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.
Photo by Wayne Thomas
This week, there’s been lots of discussion on my Twitter timeline about an article by Joanna Walsh, writer and creator of #ReadWomen2014 on ‘Why must the “best new writers” always be under 40?‘ prompted by Buzzfeed’s ‘20 Under 40 Debut Writers You Need to Be Reading‘. Traditionally, these lists have disadvantaged women who, for a number of reasons, often publish their first novel later than many men. So, although it’s arbitrary/silly, this week’s top slot is going to pieces by or about those who published their first book at 40 or over.
We have Linda Grant (first novel published at 44) on why she’s hooked on the Serial podcast in The Guardian; Joan Chase (47) in her own words and Amy Weldon on her both on Bloom, a site dedicated to writers whose first major work was published at 40 or over; Ruth Graham tells the true story of Laura Ingalls Wilder (65) on Slate; Alexander Chee looks at Penelope Fitzgerald (59) via Hermione Lee’s biography of her on Slate; there are interviews with Lissa Evans (42) on the One More Page blog, Helen DeWitt (43) in BOMB magazine, Meg Rosoff (48) on Rebecca Mascull’s blog, Katherine Boo (48) on the theatre production of Behind the Beautiful Forevers in the Independent and Donna Douglas (40) on Female First; while Bobbie Ann Mason (42) has a new short story ‘Ready‘ on TNB Fiction and the first chapter of Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye (51) is up to read on One Book Lane; finally, you can find out why middle-aged women are dominated self-publishing according to The Guardian.
At the other end of the spectrum, writer Nikesh Shukla supports young writers in Bristol. They publish online magazine Rife. Here’s Sammy Jones’ ‘The Five Stages of Street Harassment‘ and Jess Connett on ‘Hidden WWI: Teenagers at War‘.
There’s also been more gender discussion. Time magazine added the word ‘feminism’ to a list their readers could vote on to ‘ban’. Roxane Gay responded in The Washington Post; Hannah McGill discussed gender depiction in Sci-Fi in The List; Jess Meacham critiqued Suzanne Moore’s column on selfie’s being anti-feminist and her use of Sylvia Plath’s poetry in ‘The Eyeing of my Scars‘ on her blog, while Non Pratt looked at gender representation in Young Adult books in We Love This Book.
And the woman with the most publicity this week is Amanda Palmer, whose book The Art of Asking was published on Tuesday. She’s in The Guardian following a live web chat; interviewed by Maria Popova of Brainpickings on YouTube; has written an article for The Independent and been interviewed in Billboard.
The best of the rest articles/essays:
- Gillian Bowditch on Muriel Spark’s sealed archive of papers in The Sunday Times (paywall)
- Shirley Clarke and Elaine Dundy profile in The New Yorker
- Sarah Churchwell, ‘Why the Humanities Matter‘ in the Times Higher Education supplement
- Emily Gould on literary liars and forgiveness in Salon
- Rose Tremain on ‘The short story and its difficulties‘ on the Waterstones blog
- Tobin Dalrymple on Carol Dunlop and Julio Cortázar’s love affair in Maisonneuve
- Nicholas Rombes on Joan Didion’s Play it as it Lays on Electric Literature
- Laura Miller in defence of true crime on Salon
- Dan Gunn on Marguerite Duras at 100 in the Times Literary Supplement
- Nadine Bachan ‘Ol’ Talk‘ on reawakening her Trinidad accent in Maisonneuve
- Zoe Heller, ‘The Hard Work of Marriage‘ on Gone Girl in The New York Review of Books
- Aja Romana on celebrated Sci-Fi novelist Benjanun Sriduangkaew being exposed as a notorious internet troll on the Daily Dot
- Jess Row, ‘The Genius of the Woman Warrier at 30‘ on Slate
- Laura Thompson on the rise and rise of women detectives in The Telegraph
- Margaret C. Sullivan on Pride and Prejudice book covers over time in The Huffington Post
- Nathan Heller, ‘Why Joan Didion Matters More Than Ever‘ in Vogue
- Catherine Bruton on violence in teen fiction in The Guardian
- Tom Gatti on judging the Goldsmith’s Prize (won by Ali Smith) in the New Statesman
- Katie Law, ‘Why the words “gone” and “girl” are the latest trend in publishing‘ in the Evening Standard
- Alison Flood on Ali Smith winning the Goldsmiths Prize in The Guardian
- Ali Smith’s lecture on Virginia Woolf for the National Portrait Gallery
- Sarah Jane Abbott, ‘How I Capture the Castle Captured Me’ on Huffington Post
- Tasha Golden on the lone genus myth in Ploughshares
- Sarah Kerr, ‘Wonder Woman: The Weird, True Story‘ in The New York Review of Books
- Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore on Male escorts and female sexuality in Aeon
- Rose Bretécher on sexism in publishing on For Books’ Sake
- Anne Lamott on how a day with a sick friend bought her back to her senses on Salon
- Stella Duffy, ‘reconstruction revelation‘ on how she feels about her breast reconstruction following cancer surgery on her blog
- Maureen O’Conner, ‘Ayn Rand, Gril-Power Icon‘ in The Cut
- Mary Mann, ‘Weiter‘ in Guernica
- Edan Lepucki, ‘Notes on Likeability in Fiction‘ on The Millions
- Miranda Kiek on Elizabeth Von Arnim in The Independent
- Madeline Watts on A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing and the necessity of a ‘girl canon’ for The Believer
- Roxane Gay on Lena Dunham on her blog
- Miriam Darlington’s ‘Nature Notebook‘ in the Times (paywalled)
- Erin Keane ‘Jane Austen Slept with all the Book Bloggers‘ on Salon
- ‘Was Jane Austen a Feminist Writer?‘ on Scottish Book Trust
- Liz Kessler on why her novel about a girl coming out has been in a drawer for 15 years in The Guardian
- Helen Lewis ‘who are women dressing for, anyway‘ in the New Statesman
- Brain Pickings on Anne Lamott and the true gift of friendship
- Helen McClory on monsters for the Queen’s Ferry Press blog
- Elisabeth Geier on male bodies and women trying to navigate them on The Catapult
- Essie Fox on the allure of the gothic on One Book Lane
- Judith Levine, ‘Lena Dunham Wasn’t a Paedophile, and Neither Were You‘ in the Boston Review
- Hisham Matar, ‘The Unsaid: The Silence of Virginia Woolf‘ in The New Yorker
- Max Cairnduff, ‘Girls get murdered all the fucking time‘ on Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls on his blog
- Amy Uyematsu, ‘Old Asian American Poets Never Die‘ on Huffington Post
- Hannah Richell ‘And then…‘ on her blog
- Sabah Haider ‘Reflections on Northern Spirit‘ on Minor Literature[s]
- Beluah Devaney ‘Where Have All the Red-Headed Heroines Gone?‘ on For Books’ Sake
- Kathleen Anderson, ‘Why Cornel West Loves Jane Austen‘ on Huffington Post
- Helen MacKiven on her preference for female writers on her blog
- Blue Telusma, ‘Kim Kardashian doesn’t realise she’s the butt of an old racial joke‘ on The Grio
The interviews:
- Meera Syal on staring in Behind the Beautiful Forevers at the National Theatre, London
- Megan Amran in The Guardian
- Fiona McCrae, Graywolf Press Director, interviews Barbara Epler, President of New Directions on the Graywolf Press blog
- Brecken Hancock in Maisonneuve
- Emma Hannigan in Stylist
- Hilary Mantel reported in The Independent
- Helen Macdonald on The Guardian Books’ podcast
- Emily St. John Mandel on The Millions
- Jenny Offill interviews Lydia Millet on Salon
- Suzannah Dunn on Word Wenches
- Lindsay Hunter in The Believer
- Lore Segal on the Meville House website
- Margaret Atwood on the Huffington Post, responding ‘to some common tweets about Canadians‘ on Buzzfeed and in The West Australian
- Darcey Steinke on Bustle
- Jennifer Holland, Workman Publishing’s #ReadWomen2014’s author of the month on their blog
- Jo Mazelis on For Books’ Sake
- Jenny Erpenbeck on NRP Books
- Cheryl Strayed in Vanity Fair
- Tania Hershman on her flash fiction ‘Think of Icebergs‘ in Litro
- Andrea Levy in the Independent
- 5 Minutes with Marian Keyes on Eason Edition
This week’s ‘Who is Elena Ferrante?’ piece is by Jane Shilling in the New Statesman
If you want some fiction to read:
- ‘The Golden Room (Lucy’s Lips)‘ by Elizabeth Crawford in BOMB magazine
- Dorothea Lasky, ‘Never Did Amount to Anything‘ in Granta
- Olivia Laing, ‘The Other Hotel‘ on Manchester Literature Festival’s blog (click the title to download)
- Jackie Kay’s ‘Afternoon Tea‘ on Manchester Literature Festival’s blog (click the title to download)
- An extract from Jenny Erpenbeck’s The Ends of Days (tr. Susan Bernofsky) on NRP Books
- Marie-Helene Bertino on The Catapult ‘It’s about exes who fall from the sky.’
Or some non-fiction:
- ‘Thea‘ on I Will Pay £1.00 For Your Story blog
- Joanna Bourke’s introduction to Wounding the World on Virago’s website
This week’s lists
- 8 Moving First World War Books in Good Housekeeping
- Best Books to Read this November in Red magazine
- Arched Eyebrow’s 7 Favourite Books published this year on her blog
- Lydia Millet’s 5 Writing Tips in Publishers Weekly
- NetGalley’s UK Books of the Year
- Books that have taught me about ignorance on Of Books
- The top 10 books about reading in The Guardian
- 50 Novels Featuring Famous Authors as Characters on Flavorwire
- Best Reads for Christmas 2014 on Gransnet
- If You Liked Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, You will Love… on Huffington Post
- 6 Witty Quotes from Margaret Atwood on Buzzfeed
- When Polly Vernon met Lena Dunham: 6 Things We Learned on Grazia
- Favourite Books of 2014 on Read Her Like an Open Book
- The Bookbag’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction Books 2014
- Quotations from Dan by Joanna Ruocco on the baumer
- 10 New Thought-Provoking Non-Fiction Books in Time Out New York
- 9 Books That Got Me Through My Awkward Teen Years on Bustle
- 5 Festive Novellas from Novelicious
- Some fantastic books about friendship in Rookie
- The 40 Books Every Woman Should Read on Hello Giggles