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, March 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 traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

It’s Mothers’ Day in the UK today, so inevitably there’s been lots of writing about mothers – being one, having one, not having one – this week. Contributors including Jackie Kay, Jeanette Winterson and Helen Simpson wrote about ‘… my mother before I knew her‘ inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Before You Were Mine’ in The Guardian; Liz Dashwood asks, ‘What do I *really* want for Mother’s Day?‘ on The Pool; Rivka Galchen talked about ‘The Only Thing I Envy Men‘ in The New Yorker; Robyn Wilder wrote, ‘Maternity leave: the reality versus the expectations‘, Emily Eades wrote, ‘Becoming a mother without your own mother to rely on‘ and Sinéad Gleeson wrote, ‘Mothers, and the pram-in-the-hall problem‘ all on The Pool (Do follow the link to the Anne Enright clip on that last piece. Spot on and very funny); Susan Briante wrote, ‘Mother Is Marxist‘ on Guernica; Kate Townshend asked, ‘Is it possible for a mother and daughter to be *too* close?‘, Samira Shackle said, ‘Returning to my mother’s homeland helped me to make sense of my place in the world‘, Cathy Rentzenbrink said, ‘There is no such thing as a smug mother, we’re all terrified and struggling‘ and Rosalind Powell wrote, ‘I didn’t give birth, but I became a mother‘ all on The Pool; Sarah Turner wrote, ‘Mother’s Day Without Mum‘ on The Unmumsy Mum

Sadly, Louise Rennison died this week. Philip Ardagh wrote, ‘My Hero: Louise Rennison‘ in The Guardian. Shannon Maughan wrote her obituary for Publishers Weekly.

The woman with the most coverage this fortnight is Sanjida Kay with ‘Where’s the Diversity in Grip-Lit?‘ on The Asian Writer; ‘on Switching Genres‘ on The Literary Sofa, and ‘Fairytales‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books

Exciting news as forthcoming novels from Jilly Cooper, Zadie Smith and Ali Smith were announced this fortnight.

And I’ve added Kaushana Cauley’s new Intersections column for Catapult to the regulars list at the bottom of the links. It’s well worth a read.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Eve Ainsworth, ‘Toxic love: YA’s bad boys need to stay between the covers‘ in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara: ‘Don’t we read fiction exactly to be upset?’ in The Guardian
• Jessie Burton, ‘Success, Creativity and the Anxious Space‘ on her blog
• Claire Fuller, ‘Some things I’ve learned in my year of being published‘ on her blog
• Bree Crowder, ‘Four Young Adult Authors Share Why They Write Funny Books‘ on Bustle
• Karen Swallow Prior, ‘Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self‘ on The Atlantic
• Deborah Moggagh, ‘Man Booker Prize has an unhealthy effect on the market, says author Deborah Moggagh‘ in The Independent
• Claire Fallon, ‘Our Favourite Children’s Books Are Super Problematic‘ on the Huffington Post
• Alison Flood, ‘Tessa Hadley among nine winners of surprise $150,000 literary awards‘ in The Guardian
• Sian Cain, ‘Toni Morrison wins PEN/Saul Bellow award for contribution to American fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Jo Hall, ‘If We Can Imagine Dragons: On Writing Non-Heterosexual Relationships in Fantasy‘ on Holdfast
• Alison Stine, ‘On Poverty‘ on Kenyon Review
• Joan Schenkar, ‘What Patricia Highsmith did for love: ‘The Price of Salt’ and the secrets behind ‘Carol’‘ in the Los Angeles Times
• Louise Walters, ‘I didn’t want to resort to self-publishing, but it’s an exhilarating change‘ in The Guardian
• Gaby Wood, ‘How Karl Ove Knausgaard and Elena Ferrante won us over‘ in The Telegraph
• Moira Redmond, ‘Leap year fear: a literary history of women proposing marriage‘ in The Guardian
• Katy Derbyshire, ‘Women in Translation: Why Does It Matter?‘ on Free Word
• Eva Jurczyk, ‘No More Books by Men‘ on The Awl
• Elizabeth Strassner, ‘How To Tell If You’re In a Flannery O’Connor Story‘ in The Toast
• Anne Boyd Rioux, ‘How to Make Sure Your Writing Is Forgotten‘ on The Rumpus
• Holly Williams, ‘From The Roaring Queen to Downton Abbey: the afterlives of Virginia Woolf‘ in the New Statesman
• Anna North, ‘What Publishing a Novel Taught Me About Life‘ on Waterstones’ Blog

• Kate Jenkins, ‘Harper Lee and the Myth of a Post-Racial America‘ on Literary Hub
• Sian Cain, ‘Fear of Flying still soars above tabloid outrage‘ in The Guardian
• Brigit Katz, ‘These forgotten female crime writers had no time for femme fatales or dowdy housewives‘ on Women in the World
• Idra Novey, ‘Writing While Translating‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘Teen readers aren’t in crisis, they’re just making their own rules‘ in The Guardian
• Jaya Saxena, ‘I Know I Should Like Reading More But There Are Things About The Act Of Reading That Make It Very Difficult‘ in The Toast
• Deirdre Sullivan, ‘The seed of Needlework was anger, and I wanted it to feel raw’ in The Irish Times
• Jesmyn Ward remembers Harper Lee: ‘She saw and responded to the humanity of each and every one of us’ on Entertainment Weekly
• Vipash Bansal, ‘Remembering Octavia Butler: 1947-2006‘ on Media Diversified
• Chris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story: Elizabeth Taylor‘ in The Guardian
• Brooke Magnanti, ‘Where are the normal women in fiction?‘ on One Book Lane
• Robin Stevens, ‘Boys could enjoy stories about girls, and vice versa – if only we’d let them‘ in The Guardian
• Chelsea G. Summers, ‘A History of Horny‘ on Hazlitt
• Brit Mandello, ‘Dear Joanna Russ: A Letter for an Inimitable Writer‘ on Tor.Com
• Sunny Singh, ‘Why set up a prize for writers of colour?‘ in The Bookseller
• Rory Samantha Green, ‘Born Lucky: my mum Jackie Collins and her wild child alter ego‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Barnett, ‘Finding ideas isn’t usually a problem‘ in The Guardian
• Joanna Cannon, ‘Mental illness is always a problem, so we will always need books about it‘ in The Guardian
• Jonathan Sturgeon, ‘The Paradoxical Legacy of Harper Lee‘ on Flavorwire
• Tricia Tongco, ‘Meet Faith, The Body-Positive Superhero Of Our Dreams‘ on the Huffington Post
• Melissa Harrison, ‘How cars ruined our love of the countryside‘ in The Guardian
• Shelley Harris, ‘The Secret Life of Mothers‘ on the WHSmith Blog
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘Black Women Writers and the Secret Space of Diaries‘ in The New Yorker

 

Personal essays/memoir:

• Esther Wang, ‘Watching And Reading About White People Having Sex Is My Escape‘ on Buzzfeed
• Megan Galbraith, ‘Sin Will Find You Out‘ on Catapult
• Georgina Kleege, ‘On Being Who I Am: My Life as a Tall Blind Woman‘ in The Toast
• Briallen Hopper, ‘Relying on Friendship in a World Made for Couples‘ in The Cut
• Sarah Resnick, ‘H‘ on n+1
• Rosalind Jana, ‘The One Piece Of Clothing That Makes Me Feel Extraordinarily Sexy‘ on Refinery 29
• Alana Massey, ‘Why I’m Buying a House Without a Family to Put in It‘ on The Cut
• Anna Holmes, ‘I Feel Destined to Be Single, and That’s Okay‘ on The Cut
• Kade Walker, ‘Veronica Dies in Jamaica‘ on The Rumpus
• Ellen Urbani, ‘There Is No Such Thing as a True Story‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Rebecca Traister, ‘The Single American Woman‘ in The Cut
• Aria Dean, ‘Closing the Loop‘ on The New Inquiry
• Eleanor Ross, ‘Why estate agent sexism could be costing you‘ on The Pool
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘It’s the £30bn cut you’ve never heard of. And women are bearing the brunt‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘So You’re a Celebrity Who Calls Yourself a Feminist. Now What?‘ in The Cut
• Linda Chavers, ‘To Black Girls Everywhere‘ on The Offing
• Caroline Paul, ‘Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared?‘ in The New York Times

Society and Politics:

• Caitlin Moran, ‘How to start – and win – an argument online‘ in The Guardian
• Hadley Freeman, ‘So the privately educated are the new underclass? Spare me the sob story‘ in The Guardian
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘Trump has succeeded in an America that is already pre-disposed to racial suspicion‘ on Media Diversified
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘Hillary Clinton’s haters and the glass ceiling of American politics‘ in the New Statesman
• Molly Crabapple, ‘What Life Is Like Inside the Besieged, War-Torn Syrian City of Aleppo‘ on Vice
• Julia Lee, ‘When People of Color Are Discouraged From Going Into the Arts‘ in The Atlantic
• Dorothy Cummings McLean, ‘Marriage Is an Accomplishment‘ on Quadrapheme
• Kate Spicer, ‘Does where you go to school affect your ability to succeed?‘ on The Pool
• Jamilah King, ‘How Black Women Like Me Reckon With America’s Political Process‘ on Mic

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

• Rachel Syme, ‘The Return to Predictability‘ on Complex
• Anna Leszkiewicz ‘The Ghostbusters trailer shows the new film is categorically not aimed at men‘ in the New Statesman
• Emma Brockes,  ‘Whether it’s Ali G or Tina Fey, ironic racism just isn’t funny any more‘ in The Guardian
• Venus Williams, ‘Why I’m Going Back to Indiana Wells‘ on The Players’ Tribune
• Joan Smith, ‘Now we know – the BBC’s macho culture protected predatory men for decades‘ in The Guardian
• Allison P. Davis, ‘Why Are White People Trying to Ruin ‘Formation’?‘ on The Cut
• Anohni, ‘Why I Am Not Attending the Academy Awards‘ on Pitchfork
• Gwynne Watkins, ‘Before #OscarsSoWhite: The Forgotten Story of Queer Nation’s 1992 Academy Awards Protest‘ on Yahoo
• Elisabeth Donnelly, ‘Boston Rules‘ on Hazlitt
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Kesha: the musical equivalent of the drunk girl in the short dress‘ on The Pool
• Kiva Reardon, ‘Mainstream Creep: Keeping Feminist Film Criticism Subversive‘ on Hazlitt

The interviews:

• Han Kang in The White Review (translated by Deborah Smith)
• Louise O’Neill in Elle
• Helen Stephenson on The Pool
• Chinelo Okparanta on For Books’ Sake
• Tracy Chevalier in The Bookseller and The Telegraph
• Rachel B. Glaser on For Books’ Sake
• Molly Crabapple on Literary Hub
• Shelley Harris on The Writes of Woman and One Book Lane
• Kathleen Spivak on The Rumpus
• Rebecca Traister on Jezebel and Elle (with Roxane Gay)
• Mona Awad on Electric Literature
• Virginia Reeves on Literary Hub
• Jennifer Clement on Pen America
• Monica Wendel on Vida
• Sara Taylor in The Big Issue
• bell hooks (with Emma Watson) in Paper
• Ottessa Moshfegh in The Observer
• Emma Donoghue on Public Books
• Meg Rosoff on Bookanista
• Sarah Ruhl in The New York Times
• Sarah Bakewell on The Bookseller
• Marian Keyes in the Bath Chronicle
• Laura van den Berg and Emily St. John Mandel on the FSG blog
• Joyce Maynard on Literary Hub
• G. Willow Wilson on Black Nerd Problems
• Sharon Horgan on Creative Review
• Elizabeth Kadetsky on The Rumpus
• Lucy Kalanithi in Stylist
• Jacky Fleming on The Pool
• Petina Gappah on NPR
• Carol Tulloch in The Observer
• Caitlin Moran on The Debrief
• Deborah Smith on The Quietus

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

Paulina & Fran – Rachel B. Glaser

Paulina expected cheers when she walked in. “I have arrived,” she said loudly. “Straight from my bed.” She was instantly disappointed.

We meet Paulina, an art student, as she leaves the lover she is dissatisfied with in bed, fluffs her curly hair, lines her eyes and leaves in her nightdress for Angel’s party. On the way, she passes a woman she refers to as the Venus Flytrap:

One drunken night after Paulina jauntily linked arms with her, the girl had said coldly, “Just because we have friends in common doesn’t mean we must be friends.” It had been a stunning rejection, one Paulina wanted to try on someone else.

She’s not at the party long before someone announces a party at The Color Club and a group of them leave. There she sees Fran dancing and decides she’s beautiful: She wanted to be her, or be with her, or destroy her. The night ends with Paulina giving Tim a blowjob on the dance floor and – after his girlfriend drags him away and tells him off in the middle of the street – going back to hers and having sex in the basement room while her lover sleeps in the bed upstairs:

Her orgasm was like a shooting star one pretends to have seen after a friend enthusiastically points it out.

Twelve of the art students then go on a ten-day trip to Norway. Paulina is looking forward to spending more time with Tim – The laundry room was the only time they’d ever had sex, but this event had been christened and bedazzled in her memory until it bore little resemblance to what had taken place. – but Tim’s girlfriend has made him cancel and instead Paulina latches on to Fran and they bond over the fantasy of sleeping with a Viking.

Being with Paulina was like being under Soviet rule, she thought during a few outrageous moments, but it was worth it.

On their return, Paulina uses the tale of the Viking to break up with her lover, Julian, unaware that her fabricated tale will lead to a love-hate triangle between her, Fran and Julian that will last far beyond the bubble of art school, into the beginnings of adult life.

Paulina & Fran is a sharp tale of youth. Paulina behaves appallingly to friends and lovers, doing as she pleases and dismissing anyone who does not please her. But Glaser’s writing reveals the lonely, insecure young woman at the heart of it all.

The joy of this book is Glaser’s writing which fizzes and crackles. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and piercingly accurate as to what it feels like to be late-teens/early-twenties with no idea what to do or how to go about doing it. I enjoyed every moment whilst being grateful I’m long past that age.

 

Thanks to Granta for the review copy.

Ones to Read in 2016

2016 is already being talked about as a ‘vintage year’ in terms of forthcoming books. In the second half of the year there’s a spate of second novels from writers who published fantastic debuts two or three years ago. There’s also lots of promising looking books from more established writers. I’m looking forward to all of those but there’s the first half of the year to talk about first.

Initially, I was going to limit this list to ten books; I could’ve populated that list three times over with the wealth of good stuff coming in the next six months. So, the list’s a little longer and the books I’ve chosen to recommend are those that, for me, had the ‘wow factor’ (often for different reasons). Listed in order of publication, all publication dates are UK and subject to change; full reviews will appear on the week of publication.

Human Parts – Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)

Human Acts centres around the student uprising in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980. Beginning with Dong-Ho working in the gymnasium where the bodies are being brought and looking for the friend he abandoned, the story moves through a variety of characters as the repercussions of the army’s suppression is felt throughout the city. Brave, brutal, brilliant.

Wow Factor: the variety of voices/perspectives (credit to Deborah Smith’s translation); the sudden switches to violent imagery

#ReadDiverse2016 #womenintranslation #translationthurs #ReadWomen

Published by Portobello Books 7^th January 2016

American Housewife – Helen Ellis

A short story collection giving voice to a variety of American housewives. From the emails of two neighbours who move from passive aggressive to downright aggressive moves regarding the décor of their shared hallway to the struggling writer taking part in an antiques reality TV show to the woman allowing junior pageant participants to escape, this is a sharp, darkly funny look at women’s lives.

Wow Factor: the dark humour; the insight into people’s (often appalling) behaviour

#ReadWomen

Published by Scribner 14^th January 2016

Paulina & Fran – Rachel B. Glaser

Art students, Paulina and Fran, meet at a party. Self-conscious and desperate to be liked, they (Paulina in particular) behave appallingly, feigning an air of indifference. But when they leave art school, they have to negotiate their own ways in the world and decide how much their friendship’s really worth.

Wow Factor: the dark humour; the insights into a type of female friendship and behaviour

#ReadWomen

Published by Granta 14^th January 2016

If You Look For Me, I Am Not Here – Sarayu Srivatsa

Mallika gives birth to twins but only one survives: a boy, Siva. But she wanted a girl and refuses to believe her daughter’s dead. She calls Siva, Tara and flies into a rage if anyone attempts to do otherwise. Narrated by Siva, who believes his sister lives within him still, this is a beautifully written novel about trying to find your own identity.

Wow Factor: the language; the storytelling

#ReadDiverse2016 #womenintranslation #translationthurs #ReadWomen

Published by Bluemoose Books 21^st January 2016

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep – Joanna Cannon

If you’re on social media, you’ve no doubt heard lots about this novel already. If hype puts you off, ignore it and get stuck into this regardless. The story of a ‘normal’ street in England in the heatwave of 1976. Margaret Creasy’s disappeared and she knows everyone’s secrets. Ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly set out to find her and uncover a whole lot more in the process.

Wow Factor: the psychological insight

#ReadWomen

Published by Borough Press 28^th January 2016

Rush Oh! – Shirley Barrett

Eden, New South Wales, 1908. The story of a whaling season told from the point-of-view of Mary Davidson, the 19-year-old daughter of a whaling family. There’s whales, running a family after the death of their mother and a romance with former Methodist minister, John Beck. Often funny, feminist and fascinating.

Wow Factor: the voice; the descriptions of the whales and whaling

#ReadWomen

Published by Virago 4^th February 2016

Under the Visible Life – Kim Echlin

The 1960s. Two girls. Mahsa, born to an Afghan mother and an American father, is orphaned after her parents are killed. When the relative she’s sent to live with discovers her relationship with a boy they send her to study in Montreal. There her love of jazz music grows and brings her a lifetime’s friendship with Katherine. Born to an American mother and a Chinese father who she never meets, Katherine sneaks out and begins playing the jazz clubs as a teenager. They lead her to a lifelong romance with an unreliable man. A gripping story of women who want more than society wants to allow them. Already a firm contender for book of the year.

Wow Factor: the language; the protagonists; the insight into relationships, marriage and family

#ReadWomen

Published by Serpent’s Tale 4^th February 2016

Martin John – Anakana Schofield

Martin John is an ‘inadequate molester’. Sent to London by his Irish mother, he works, goes to visit Aunty Noanie, phones his mum regularly and circuits Euston Station looking for women he can rub up against. As his mental health deteriorates so does Martin John’s behaviour, revealed in vignettes and repetitive language. But it’s his mother’s story that will really get to you.

Wow Factor: the language; the mother’s story

#ReadWomen

Published by And Other Stories 4^th February 2016

The Ballroom – Anna Hope

1911. An asylum on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. Ella Fay’s incarcerated for breaking a window in the textile factory in which she worked. John Mulligan was brought there emaciated and destitute. When John and Ella meet at the dance inmates are allowed to attend on Friday evenings if they’ve been ‘good’, a romance begins. The third wheel in the story is the doctor, Charles Fuller, who’s been at the asylum for five years. A disappointment to his parents, he decides he’s going to make his name with some research on eugenics. Gripping.

Wow Factor: the language; the treatment of the main theme

#ReadWomen

Published by Doubleday 11^th February 2016

Mend the Living – Maylis de Kerangal (translated by Jessica Moore)

Told over a 24-hour period from the moment Simon Limbeau’s alarm goes off and he leaves to go surfing with his friends to the point when his heart is transplanted into someone else’s body. de Kerangal tells a gripping tale of the procedure that occurs when an emergency transplant can take place. As the timeline progresses, she dips into the lives of all those involved in the procedure.

Wow Factor: the language; the dipping into the life of each character involved in the transplant

#womenintranslation #translationthurs #ReadWomen

Published by MacLehose Press 11^th February 2016

Eileen – Ottessa Moshfegh

1964. 24-year-old Eileen is thin, jagged, angry and unhappy. She lives with her retired, ex-cop, alcoholic father and works as a secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. Desperate to leave her grim homelife, Eileen dreams of moving to New York. The novel tells the story of the week before Christmas 1964, the week Rebecca Saint John comes to work at the facility. Dark and disturbing, the less you know about this book before diving in the better.

Wow Factor: the perspective; the plotting

#ReadDiverse2016 #ReadWomen

Published by Jonathan Cape 3rd March 2016

Not Working – Lisa Owens

After the day she felt an impulse to start swallowing office supplies, Claire Flannery quit her job to work out what she really wanted to do. Told in vignettes about her long-term relationship with Luke, trips on the tube, increasingly drunk nights out with friends and fall-outs with family members, Claire could be any one of us.

Wow Factor: the protagonist; the insight into a 21^st Century female psyche

#ReadWomen

Published by Picador 21^st March 2016

The Cauliflower® – Nicola Barker

A fictionalised biography of guru, Sri Ramakrishna. Told in fragments partly by his nephew, Hriday, but also by an anachronistic film director and another narrator. Using haiku and script as well as prose, Barker tells the story of a man elevated by faith and raises questions about the nature of worship.

Wow Factor: Barker’s unique style

#ReadWomen

Published by William Heinemann 21^st April 2016

My Name Is Leon – Kit de Waal

1980. Tina gives birth to baby Jake when Leon’s nine, but she struggles to cope and when the upstairs neighbour rings social services Jake and Leon are taken into care. Initially they both go to live with Maureen, an experienced foster parent, but soon baby Jake – who’s white-skinned – has people who want to adopt him. Older, black-skinned, Leon is left with Maureen and his anger at the unfairness of the world. Searing and heartbreaking.

Wow Factor: the voice; the insight into a life of poverty, mental illness and foster care

#ReadDiverse2016 #ReadWomen

Published by Viking 2^nd June 2016
Thanks to all the publishers for review copies.