminizing Me and I Hate It‘ in The Cut
• Stacey Dugid, ‘The skirt that gave me back my mojo‘ on The Pool
• Laurie Frankel, ‘When my son became my daughter, the transition was more routine than dramatic‘ in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Jaya Saxena, ‘Explaining My Multiracial Identity (So Others Don’t Do It For Me)‘ on Catapult
• Catherine LaSota, ‘Becoming an Artist and a Parent in NYC‘ on Catapult
• Cat Marnell, ‘How to Murder Your Life‘ on The Cut
• Kayla Rae Whitaker, ‘How I Learned To Date After Drinking‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Most American Thing‘ in The New Yorker
• Kuba Shand Baptiste, ‘It took me 17 years to fall in love with my black hair. Why?‘ on The Pool
• Eva Tenuto, ‘Feeling Unsafe at Every Size‘ on Longreads
• Lori Jakiela, ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker‘ on Electric Literature
• Patricia Bosworth, ‘The Men in My Life‘ on Literary Hub
• Meghan Tear Plummer, ‘Real Life: My Sister, My Brother‘ in Glamour
• Tracy O’Neill, ‘A Scar Is Not a Story‘ on Catapult
• Laila Lalami, ‘Love and Betrayal in America‘ in The New Yorker

Feminism:

• Dayna Tortorici, ‘While the Iron Is Hot‘ in n+1
• Michelle Darmody, ‘From the heart: One woman’s experience of abortion‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Riyan Fergins, ‘Follow the Oil Trail and You’ll Find the Girls‘ on Longreads
• Anita Bhagwandas, ‘The true meaning of beauty is to celebrate our imperfections‘ on The Pool
• Tobi Oredin, ‘As a black woman, I’ve had to unlearn what beauty means to me‘ on The Pool
• Jennilie Brewster, ‘Frozen Ground: On Reporting a Statutory Rape Twenty Years Later‘ on Catapult
• Zoe Samudsi, ‘Remy, Nicki, And The White Feminist Optics Of Black Women’s Beefs‘ on Equality for Her
• Katie Booth, ‘People Mountain, People Sea‘ on Vela
• Deborah Orr, ‘Helen Bailey and the lethal darkness behind this ‘middle-aged woman’ myth‘ in The Guardian
• Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The Trash Heap Has Spoken‘ on Guernica
• E.J. Dickson, ‘Why Did Everyone Act Like I Was Crazy When I Decided to Have a Baby in My 20s?‘ in The Cut
• Jendella Benson, ‘Feminist love will save men too‘ on Media Diversified
• Eve Ensler, ‘Female Fighters Series Re-examines Women’s Rage Around the World‘ on Guernica
• Abbie, ‘It’s Time to Trash Body Positivity‘ on Bullshitist
• Nimmi Gowrinathan, ‘Of Monsters & Women‘ on Guernica
• Yas Necati, ‘As a queer woman I will be marching against Donald Trump this weekend – but for my disabled friends it won’t be that easy‘ in The Independent
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Calling pregnant women ‘hosts’? We’re in an anti-choice Republican dystopia‘ in The Guardian
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Women in public life are now being openly bullied. How has this become normal?‘ in The Guardian
• Jessa Crispin, ‘The Failures of Mainstream Feminism‘ on New Republic
• Sara Ahmed, ‘Smile!‘ on Feminist Killjoys
• Shannon Keating, ‘Can Lesbian Identity Survive The Gender Revolution?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Melissa Denes, ‘‘It’s always high drama. It’s somebody’s life at stake’: inside British rape trials‘ in The Guardian
• Megan Nolan, ‘If British abortion providers turn away Irish women, it will be catastrophic‘ in The Pool
• Glosswitch, ‘What Would Happen if the World’s Women Went on Strike?‘ in the New Statesman
• Andrea Penman-Lomeli, ‘Consuming la Malinche, Destroying the Myth‘ on The New Inquiry
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Case Against Contemporary Feminism‘ in The New Yorker
• Nadine Ajaka, ‘The Casualties of Women’s War on Body Hair‘ in The Atlantic
• Amanda Hess, ‘How a Fractious Women’s Movement Came to Lead the Left‘ in The New York Times
• Naomi Alderman, ‘Utopian thinking: how to build a truly feminist society‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Traister, ‘The Future of the Left Is Female‘ in The Cut
• Sadie Hassler, ‘Three abortions‘ on Standard Issue
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘I may never be ready to stop saying “dude”‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Dana Snitzky, ‘The Ban, The Wall, Bearing Witness‘ on Longreads
• Hannah Black, ‘New World Disorder‘ on Art Forum
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The government can’t pledge support for mental illness – and then backtrack‘ on The Pool
• Elizabeth Weil, ‘The Curse of the Bahia Emerald‘ on Wired
• Claire Heuchan, ‘The parallels between Scottish nationalism and racism are clear‘ in The Guardian
• Tasbeeh Herwees, ‘Resistance In The Time Of Protest Selfies‘ on Good
• Teow Lim Goh, ‘On Borders and Citizens‘ on Catapult
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Labour can’t keep returning to its roots empty handed‘ in The Guardian
• Mehreen Kasana, ‘The Meaning of Allahu Akbar‘ on Hazlitt
• Rumana Ahmed, ‘I Was a Muslim in Trump’s White House‘ on The Atlantic
• Gabrielle Bellot, ‘M*lo Might Be Done, But His Transphobia Lingers‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Larson, ‘The Librarian of Congress and the Greatness of Humility‘ in The New Yorker
• Rachel Cusk, ‘The Age of Rudeness‘ in The New York Times
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘We are overdosing on empathy‘ in The Guardian
• Arifa Akbar, ‘The value we place on romantic love can feel tyrannical – especially if you’re a single woman‘ on The Pool
• Suzanne Moore, ‘It’s liking, not loving, that’s the true challenge in relationships‘ on The Pool
• Diane Abbott, ‘I fought racism and misogyny to become an MP. The fight is getting harder‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Day, ‘What does true love really look like?‘ on The Pool
• Ruth Whippman, ‘Authentic? Try being polite instead‘ in The Guardian
• Deborah Cohen, ‘Before Straight and Gay‘ on The Atlantic
• Lizzie Presser, ‘Below Deck‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Tari Ngangura, ‘How Black History Month Reminds Me How Exhausting It Is To Be Black‘ on Vice
• Caitlin L. Chandler, ‘The Other World‘ on Guernica
• Helen Haft, ‘Telling Memories‘ on Aeon
• Andrea Pitzer, ‘Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports‘ on Longreads
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘White People: I Don’t Want You To Understand Me Better, I Want You To Understand Yourselves‘ on The Establishment
• Lois Parshley, ‘Here Be Dragons: Finding the Blank Spaces in a Well-Mapped World‘ on VQR
• Hina Shamsi, ‘Flying Home From Abroad, a Border Agent Stopped and Questioned Me … About My Work for the ACLU‘ on ACLU
• Tina Nguyen, ‘Trump Grill Could Be the Worst Restaurant in America‘ in Vanity Fair
• Tamara Winfrey Harris, ‘The Real Work of Being an Ally‘ on The Cut
• Nesrine Malik, ‘Suddenly, Muslims are America’s pariahs‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Simons, ‘The Karen road to Nhill‘ on SBS
• Fariah Roísín, ‘What Makes a Border Be?‘ on Hazlitt

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

• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘From Hannah Horvath to Rory Gilmore: the problem with women writers on TV‘ in the New Statesman
• Eva Holland, ‘Bird Man‘ on Longreads
• Lynn Enright, ‘Twentysomething women often win Best Actress. Men in their twenties basically never win Best Actor‘ on The Pool
• Brittney Cooper, ‘Why It’s Important to Recognize That “Moonlight” Was Robbed Of Its Moment‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Awkward Politics of the Oscars‘ in The New Yorker
• Megan Garber, ‘Why Are They ‘Stars’?‘ on The Atlantic
• Jess Goldschmidt, ‘Against La La Land‘ on Guernica
• Ann Powers, ‘The Problem With The Grammys Is Not A Problem We Can Fix‘ on NPR
• Helen O’Hara, ‘TV is better placed to tell love stories than cinema – and its writers have finally realised that‘ on The Pool
• Frances Ryan, ‘I, Daniel Blake is a realistic depiction of life on benefits. Isn’t it?‘ in The Guardian
• Emma Gray, ‘What White Women Can Learn From Adele’s Grammys Speech‘ on the Huffington Post
• Anindita Ghose, ‘What John Berger would say about Beyoncé‘ on Live Mint
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Oh, how I loved you, Johnny Depp. Now I see the purple-tinted truth‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Craik, ‘Why do we judge Victoria Beckham by her husband?‘ on The Pool
• Micha Frazer-Carroll, ‘Why We Should Celebrate Beyoncé’s Pregnancy in the Era of Trump‘ on Gal-Dem
• Danielle Dash, ‘Beyonce, Black Joy & White Women‘ on her website
• Jennifer Keshin Armstrong, ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Feminist Struggle‘ on Longreads
• Dayna Evans, ‘Why Would a Woman Want to Play Football?‘ on The Cut
• Véronique Hyland, ‘Why Won’t We Let Madonna Age the Way She Wants To?‘ on The Cut

The interviews/profiles:

• Susan Hill in The Guardian
• Cara Hoffman on Broadly
• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan on Literary Hub
• Kate Zambreno on The Creative Independent
• Yoojin Grace Wuertz on Electric Literature
• Melissa Febos on Guernica
• Masha Gessen on The Millions
• Zeba Talkhani and Laura Waddell on Minor Literature[s]
• Patty Yumi Cottrell in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Ayòbámi Adébáyò in The Guardian
• Claudia Rankine in The Financial Times
• Claire Fuller in The Chicago Review of Books
• Ethel Rohan on The Millions and on Bustle
• Yiyun Li in The Guardian, on Five Books
• Jane Wong and Aditi Machado on Literary Hub
• Roxane Gay on Brooklyn
• Emily Ruskovich on Electric Literature
• Roshi Fernando on Short Story Award
• Jess Phillips on The Debrief
• Morgan Parker in The Cut
• Liane Moriarty in The Guardian
• Dreda Say Mitchell on Greenacre Writers
• Sara Baume in The Guardian
• Ola Nubi on Ankara Press
• Shappi Khorsandi in The Guardian
• Heather O’Neill on The Millions
• Rachel Cusk in BOMB
• Nina LaCour on The Booklist Reader
• Emma Donoghue on Literary Hub
• Ayelet Waldman in California
• Alice Broadway on Foyles, in The Guardian
• Amanda Owen in The Guardian
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The Guardian
• Margaret Atwood in The Guardian
• Ali Smith in The New York Times
• Lara Pawson on Rhys Tranter
• Christine Hyung-Oak Lee on NPR
• Jade Sharma in The Rumpus
• Alana Massey on Hello Giggles, Hazlitt
• Khairani Barokka on Disability Arts
• Adrian Shirk on Catapult
• Katie Kitamura on Literary Hub
• Camille Pagán in the Huffington Post
• Adania Shiboli on Literary Hub
• Naomi Jackson on The Rumpus
• Katie Khan on In the Words of
• Kyo Maclear on Mcleans
• Kim Hyesoon on Guernica
• Jessica Valenti on The Rumpus
• Elif Shafak in The Guardian, on Foyles
• Erica Ferencik on Electric Literature
• Eimear McBride on Electric Literature
• Sandra Cisneros on Literary Hub
• Shanthi Sekaran on Bookanista
• Ottessa Moshfegh on Lenny

The regular columnists:

• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• 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: November 2016, 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.

What else can begin this fortnight’s coverage?

• Lindy West, ‘Blaming political correctness for Trump is like blaming the civil rights movement for Jim Crow‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Shattered‘ in The Cut
• Various, ‘Waking Up in Trump’s America, Part 1‘ in The New Enquiry
• Dayna Tortorici, ‘What Can Feminists Do?‘ on n+1
• Elizabeth Drew, ‘How It Happened‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Mira Jacob, ‘Here’s What I’m Telling My Brown Son About Trump’s America‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘Hillary Clinton didn’t fail us. We failed her‘ in The Guardian
• Various on the US election in The Guardian
• Michelle Dean, ‘Don’t Stop Believin’‘ in New Republic
• Linda Mannheim, ‘after the shock waves of the us elections, how do we locate ourselves?‘ on 3:am
• Heather Wells Peterson, ‘What Can Art Do After Trump?‘ on Literary Hub
• Masha Gessen, ‘Autocracy: Rules for Survival‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Garnette Cadogan, ‘Staying and Fighting, and Finding Strength in Poetry‘ on Literary Hub
• Leslie Jamison, ‘The Day After Trump Won‘ on Granta
• Nicole Chung, ‘The Day After The Election, I Told My Daughter The Truth‘ on Buzzfeed
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘What Is America So Afraid Of?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Laurie Penny, ‘On the Election of Donald J Trump‘ in The New Statesman
• Ashley Weatherford, ‘If Trump Scares You, You’re Getting a Glimpse of What It Feels Like to Be Black in America‘ in The Cut
• Ann Friedman, ‘Finish Your Ugly-Crying. Here’s What Comes Next.‘ in The Cut
• Gloria Steinem, ‘After the election of Donald Trump, we will not mourn. We will organize‘ in The Guardian
• Lindy West, ‘Her Loss‘ in The New York Times
• Lola Okolosie, ‘How to tell the children about Trump? After all, they deserve the truth‘ in The Guardian
• Maureen Langloss, ‘It’s A Man’s World‘ on her blog
• Ayahna Hamilton, ‘“Progress”, Black Women and the US Presidential Election‘ on gal-dem
• Hadley Freeman, ‘I’ve heard enough of the white male rage narrative‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Donald Trump has grabbed America by the pussy, and it’s women who will suffer‘ in the New Statesman
• Amelia Tate, ‘Control, Alt-Right, Retweet: How social media paved the way for President Trump‘ in the New Statesman
• Anne Enright, ‘Never has male anatomy been so waved about in politics‘ in The Irish Times
• Allison Pearson, ‘Why misogyny was The Donald’s trump card‘ in The Telegraph
• Maya Goodfellow, ‘Make no mistake – Donald Trump’s victory represents a racist “whitelash”‘ in the New Statesman
• Caroline Crampton, ‘Voting for Trump and Brexit: what the working class revolt is really about‘ in the New Statesman
• Kelcey Parker Ervick, ‘How We Talk About Women’s Lives‘ on Literary Hub
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Time to reclaim language: words are more important than ever in the age of post-truth politics‘ in the New Statesman
• Bridget Minamore, ‘As a woman of colour I foresaw Trump was going to win‘ on The Pool
• Nicole Chung, ‘Parenting the Election‘ on Hazlitt
• Chloé Cooper Jones, ‘Miami Dispatch: Unmoored Realities on the Campaign Trail‘ on Medium
• Pamela Newkirk, ‘The Myth of a Post-Racial America‘ on Literary Hub
• Susan Straight, ‘I Drove 3,582 Miles to Vote for the President‘ on Literary Hub
• Nicole Dennis-Benn, ‘My First Visit to the Church of American Democracy‘ on Literary Hub
• Lauren Elkin, ‘Donald Trump, Anti-Flaneur‘ on Literary Hub
• Barbara Kingsolver, ‘End this misogynistic horror show. Put Hillary Clinton in the White House‘ in The Guardian
• Jill Filipovic, ‘The Men Feminists Left Behind‘ in The New York Times
• Jessa Crispin, ‘Madam Prescient‘ on The Baffler
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, ‘Trump’s Inconvenient Racial Truth‘ in The New York Times
• Olga Khazan, ‘The Lasting Harm of Trump-Style Sexism‘ on The Atlantic
• Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, ‘What Hillary Clinton’s Fans Love About Her‘ in The Atlantic
• Isabel Fonseca, ‘Voters, guns and hurricanes‘ in The TLS
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘New York City Is a Book Conservatives Should Read‘ on Literary Hub
• Emily Harnett, ‘On the Horror of Language, and the Horror of Trump‘ on Literary Hub
• Elaine Showalter, ‘Pilloried Clinton‘ in the TLS

Photograph by Nye’Lyn Tho

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Aminatta Forna, ‘The Many Ways in Which the Heart Can Break‘ on Literary Hub
• Martha Greengrass, ‘Running with the Wolves: An Introduction to The Bloody Chamber‘ on Waterstones
• Jenn Ashworth, ‘A moment that changed me: stealing the book that saved my life‘ in The Guardian
• Sabina Murphy, ‘What Can Historical Fiction Accomplish that History Does Not?‘ on Literary Hub
• Anna Wilson, ‘Full-body Reading’ on Aeon
• Saba Imtiaz, ‘Searching for a 14th-Century Scribe in Modern Jordan‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Schaff, ‘When Your Characters Live Inside Your Childhood Home‘ on Literary Hub
• Kathy Gale, ‘Successful Women‘ in The Bookseller
• Naomi Frisby, ‘Coverage of Experimental Fiction Writing Is a Half-Formed Thing‘ on Tilted Axis
• Gabrielle Bellot, ‘A Young Woman Called Death…‘ on Literary Hub
• Gaby Wood, ‘Elena Ferrante: how to see an invisible author‘ in The Telegraph
• Elena Ferrante, ‘I believe that books, once written, have no need of their authors‘ in The Observer
• Miranda Carter, ‘Dining with death: crime fiction’s long affair with food‘ in The Guardian
• Linda Grant, ‘I can’t write after lunch, in a public place, or when anyone is in the house‘ in The Guardian
• Arisa White, ‘In Praise of Our Black Women Poets‘ on Literary Hub
• Natalie Jerome, ‘Dear next generation…‘ in The Bookseller
• Candice Carty-Williams, ‘I’m Temi? I’m Temi from The Glamma Kids, you know?‘ in The Bookseller
• Margaret Busby, ‘Is it still a case of plus ça change?‘ in The Bookseller
• Ama Josephine Budge, ‘We must constantly question what our own agenda might be‘ in The Bookseller
• Kelsey McKinney, ‘Out of Print: The Original Nancy Drew Novels‘ on Lenny
• Sara Nović, ‘What Does an Artist Look Like?‘ on The James Franco Review
• A.J. Ashworth, ‘Introducing Writers on Rejection: A new series‘ on her blog
• Sarah Domet, ‘The Search for Home in American Fiction‘ on Literary Hub
• Alexander Chee, ‘Elena Ferrante, Private Novelist‘ on New Republic
• Emma-Jane Kirby, ‘Open to Ghosts: Writing The Optician of Lampedusa‘ on Waterstones’ blog
• ‘Virago publishers share the books that made them feminist‘ in Stylist
• Carina del Valle Schorske, ‘On the Perilous Potential of Feminist Silence‘ on Literary Hub
• Elaine Blair, ‘Elena Ferrante: Hiding in Plain Sight‘ in The New York Times
• Tanya Landman, ‘The MPs’ expenses scandal breathed life into history‘ in The Guardian
• Elena Ferrante, ‘What An Ugly Child She Is‘ in The New Yorker
• Lennie Goodings, ‘Feminism, pornography and lots of crying in the loos: 43 years of Virago‘ in The Telegraph
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Why We Love to Be Haunted‘ on Literary Hub
• Evie Gaughan, ‘Gender Bias in the Literary World‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books

Personal essays/memoir:

• Rachel Klein, ‘When the Body Breaks Its Silence‘ on Catapult
• Cari Luna, ‘Under Threat of the Really Big One‘ on Catapult
• Millissa Kingbird, ‘Woman Standing at Rock‘ on The Rumpus
• Nancy Matson, ‘My Low-Wage Job at the Circus‘ on Catapult
• Amy Zhang, ‘Lotus Pods and Jambalaya in Jianguomen: Memory and Change in a Beijing Neighborhood‘ on Catapult
• Salley Vickers, ‘I didn’t love my mum enough to kill her‘ in The Times (£)
• Holly Müller, ‘Fascism and Its Echoes, and the Othering of the Mentally Ill‘ on Literary Hub
• Deborah Jackson Taffa, ‘This American Paradise‘ on The Rumpus
• Jacqueline Doyle, ‘What Did You Say?‘ on Medium
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘All the Things I Thought About When We Were Naming My Nephew (aka A गुलाब by Any Other Name; aka Song for Kian)‘ on Catapult
• Emma Sloley, ‘Nudists Always Play Volleyball‘ on Catapult
• Kally Mays, ‘We, the Hunted: Dogs, Resistance, and Survival‘ on Catapult
• Merritt Tierce, ‘Carved in Wood‘ on The Paris Review
• Louise Penny, ‘The Last Promise‘ on AARP
• Susan Straight, ‘Every Month Is Black History Month‘ on Literary Hub
• Mariam, ‘So, What Generation Immigrant Are You?‘ on Femsplain
• Scaachi Koul, ‘There’s No Recipe For Growing Up‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emma Straub, ‘Teenage Dream‘ on Tin House
• Mikella Clements, ‘When Your Family Business Isn’t a Family‘ on Catapult
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘The Accidental City‘ on Catapult

 

Feminism:

• Sharine Taylor, ‘Body Politics: Beyoncé, Teyana Taylor, and the Liberation of Black Women Through Dance‘ on Noisey
• Mila Kunis, ‘You’ll Never Work In This Town Again…‘ on A Plus
• Olga Khazan, ‘A Diary of Toxic Love‘ on The Atlantic
• ‘Stanford Sexual Assault Case Survivor Emily Doe Speaks Out‘ in Glamour
• Ashley Nelson Levy, ‘Of Course By Now You Know This Story‘ on Catapult
• Megan Garber, ‘How Rom-Coms Undermine Women‘ on The Atlantic
• Claire Heuchan, ‘For the White Woman Who Wants to Know How to be My Friend: A Black Feminist Guide to Interracial Solidarity‘ on Sister Outrider
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘There will always be a place in the world for witches‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Marian Bull, ‘California Dreaming‘ on Eater
• Antonia Juhasz, ‘Inside the Battle Over the Dakota Access Pipeline‘ in Pacific Standard
• Paris Lees, ‘Punching Bags‘ on Vice
• Amy Wollard, ‘Tent Revival‘ on VQR
• Marilynne Robinson, ‘Against Oligarchy‘ on Literary Hub

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

• Dafna Izenberg, ‘In The Air Again‘ on Hazlitt
• Alana Massey, ‘Your Brands and Lovers‘ on Real Life
• Amber Butchart, ‘Why our love affair with leopard print is never going to die‘ on The Pool
• Soraya Roberts, ‘Adrienne Shelly Will Take You There‘ on Hazlitt

The interviews/profiles:

• Jillian Tamaki on Room
• Jenn Ashworth on Wales Arts Review
• Zadie Smith in The Bookseller, Vanity Fair and The Telegraph
• Belle Boggs on The Rumpus
• Anakana Schofield in the New Statesman and on The Writes of Woman
• Malka Older on The Rumpus
• Helena Kelly in The Bookseller
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika in the New Statesman and on The Writes of Woman
• Eimear McBride in the New Statesman
• Rachel Cusk in the New Statesman
• Eleanor Hooker in The Irish Times
• Petina Gappah in The Guardian
• Dodie Bellamy in The White Review
• Alexandra Kleeman in Guernica
• Jade Chang on Electric Literature
• Esmé Weijun Wang on The Rumpus and Catapult
• Ann Patchett in Guernica
• Michelle Tea in BOMB Magazine
• Vi Khi Nao in Electric Literature
• Therese Oneill on The Millions
• Kelly Luce on Electric Literature and Tin House
• Fanny Howe on Literary Hub
• Jane Alison on The Rumpus
• Jasna Ani on Words Without Borders
• Wendy C. Ortiz on Electric Literature
• Cristina Sánchez-Andrade on Bookanista
• M.J. Carter on From First Page to Last
• Anne Carson in The Guardian

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
• 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, June 2016, 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.

It’s impossible to begin with anything other than the Stanford rape case. The victim’s court statement was published on Buzzfeed and went viral. The piece, along with responses from Brock Turner’s father and friends, including a female friend who defended him, have prompted some impassioned and powerful pieces: Louise O’Neill wrote, ‘20 minutes is an awfully long time when you’re the one being raped‘ in the Irish Examiner; Estelle B. Freedman, ‘When Feminists Take On Judges Over Rape‘ in The New York Times; Sarah Lunnie, ‘Maybe the word “rapist” is a problem: The utility of nouns and verbs, or accepting who we are and what we do‘ on Salon; Adrienne LaFrance, ‘What Happens When People Stop Talking About the Stanford Rape Case?‘ on The Atlantic; Kim Saumell, ‘I was never raped but…‘ on Medium; Rebecca Makkai, ‘The Power and Limitations of Victim-Impact Statements‘ in The New Yorker; Roe McDermott, ‘He Said Nothing‘ on The Coven; Glosswitch, ‘Does the outrage over the Stanford rape case do anything to help victims?‘ in the New Statesman

The other big news this fortnight was Lisa McInerney’s debut novel, The Glorious Heresies, taking The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016. Justine Jordan wrote, ‘Sweary Lady’s riot of invention is a well-deserved winner of the Baileys prize‘ in The Guardian. While McInerney wrote about her working day for The Guardian and shared a secret in ‘Bad Behaviourism‘ on Scottish Book Trust

There’s a new series on Literary Hub about women writers in translation. Written by a group of translators, each fortnight they’re looking at a country and the women writers from there yet to be translated into English. So far they’ve covered Germany, China and Italy. I’ve added it to the regulars at the bottom of the page.

And finally, the excellent Jendella Benson has a new column on Media Diversified. This week’s is ‘How to Raise a Champion‘ and I’ve also added her to the list of regulars at the bottom of the page.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Natasha Walter, ‘We’ve been expecting you, Ms Bond: why fiction needs more female spies‘ in The Guardian
• Barbara Donsky, ‘The Power of Nancy Drew‘ on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Kaulie Lewis, ‘Books I Wish I Wrote: On Writerly Jealousy‘ on The Millions
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘Sex, drugs and radical feminism. At 50, Valley Of The Dolls is as relevant as ever‘ on The Pool
• Tessa Hadley, ‘At Home in the Past‘ in The New Yorker
• Peggy Frew, ‘The closest Mum ever came to saying ‘I love you’ – Dad never even came close‘ in The Irish Times
• Joanna Walsh, ‘The N Word – Against the Novel‘ in The Irish Times
• M.J. Carter, ‘Who Were the Infidels‘ on For Winter Nights
• Lisa Dempster, ‘If you doubted there was gender bias in literature, this study proves you wrong‘ in The Guardian
• Rachael Acks, ‘An Open Letter to a Novel I Was Certain I’d Love (And Didn’t)‘ on BookRiot
• Teresa Preston, ‘Where Are All the Single Ladies in Fiction‘ on BookRiot
• Sarah Hepola, ‘What My Parents Really Think About My Memoir of Alcoholism‘ on Literary Hub
• Alix Hawley, ‘Angels of the North: On ‘Happy Valley’ and Anne Brontë‘ on The Millions
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘Beyoncé is not shining a light on African literature – it’s the other way round‘ in The Guardian
• Lionel Shriver’s ‘teenage diary: bad spelling and unreturned affections‘ in The Guardian
• Mo Moulton, ‘Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Barber, and the Story of a Wartime Lemon‘ in The Toast
• Christina Patterson, ‘Memorising Poetry Is an Art of the Heart‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Madison, ‘Dear Broke Reader: Your Sense of Entitlement is Killing Me‘ on her website
• Kelly Kanayama, ‘Even with “inclusive” Shakespeare, whiteness takes priority‘ on Media Diversified
• Rivka Galchen, ‘Where Is Luckily?‘ in The New Yorker
• Mylo Freeman, ‘Black girls can be princesses too, that’s why I wrote my books‘ in The Guardian
• Annie Liontas, ‘Inherit the Word‘ in The New York Times
• JoAnna Novak, ‘The Long Dash‘ on Catapult
• Lucie Whitehouse, ‘Why Strong Female Friendships Are So Important In Literature Today‘ in Bustle
• Kate Angus, ‘How to Tell the Future with Books‘ on Literary Hub
• Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, ‘Writers need new ways of talking about Africa’s past and present‘ in The Guardian
• Amber Sparks, ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Short Story Writers (And Demand They Write a Novel)‘ on Electric Literature
• James Wallace Harris, ‘The Resurrection of Lady Dorothy Mills‘ on BookRiot
• Alison Flood, ‘Yale English students call for end of focus on white male writers‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Tyler, ‘Let’s face it, Shakespeare’s plots are terrible’ in The Guardian
• C.J. Flood, ‘Teen girls have a right to roam too‘ in The Guardian
• Michelle Dean, ‘In Between Daze‘ in The Awl
• Charlotte Eyre, ‘Crossan wins YA Book Prize 2016‘ in The Bookseller
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘Girly Book Covers and Man Book Clubs‘ on Electric Literature
• Saengeeta Bandyopadhyay, ‘My God, so Much Sex?‘ on English Pen (translated by Arunava Sinha)
• Michelle Dean, ‘Read it and keep: is it time to reassess the ‘beach read’?‘ in The Guardian
• Sarra Manning, ‘I Love Books, Let Me Count The Ways…‘ in Red
• Katherine Wilson, ‘How Elena Ferrante made the neglected Naples a must-visit destination‘ on The Pool
• Jonathan Coe, ‘Enid Blyton? She gave me my sense of social justice‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hilary, ‘A Gift for Killing: Patricia Highsmith’s legacy for today’s crime writers‘ on Virago
• Esther Allen, ‘From the Translator: The Song Remains the Same?‘ on Words Without Borders
• Monica Tan, ‘Women and Melbourne writers dominate Miles Franklin 2016 shortlist‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Gentleman, ‘The mystifying disappearance of children’s author Helen Bailey‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Buchanan, ‘How Shakespeare shaped Greer’s feminist masterpiece‘ on ABC
• Ursula K. LeGuin, ‘Up the Amazon with the BS Machine‘ on Book View Cafe
• Emily Carr, ‘Finding Poems in My Own Labyrinth‘ on Literary Hub
• Gretchen Gerzina, ‘“True Love”: The Victorian (re)discovery that transformed our understanding of black women’s literature‘ on Salon

Personal essays/memoir:

• Melynda Fuller, ‘Rapture of the Deep‘ on The Rumpus
• Claire Hoffman, ‘Growing Up in Meditationland‘ in The Cut
• Tanwi Nandini Islam, ‘How Failure Became My New Beginning‘ in Elle
• Maya Binyam, ‘That Place Becomes a Wound‘ on The Hairpin
• Stephanie Danler, ‘On Losing Something Precious‘ on Literary Hub
• Marina Benjamin, ‘My Daughter, Myself‘ on Aeon
• Rebecca Worby, ‘Expanding the Story‘ in Guernica
• Cathy Day, ‘They Found a Meth Lab in Cole Porter’s Childhood Home‘ on Literary Hub
• Bryony Gordon, ‘How my relationships with men were affected by my mental illness‘ on The Pool
• Allison Moorer, ‘Below The Belt‘ on Guernica
• Rina Caballar, ‘How to Make Polvoron: Growing Up With a Mother Overseas‘ in The Toast
• Soniah Kamal, ‘The Reluctant Writer‘ on Catapult
• Stephanie Wittels Wachs, ‘How to Reinvent Yourself‘ on Medium
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Time, Money, Happiness‘ on The Smart Set
• Gillian B. White, ‘Muhammad Ali and the Importance of Identity‘ on The Atlantic
• Erin Williams, ‘Before I Was A Mother, I Was A Drunk‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Sweeney, ‘Some Girls‘ on Catapult
• Nicole Walker, ‘DNA‘ on The Rumpus
• Rufi Thorpe, ‘The Plus Side to Marrying a Total Stranger‘ on Female First
• Ulrika Campbell, ‘My Mother Told Me I Should Get Breast Implants When I Was 14‘ on XOJane
• Bridget Minamore, ‘The simple joy shared by two women on the road‘ on The Pool
• Marie Phillips, ‘Can you ever truly feel at home in a country you weren’t born in?‘ on The Pool
• Francine Prose, ‘Enthralled by Sicily, Again‘ in The New York Times
• Jane Demuth, ‘This Is to Mother You: On Caring for a Toxic Parent in Her Greatest Time of Need‘ on Longreads

Feminism:

• Marina Benjamin, ‘The ‘middlepause’: what no one tells you about turning 50‘ in The Telegraph
• Alexandra Heminsley, ‘Why BodyForm’s new ad is a game changer‘ on The Pool
• Megan Garber, ‘When Newsweek ‘Struck Terror in the Hearts of Single Women’‘ on The Atlantic
• Robyn Wilder, ‘Finding your place in the mummy-cliques‘ on The Pool
• Helen Phillips, ‘Escaping the Self-Critical Eye for the Sake of My Daughter‘ on Literary Hub
• Holly Brockwell, ‘“There’s not a shadow of regret”: one woman’s diary of her struggle to become voluntarily infertile aged 30‘ in Stylist
• Jessica Valenti, ‘My life as a ‘sex object’‘ in The Guardian
• Orbala, ‘On Conditional Love in Patriarchies and Death to Patriarchy‘ on Freedom from the Forbidden
• Claire Heuchan, ‘Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Racism in the Feminist Movement‘ on Sister Outrider
• Ann Friedman, ‘Pop Feminism Doesn’t Mean the End of the Movement‘ in The Cut
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘When it comes to online abuse, we need to see a fuller picture‘ on The Pool
• Dawn Foster, ‘If I ever see you in the street, I hope you get shot’ on The London Review of Books
• Una Mullally, ‘Shifting Ground‘ in Granta
• Hadley Hall Meares, ‘The invention of the paper bag was a triumph of feminism‘ on Aeon

Society and Politics:

• Alana Massey, ‘Your Parents’ Romantic Lives Don’t Have to Determine Your Own‘ in The Cut
• Sonia Smith, ‘Unfriendly Climate‘ in Texas Monthly
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, ‘Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City‘ in The New York Times Magazine
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘The Brown, Queer, And Poor Are Not The Ones Holding The Left Back‘ in The Establishment
• Mary Milz, ‘Blindsided: A Dream Engagement Turned Nightmare‘ in Indianapolis Monthly
• Alex Mar, ‘What Ever Happened to “The Most Liberated Woman in America”?‘ on Longreads
• Andrea Nguyen, ‘The History of Pho‘ on Lucky Peach
• Ella Risbridger, ‘If I am your “carer”, can I also be your girlfriend, mother or daughter?‘on The Pool
• Kathleen McAuliffe, ‘Disgust Made Us Human‘ on Aeon
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Sexuality today: how we embarked on a new age of freedom and tolerance‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘Citizen Khan‘ in The New Yorker
• Ashley Powers, ‘The Man in the Woods‘ in the California Sunday Magazine
• Lynn Enright, ‘Negotiating the etiquette of love in the airport‘ on The Pool
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘The disastrous message sexism in the Labour party is giving young women voters‘ on The Pool
• Jacinda Townsend, ‘Heteronormativity and the Single Mother‘ in The White Review
• Glosswitch, ‘To ignore someone’s educational background isn’t “fair play” – it perpetuates inequality‘ in the New Statesman
• Olga Khazan, ‘Not White, Not Rich, and Seeking Therapy‘ in The Atlantic
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Hillary Clinton vs. Herself‘ in New York Magazine

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

• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Why, after years of gay-free cartoons, I can’t get excited about Finding Dory’s lesbian couple‘ on the New Statesman
• Chitra Ramaswamy, ‘Why we need more gay characters on screen‘ on The Pool
• Kristen Lopez, ‘How the Weepy Fantasy ‘Me Before You’ Infantilizes the Disabled‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Hall, ‘Watch author Jojo Moyes respond to controversy over the portrayal of disability in Me Before You‘ in Stylist
• Clover Hope, ‘How White Are the Women’s Magazine Covers of 2016 so Far?‘ on Jezebel
• Kat George, ‘Why Missy Elliott’s feminist legacy is criminally underrated‘ on Dazed
• Désirée Wariaro, ‘Beyoncé and Resistance‘ on Media Diversified

The interviews/profiles:

• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney in The New York Times
• Annie Proulx in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal
• Marilynne Robinson on BookRiot
• Nina Stibbe in Red
• Mary Roach in The New York Times
• Christina MacSweeney on Words Without Borders
• Sarah Hepola on Salon
• Rebecca Schiff on The Rumpus
• Stephanie Danler on Literary Hub
• Jessica Valenti on BookRiot and The Pool
• Lynne Kutsukake on Bloom
• Sarah Gerard on The Huffington Post
• Rita Mae Brown on Broadly
• Lydia Millet and Jenny Offill on Slate
• Nell Dunn on The F Word
• Sarah Perry on The History Girls and Five Books
• Yaa Gyasi on NPR
• Lynn Steger Strong on The Rumpus
• Eleanor Wasserberg on Waterstones
• Sylvia Patterson in The Guardian
• Laura Lippman on The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Patricia Engel on Electric Literature
• Hanya Yanagihara on Waterstones and The Bookseller
• Leila Aboulala (and Elnathan John) on Literary Hub
• Emma Jane Unsworth and Rachel B. Glaser on Granta
• Emma Straub on BookRiot and Electric Literature
• Kathleen Alcott in The Guardian
• Julie Myerson on Bookanista
• Emma Cline on The Bookseller
• Weina Dai Randel on History from a Woman’s Perspective
• Joanna Walsh in The Honest Ulsterman
• Helen MacKinven on Christina Banach’s website
• Charlotte Hobson in the Financial Times
• Rebecca Perry in The Honest Ulsterman
• Kimberle Crenshaw in The Guardian
• Alice Walker on Salon

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
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, April 2016, 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.

There’s been a strong narrative about the abuse of women over the last fortnight. Jessica Knoll wrote a personal and powerful essay about the gang rape which informed the writing of her novel Luckiest Girl Alive. ‘What I Know‘ was published on Lena Dunham’s site Lenny. Daisy Buchanan interviewed Knoll for The Pool. Jia Tolentino looked at the reporting of abuse in ‘Is this the End of the Era of the Important, Inappropriate Literary Man‘ on Jezebel. Helen Walmsley-Johnson wrote ‘The shame of abuse has held me hostage for years‘ on The Pool; Kathryn Joyce wrote ‘Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream‘ on The Huffington Post; Jade Blair wrote, ‘Women Do What They Need To Do To Survive‘ on Hazlitt, and Louise O’Neill wrote ‘Nothing could prepare me for what happened when I published my book‘ on The Pool and ‘What a privilege it is to think that I might have touched other peoples lives in some small way‘ in The Irish Examiner. (The later is O’Neill’s weekly column which I’ve now added to the regulars section at the bottom of the post.)

The 2015 VIDA count for the number of bylines and reviews for female writers in literary magazines was announced. There’s some good news in some areas but, overall, there’s still a long way to go. Rachel McCarthy James followed this with, ‘Women in Publishing 100 Years Ago: A Historical VIDA Count: Representation and Gender (Im)Balance in 1916‘ on Literary Hub

The longlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize was announced with seven books by female writers in the running.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Sara Barrett, ‘I have autism and the lack of authentic autistic voices in books angers me‘ in The Guardian
• Narwali Serpell, ‘Africa Has Always Been Sci-Fi‘ on Literary Hub
• Boris Kachka, ‘Claudia Rankine Challenges White Teachers, Pities White Racists in AWP Keynote‘ on Vulture
• Jane Mendlesohn, ‘Why I Wrote a Novel About Sex Trafficking‘ on Literary Hub
• Kate Tempest, ‘It’s difficult to look at words as pegs to hang a plot from’ in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh, ‘On Self-Writing‘ in the Irish Times
• Harriet Reuter-Hapgood, ‘“I wake up panicked at 2am every night”: an author reveals what it’s (really) like to write a debut novel‘ in Stylist
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Every Meal In Wuthering Heights Ranked In Order Of Sadness‘ in The Toast
• Ros Barber, ‘For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Abbott, ‘14 hour days, marketing and dealing with snobbery: my life as a self-published bestseller‘ on The Guardian
• Brigid Delaney, ‘What we write about when we write about running‘ in The Guardian
• Kelly Kerney, ‘The Impossible Task of Writing Historical Fiction‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Sofia Samatar, ‘On the 13 Words that Made Me a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Gaby Wood, ‘Harper Lee’s letters: priceless literary artifacts or tasteless celebrity memorabilia?‘ in The Telegraph
• Viv Groskop, ‘Celebrating Eat, Pray, Love 10 years on‘ on The Pool
• Mairi Kidd, ‘Access to books and reading should be a right‘ on The Bookseller
• Rachel Kondo, ‘Write How You Like Write: Representing Hawai’i Creole English as a Literary Participant‘ on Electric Literature
• Katie Roiphe, ‘Remembering Susan Sontag’s Final Days‘ on Literary Hub
• Rowan Whiteside, ‘Why I ❤️ Georgette Heyer‘ in Standard Issue
• Leigh Stein, ‘Millennial Days‘ in The New York Times
• David Featherstone, ‘Doreen Massey obituary‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Why those subversive Brontë sisters still hypnotise us‘ in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara, ‘Writing can be lonely‘ in The Telegraph
• Kate Elliott, ‘Writing Women Characters into Epic Fantasy Without Quotas‘ on Tor.Com
• Sara Nović, ‘on how she wrote Girl at War‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Bakewell, ‘At the Existentialist Café‘ on Literary Hub
• Mira Ptacin, ‘Hard Truth and Deep Trauma Behind Bars‘ on Literary Hub
• Shirley Barrett, ‘How to Be a Whaler’s Wife in 1908: Boil Everything, Wash the Clothes in Gin‘ on Literary Hub
• Lucy Mangan, ‘The forgotten genius: why Anne wins the battle of the Brontës‘ in The Guardian
• Danielle Dutton, ‘On Dressing Margaret Cavendish‘ in The Believer
• Vespa Goldsworthy, ‘I started from Gatsby as a Greek dramatist starts from Antigone‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Anita Brookner’s wry, elegant world of disappointed women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Madison Griffiths, ‘An Open Letter to My Vagina: Sex, Pain, and Vaginismus‘ on Vice
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘Running Still‘ in Guernica
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘To Be a Mother, To Be a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Black-McCulloch, ‘Catching the Light‘ on Maisonneuve
• Liz Jackson, ‘Four Years Ago Today, I Fell Out of Bed.‘ on Medium
• Susan Ito, ‘Names‘ on Catapult
• Molly Prentiss, ‘From a California Commune to New York City or, How to Be an Adult Woman in NYC‘ on Literary Hub
• Nandini Balial, ‘Agemus‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Vivian Huyun, ‘I thought assimilation was the key to happiness, but I ended up trapped in a cultural prison‘ in The Guardian
• Abby Higgs, ‘A Conversation with Brandon‘ on Catapult
• Clare Vaye Watkins, ‘How to Escape Your Hometown‘ on Literary Hub
• Patricia Smith, ‘Bazooka Smackdown‘ in Guernica
• Marissa Korbel, ‘No, Lolita‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Katie Daubs, ‘The woman who was trans before her time‘ in The Toronto Star
• Glosswitch, ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s approach to fatherhood is a victory for male supremacy‘ in the New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘There is an epidemic of missing women and girls of colour in the UK‘ on Media Diversified
• Elisa Albert, ‘Confessions of a Radical Doula‘ in The Cut
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘The Slow Fall of the Hot Heroine‘ on The Rumpus
• Jendella Benson, ‘Is It Worth it?: Black Women’s Voices and the Permission to Speak‘ on the Huffington Post
• Laura Bates, ‘Why is travelling alone still considered a risky, frivolous pursuit for women?‘ in The Guardian
• Rosie Fletcher, ‘It’s great that Emma Watson is standing up for feminism – but #HeforShe is the wrong approach‘ in The New Statesman

Society and Politics:

• Bettina Judd, ‘On or about July 10, 2015‘ on The Offing
• Jo Scott-Coe, ‘Listening to Kathy‘ on Catapult
• Ellen Cantarow and Alison Rose Levy, ‘A Fukushima on the Hudson?‘ in Guernica
• Christina Cauterucci, ‘We Expect Women to Have Impostor Syndrome. That’s Why We Can’t Handle Hillary Clinton.‘ on Slate
• Erica Schweigershausen, ‘How Biased Policies Push Black Girls Out of School‘ on The Cut
• Angie Maxwell, ‘Donald Trump and the Lost Cause‘ in VQR
• Miranda Trimmier, ‘Dark Pools‘ on The New Inquiry
• Patricia Lockwood, ‘Lost in Trumplandia‘ in the New Republic
• Zoe Williams, ‘These Tory messages show us why faith has no place in politics‘ in The Guardian
• Elaine Brown, ‘‘A Taste of Power’: The Woman who Led the Black Panther Party‘ on Longreads
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco‘ in The Guardian
• Amanda Chicago Lewis, ‘How Black People Are Being Shut Out of America’s Weed Boom‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emma Green, ‘Black Activism, Unchurched‘ in The Atlantic
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘“Faithful amanuensis”: how the guise of friendship is used to erase lesbian relationships‘ in The New Statesman

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

• Taffy Brodesser-Akner, ‘Water’s Edge‘ on ESPN
• Bronwen Dickey, ‘Dogs of Character: Pride, Prejudice, and the American Pit Bull Terrier‘ in VQR
• Hanna Yusuf, ‘Why the fashion elite needs to stop undermining Muslim women’s choice of clothing‘ in The Pool
• Helen Garner, ‘‘A certain sort of maleness’: on a week spent watching Russell Crowe films‘ in The Guardian
• Ali Smith, ‘The enigma of Giorgione‘ on The Royal Academy of Arts blog
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Unbearable Sadness Of Ben Affleck‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anne Helen Petersen, ‘How Jennifer Garner Went Full “Minivan Majority”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Megha Majumdar, ‘Privileged Nostalgia: On Hollywood, Perception, and the Quest for Authenticity‘ on Electric Literature
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘Unpicking the fascination with the Queen of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow‘ on The Pool
• Zadie Smith, ‘Windows on the Will‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Ella Risbridger, ‘You walk differently in boots – and that’s their power‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Maggie Nelson in The Observer
• Ursula Le Guin on Literary Hub
• Mona Awad on Electric Literature and Tin House
• Jennifer Barber on The Rumpus
• Anne-Marie Slaughter in The Cut
• Attica Locke on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction blog
• Phoebe Fox on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Electric Literature
• Danielle Dutton on Literary Hub
• Marilynne Robinson in The Washington Post
• Donna Leon on the Waterstones blog
• Idra Novey in 3:AM Magazine
• Jackie Copleton on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction blog
• Shelley Harris on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Dawn Tripp on Salon
• Lynn Steger Strong on Electric Literature
• Clio Gray on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction Blog
• Edna O’Brien in The New York Times
• Helen Oyeyemi on Vice
• Camille Rankine in Interview Magazine
• Tracy Chevalier in The Independent
• Angela Flournoy and Kaitlyn Greenidge on Literary Hub
• Antonia Honeywell on Jo Hogan Writes
• Susan Orlean on Broadly
• Sinéad Gleeson on Minnie Melange

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

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

Photograph by Nadya Lev

This fortnight has been dominated by trans issues and feminism. This is largely due (in the UK at least) to the no-platforming of Germaine Greer due to her unpalatable comments about trans women. Sarah Seltzer looks at ‘The Disturbing Trend of Second-Wave Feminist Transphobia‘ on Flavorwire. This coincided with YA author, James Dawson, coming out as a transgender woman in this great piece by Patrick Strudwick on Buzzfeed. I look forward to featuring James and his books on the blog under his yet to be revealed new name and pronoun. Elsewhere, Francesca Mari writes, ‘They Found Love, Then They Found Gender‘ on Matter, Corinne Manning writes about ‘In Defence of the New Censorship‘, discussing the use of singular they on Literary Hub while Laurie Penny explores, ‘How To Be A Genderqueer Feminist‘ on Buzzfeed.

Photograph by Chad Batka

The woman with the most publicity this fortnight is Carrie Brownstein. She’s interviewed in Rolling Stone, Slate, Noisey, The New York Times and The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Francesca Rendle-Short, ‘Focus on Lesbian/Queer Australian Women Writers‘ on Australian Women Writers
• Emily Gould, ‘Our Spoons Came from Woolworths‘ on The Paris Review
• Can Xue, ‘A special kind of performance: on the course of a Chinese writer‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Mosse, ‘Women’s Prize for Fiction: 20 years on – why we need it more than ever‘ in The Telegraph
• Anne Thériault, ‘What I Wish Everyone Knew About Sylvia Plath‘ on The Belle Jar
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘YA or not YA? On writing and reading labels‘ on Live Otherwise
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘US Open & Revisions‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Out with vampires, in with haunted houses: the ghost story is back‘ in The Guardian
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘The enduring appeal of Bridget Jones‘ on The Pool
• Virginia Pasley, ‘The Dueling Universes of Bridget Jones‘ on Medium
• Kate Zambreno and Adrian Nathan West ‘The Pleasure of Following Coincidences: on Marianne Fritz‘ in The Believer
• Claire Harman, ‘“I pine away”… Charlotte Brontë’s romantic obsession‘ in The Guardian
• Leslie Jamison, ‘The Possibilities of the Personal‘ on Nieman Storyboard
• Lily Tuck, ‘True Confessions of an Auto-Fictionist‘ on Literary Hub
• David Mitchell, ‘On Earthsea: A Rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin‘ in The Guardian
• Adam Fitzgerald, ”That’s not poetry; it’s sociology!’ – in defence of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen‘ in The Guardian
• Jennifer Croft, ‘Understanding Difference: On Translating Olga Tokarczuk‘ on Pen American Centre
• Naomi J. Williams, ‘on late starts and lost calls‘ in The Irish Times
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘What Is Fanfiction, Anyway?‘ in the New Statesman
• John Plotz, ‘Le Guin’s Anarchist Aesthetics‘ on Public Books
• Susan Bernofsky, ‘Who’s Getting Translated? Mostly Men‘ on Translationista
• Helen MacKinven, ‘on Setting Her Novel in a Small Town‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Kate Mosse, ‘The wild bunch: on why we love out-of-control women‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Eby, ‘The Brutal Murder of Mary Grace: Peacock
  Love and Death on Flannery’s Farm‘ on Literary Hub
• Jane Smiley, ‘At the end of this trilogy I wept‘ on Literary Hub
• Tanya Landman, ‘Is To Kill a Mockingbird a racist book?‘ in The Guardian
• Susanna Rustin, ‘Joan Brady: “Alger Hiss Was Framed by Nixon”‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Laskow, ‘We Have a Copy of Patricia Highsmith’s Unpublished Essay on Green Wood Cemetery‘ on Atlas Obscura
• Isabel Rogers, ‘How do you get into Fight Club if you pronounce it ‘figghut’?‘ on her blog
• Scott Esposito, ‘Pillars: #4. River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit‘ on Conversational Reading
• Olivia Laing, ‘Separating art from life always needs the most delicate touch‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Emma Jane Unsworth, ‘Suffering the strangeness of sleep paralysis‘ on The Pool
• Elena Ayala-Hurtado, ‘“Adrift between two dialects”: Teaching English in Madrid‘ in The Toast
• Kristen Martin, ‘Investigation, from the Latin investigationem‘ in Guernica
• Daisy Hernández, ‘Colares‘ on The Rumpus
• Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Arch Tait), ‘Boys in Zinc‘ in Granta
• Ella Sackville Adjei, ‘The Terrible Tale Of My Racist One-Night Stand‘ on Buzzfeed
• Susana Morerira Marques (translated by Julia Sanches) from ‘Now and at the Hour of Our Death’ in The Offing
• Jane Smiley, ‘Horse Country‘ in The New York Times
• Molly Langmuir, ‘A Road Trip With My Friend Led to a Nude Photo Shoot‘ on The Cut
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘Caught in the Middle‘ in Guernica
• Masha Gessen, ‘The Memory Keeper‘ on Svetlana Alexievich in The New Yorker
• Joanne Harris, ‘A Writer’s Manifesto‘ on Writers’ Centre Norwich
• Corinne Manning, ‘Myself in Translation: On the Genius of Alison Bechdel‘ on Literary Hub
• Sofi Stambo, ‘Lists‘ on AGNI
• Michele Filgate, ‘Dressing Myself for the First Time‘ on Refinery 29
• Ka Bradley, ‘A Letter of Enquiry Regarding a Possible Purchase‘ in The Offing
• Scherezade Siobhan, ‘Llamada‘ on Real Pants

Feminism:

• Sophia Benoit, ‘A list of things I wish women’s magazines would publish‘ in The Guardian
• Sabeena Akhtar, ‘Education, not Liberation!‘ on The Poco Book Reader
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘The damage done by demonising single mothers‘ on The Pool
• Frances Ryan, ‘A disabled woman’s struggle is any woman’s struggle‘ in The Guardian
• Akwugo Emejulu, ‘From #BlackLivesMatter to Anti-Austerity: Women of Colour and the Politics of Solidarity‘ on Verso Books Blog
• Emer O’Toole, ‘Suggestions for stock photos in abortion articles‘ in The Irish Times
• Jina Moore, ‘Women Refugees Fleeing Through Europe Are Told Rape Is Not A Real Issue‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Dohrmann, ‘Lost Girls: Women, sex, and the Arab Spring‘ in Harper’s
• Brittney Cooper, ‘The gun crisis we aren’t talking about: Black women are under attack — and America doesn’t care‘ on Salon
• Rebecca Traistor, ‘The Game Is Rigged‘ in The Cut
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Taking Up Space‘ on Girl Lost in the City
• Stephanie Merritt, ‘Women’s pain: do we need to scream to be heard?‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Rachel Nuwer, ‘The Tragic Tale of Mt. Everest’s Most Famous Dead Body‘ on the BBC
• Kate Taylor, ‘At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’ in The New York Times
• Brittney Cooper, ‘She was guilty of being a black girl: The mundane terror of police violence in American schools‘ on Salon
• Anna Holmes, ‘Has ‘Diversity’ Lost Its Meaning?‘ in The New York Times
• Ellen Berrey, ‘Diversity is for white people: The big lie behind a well-intended word‘ on Salon
• Saima, ‘What’s In a Name?‘ on Medium
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘My atheism does not make me superior to believers. It’s a leap of faith too‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Martin, ‘The Deputy Who Disappeared‘ in Los Angeles Magazine
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The Women’s Equality party has a problem – no one hates it‘ in The Guardian
• Julie Beck, ‘How Friendships Change in Adulthood‘ in The Atlantic
• Apoorva Mandavilli, ‘The Invisible Women With Autism‘ in The Atlantic
• Maya Oppenheim, ‘Not just sourdough: the feminist artisan bakery run by women who are ex-offenders‘ in the New Statesman
• Sarah Graham, ‘Only two sexes? The barefaced lie that makes intersex people like me invisible‘ in The Independent

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

• Megan Garber, ‘Suffragette and the Perils of Inspiration Porn‘ in The Atlantic
• Leah Finnegan, ‘The Fragile Ears of Men‘ on Joanna Newsom in The Awl
• Hannah Jane Parkinson, ‘The name’s Bond, Jane Bond: what would lesbian 007 look like?‘ in The Guardian
• Jada F. Smith, ‘With ‘Being Mary Jane,’ Mara Brock Akil Specializes in Portraits of Black Women‘ in The New York Times
• Rachel Shabi, ‘Homeland *is* racist. And it has a problem with women‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Cristina Henríquez in Guernica
• Melinda Salisbury on helloiammariam
• Gloria Steinem in The New York Times
• Selma Dabbagh in Guernica
• Sloane Crosley in The New York Times and The Bookseller
• Azar Nafisi on The Millions
• Suzanne Scanlon on Electric Literature
• Garance Doré in The Cut
• Terry Stiastny on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Meera Syal in The Guardian
• Lauren Holmes on Electric Literature
• Jane Smiley on Northern Soul
• Erica Jong in The Observer
• Stacy Schiff in The New York Times
• Helen Simpson in The Guardian
• Edna O’Brien in The Telegraph and The Bookseller
• Carmen Maria Machado on Electric Literature
• Helen MacKinven on Poppy Peacock Pens
• Eileen Myles in the LA Times
• Laura Watkinson on translating Tonke Dragt in The Guardian
• Alex Mar on The Millions and Nerdist
• Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke on Women Writers Women’s Books
• Kelly Sue De Connick on The Pool
• Valeria Luiselli in The White Review
• Marilynne Robinson on The Daily Beast
• Emma Jane Unsworth in The Cut
• Margaret Atwood on Literary Hub, Salon and The Millions
• Sarah Weinman on The Paris Review
• Mary Ruefle on Divedapper
• Yeonmi Park in The Irish 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

In the Media: October 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.

In the media is back in a slightly altered format. You might have spotted a change in the opening paragraph – this feature will now appear fortnightly rather than weekly. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be bigger than it was before, however. When I started this feature, the plan was to focus on fiction writers with published books but as I started to read more widely, I realised how many brilliant women columnists and features writers there are and it seemed ludicrous not to include them. I want to keep supporting them so you’ll notice as you scroll down that I’ve reduced the number of categories but I’ve added a regular columnists category to link to those writers who are consistently good/interesting.

This fortnight’s been all about whitewashing. First there was the Sufragette film which ignored any women of colour involved in the movement. Anita Anand asks ‘Were the Suffragettes racist?‘ in the Telegraph. Victoria Massie tells us about ‘3 black women who fought on the front lines for women’s suffrage‘ on NTRSCTN and a piece on Asian Suffragettes on British Protest at Home and Abroad was highlighted. Eesha Pandit writes, ‘The discomfiting truth about white feminism: Meryl Streep, Amy Poehler & the movement’s long history of racial insensitivity‘ on Salon while Henna Zamurd Butt asks, ‘So Nadiya won the Great British Bake Off, why the big deal?‘ on Media Diversified and Nadia Shireen says, ‘Why the world needs more Nadiyas‘ in The Pool.

And then there was Meg Rosoff who said,“there are not too few books for marginalised young people”. This came at the same time Leila Rasheed posted, ‘A New Scheme Hopes to Promote BME Voices in Children’s Literature‘ on The Asian Writer. Responses to Rosoff came from Camryn Garrett, ‘this is how the industry lives now: five signs that you might be suffering from white privilege’ on For all the Girls Who Are Half Monster; Edi Campbell, ‘SundayMorningReads‘ on Crazy QuiltEdi (whose Facebook page is where Rosoff made her comment); Kaye M, ‘This Is How I Life: An Open Letter to Meg Rosoff‘ on Medium; Radiya Hafiza ‘Why we need mirrors in literature‘ on Media Diversified; KT Horning, ‘Spouting Off While White‘ on Reading While White, and Debbie Reese, ‘About Meg Rosoff’s Next Book‘ on American Indians in Children’s Literature, which includes an up-to-date list of responses so far. And how about this for a radical idea: ‘Is Hermione Granger White?‘ Monika Kothari answers on Slate.

Reactions to Chrissie Hynde blaming herself when she was raped continue. Ann Friedman writes, ‘We Shouldn’t Let Chrissie Hynde Off the Hook So Easily‘ in The Cut while Tracey Thorn says, ‘Chrissie longed to be one of the boys. Unlike us, she didn’t have riot grrrls‘ in The New Statesman.

Finally, while there wasn’t a female winner of the Man Booker Prize, there was a female winner of The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. Congratulations to Kirstin Innes who won for her novel Fishnet. Unfortunately, both the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize shortlists were somewhat lacking in women. Michael Caines offers an alternative all-female shortlist to the latter on the TLS while Cathy Rentzenbrink on blistering form in The Bookseller writes ‘On Noticing‘.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), ‘on Sense and Sensibility‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Durrant, ‘Too Little Too Late: on Jean Rhys‘ on Thresholds
• Jane Smiley, ‘History vs Historical Fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Stephanie Butland ‘in Praise of the ‘Quiet Book’‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Justine Jordan, ‘A new Irish literary boom: the post-crash stars of fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jill Bialowsky, ‘What Qualifies as Greatness: On Literary Awards Season‘ on The Millions
• Erica Wagner, ‘Gossip, truth and the impossibility of biography‘ in The Guardian
• Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), ‘The Author Is Purely a Name‘ in Guernica
• Alexandra Pechman, ‘It’s Complicated: on Clarice Lispector and Elizabeth Bishop‘ on Poetry Foundation
• Andrea Kleine, ‘The Story of a Murder‘ on Literary Hub
• Timothy Snyder, ‘Svetlana Alexievich: The Truth in Many Voices‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Naomi Alderman, ‘The first great works of digital literature are already being written‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Mascull, ‘Reading The Prime Writers‘ on Writers & Artists
• Sarah Crossan, ‘How writing about conjoined twins changed the way I wrote‘ in The Guardian
• Liz Windhorst Harmer, ‘How to Read Through the Depths of Postpartum Depression‘ on Literary Hub
• Jessi Stevens, ‘Against Realism‘ on The Rumpus
• Adrian van Young, ‘Flannery O’Connor: A Reading Primer‘ on Electric Literature
• Jeanette Winterson, ‘Rewrites Shakespeare‘ on Literary Hub
• Ed Vulliamy, ‘Edna O’Brien: from Ireland’s cultural outcast to literary darling‘ in The Guardian
• Marlon James, ‘My Hero: Toni Morrison‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Schulz, ‘Pond Scum‘ on Henry David Thoreau in The New Yorker

Personal essays/memoir:

• Emily Eades, ‘Becoming a mother without your own mother to rely on‘ in The Pool
• Tami, ‘Tears for my Mom‘ on Medium
• Ali Rachel Pearl, ‘On Tinder, Off Sex‘ in The New York Times
• Dorthe Nors, ‘A Wolf In Jutland: On the Writing Life in Denmark‘ on Electric Literature
• Rebecca Espiloy Baroma, ‘Rainbow Chard‘ in The Offing
• Virginia Pye, ‘A Woman Alone in China‘ on Literary Hub
• K.L. Carr, ‘This Time Last Year: On Intimacy, Suicidality, and Abuse‘ in The Toast
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘Raised Catholic‘ in The Atlantic
• Anonymous, ‘The Tech Exec With Boyfriends on Both Coasts‘ in The Cut
• Sarah Manguso, ‘The Grand Shattering‘ in Harper’s
• Lacy M. Johnson, ‘On Mercy‘ in Guernica
• Anisse Gross, ‘Stalking Murakami‘ on Design Sponge
• Pat Lipsky, ‘The Shoes Under the Art World‘ in The Awl
• Bettina McKelvey, ‘Fun Ticket‘ on Okey Panky
• Abby Higgs, ‘Search me: why did I go looking for my birth mother online?‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Giese, ‘It’s Not Where You Come From, It’s Where You Belong‘ in The Haripin
• Sno Flo, ‘In Bruges‘ on Litro
• Amanda Fortini, ‘The Great Surrender‘ on GOOD

Feminism:

• Reni Eddo-Lodge ‘‘Liberation for some is liberation for none’: on women and black radical movements‘ on Verso Books
• Rachel Z. Arndt, ‘The Sexism of American Kitchen Design‘ in The Atlantic
• Jane Kramer, ‘Road Warrior: on Gloria Steinem‘ in The New Yorker
• Anna Oudra, ‘“Stick person,” “Skinny bitch,” “Giraffe”: Stop bullying me for being thin‘ on Salon
• Kai Cheng Thom, ‘Pursuing Happiness As A Trans Woman Of Color‘ on Buzzfeed
• Latoya Peterson, ‘#AskHerMore: On Rihannon and interviewing black celebrities‘ on Racialicious
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘The Mother of All Questions‘ in Harper’s
• Bee Rowlatt, ‘The original suffragette: the extraordinary Mary Wollstonecraft‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Adia Harvey Wingfield, ‘Being Black—but Not Too Black—in the Workplace‘ in The Atlantic
• Beth Alverado, ‘Water in the Desert‘ in Guernica
• Molly Crabapple, ‘What Happens When Inmates in Solitary Confinement Blow the Whistle on Their Abuse?‘ in Vice
• Emily Greenhouse, ‘Inside the Wesleyan Molly Bust‘ in Rolling Stone
• Racquel Willis, ‘The Transgender Dating Dilemma‘ on Buzzfeed
• Erika Hayasaki, ‘A Criminal Mind‘ in The California Sunday Magazine
• Natalie Shure, ‘The Mystery Of Sacagawea‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Making of John Wayne‘ on Buzzfeed

Film, Television, Music and Fashion:

• Elmo Keep, ‘All You Zombies‘ in The Awl
• Kate Mossman, ‘“I was killed when I was 27”: the curious afterlife of Terence Trent D’Arby‘ in The New Statesman
• Claudia Rosenbaum, ‘How The Fast Times Of The Paparazzi Came To A Screeching Halt‘ on Buzzfeed

The interviews:

• Ayisha Malik on The Chronicles of Radiya
• Joanna Walsh on LitHub
• Nancy Fraser in The New York Times
• Sarah Weinman in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Lauren Groff in Vice
• Molly Gaudry and Kristina Marie Darling on Critical Flame
• Claudia Rankine Part One and Part Two on Literary Hub
• Marilynne Robinson interviewed by Barack Obama (yes, you read that correctly) in The New York Review of Books
• Ann Beattie on The Millions
• Vendela Vida on Bookanista
• Beth Miller Part One and Part Two on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Rainbow Rowell on The Toast
• Valynne E. Maetani on Heidicker Writes
• Katherine Applegate in The Guardian
• Juliet Jacques on Salon
• Margaret Atwood on Hazlitt
• Louise O’Neill in The New Statesman
• Gloria Steinem in The Guardian

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 (this week’s Crush of the Week is Lorrie Moore)
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified

In the Media: 5th April 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.

As In the Media seems to be growing by the week, I’ve divided it into more categories. Comments welcome on what you think of the change and whether you’d prefer different/more section headings.

The big news this week is the launch of The Pool, a free, online resource written by women, for women. Writer and broadcaster, Lauren Laverne and writer and former Red magazine editor, Sam Baker are the women behind it, The Guardian ran a piece about the site earlier in the week. ‘Drops’ of content are released during the day; each piece tells you approximately how long it will take you to read/listen to/watch, and you can search by content or by time if you’ve only got a few minutes.  You can also sign up for an account which allows you to save articles to your ‘scrapbook’ either to read later or refer back to.

I’ve dipped in a few times this week and I love it; it’s clearly organised with some great contributors. My picks so far would be the book section (of course), where you can read the opening of Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Girl and the opening of Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum. There’s also an interview with Essbaum and 10 Things You Need to Know About Anne Tyler as well as an article by Baker about why good books often end up making bad films.

Elsewhere on the site, I’ve enjoyed Sam Baker’s ‘Does this mean I’m not allowed to be a LEGO any more?‘; Lauren Laverne’s blog, ‘Is being a teenager harder than ever before?‘; Sali Hughes’ ‘Why every woman needs a solo playdate‘ and ‘Is it ever OK to commit liticide?‘ (although I winced through the whole of that one); Holly Smale’s ‘Why can’t we just get over Cinderella?‘; Gaby Hinsliff’s ‘What would happen if men didn’t have the vote?‘; Stacey Duguid’s ‘Flares if you care‘ where Duguid goes around high street shops trying flares on like you do when you’re shopping (as opposed to raiding the magazine’s fashion cupboard); an extract from Lynsey Addario’s It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, and Laurene Laverne’s interviews with Caitlin Moran and Kim Gordon.

In Harper Lee news, ‘Harper Lee elder abuse allegations declared ‘unfounded’ by Alabama‘ says The Guardian.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers:

• Hannah Rosefield, ‘Barbara Pym and the New Spinster‘ in The New Yorker
• Amy Jenkins, ‘Waving or drowning? On her debt to Stevie Smith‘ in The Guardian
• Kimberley Francisco, ‘On (Not) Reading Science Fiction as a Teenage Girl‘ on Stacked Books
• Jenny McAuley, ‘Jane Austen invented #RealisticYA fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh, ‘Man Booker International Prize draws together variety of best from literature world‘ in The National
• Lucy K. Shaw, ‘April Mixtape‘ on Electric Literature
• Jill Alexander Essbaum, ‘Writers on Location: on Zürich‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Laxmi Hariharan, ‘Why the hero of my YA dystopian novel had to be an angry young Indian girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Cuthbertson, ‘How Assumedly White Characters are a Disservice to, well, Everyone‘ in The Missouri Review
• Alison Flood, ‘The Girl on the Train racks up express sales of 2m in three months‘ in The Guardian
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘How “The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing” Shaped My Twenties‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Gilmartin, ‘The rise of the short Irish Story‘ in The Irish Times
• Molly McGrann, ‘Prostitution in post-war London: a different kind of independence‘ on Picador Blog
• Sarah Hilary, Shelley Harris and Sinéad Moriarty, ‘Richard & Judy Book Club Authors: What Are They Up To Now?‘ on WHSmith Blog
• Christine Dwyer Hickey, ‘My Life in Books‘ on Atlantic Books’ Pinterest
• Sonya Vatomsky and Kia Groom, ‘Saving “Saving Anne Sexton”: In Which Dead Women are Used as Props (Again)‘ in Quaint Magazine
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Does Magic Stand for Privilege in Harry Potter?‘ on Flavorwire
• Eve Johnson, ‘Sonnets And Unrealities: Björk And ee cummings‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Val McDermid, ‘Why crime fiction is leftwing and thrillers are rightwing‘ in The Guardian
• Alexander McCall Smith, ‘The Secret of the Jane Austen Industry‘ in the Wall Street Journal
• Roopa Farooki, ‘Monsters in Caves‘ on Royal Literary Fund
• Suzannah Gillman, ‘Will the Real Cheryl Strayed Please Stand Up?‘ on The Gloria Sirens
• Edan Lepucki, ‘Beyond Binaries: On ‘Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids’‘ on The Millions
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘6 Fairy Tales That Need A Shakeup‘ on the Huffington Post
• Chris Ayers, ‘Extinctathon‘ ‘a new series, drawn from Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam trilogy, that illustrates the corporate horrors of the trilogy’s fictional dystopia’
• Lindy West, ‘Herland: the forgotten feminist classic about a civilisation without men‘ in The Guardian
• Madhvi Pankhania, ‘Miles Franklin award longlist 2015: eight out of 10 nominees are women‘ in The Guardian
• Ron Charles, ‘Marilynne Robinson confident about a fourth Gilead novel‘ in The Washington Post
• Joshua Farrington, ‘Three debut novels on Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize shortlist‘ (all by women) in The Bookseller
• Keija Parssinen, ‘Writing Out of Rage (How Sexual Politics Inspired “The Unraveling of Mercy Louis”)‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Coming to America‘ in The Butter
• Kristi York Wooten, ‘How 1980s Atlanta Became the Backdrop for the Future‘ in The Atlantic
• Byddi Lee, ‘How to get ahead in self-publishing: No 1 – you need a lot of hats‘ in The Irish Times
• Leslie Jamison And Catherine Lacey’s E-mail Conversation About Narcissism, Emotional Writing And Memoir-Novels on the Huffington Post
• Victoria Finan, ‘Independent Bookshop Week book awards 2015 shortlist announced‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘The pleasure and pain of being a Folio prize judge‘ in The Guardian
• Dorthe Nors, ‘A form close to home‘ on English PEN
• Emily Midorikawa & Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers‘ on Something Rhymed

Personal essays/memoir:

• Eva Wiseman, ‘Living with your parents when you are a parent yourself‘ in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood, ‘It’s midnight. Dare I open the sealed trapdoor in my house?‘ in The Guardian
• Dani True, ‘True Romantic #5: The Hope Chest‘ on The Rumpus
• Mary H.K. Choi, ‘Eat Pray Roll‘ on Matter *Flashing images throughout
• Sierra-Crane Murdoch, ‘Sugar Days‘ in VQR Online
• Marika Seigel, ‘On Being the Mom of “the Foreign Kid”‘ in The Butter
• Shan Wang, ‘“Happy Birthday” and Other Things My Mom and I Don’t Say‘ in The Toast
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘A Queer Hoosier on Still Loving Indiana‘ on Talking Points Memo
• Rebecca Riley, ‘How I Learned The Meaning Of Ableism‘ in The Fem
• Saudamini Deo, ‘My Name Is Red‘ in Kindle
• Lauren Apfel, ‘I called him pathetic, he accused me of ruining his life: What children did to our marriage‘ in Salon
• Roxane Gay, ‘Having a Heart, Being Alive‘ in The Butter
• Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Open Heart, Open Sky‘ in The Butter
• Alexis Paige, ‘The Right to Remain‘ on The Rumpus
• Lindsay Tapscott, ‘Letter from Montreal: The City Undressed‘ on Maisonneuve
• Shannon Fandler, ‘Unprepared In Appalachia‘ on Vela
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Variations on Crying‘ in The Butter
• Ruth Dawkins, ‘Now You Are Six‘ on Dorkymum
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘Driving in Greater Noida‘ in Granta
• Jennifer Weiner, ‘All Grown Up and In Charge of the Seder‘ in The New York Times
• Kristen Hanley Cardozo, ‘Three Months Without Breathing‘ on Archipelago
• Lavinia Greenlaw, ‘On Not Totally Seeing a Total Solar Eclipse‘ in The New Yorker
• Chelsea Biondolillo, ‘Not Travel Writing‘ on Vela

Feminism:

• Stephanie St. John, ‘“Mad Men” eulogies: Peggy Olson, feminist hero‘ on Salon
• Lili Loofbourow, ‘The Many Faces of Tatiana Maslany‘ in The New York Times
• Sybil Baker, ‘The DrunkenBoat Fiction Count for 2013‘ in DrunkenBoat
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why I changed my mind about porn‘ in the New Statesman
• Sabine Heinlein, ‘The Answer Is Never‘ on Longreads
• Anna Cafolla, ‘I’m a girl and I have periods, whether Instagram likes it or not‘ in The Independent
• Cate Burlington, ‘Things My Male Tech Colleagues Have Actually Said to Me, Annotated‘ in The Toast
• Doreen St Felix, ‘The Prosperity Gospel of Rihanna‘ in Pitchfork
• Lucy-Anne Holmes, ‘If you want to write about feminism online, be ready to take on the haters‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Don’t stress out. Our kids are just fine when their mothers work late‘ in The Guardian
• Shannon Reed, ‘The Historical Feminist Roundtable, Bucket List Edition‘ on Buzzfeed
• Susan Cox, ‘Of course men want children more than women do‘ on Feminist Current
• Snigdha Poonam, ‘Kidnap, rape and ‘honour’ killings: on the road with a female reporter in rural India‘ in The Guardian
• Julie Bindel, ‘What Andrea Dworkin, the feminist I knew, can teach young women‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Social media is protecting men from periods, breast milk and body hair‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Ditum, ‘Why rape suspects should not remain anonymous‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Friedman, ‘Can a New Law Really Change the Way College Students Hook Up?‘ in Cosmopolitan

Society:

• Katy Reckdahl, ‘The Lost Children of Katrina‘ in The Atlantic
• Linda Vaccariello, ‘This Is How We Lose Them‘ in Cincinnati Magazine
• Helen Lewis, ‘Life is full of people with bad ideas and awful opinions. Try to meet as many at university as you can‘ in the New Statesman
• Sophie McBain, ‘Why are so many people using food banks?‘ in the New Statesman
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Dear Nigel Farage – children will play if we close roads, not borders‘ in The Guardian
• Germaine Greer, ‘At the centenary of Gallipoli; an interrogation of the myth of Australian nationhood‘ in the New Statesman
• Samantha Ellis, ‘Theatre should reflect society – and boldly imagine ways for it to change‘ in The Guardian
• Grace Dent, ‘In case you were wondering what it’s like to not always look down at your phone, I can tell you‘ in The Independent
• L.V. Anderson, ‘We Should Have a Better Condom by Now. Here’s Why We Don’t.‘ on Slate
• Meredith Talusan, ‘Being transgender in a transphobic society leads to moments of sheer desperation‘ in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman, ‘Electrified‘ in The New Yorker
• Olivia Laing, ‘The future of loneliness‘ in The Guardian
• Brittney Cooper, ‘The right’s made-up God: How bigots invented a white supremacist Jesus‘ on Salon
• Lily Lynch, ‘Forgetting Resistance In The Balkans‘ on Balkanist
• Laura Trethewey, ‘Collective Independents‘ on Maisonneuve
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Films about queer women rarely stray from “lesbian drama” clichés – but things are improving‘ in the New Statesman
• ER Truitt, ‘Preternatural Machines‘ on Aeon
• Glosswitch, ‘How can a memoir convey the damage done by eating disorders, without passing it on?‘ in the New Statesman
• Rebecca Harris, ‘The loneliness epidemic: We’re more connected than ever – but are we feeling more alone?‘ in The Independent
• Momtazza Mehri, ‘Black, British & Muslim; We’re not just a “Complication”‘ on Media Diversified
• Jennifer Hensley, ‘Pills, Pills, Pills – There Is No Medicine‘ on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• Vanessa Hua, ‘The Dim Sum Revolution‘ in San Francisco Magazine
• Bella Qvist, ‘So Ruby Tandoh came out? It won’t be the last time‘ in The Guardian
• Jetta Rae, ‘What ‘Passing’ Says About Our Expectations of Women – And Why This Trans Woman’s Getting It Wrong on Purpose‘ on Everyday Feminism

Music:

• Cath Bore, ‘In Defence of the Smash Hits Centerfold‘ on her blog
• Linda Grant, ‘It’s not always easy to be a Joni Mitchell fan, but her illness devastates me‘ in The Guardian
• Lisa Peet, ‘Viv Albertine, Side One and Side Two‘ on Bloom
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘Why do we mock teenage girls who love One Direction when Top Gear fans are just the same?‘ in the New Statesman
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘A Love Song & Some Stubbornness‘ on Real Pants

The interviews:

• Lynsey Addario in The Guardian
• Kim Gordon in The Irish Times
• Barbara Klein Moss on Bloom
• Jessica Valenti in The Cut
• Trish Hopkinson in The Fem
• Amy Butcher in The Fem
• Meghan Daum on the Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour and the Huffington Post and Jezebel
• Lydia Davis in The New York Times
• Fatima Bhutto on NPR
• Johanna Basford on NPR
• Alexandra Sokoloff on Grab This Book
• Teri Terry in The Guardian
• Amber Tamblyn on the Huffington Post
• Margret Aldrich on Publishers Weekly
• Caitlin Moran on Vice
• Alice Stevenson on Bookanista
• Renée Knight in The Telegraph
• Lauren Van Den Berg on Paul McVeigh’s Blog
• Paula Hawkins on Booktopia
• Xiaolu Guo on Penguin Blog
• Teresa K. Miller on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• Cush Jumbo in The Guardian
• Hollie Poetry in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara in Vogue

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘The First Meeting of the People of Unintentional Color Support Group‘ by Gayle Brandeis
• An extract from The Long Weekend by Veronica Henry
• ‘Fall From Oysters‘ by Susan Sanford Blades on Little Fiction
• ‘Small Stories #8‘ by Madeline Witt on The Rumpus
• An extract from Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Little Red Hen‘ in The Toast
• An extract from The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman
• ‘Escape, Release, and Return‘ by Leslie Baum on Guernica
• ‘Voyage of the Coral Princess‘ by Kasia Juno in Guts Magazine
• ‘Me and the Devil‘ by Eimear McBride on BBC Radio 4
• An extract from Sphinx by Anne Garréta in 3:AM Magazine
• An extract from The Language of Paradise by Barbara Klein Moss
• ‘The Slanted Life of Emily Dickinson‘ by Rosanna Bruno
• ‘Dirty Thirties’ and ‘Rugby‘ by Terese Svoboda in Numéro Cinq

Photograph by Jane Feng

 

If you want some poetry to read:

• from The Devastation by Melissa Buzzeo in Trickhouse
• ‘It Must Have Got Lost In The Mail‘ by Susannah Betts on Vagabond City Journal
• Two Poems by Khadijah Queen in The Offing
• ‘Beat Poem‘ by Leslie Maxwell in Blunderbuss Magazine
• ‘—moLt shEd‘ by Rebecca Y. Lee in Vagabond City Journal
• ‘What Breaks First‘ by Jynne Dilling Martin in The New York Review of Books
• ‘To Proceed You Must First Understand‘ by Barbara Jane Reyes on The Rumpus
• ‘Carousel‘ by Gabrielle Bates
• ‘The Medium‘ by Elaine Feinstein in the TLS
• ‘April Fools’ Day‘ by Elaine Feinstein in The Guardian

If you want some non-fiction to read:

• An extract from This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein on Penguin Books Blog
• An extract from Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts and Daring to Act Differently by Emer O’Toole on the Irish Post
• An extract from A Day’s Work by Joanna Biggs in the London Review of Books (£)

The lists:

• 5 Great Books To Read In April on Buzzfeed
• 10 Must-Read Books for April on Flavorwire
• Diane Pickett’s The 10 Commandments of Southern Writers on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• 7 Books About Friendship That Prove This Relationship Is The Most Important One You’ll Have in Your Lifetime on Bustle
• Here are the the most magical things JK Rowling has ever done in The Independent
• 12 Writers On The Women Authors Who Inspired Them on Buzzfeed
• The Very Best LGBT Books You Need to Read Right Now on The Debrief
• JK Rowling’s life advice: ten quotes on the lessons of failure in The Guardian
• Molly McGrann’s Top 10 things I learned while writing The Ladies of the House on Female First
• 24 books for a year of reading only work by women in The Washington Post
• 14 Illuminating Quotes From “The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing” on Buzzfeed

In the Media: 15th March 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 a great week for women writers and prizes. The Wellcome Prize shortlist was announced on Monday, including four books (of six) by women. Congratulations Miriam Towes, Alice Roberts, Sarah Moss and Marion Coutts. On Tuesday, the twenty-strong Bailey’s Prize longlist was announced. Chair of this year’s judges, Shami Chakrabarti discussed the need for the prize in The Guardian and Buzzfeed created a guide to the longlisted books. The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature has five women (of nine) on the longlist. Congratulations Tanya Shirley, Monique Roffey, Tiphanie Yanique, Elizabeth Nunez and Olive Senior. The PEN/Faulkner award has three women on a shortlist of five. Congratulations Emily St. John Mandel, Jennifer Clement and Jenny Offill. The Stella Prize, the Australian prize for female writers announced its shortlist this week too. Congratulations to Maxine Beneba Clarke, Emily Bitton, Ellen Van Neervan, Sophie Lagune, Jean London and Christine Keneally. Marina Warner won the Holberg Prize 2015. And women won four of the six categories at the National Book Critics Circle Award. Congratulations Marilynne Robinson, Roz Chast, Ellen Willis and Claudia Rankine.

It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today. Jo Hogan writes ‘Surprised by a Jumper: On Being Motherless on Mother’s Day‘ on her blog; Scottish Book Trust list ten books that celebrate pioneering women; Emma Healey wrote, ‘From Offshore to Oranges: a literary tribute to Mother’s Day‘ in the Guardian; Emylia Hall wrote, ‘The Mother of All Years‘ on her blog; Windmill Books published an extract of Charlotte Gordon’s forthcoming book, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley on their website, and Kate Hamer wrote, ‘Literary matriarchs and their daughters, from Little Women to Carrie‘ in the Independent

Two in-depth Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie interviews have been published this week, one in Vogue and the other on Olisa.tv: part one and part two.

The woman with the most publicity this week is Caitlin Moran. She’s interviewed on Buzzfeed and on the British Comedy Guide with her sister Caroline Moran; Pilot Viruet wrote, ‘Caitlin Moran’s UK Series ‘Raised by Wolves’ Is the Teen Sitcom America Needs‘ on Flavorwire; she’s profiled by Vanessa Thorpe in the Observer and her own Times Magazine column this week was ‘What it really means to be a mum‘ which you can listen to for free here.

And the latest on the Harper Lee story: on Wednesday, The Bookseller reported, ‘State investigators interview Harper Lee‘ and on Friday, Lee’s agent issued a statement, The Bookseller reported, ‘Nurnberg blasts ‘shameful’ Lee claims‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Rene Denfeld, ‘Writing the Truth About Criminals‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Hannah Furness, ‘Joanna Trollope: “You cannot be great novelist until after 35”‘ in the Telegraph
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘On the Way to Where You are Going: A Writer’s Patience‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Anuradha Roy, ‘No Longer a Joke‘ in The Telegraph, India
• Kate Williams, ‘introduces you to The Storms of War‘ on One Book Lane
• Elinor Abbott, ‘Rooms I Have Lived In‘ on The Bohemyth
• Louise Walters, ‘One year on from publication and the things I’ve learned‘ on her blog
• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, ‘Cinderella: The Ultimate (Postwar) Makeover Story‘ in The Atlantic
• Alison Flood, ‘New Star Wars novel to feature first lesbian character‘ in The Guardian
• Pandora Blake, ‘Don’t ask if porn “empowers” women – instead, ask if your feminism does‘ in the New Statesman
• Felix Kent, ‘Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: On Weakness, Strength, and Friendship‘ in The Toast
• Lindsey Gates-Markel, ‘He Doesn’t Wanna Be Here‘ on The Rumpus
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: Sick Girl Walking‘ in The Butter
• Sara Bivigou, ‘The Bad Blood: My Life With Sickle Cell Anaemia‘ on Buzzfeed
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Arthur Rimbaud, Dirtbag Laureate‘ in The Toast
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Female Friendship Is Life’s Great, Thwarted Romance in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels‘ on Flavorwire
• Claire Fuller, ‘Big Loves: on Barbara Comyns’s Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead‘ on Memorious Mag
• Melissa Febos, ‘The Book of Hours‘ in StoryQuarterly
• Katharine Quarmby, ‘The taboo of sex and disability: How can we shift the negative images that still dominate society’s attitudes?‘ in the Independent
• Susie Day, ‘Short is sweet: why I love short stories‘ in The Guardian
• Lois Leveen, ‘Appropriating (F)Acts in Feminist Fiction II: Juliet’s Nurse‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘The Bravery of “Basic“‘ on Real Pants
• Anna Cabe, ‘Milking the Bull: On Heroines‘ in The Toast
• Rachel Basch, ‘At The Blue Dolphin: On Mothers and Sons‘ on The Millions
• Kate Graham, ‘The Life and Legacy of Anne Frank‘ in Stylist
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Texts from Blanche DuBois‘ in The Toast
• Kaye Toal, ‘How Finding A Fat YA Heroine Changed My Life‘ on Buzzfeed
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘It’s 2050 And Feminism Has Finally Won‘ in The Toast
• Rebecca Altman, ‘American petro-topia‘ in Aeon
• Frida Berrigan, ‘Uncle Pentagon‘ in Guernica

• Helen Lewis, ‘The Digital Ducking Stool‘ in the New Statesman
• Jill Lepore, ‘Richer and Poorer‘ in The New Yorker
• Lori Day, ‘Aging while female is not your worst nightmare‘ on Feminist Current
• Patricia Scanlan, ‘Should you call time on a toxic friendship?‘ on Gransnet
• Kate Gale, ‘Reading American cities: Los Angeles in books‘ in The Guardian
• Julieanne Smolinski, ‘I Am Not My Internet Personality, and You Probably Aren’t Yours, Either.‘ in The Cut
• Melanie Finn, ‘Writers on Location: Tanzania‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Rose George, ‘A Very Naughty Little Girl‘ on Longreads
• Marcie Bianco, ‘This Feminist Children’s Book Is the Best Way Ever to Teach the ABCs‘ on MiC
• Liska Jacobs, ‘Our Best Work: On Man Ray’s Hollywood Album and Me‘ on The Millions
• Melanie Finn, ‘A Stitch in Time‘ on the Weidenfeld and Nicholson blog
• Olivia Marks, ‘When Did Not Wanting to “Lean In” Become So Taboo?‘ in Vice
• Molly Lambert, ‘Porntopia‘ on Grantland
• Francesca Wade, ‘Happily Ever After‘ in the Times Literary Supplement
• Anne Boyer, ‘Data’s Work is Never Done‘ in Guernica
• Sarah Butler, ‘“A wild blip in the country’s consciousness”: writing the 2011 riots‘ on the Picador Blog
• Alison Herman, ‘Why Tina Fey’s Racial Humor Is So Controversial‘ on Flavorwire
• Allecia Vermillion, ‘The Brief, Extraordinary Life of Cody Spafford‘ on Seattle Met
• Jennifer Gonnerman, ‘The Wrong Way‘ on Mother Jones
• Anna Maxted, ‘Older women are in the spotlight, but the battle for equality is not over‘ in the Telegraph
• Polly Samson, ‘My parents only got married because no one else would have me as a bridesmaid‘ in The Telegraph
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘I’m queer no matter who I’m with. I won’t define myself differently for your comfort‘ in The Guardian
• Chris Kraus, ‘on the Ambiguous Virtues of Art School‘ on Artspace
• Elisa Albert, ‘My friend breastfed my baby‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah McCarry, ‘On Kindness‘ in The Rejectionist
• Lynn Sloan, ‘A Page a Day‘ on Bloom
• Alice Driver, ‘My Own Trap‘ on Vela
• Holly Robinson, ‘Writing Commercial Fiction and Loving It‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘We cannot be outraged by UKIP if we are to support their rhetoric everywhere else‘ on Media Diversified
• Claire Fuller, ‘Things About Canada: Claire Fuller Remembers 1982 Montreal‘ on House of Anansi

The interviews:

• Jane Costello in the Liverpool Echo
• Helen Macdonald on Salon
• Roxane Gay, Germaine Greer, Rayya Elias and Elizabeth Gilbert at the All About Women Festival in The Guardian
• Jaime Loren on Beauty and Lace
• Kim Gordon on Faber Social and on Arts and Ideas
• Iona Grey on Helen Redfern’s blog (plus cake!)
• Susie Day in The Guardian
• Kate Schatz on Buzzfeed
• Toni Morrison in NEA Arts Magazine
• Virginia Boecker on Publishers Weekly KidsCast
• Laura Van Den Berg on The Millions
• Melanie Finn on Orion Books
• Jill Alexander Essbaum in the Wall Street Journal and on Electric Literature
• Sarah Menkedick on Longreads
• Emer O’Toole on Radio Gorgeous
• Rosie Garland on Northern Soul
• Holly Smale on We Love This Book (interviewed by her friend and former housemate Anna James)
• Miranda July in the Irish Times
• Anne Tyler on BBC World Book Club
• Samantha Harvey in The Telegraph
• Clare Fuller on Annethology
• Marie Mutsuki Mockett on Electric Literature
• Sarah Chayes in The Guardian

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘All You Have to Do‘ by Sarah Braunstein in The New Yorker which she discusses here
• ‘For Eliza (My Great Grandmother)‘ by Katrina Naomi on Proletarian Poetry
• An extract from The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson
• ‘A Birthmother’s Catechism‘ by Carrie Etter on Seren Books’ blog
• Five Short Stories by Lydia Davis in Five Dials
• ‘House Proud‘ by Amelia Gray in The White Review
• ‘Pomegranate‘ by Karissa Chen on Guernica
• ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Little Mermaid‘ by Mallory Ortberg in The Toast
• ‘Frost and Fire‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Aunt Mirrie and the Child‘ by Kate Clanchy on BBC Radio 4
• ‘Phantoms Over Paris‘ by Ali Smith in Five Dials
• A new introduction to Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter on Virago

The lists:

• Best Books to Read this March in Red
• The Best Feminist Books For Younger Readers on Bookriot
• Nine books you must read to understand women’s issues in India on Scroll.in
• The Little Free Black Woman’s Library Book List – Volume 1 on The Free Black Woman’s Library
• 20 Wonderfully Miserable Memoirs: A Reading List for the School of Hard Knocks on Entertainment Weekly
• 9 Amazing Female Graphic Novelists, Illustrators And Cartoonists You Should Read on the Huffington Post
• Inspiring Joan Didion Quotes in The Toast
• 50 Great Books About 50 Inspiring Women on Flavorwire
• Sarah Bannan’s Coming of Age Novels on Bookanista (includes an extract from her novel Weightless)
• Sarah Alderson’s Top 10 feminist icons in children’s and teen books in The Guardian
• 25 Essential Books About Death and Grief on Flavorwire
• 13 Things By Women You Can Read In One Sitting on Buzzfeed
• Kelly Sundberg’s Eight Flash Nonfiction Writers on Vela
• Five Fascinating Facts About Sylvia Plath on Interesting Literature
• 26 Contemporary Books That Should Be Taught In High School on Buzzfeed
• 74 Essential Books for Your Personal Library: A List Curated By Female Creatives on Open Culture
• 12 Sick Burns From People Who Didn’t Get The Jane Austen Hype on the Huffington Post

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