In the Media, April 2016, Part Two

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

It’s the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. Contributors including Sarah Waters, Margaret Drabble and Jeanette Winterson reflect on Jane Eyre in The Guardian; Samantha Ellis wrote about ‘The Greatest Heroines of All Time‘ on the BBC, and Sam Jordison asked, ‘Reading Jane Eyre: can we truly understand Charlotte Brontë or her heroine today?‘ in The Guardian. The Brontë Blog is doing an excellent job of curating everything and well worth having a look at.

The Guardian commissioned some research into the 70 million comments which have been left on its website since 2006. The results revealed that while the highest commenters are white men, the most abuse was left on articles by eight women writers and two male writers of colour. The only people who seemed surprised were white men. It’s great to have statistical evidence in support of this but listening to female writers and male writers of colour and acting on it might be a good idea too. Jessica Valenti, the most targeted writer wrote, ‘Insults and rape threats. Writers shouldn’t have to deal with this‘.

Andrew Piper and Richard Jean So decided to carry out some analysis regarding the words used in book reviews of books by male and female writers, ‘Women Write About Family, Men Write About War‘ in the New Republic details their findings.

The Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced this week. Hanya Yanagihara has ‘A Little Life – A Photo Story‘ on the Picador Blog; Anne Enright, Elizabeth McKenzie, Hanya Yanagihara and Lisa McInerney are interviewed on the Baileys’ Prize blog, along with longlistees Shirley Barrett, Vesna Goldsworthy, Becky Chambers, Julia Rochester and Kate Atkinson. Some of us (myself included) were shocked that Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins failed to make the shortlist, Eleanor Franzen considers why on Litro.

And in Australia, the Miles Franklin literary award longlist was announced with books by women taking five of the nine slots.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Gillian Flynn, ‘The book that inspired Gone Girl‘ in The Guardian
• Hilary Mantel, ‘My Writing Day‘ in The Guardian
• Curtis Sittenfeld, ‘Most romances are badly written‘ in The Telegraph
• Alison Flood, ‘Miss Peregrine author returns with illustrated collection of fairytales‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘On a Strong 2016 Man Booker International Shortlist, Ferrante Still Looks Like a Sure Thing‘ on Flavorwire
• Harriet Brown, ‘Leave Peter Rabbit Alone‘ in The Guardian
• Robert Gottlieb, ‘Brilliant, Troubled Dorothy Parker‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Samantha Powell, ‘Fifteen Years Later, Bridget Jones Is Still Teaching Me to Embrace Imperfection‘ on The Cut
• Lynn Steger-Strong, ‘Reader-Based‘ on Catapult
• Tanya Gold, ‘Working as a diarist meant not caring about the people you hurt‘ in The New Statesman
• Alana Massey, ‘Climbing Mount Sontag‘ in Hazlitt
• Alexandra Alter, ‘Curtis Sittenfeld Is No Jane Austen, But She’s O.K. with That‘ in The New York Times
• Louisa Thomas, ‘The Conflicted Early Feminism of Louisa Catherine Adams‘  on Literary Hub
• Hilton Als, ‘Immediate Family: Maggie Nelson’s Life in Words‘ in The New Yorker
• Michelle Dean, ‘The Wreck: Adrienne Rich’s feminist awakening, glimpsed through her never-before-published letters.‘ in New Republic
• Kim Brooks, ‘A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Mom‘ in The Cut
• Anya Groner, ‘Space Tourism in Modern Storytelling‘ on Electric Literature
• Natasha Carthew, ‘I didn’t see working class identity in books when I was growing up, and I don’t see enough now‘ in The Guardian
• Rumaan Alam, ‘Why Wasn’t Great American Novelist Jane Smiley on the Cover of a Magazine?‘ in Literary Hub
• Elena Sheppard, ‘Why I’ve been reading and re-reading “Bridget Jones’s Diary” for 20 years‘ on Hello Giggles
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘How to buy the perfect book for someone else‘ on The Pool
• Esme Weijun Wang, ‘Why My Novel Uses Untranslated Chinese‘ on Literary Hub
• Diane McWhorter, ‘Harper Lee, the National Antidote‘ on Slate
• Bridget Read, ‘On Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, Ten Years Later’ on Literary Hub
• Anne K. Yoder, ‘Fiction Must Be Fed: On Margaret Cavendish, Frida Kahlo, and Marie Curie‘ on The Millions
• Lindsay Merbaum, ‘Not a Real Writer: How Self-Doubt Holds Me Back‘ on Electric Literature
• Laura Miller, ‘I’ll Be There for You: The difficult, dangerous task of writing about a friend‘ on Slate
• Melissa Chadburn, ‘The Girl in the Cabinet (I Read What You Wrote and I Hate You)‘ on Electric Literature
• Hannah Gersen, ‘Gluten-Free Proust‘ on The Millions
• Fatima Bhutto, ‘My Grandfather’s Library, Relic of a Freer Pakistan‘ on Literary Hub
• Ann Patchett, ‘The Bookstore Fights Back‘ on Literary Hub
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Women Writers You Should Know: Constance Fenimore Woolson‘ in The Toast
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘How not to talk about African fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jesse Crispin, ‘The Self-Hating Book Critic‘ on Copper Nickel
• Clare Warner, ‘‘Her nose was straight with a soft tip at the end’ — Writing Race at School‘ on Media Diversified
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘I realised I’d been sold a lie about women’ in The Guardian
• John William Walker Zeiser, ‘The Unsettling Gaze of Han Kang: Examining Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and Human Acts‘ on Electric Literature
• Lynnette Lounsbury, ‘I loved the beat generation. Then I realised it has no place for women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Kat Lister, ‘Saying “No” doesn’t have to be negative‘ on The Pool
• Marina Lucic, ‘Lessons on Hate‘ in Litro
• Lauren Libbert, ‘Losing my mother, then losing the music that could soothe after she’d gone‘ on The Pool
• Maggie Thach Morshed, ‘Shooting in the Dark‘ on Catapult
• Meagan O’Connell, ‘How Did I Wind Up a Housewife in Paradise?‘ on The Cut
• Lydia Kiesling, ‘Throwing Away the Most Beautiful Dress I Ever Owned‘ on The Cut
• Lorena Piñeiro, ‘Penance‘ in Midnight Breakfast
• Faith Adiele, ‘All of the Above‘ on The Rumpus
• Mega Majumdar, ‘Laughter as Criticism‘ in Guernica
• Lily Gutierrez, ‘Peaches and Melisande‘ on Motherland
• Lynsey Hanley, ‘How I became middle-class‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Gavino, ‘A Band Named HotdogA Band Named HotdogA Band Named Hotdog‘ on Catapult
• Clare Archibald, ‘Congealed‘ on The Real Story
• Kate Bolick, ‘Afterlives: My Mother’s Breast Cancer, and My Own‘ in The New Yorker
• Kathryn Harrison, ‘On the Impossibility of Seeing Yourself‘ on Literary Hub
• Penny Anderson, ‘What it feels like to do your make-up when you’re blind‘ on The Pool
• Soraya Chemaly, ‘Listening to Old Women‘ in The Toast
• Melissa Broder, ‘How I Discovered the Power of a Hot-Pink Fake Penis‘ in The Cut
• Anissa Helou, ‘Before the War: The Lost Delicacies of Aleppo‘ on Literary Hub
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘My Wedding Was a Disaster, and Yours Will Be, Too‘ on The Cut

Feminism:

• Revati Upadhya, ‘I’m A Woman Who Doesn’t Have Or Want Kids, And I’m Happy‘ on Buzzfeed
• Fariah Roísín, ‘In My Image‘ on Maisonneuve
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Who would think any good could come from an MP calling a woman ‘totty’?‘ in The Guardian
• Marisa Bate, ‘The everyday bravery of being a woman‘ on The Pool
• Sara Pascoe, ‘Boob jobs are viewed as a decorative tweak, but these women are self-harming’ in The Guardian
• Jill Lepore, ‘The Sovereignty of Women‘ in The New Yorker
• Rachel Aviv, ‘The Cost of Caring‘ in The New Yorker
• Shohana Khan, ‘If Muslim women’s clothing makes them consenting slaves, who are their slave masters?‘ on Media Diversified
• Siobhan Fenton, ‘Today in the UK, a woman was sentenced for the crime of an abortion – yet we act outraged at Donald Trump‘ in The Independent
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Think Donald Trump’s comments are shocking? They’re the law for some UK women‘ in The New Statesman
• Jesse Singal, ‘Is Attachment Parenting a Plot to Force Women Back Into the Home?‘ in The Cut
• Melissa Gira Grant, ‘Heather‘ on Buzzed
• Bridget Minamore, ‘Being a dark-skinned woman and the prejudices we face ‘ on The Pool

Society and Politics:

• Erika Hayasaki, ‘In a Perpetual Present‘ on Wired
• Catherine Buni & Soraya Chemaly, ‘The Secret Rules of the Internet‘ on The Verge
• Laura Elizabeth Woollet, ‘In Search of the Darkest Cult in American History‘ on Literary Hub
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘How Teju Cole Helped Me Make Peace with the Nigerian Scam Artist‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Kolbert, ‘Unnatural Selection‘ in The New Yorker
• Lynn Casteel Harper, ‘On Vanishing‘ in Catapult
• Elizabeth Senja Spackman, ‘Proximal Grief‘ in Guernica
• Pamela Rolloff, ‘The Reckoning‘ in Texas Monthly
• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Ugly Cry‘ in New Republic
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Making money is not a vice, but refusing to contribute tax is‘ in The Guardian
• Paris Lees, ‘Dear Ian McEwan, your ideas about penises are outdated‘ in The Telegraph

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

• Kate Aurthur, ‘How “Nina” Became A Disaster Movie‘ on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Lyall, ‘Swim. Bike. Cheat?‘ on Longreads
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘Lost and found: why are we obsessed with stories of young women escaping their kidnappers?‘ in The New Statesman
• Marie Phillips, ‘Kimmy Schmidt, and the unmitigated joy she will bring to your life‘ on The Pool

The interviews/profiles:

• Lisa Owens in The Bookseller
• Robin Black & Natalie Serber on Bloom
• Maggie Nelson in The Guardian
• Michelle de Kretser in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Brit Bennett on Jezebel
• Danielle Dutton in Brooklyn Magazine
• Idra Novey on The Rumpus
• Helen Garner in the Sydney Morning Herald
• Yvette Edwards on the Waterstones’ Blog
• Lynsey Hanley in The Guardian
• Elif Batuman on Literary Hub
• Rachel Traister on The Pool
• Sara Sheridan on From First Page to Last
• Janet Todd in Shiny New Books
• Sharon Guskin in Shiny New Books
• Karen Kovacik on Guernica
• Caitlin and Caz Moran on The Pool
• Maylis de Kerangal in BOMB
• Sophia Bennett in The Guardian
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Literary Hub
• Danielle McLaughlin on Short Fiction
• Jenny Downham on The Bookseller

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: March 2016, Part Two

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

8th March 2016: The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its 2016 longlist, comprised of 20 books that celebrate the best of fiction written by women

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist was announced this fortnight. While former winner, Lionel Shriver declared ‘Women’s literary prizes are ‘problematic’‘.

And the Wellcome Book Prize announced their shortlist with four (out of six) female writers on it, as did the YA Book Prize with eight women writers on its ten book shortlist.

Elena Ferrante is hot news in the literary world once again after Corriere della Sera published an article in which Marco Santagata claimed to know her identity. Rachel Donadio wrote, ‘Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir‘ in The New York Times; Jonathan Sturgeon said, ‘We Already Know the Identity of Elena Ferrante‘ on Flavorwire; Lincoln Michel asked, ‘Why Do We Care Who the “Real” Elena Ferrante Is?‘ on Electric Literature; Stassa Edwards asked, ‘What’s Really Behind Our Obsession Over Unmasking Elena Ferrante?‘ on Jezebel; John Dugdale wrote, ‘Will Elena Ferrante outlast Louisa May Alcott’s secret alter ego?‘ in The Guardian, and Jessica Roy declared, ‘Leave Elena Ferrante Alone‘ in The Cut.

Anita Brookner died. Rebecca Hawkes wrote her obituary while Linda Grant wrote, ‘Why Anita Brookner’s funny, sharp novels got under your skin‘ both in The Telegraph.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Kevin McKenna, ‘Jackie Kay: Scotland’s poet of the people‘ in The Observer
• Elissa Washuta, ‘They Just Dig: On Writing, Coal Mining and Fear‘ on Literary Hub
• Louise Beech, ‘On Life Writing‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Rachel Kessler, ‘When the Apocalypse Is Your Religion‘ on Literary Hub
• Michelle Dean, ‘Why You Should Watch the New Nora Ephron Documentary‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura June, ‘Charlotte Brontë and her Best Friend’s Broken Promise‘ on Jezebel
• Meaghan O’Connell, ‘The Patronizing Questions We Ask Women Who Write‘ in The Cut
• Sara Nović, ‘What it’s like to be a deaf novelist‘ in The Guardian
• M Lynx Qualey, ‘In the Race for Literary Prizes, Is Gender Parity Possible?‘ in The National
• Fiona Noble, ‘YA and children’s books deserve to be judged separately‘ in The Bookseller
• Mimi Wong, ‘Slut Lit & Dismantling “The Fallen Woman”‘ on The Offing
• Boris Kachka, ‘A First-Time Novelist’s 7-Figure Midlife Breakthrough‘ on Vulture
• Claire Armistead, ‘Happiness to mindfulness, via wellbeing: how publishing trends grow‘ in The Guardian
• Jerome Charyn, ‘A Loaded Gun: The Real Emily Dickinson‘ on Longreads
• Belinda McKeon, ‘Dipping the Pen Nib Into Tragedy‘ on Catapult
• Emily Foster, ‘The Monster in the Mirror: On Horror, Disability, and Loving Both at Once‘ on Tor.Com
• Ilana Masad, ‘The First Unappreciated Woman Writer‘ on Broadly
• Sarah Blake, ‘Men Explain Submissions to Me‘ on The Rumpus

• Rosalie Knecht, ‘This Writer: On Social Work and Fiction‘ on Literary Hub
• Doris Grumbach, ‘A Life in Letters: From the New Republic to Iowa to Knopf‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Zaleski, ‘Other Writers’ Mothers: Some Reflections on Representing Family‘ on Vida
• Tracy Chevalier, ‘Past President of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Club‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Nović ‘Sign of the Times‘ in Guernica
• Maddie Crum ‘Unhappily Ever After: How Women Became Seen Not Heard in Our Favourite Fairy Tales‘ on the Huffington Post
• Corrine Duyvis, ‘Fiction, like life, tells disabled people their lives have less value‘ in The Guardian
• Lisa McInerney, ‘Write what you know? Know what you write? I’d rather wing it, thanks‘ in The Irish Times
• Julia Pierpoint, ‘Topography of a novel: on how she wrote Among the Ten Thousand Things‘ in The Guardian
• Valerie Grove, ‘Margaret Forster: A northern lass in NW5‘ in The New Statesman
• Margaret Drabble, ‘My Hero: Elena Ferrante‘ in The Guardian
• Deborah Smith, ‘Only wilful disregard can hide the need to publish more women‘ in The Guardian
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Can Ideas Withstand Shifts in Language?‘ in Guernica
• Pico Iyer, ‘On Annie Dillard‘ on Literary Hub
• Katy Derbyshire, ‘Translated fiction by women must stop being a minority in a minority‘ in The Guardian
• Summer Brennan, ‘The Things We Do to Promote the Books We Write‘ on Literary Hub
• Karen Swallow Prior, ‘Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self‘ on The Atlantic
• Caroline Criado Perez, ‘“Publishing is a women’s world”: Gender inequality in the writing industry‘ on Scottish Pen
• Christina Wodtke, ‘It’s Not Easy Being She‘ on Medium
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Constance Fenimore Woolson: The Forgotten Author Who Inspired Henry James‘ on The Daily Beast

Personal essays/memoir:

• Julienne Grey, ‘What We Remember: One Small Act Replaces the Rest‘ on Electric Literature
• Jess E. Jellsma, ‘Frigid‘ on The Rumpus
• Alison Motluk, ‘A Journey to the Medical Netherworld‘ On Hazlitt
• Kathleen Hale, ‘Surviving the Love Bomb‘ on Hazlitt
• Janice Lee, ‘I Can’t Go On / I’ll Go On‘ on Berfrois
• Kaitlyn Greenidge, ‘I Found My Father’s Eulogy In Junk Food‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alana Massey, ‘First the Breakup. Then the Screenshots.‘ in The Cut
• Anakana Schofield, ‘Bold, Open-Minded and Entrepreneurial‘ on the LRB Blog
• Chelsea G. Summers, ‘The Half Dad‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘One Afternoon in Texas‘ on Vela
• Arial Gore, ‘Blood-Red Bougainvillea‘ on The Rumpus
• Ann Patchett, ‘That Family Party Everyone Hated? It Was Mine.‘ in The New York Times
• Jessica Silvester, ‘On an Italian Island, How He Met My Mother‘ in The New York Times
• Jasmine Sanders, ‘Mama‘ on Catapult
• Michelle Levitt, ‘Buckle and Sway‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘Everyday Geography‘ on Vela
• Naomi Gordon-Loeb, ‘Even Lumberjacks Deserve Lotion: Gender in the Locker Room‘ on The Toast

Feminism:

• Helen Walmsley-Johnson, ‘How we think about women and shame‘ in The New Statesman
• Sarah Ditum, ‘A Woman’s Body Is Not a Disgrace‘ in The New Statesman
• Marie Phillips, ‘What would the world look like if men took the pill?‘ in The Pool
• Caitlin Moran,“You were not born scared and self-loathing” in Stylist
• Em LaFave Olson, ‘Why I’m Returning to My Maiden Name‘ on Medium
• Caitlin Moran, ‘I’m sticking my neck out‘ on Adelaide Now
• Rachel Pashley, ‘We’ve placed motherhood on such a high pedestal we’ve forgotten the huge pros of being a child-free woman‘ in The Independent
• Fiammata Rocco, ‘Fiction at its Finest‘ in The Bookseller
• Emer O’Toole, ‘Three ways for feminists to cope with the abuse we face‘ in The Irish Times

Society and Politics:

• Eternity Martis, ‘What It Was Like to Grow Up Fat‘ on Vice
• Olga Khazan, ‘Lean In to Crying at Work‘ in The Cut
• Katy Derbyshire, ‘Berlin, It’s Not Sex All the Time‘ on Literary Hub
• Alena Gradon, ‘Distant Brains‘ in Guernica
• Rukmini Callimachi, ‘To Maintain Supply of Sex Slaves, ISIS Pushes Birth Control‘ in The New York Times
• Chimamanda Adichie. ‘Why can’t he just be like everyone else?‘ on The Scoop
• Erin Allday, ‘Last Men Standing‘ in the San Francisco Chronicle
• Suki Kim, ‘Mr. Rubio’s Neighbourhood‘ in New Republic
• Amena Ziard, ‘There’s More to Saudi Arabia than the Ban on Women Driving‘ on Media Diversified

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

• Elizabeth Day, ‘Happy Valley: female solidarity is stronger than male exploitation‘ on The Pool
• Sara Baume, ‘How to Understand America, One Pattern at a Time‘ on Literary Hub
• Sonia Saraiya, ‘“The Bachelor” is still for white people: A sour fairy tale, fed to millions, that keeps prizing whiteness above all‘ on Salon
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Mark My Words: The Subversive History of Women Using Thread as Ink‘ on Broadly
• Emma Dabiri, ‘Why Zoe Saldana was the wrong black woman to play Nina Simone‘ in The Telegraph

The interviews:

• L.S. Hilton on The Debrief and The Pool
• Deborah Levy in The Guardian
• Cynthia Cruz in Maenad Magazine
• Gillian Slovo in The Independent
• Helen Macdonald in The Washington Post
• Lauren Groff on Longreads
• Rachel Kushner, Rivka Galchen (& Hari Kunzru) on Electric Literature
• Dana Spiotta on Electric Literature
• Morgan Jerkins on BlacQurl
• Joanna Walsh in The Gloss
• Sunny Singh in The TES
• Carol Lovekin on The Writes of Woman
• Sarayu Srivatsa on The Writes of Woman
• Antonia Honeywell on The Writes of Woman
• Sarah Howe in Neue Journal
• Danielle Dutton in The LA Times, in Bomb Magazine and 3am Magazine
• Melissa Broder in Elle
• Anna Moschovakis on Flavorwire
• Jessa Crispin on The Rumpus
• Samantha Hunt on Literary Hub
• Annie Proulx in The New Yorker
• Malorie Blackman in The Bookseller
• Victoria Aveyard in The Guardian
• Mary Oliver on Oprah
• Brooke Magnanti in The Guardian
• Meghan Daum on The Rumpus
• Cressida Cowell, Laura Dockrill (and Philip Ardagh) in The Guardian
• Melissa Harrison in The Herald
• Anne Boyd Rioux on History in the Margins
• Ottessa Moshfegh on Penguin
• Helen Oyeyemi on Broadly
• Annie Dillard on Literary Hub
• Joanna Cannon in Standard Issue
• L.A. Weatherly in The Guardian
• Anjali Joseph on The Asian Writer
• Cassandra Clare 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

In the Media, February 2016, part two

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

On Friday, the death of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird was announced. Obituaries followed from Ed Pilkington and Matthew Teague in The Guardian; Eric Hamburger also in The Guardian; Casey N. Cep in The New Yorker, and The Irish Times, and appraisals of her work from Michiko Kakutani, ‘In Harper Lee’s Novels, a Loss of Innocence as Children and Again as Adults‘ in the New York Times; Sarah Churchwell, ‘Harper Lee: author battled to reconcile racial justice with a racially unjust society‘ and Elaine Showalter, ‘Harper Lee: an American novelist deserving of serious attention‘ both in The Guardian; Michelle Dean, ‘Did Go Set a Watchman spoil Harper Lee’s literary legacy?‘ in The Guardian; Katy Waldman, ‘What Is Harper Lee’s Legacy After Go Set a Watchman?‘ on Slate, and Alex Clark, ‘Why Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird endures to tell its tale of radical change‘ in The Observer

You might have heard that a fortnight ago Beyoncé released a new song ‘Formation’ which she went on to perform at the SuperBowl. Lots of people had lots to say about it. LaSha wrote, ‘Kendrick Lamar won’t face backlash like Beyoncé: Socially conscious art, sexual expression and the policing of black women’s politics‘, Priscilla Ward wrote, ‘White Beyoncé haters don’t get it: “Formation” isn’t “race-baiting” — but it is unapologetically about race‘ both on Salon; Banseka Kayembe wrote, ‘Beyonce Gets Political: Here’s Why it Matters‘ on the Huffington Post; Shantrelle Lewis wrote, ‘“Formation” Exploits New Orleans’ Trauma‘ on Slate; Nikita Richardson did ‘A Deep Dive into the Important, Unapologetic Blackness of Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’‘ on Hello Giggles; Suzanne Moore said, ‘Black Pride at the Super Bowl? Beyoncé embodies a new political moment‘ in The Guardian; The Pool asked, ‘Four women on what Beyoncé’s Formation means to them‘, and Anna Leszkiewicz said, ‘Beyoncé and #BlackLivesMatter: why “Formation” is her most radical release to date‘ in the New Statesman.

Last weekend was Valentine’s Day; there was plenty of writing around that too. Emma Dowling wrote, ‘Love’s Labour’s Cost: The Political Economy of Intimacy‘ on Verso Books; Eleanor Franzén wrote ‘V Daze‘ on Elle Thinks; Eileen Myles, ‘on the Excruciating Pain of Waiting for Love‘ and Heather Haverilesky, ‘What Romance Really Means After 10 Years of Marriage‘ on The Cut; Marie Phillips wrote, ‘What I learnt from a year of being in love‘ and Emer O’Toole shared, ‘The Rules, and how I fell in love‘ both on The Pool; Lauren Duca asked, ‘Is There Such a Thing As a Feminist Marriage Proposal?‘, Laura June revealed, ‘What I Thought Romance Meant, Age 12–Present‘ and Meaghan O’Connell told us, ‘Getting Married in One Week Was the Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did‘ all in The Cut; Emma Flowers wrote, ‘Finding, Nearly Losing and Finally Building Love Across Two Genders‘ on the Huffington Post; Heidi Julavits on ‘My High-School Boyfriend, the Con Artist‘ in The Cut; Tiffany Yannetta wrote, ‘Lights, Camera, Love‘ on the history of dating shows on Racked, and Alana Massey said, ‘Tinder Is the New Meet-Cute‘ in The Cut.

Congratulations to Ríona Judge McCormack who won the inaugural Galley Beggar Press short story competition with ‘Blackburn‘. And The Stella Prize announced its 12 book longlist for 2016.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Janet Ellis,‘I submitted my book under a pseudonym’ in The Telegraph
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘“The first outline was way more weird than the final novel” – on writing 13 Minutes‘ on One Book Lane
• Katherine Clements, ‘The Real Wicked Lady‘ on The History Girls
• Elen Caldecott, ‘Children’s books: a middle class ghetto?‘ in The Guardian
• Grady Hendrix, ‘Beloved: The Best Horror Novel the Horror Genre Has Never Claimed‘ on Tor.Com
• Laura Malonee, ‘The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War‘ on Wired
• Cathy Retzenbrink, ‘Lucy Kalanithi, a mourning wife on her husband’s brilliant legacy‘ on The Pool
• Susan Burton, ‘The Quietly Subversive Fictions of Dana Spiotta‘ in The New York Times
• Lisa Levy, ‘The Fine Grim Line Between Love and Stalking: On the Crime Fiction of Caroline Kepnes‘ on Literary Hub
• AFP, ‘Love, Rage, Silence: Secret Lives of Afghanistan’s Female Poets‘ in The Express Tribune
• Belinda McKeon, ‘The Night that Sylvia Plath Met Ted Hughes‘ on Literary Hub
• Edan Lepucki, ‘The Anxiety of Influence: Children’s Books and Their Grown-Up Counterparts‘ on The Millions
• Emily Harnett, ‘When Art Cannot Console Us In Death‘ on Literary Hub
• Anna Hope, ‘The inspiration for an asylum set on the Yorkshire Moors‘ on the Penguin blog
• Rosalind Harvey, ‘A Response to “Beyond Bolaño and Beyond”‘ on Full Stop
• Lisa McInerney, ‘Writers on Location: on Cork City‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Melissa Keil, ‘When is YA going to shape up to body diversity?‘ in The Guardian
• Maddie Crum ‘Some Books Just Aren’t Made To Be Adapted For The Screen, And That’s OK‘ on Huffington Post
• Gila Lyons ‘Female Friendships and Online Literary Sexism‘ on The Rumpus
• Polly Vernon, ‘All the attention came from women telling me how stupid my book was‘ in The Guardian
• Kathryn Evans, ‘How writing YA helped me make sense of my childhood‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best nonfiction books: No 3 – No Logo by Naomi Klein (1999)‘ in The Guardian
• Tracy McVeigh, ‘Ferrante fever sees ‘dangerous’ Naples turn into a tourist hotspot‘ in The Observer
• Valerie Grove, ‘My hero: Margaret Forster‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Crompton. ‘Girl, uninterrupted: staging Eimear McBride’s chaotic masterpiece‘ in The Guardian
• William Deresiewicz, ‘Where Have You Gone, Annie Dillard?‘ on The Atlantic
• Kavita Das, ‘On Parsing‘ on VIDA
• Emily Sipiora, ‘Françoise Sagan and Luxury Existentialism‘ in The Northwest Review of Books
• Katie Cotton, ‘Women in picture books: are we there yet?‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Martin Chilton, ‘How Valley of the Dolls went from a reject to a 30-million best-seller‘ in The Telegraph
• Candy Gourlay and Laura Dockrill, ‘Why we love enchantment in children’s books‘ in The Guardian
• Daniel Peña, ‘Octavia Butler’s Notebook Represents All The Anxieties Of Writers Of Color‘ on Ploughshares
• Niina Pollari, ‘The Marvelous Bonfire‘ on Catapult
• Nandini Balial, ‘On Finding Yourself in the Work of Jhumpa Lahiri‘ on Literary Hub
• Siyanda Mohutsiwa, ‘I’m Done With African Immigrant Literature‘ on Okay Africa
• Andrew Harrison, ‘Framed! Meet the creators shaking up modern comics‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Armitstead, ‘Margaret Forster, award-winning author, dies at 77‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Tennant-Moore, ‘The Best Literary Writing About Sex‘ on Literary Hub
• Catherine Nichols, ‘One Weird Trick That Makes a Novel Addictive‘ on Jezebel
• Eleanor Franzén, ‘On Culture: The Dark Side of Beatrix Potter‘ on Litro
• Máire T Robinson, ‘Sheela-na-gigs and writing what you don’t know‘ in The Irish Times
• Chibundu Onuzo, ‘Yes, I’m black. But an ethnic minority? Forget it‘ in The Guardian
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘Eight Classic Female Bildungsromane You Should Know About If You Don’t Already‘ in The Toast
• Esther Kuforiji, ‘Stories of Blackness — Chapter 4: Literary Festivals‘ on Medium
• Julia Eccleshare, ‘Gillian Avery obituary‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Liz Dashwood, ‘Grown-ups are allowed to have meltdowns, too‘ on The Pool
• Joyce Maynard, ‘What Luck Means Now‘ in The New York Times
• Erin Lee Carr, ‘Still Rendering‘ on Medium
• Danielle Bacher, ‘My Autistic Brother’s Quest for Love‘ in Esquire
• Bruna Dantas Labato, ‘Notes on Record-Keeping‘ on Ploughshares
• Joanna Horton, ‘Hard Luck: On Motherlessness‘ in The Toast
• Edan Lepuki, ‘The Secret, Magical Underwear That Only Moms Know About‘ in The Cut
• Kim Pittaway, ‘After‘ on Hazlitt
• Jennifer Hanks, ‘Somewhere Across The Sea‘ in Lumen
• Nicolette Loizou, ‘Travelling in Fiji‘ on Litro
• Esther Schor, ‘My Last JDate‘ in Tablet
• Antonia Honeywell, ‘I was driven out of my beloved church by homophobia‘ in The Telegraph
• Marian Keyes , ‘on the Agony of Small Goodbyes‘ on The Pool
• Susan Shapiro, ‘Both Sides Now‘ on Tablet
• Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The Moon Over the River Lethe‘ on Catapult
• Sarai Walker, ‘Yes, I’m Fat. It’s O.K. I Said It.‘ in The New York Times
• Miriam Foley, ‘Remembering Román‘ on Litro
• Susan Daitch, ‘Treasure Hunters‘ on Guernica
• Farah Róisín, ‘Why Them?‘ on Hazlitt

Feminism:

• Anna James, ‘What’s behind the lack of female pilots?‘ on The Pool
• Jia Tolentino, ‘What Should We Say About David Bowie and Lori Maddox?‘ on Jezebel
• Laura Munoz, ‘To Men I Love, About Men Who Scare Me‘ on Medium
• Dolly Alderton, ‘Hey, spurious polls. This is the *perfect* woman‘ on The Pool
• Emma Lindsay, ‘What I Learned From Dating Women Who Have Been Raped‘ on Medium
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘On the sad inevitability of the grown man and the teenage girl‘ on The Pool
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘Companies are to publish their gender pay gaps – but will this lead to financial equality?‘ on the New Statesman
• Louise O’Neill, ‘I wonder if my ex-boyfriends thought female sexuality was something to be laughed at‘ in the Irish Examiner
• Sandra Newman, ‘Woman Facts‘ on McSweeney’s
• Robyn Wilder, ‘Why is the P-word so cringingly awful?‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘The Case of the Missing Perpetrator‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Mayer, ‘The Legend of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp‘ on Berfrois
• Sady Doyle, ‘Progressive‘ on her Tumblr
• Aricka Foreman and Mimi Wong, ‘Except, All Of Us: Women & the Myth of Safety‘ on The Offing
• Laura June ‘When You’re Pregnant, Nothing Seems in Your Control‘ on The Cut

Society and Politics:

• Kyla Marshell, ‘The Other World Where Everyone Lives‘ in The Blueshift Journal
• Elspeth Reeve, ‘The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens‘ on New Republic
• Michelle Goldberg, ‘Is a Surrogate a Mother?‘ on Slate
• Alana Massey, ‘Checking Your Date’s Instagram Isn’t ‘Stalking,’ It’s Research‘ on The Cut
• Meena Kandasamy, ‘“I Am An Anti-National…Count Me Out”‘ on Outlook
• Aaminah Khan, ‘I Don’t Need White Progressives Telling Me, A Queer Muslim, About Homophobia In Islam‘ on Harlott
• Lisa Rab, ‘Poverty in Charlotte: ‘It Was Never Okay’‘ in Charlotte Magazine
• Beulah Maud Devaney, ‘Which Cities Would Be Most Likely to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse?‘ on City Metric
• Jihan Crowther ‘What Dating Abroad Taught Me About Stateside Racism‘ on Jezebel
• Jaya Saxena, ‘Some Unorganized Mixed Race Thoughts‘ in The Toast
• Lineal Ajello, ‘More and More War Stories‘ on Guernica
• Susan Gillman, ‘Remembering Slavery, Again‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘The new young fogeys‘ in The New Statesman
• Emiko Jozuka, ‘The Woman Who Makes Prosthetic Pinkies for Ex-Yakuza Members‘ on Motherboard

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

• Joy Resmovits, ‘The UCLA gymnast who became a viral sensation by just being herself on the floor‘ in the LA Times
• Elizabeth Day, ‘Happy Valley’s women: flawed, funny and completely brilliant‘ on The Pool
• Elizabeth Sankey, ‘In praise of Ab Fab, female friendship and not caring what other people think‘ on The Pool
• Lorrie Moore, ‘The Shame of Wisconsin‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Superheroes have to deal with the same problems the rest of us do‘ on The Pool
• Alexandra Molotkow, ‘The Uncomfortable Power of Pop-Music Cruelty‘ on The Cut
• Hannah Giorgia, ‘Why Do Black Women In Movies Have To Choose Between A Weave And A Relationship?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Cali Hughes, ‘Red is so much more than a colour. It’s a state of mind.’ on the 4th Estate blog
• Lisa Owens, ‘Does Don’t Tell The Bride actually contain the secrets to a happy life?‘ on The Pool
• Lisa Hix, ‘Out of the Shadow of Aunt Jemima: The Real Black Chefs Who Taught Americans to Cook‘ on Collectors Weekly
• Jamie Lauren Keiles, ‘I’m a Hat Person Now‘ on The Cut

The interviews:

• Elizabeth Strout in The Guardian
• Kelly Link on The Millions
• Elena Ferrante in The Gentlewoman
• Idra Novey on Hazlitt, Electric Literature, Weird Sister and Literary Hub
• Janet Ellis in The Bookseller
• Hilary Spiers on Greenacre Writers
• Ann Neuman and Sheri Fink in Guernica
• Marie Annhearte Baker in Room
• Marjorie Liu in Guernica
• Jhumpa Lahiri on Slate, the Wall Street Journal and  Literary Hub, Parts One and Two
• Belinda McKeon on Electric Literature
• Lucy Kalanithi in The Guardian
• Sara Majka on Electric Literature
• Salena Godden on The Woven Tale Press
• Marina Warner on The Literateur
• Ann Goldstein on NPR
• Antonia Honeywell on Greenacre Writers
• Angela Flournoy on The Rumpus
• Sarah Perry on Radio Praha
• Meg Rosoff in The Guardian
• Han Kang on Literary Hub
• Joanna Walsh in Tank
• Alida Nugent on The Rumpus
• Natasha Wimmey on Broadly
• Caroline Bergvall on Asymptote
• Jo Bloom in Psychologies
• Elizabeth McKenzie on Literary Hub
• Sharon Guskin in The Bookseller
• Cate Kennedy on Paul McVeigh’s website
• Sara Gruen and Sarah McCoy on Salon
• Gillian Slovo in The Observer
• Melissa Green in the Los Angeles Review of Books

The regular columnists:

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

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: 8th 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 International Women’s Day today and, as you might expect, there have been a number of articles written about and with regards to it. Verso Books published a reading list; in the New Statesman, Stella Creasy said, ‘On International Women’s Day, let’s ask men why progress towards equality is so slow‘; One Book Lane ran a series, ‘The #WonderWomen you need to read about this International Women’s Day‘; Rebecca Winson wrote, ‘We mustn’t forget the revolutionary roots of International Women’s Day‘ in the New Statesman; Somayra Ismailjee, wrote ‘Self-Love Amidst Marginalisation‘ on Media Diversified; Cathy on 746Books wrote, ‘Putting Irish Women Writers Back in the Picture‘ with links to the articles the Irish Times have been running for the past fortnight and their celebratory poster which you can download; Harriet Minter wrote, ‘No need for International Women’s Day? What world do you live in?‘ in The Guardian; Emily Thornberry declared, ‘We Need a New Equal Pay Act‘ in the New Statesman, and Lucy Mangan says, ‘Women take more than enough shit‘ in Stylist.

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

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

The best of the rest articles/essays:

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

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

The interviews:

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

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

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

Or some non-fiction:

• An extract from This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein in The Guardian

The lists:

• 8 Poetry Collections by Contemporary Female Poets on Scottish Book Trust
• My top five books about feminism in The Guardian
• Readers’ favourite books by women in The Guardian
• Maria Tatar’s 10 Lesser-Known Fairy Tales That Should Get More Love on the Huffington Post
• The 16 Best NYC Novels on the Gothamist
• Fiction for Young Feminists on Scottish Book Trust
• 9 Ways Reading Joyce Carol Oates Will Make You Feel More Powerful on Bustle
• 30 Books By Women To Read During Women’s History Month on Refinery 29
• 25 of the best books ever written by women in the Metro
• Books To Read When Your Brain Is Fried on the Huffington Post
• 12 leading reporters on aid and development on Humanosphere
• Samantha Ellis’ Top 5 Literary Heroines on the Penguin Blog
• 10 Must-Read Books For March on Flavorwire
• 12 Books For Young People That Will Turn You Into A Feminist At Any Age on Bustle
• Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly
• 22 Contemporary Authors You Absolutely Should Be Reading on Buzzfeed
• Buy, Borrow, Bypass: Graphic Novels About Kick-Ass Ladies on Bookriot

In the Media: 9th November 2014

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 awards time again this week. Congratulations to Helen Macdonald who won the Samuel Johnson Prize with her stunning memoir H is for Hawk. There’s an article about it and an interview, both in The Guardian. You can also listen to interviews with all the shortlisted writers on BBC Radio 4.

While in France, Lydie Salvayre won the Prix Goncourt with Pas Pleurer.

The Green Carnation shortlist was announced this week and there are four women on the shortlist of six – congratulations to Kerry Hudson, Kirsty Logan, Anneliese Mackintosh and Laurie Penny. Prior to the announcement, Antonia Honeywell wrote her thoughts on the longlist.

The National Book Awards (UK) shortlists were also announced this week. Lots of books by women worth a read on there too.

And the Saltaire Society shortlisted a self-published book for their First Book Award, The Last Pair of Ears by Mary F. McDonough. The first self-published book to be shortlisted for a Scottish Prize.

That might make you think about Paul Kingsnorth’s novel The Wake which was the first crowd funded novel to be longlisted for The Man Booker Prize earlier this year. Well, Unbound, Kingsnorth’s publishers have announced a Women in Print campaign to try to increase the number of female authors published.

This week has also seen The Bookseller’s report on diversity in publishing – still not good enough, is the overriding conclusion.

It wouldn’t be an average week these days without a Lena Dunham story. Accused by a right-wing journalist of sexually molesting her younger sister following a confessional passage in her book, discussion ensued from Emily Gould, Katie McDonough, Mary Elizabeth Williams and Carolyn Edgar on Salon; Sarah Seltzer on Flavorwire; Emma Gannon on The Debrief; Grace Dent in The Independent. To cheer you up after that, here are 37 Funny and Inspired Thoughts from her book tour on Buzzfeed.

In more cheering news about prominent females, Mallory Ortberg, founder of The Toast, had her book Texts for Jane Eyre published in America this week. In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Sarah Mesle wrote a stunning essay/review about the book’s feminist credentials. She’s interviewed on Entertainment Weekly, The Huffington Post and The Guardian. And you can read an extract, 7 Brutal Literary Breakup Texts on Buzzfeed.

And the Amy Poehler stories are still going. The woman herself answers the Proust Questionnaire in Vanity Fair. Here’s 5 Unexpected Things Marie Claire learned from Poehler’s book. Jessica Valenti has (mis?) read the book and declared ‘bitchiness’ the secret to Poehler’s success in The Guardian. Also in The Guardian, Hadley Freeman told us ‘Why Amy Poehler is the Ultimate Role Model for British Women‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Jeanette Winterson on the books that changed her life in The Telegraph
• Meg Wolitzer, ‘Why are teenage girls drawn to books about mental instability?‘ in The Guardian
• ‘Finish that Book!‘, Juliet Lapidos in The Atlantic
• Tracey Thorn on going through phases in the New Statesman
• Dreda Say Mitchell, ‘Heroes to Die For‘ on Grab This Book
• Kate Mayfield on shrouds on her blog
• Erica Wagner on Rebecca Solnit and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Financial Times
• Sarah Galo on the Jennifer Egan edited ‘The Best American Short Stories 2014’ in The Guardian
• ‘Writers on the Titling Process‘ in The Millions
• ‘The Unfashionable Genius‘ on Marilynne Robinson in Commonweal Magazine
• Lynn Shepherd, ‘Pushing Pamela: Book Hype, 18th Century Style‘ in The Spectator
• ‘Women Rise in Sci Fi (Again)‘ by Rose Eveleth in The Atlantic
• Isabel Wolff on ‘The Forgotten Women of the War in the East‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Ruth Margalit on rereading The Giving Tree in The New Yorker
• Anakana Schofield, ‘Sorry, Mrs O’Duffy‘ on the lack of pensions for women in the Irish armed forces on the London Review of Books blog
• Louisa Treger on The Page 69 Test blog, talking about how Virginia Woolf led her to Dorothy Richardson on Blog Her and discussing how it feels to be between her fictional and real worlds on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Jenny Diski, ‘Some things are best met with silence’ on her blog
• Frances Ambler, ‘Punk Debunked‘ on the plagiarism claims against Vivienne Westwood
• Isabel Costello, ‘My First Year as an Agented Writer‘ on her blog
• Catherine Ostler on Agatha Christie’s disappearance in The Independent
• Darcey Steinke’s tribute to a former teacher in The Roanoke Times
• Adèle Geras on ‘finding your voices‘ on The Great British Bookshop
• Sally Gardner, ‘Dyslexia and Me‘ in The Guardian
• Sonal Champsee, ‘How I Started the Margaret Atwood Revolution‘ in Hippocampus
• ‘What to Read When You’re Not Expecting‘ on The Millions
• ‘What Would Jessica Fletcher Tweet?‘ on PopMatters
• Lionel Shriver, ‘I was poor but I was happy‘ in The Guardian

The interviews:

• Sarah Waters interviewed by Rachel Cooke about the play she’s written in The Guardian
• Lindsay Hunter on Electric Literature
• Jane Rawson on Annabel Smith’s blog
• Roxane Gay on Phillips Exeter Academy website
• Anne Fine on Gender-Biased Books on BBC Radio 4
• Amy Mason on Bristol 24/7 and Scottish Book Trust
• Kate Zambreno on Catherine Mavrikakis’ A Cannibal and Melancholy Mourning in The Believer
• Rose Chast on her inspiration at The New Yorker festival
• Jenny Offill on Book Forum
• Averill Curdy in AGNI online
• Laurie Penny on Flavorwire
• Jill Meyers and Callie Collins on running A Strange Object independent press on Bustle
• Caitlin Moran on Talking Writing
• Jo Mazelis on the Seren Books blog
• Mindy Kaling on ‘Writing the Michael Scott Character as a Woman’ at The New Yorker festival
• Zoe Pilger in Flux
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Washington Ideas Forum on The Atlantic (you might need to scroll through the videos)
• Mary Costello on The Works, RTÉ
• Margaret Atwood on Mr B’s Emporium blog
• Anne Lamott on Salon
• Christina James’ editor (who’s also her husband) on Strange Alliances
• Eliza Griswold in Guernica
• Rebecca Levene on Fantasy Faction
• Lynn Kanter on the PhD in Creative Writing Blog
• Lydia Millet interviewed by Jonathan Lethem in BOMB
• Annabel Smith on Seraglio
• Sali Hughes on Get the Gloss
• Anne Rice in The Independent

In translation:

• Jenny Erpenbeck (tr. Susan Bernofsky) ‘Homesick for Sadness’ on the fall of the Berlin Wall in The Paris Review
• Julie Winters Carpenter interviewed about translating Japanese poetry on the Asymptote Blog

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• Juliet Jacques, ‘Surveillance City‘ on Queen Mob’s Tea House
• Gillian Flynn, ‘Trouble at Osage Lake High‘ from Drivel: Deliciously Bad Writing By Your Favorite Authors on Buzzfeed
• An extract from Mary Costello’s Academy Street on Canongate Books
• ‘Stand Still‘ by Shelly Oria on Guernica
• Joanna Ruocco, ‘Gallup Poll’ and ‘The Face of Things’ in Threadcount
• An extract from Miranda Dickinson’s I’ll Take New York on Tishylou’s World
• Bethan Roberts’ ‘Like Rabbits‘ in The White Review
• ‘Luz‘ by Laura Bylenok
• ‘Plots from the Sopranos Re-Interpreted by Lydia Davis‘ (Not really, in case that wasn’t obvious) on Hobart
• Antonya Nelson, ‘Primum Non Noncere‘ in The New Yorker, which she discusses here.
• The first chapter of Amanda Coe’s Getting Colder on Virago’s site

The lists:

• My 5 favourite books to reread on Lonesome Reader
• 33 Books You Should Read Now, Based on Your Favourite Films on Buzzfeed
• 13 Successful First Novels by Female Writers on Popsugar
• 5 Stunning Debut Novels to Add to Your To-Read Pile in the Huffington Post
• 9 Cli-Fi Books for Teens on Scottish Book Trust
• The Best Debut Novels of 2014 according to Hannah Beckerman in the Huffington Post
• 10 Forgotten Children’s Books (8-11) on the Scottish Book Trust site
• Best Queer Characters in Fiction on For Books’ Sake
• The 8 Best Under the Radar Books to Read this Fall in Vogue
• 12 New Books all Twentysomething Women Will Be Obsessed with This Fall in Cosmopolitan
• 5 YA Books That Will Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat on Huffington Post
• 13 Best Books to Read in November in Good Housekeeping
• 6 Things We Learned from J.K. Rowling’s new Harry Potter stories on Mental Floss
• 10 Amazing Female Novelists Under 50 on Buzzfeed
• Five Challenging Memoirs by Remarkable Women Writers by Alice Jolly (who’s publishing her own memoir through Unbound – see top of the post) on For Books’ Sake

And the 13 (I tried to keep it to 10 but it’s been a very good week) best things I’ve seen this week:

• Meaghan O’Connell’s ‘A Birth Story‘ on Longreads
• The new Read Women bookmarks designed by Joanna Walsh, creator of #ReadWomen2014
• 100 Days of African Reads on Sister Killjoy’s Facebook page (runs from 10th October 2014 to 8th January 2015)
• Andrea Levy, ‘How I learned to stop hating my heritage‘ in The Guardian
• Ekphora, ‘A Liberating Rupture‘ on her blog
• ‘An Illustrated Guide to Writing People of Color‘ by MariNaomi on Buzzfeed
• ‘The War Is Over (If You Want It)‘ Rebecca Solnit on Tom Dispatch
• Olivia Lang’s profile of Hilary Mantel in Elle
• ‘Notes on the Exotic‘, Andrea Lee in The New Yorker
• Ann Patchett’s correction to the New York Times
• Lucy Ribchester’s Pinterest board for The Hourglass Factory
• Sarah Butler’s ‘Remaining Values Should Probably Be Left Alone‘ on her blog
• The book trailer (it’s more of a mini-film than a book trailer) for Tiffany Murray’s Sugar Hall