In the Media: May 2017

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

In prize news, the Granta Best of Young American Novelists list was announced:

• Laura Miller, ‘Granta Made Us Obsessed With “Best Young Novelist” Lists‘ on Slate
• Michelle Dean, ‘The age of anxiety: what does Granta’s best young authors list say about America?‘ in The Guardian

Fiona McFarlane took The Dylan Thomas Prize for her short story collection The High Places, Maylis de Kerangal won The Wellcome Book Prize, and Sarah Perry and Kiran Millwood-Hargrave were winners at The British Book Awards. While Kit de Waal and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan were shortlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize.

Chris Kraus and I Love Dick are having a moment:

• Kraus is interviewed in The Guardian and on Hazlitt with Sarah Gubbins
• Rachel Syme, ‘The Liberating Obsessiveness of I Love Dick‘ in New Republic
• I don’t usually link to book reviews but ‘Reviewing this book put me off marriage. And book reviewing‘ by Anakana Schofield is a brilliant piece of writing in its own right and is about Kraus’ novel Torpor.

And The Handmaid’s Tale has generated even more pieces:

• haettinger, ‘I Grew Up In A Fundamentalist Cult — ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Was My Reality‘ on The Establishment
• Megan Garber, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale Treats Guilt as an Epidemic‘ on The Atlantic
• Priya Nair, ‘Get out of Gilead: Anti-Blackness in The Handmaid’s Tale‘ on Bitch Media
• Kayla Chadwick, ‘The Biggest Lesson Of The Handmaid’s Tale? Silence Is Complicity.‘ on the Huffington Post
• Nora Caplan-Bricker, ‘One Sly Lesson of The Handmaid’s Tale:Appreciate the Messy Feminism We Have Now‘ on Slate
• Elizabeth Day, ‘What the Handmaid’s Tale taught me about being a woman‘ on The Pool
• Laura Hudson, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale: The Biggest Changes From the Book‘ on Slate
• Alexandra Schwartz, ‘Yes, “The Handmaid’s Tale” Is Femininst‘ in The New Yorker
• Soraya Nadia McDonald, ‘In “Handmaid’s Tale” a postracial, patriarchal hellscape‘ on The Undefeated
• Various, ‘“Margaret Atwood Made a Feminist Out of Me”: 12 Authors on The Handmaid’s Tale‘ in Elle
• Stacey D’Erasmo, ‘On Power Between Women: The Handmaid’s Tale Revisited‘ on Catapult
• Jamie Lincoln, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale: The Hidden Meaning in Those Eerie Costumes‘ on Vanity Fair

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Emily Gould, ‘My Bad Parenting Advice Addiction‘ on Longreads
• Jenny Landreth, ‘Water Women: Jenny Landreth’s Swell and the Female Swimmers Who Changed the World‘ on the Waterstones’ blog
• Heather Corcoran, ‘One thing Amazon got wrong about “I Love Dick” (and women)‘ on Slate
• Judith Newman, ‘Dear Book Club: It’s You, Not Me‘ in The New York Times
• Susanna Basso (translated by Matilda Colarossi) ‘Lessons in Slowness‘ on Asymptote
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘The Lizzie Borden murder industry won’t die – but its feminism has‘ in The Guardian
• Elizabeth Alsop, ‘What Ferrante learned from Woolf‘ in The TLS
• Caren Lissner, ‘That Time a Guy Asked Me to Channel My Novel’s Protagonist On Our Creepy First Date‘ on Narratively
• Barbara Browning, ‘The Lie in My Novel‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘The Blue Jay’s Dance‘ in The Paris Review
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘The Book and the Baby‘ on Vela
• Meghan Daum, ‘What Makes a House a Home‘ on Literary Hub
• Alexandra Schwartz, ‘The Art and Activism of Grace Paley‘ in The New Yorker
• Kathryn Hughes, ‘George Eliot: is this a new portrait of the author as a young woman?‘ in The Guardian
• Lisa McInerney, ‘Don’t tell me that working-class people can’t be articulate‘ in The Guardian
• Emily Ballaine, ‘Bookselling in the 21st Century “Please Don’t Touch Me”‘ on Literary Hub
• Lisa Ko, ‘Not Finishing My Novel Would’ve Ruined My Life‘ on Literary Hub
• Hope Nicholson, ‘The fury and the fashion: comic-book heroines down the years‘ in The Guardian
• Helena Kelly, ‘The Many Ways in Which We’re Wrong About Jane Austen‘ on Literary Hub
• Jenni Fagan, on her path to publication on Dewar Art Awards
• Lorraine Berry, ‘on Didion, the South, and Race‘ on Essay Daily
• Rachel Rhys, ‘on writing a community of strangers‘ on The Literary Sofa
• Sarah Hughes, ‘‘She gave her mother 40 whacks’: the lasting fascination with Lizzie Borden‘ in The Guardian
• Nicola Streeten, ‘Drawn from history‘ in The TLS
• Sydney Moore, ‘Were women accused of witchcraft the first Essex Girls?‘ on The Pool
• Ever Dundas, ‘The Problems with Gender and Language‘ on The Skinny
• Danuta Kean, ‘Crossing the Line of Duty: why novels would never get away with TV’s crimes‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Cameron, ‘Why You Shouldn’t Get into a Fight with Jane Smiley‘ on Literary Hub
• Sunny Singh, ‘MP accuses BAME book prize of discrimination‘ on Media Diversified
• Kristen Arnett, ‘The Queer Erotics of Handholding in Literature‘ on Electric Literature
• Danuta Kean, ‘Why Brit crime fiction is paying international dividends‘ in The Guardian
• Nell Stevens, ‘Elizabeth Gaskell: Charlotte Brontë’s unlikely defender against prurient gossip‘ in The Guardian
• Sisonke Msimang, ‘All your faves are problematic: A brief history of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, stanning and the trap of #blackgirlmagic‘ on Africa Is a Country
• Rafia Zakaria, ‘A publisher of one’s own: Virginia and Leonard Woolf and the Hogarth Press‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Lam, ‘Gender-fluid Fiction: False Hearts Author on Breaking Stereotypes‘ on Waterstones’ Blog
• Dani Shapiro, ‘Writing About Marriage When You Want to Stay Married‘ on Catapult

Personal essays/memoir:

• Linda Mannheim, ‘Searching for the Internment Camp Where My Father Was Held‘ on Catapult
• Sarah Maria Griffin, ‘This Is What It’s Like To Have Sleep Paralysis‘ on Buzzfeed
• Caity Weaver, ‘My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday’s Endless Appetizers‘ on Gawker
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘My Father Spent 30 Years In Prison. Now He’s Out.‘ on Refinery29
• Eva Dillon, ‘My Father’s Secret Life as a Cold War Spy‘ on Literary Hub
• Stacy Torres, ‘The Admission‘ on Longreads
• Lisa Ko, ‘How I Learned To Live With A Chronic Skin Condition‘ on Buzzfeed
• Laura Turner, ‘On Miscarriage, Anxiety, and the Burden of Hope‘ on Catapult
• Julia Kingsford, ‘Aspergers and Asparagus‘ on Medium
• Sari Botton, ‘Hit Eject‘ on Longreads
• Kat Lister, ‘It’s essential that I tell you about my miscarriage‘ on The Pool
• Marie Myung-Ok Lee, ‘J. Stands Up‘ in The Paris Review
• Erin Chack, ‘My Boyfriend Isn’t My Soulmate, He’s My Carrot‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jennifer Hope Choi, ‘I Filmed The End Of My Parents’ Marriage‘ on Buzzfeed
• Zing Tsjeng, ‘My 14-Year-Old Cousin Taught Me How to Be a Cool Teen‘ on Broadly
• Betty Ann Adam, ‘How I lost my mother, found my family, recovered my identity‘ in Saskatoon Star Phoenix
• Clarissa Wei, ‘The Struggles of Writing About Chinese Food as a Chinese Person‘ on Munchies
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Lead Me On‘ on Hazlitt
• Eloghosa Osunde, ‘Don’t Let It Bury You‘ on Catapult
• Erin Kelly, ‘Learning to be a red lipstick kind of person‘ on The Pool
• Elisabeth Geier, ‘The Nostalgia of the Neighborhood Hardware Store‘ on Okey-Panky

Feminism:

• Nimco Ali, ‘I’m a Women’s Equality Party candidate – here’s why I’m standing against a female Labour MP‘ on The New Statesman
• Jess Zimmerman, ‘Dove’s dumb body wash bottles are an answer to a question nobody asked‘ in The Washington Post
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Thanks Dove! Now I will finally stop comparing myself to the perfect form of a soap bottle‘ in The New Statesman
• Becca Andrews, ‘As a Girl, I Went Through Abstinence Ed. As a Woman, I’m Trying to Understand the Damage Done.‘ on Mother Jones
• Jenny Landreth, ‘Heroic British women swimming figures who deserve statues‘ in The Guardian
• Sady Doyle, ‘“Stealthing” Is Not a Trend. It’s Sexual Assault‘ in Elle
• Amy Hatvany, ‘I Taught My Son How Not to Be a Rapist‘ in Harper’s Bazaar
• Jess Zimmerman, ‘The Monstrous Female Ambition of the Harpy‘ on Catapult
• Danielle Dash, ‘Serena Williams and Black Pregnancy‘ on Danielle Dash
• Hawa Allen, ‘Becoming Meta‘ on Longreads

Society and Politics:

• Zoe Samudzi, ‘Who Are You and What Do You Really Know?‘ on The New Enquiry
• Masha Gessen, ‘The Autocrat’s Language‘ in The New York Review
• Maya Binyam, ‘Spell-Check Nation‘ on The New Enquiry
• Carla Bruce-Eddings, ‘Creating a Community for My Black Daughter‘ in The Cut
• Carole Cadwalladr, ‘The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked‘ in The Guardian
• Jessica Wapner, ‘Austin, Indiana: the HIV capital of small-town America‘ on Mosaic
• Nesrine Malik, ‘I Am Not Your Muslim‘ on NPR
• Javaria Akbar, ‘In praise of smelly food‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Facing the Furies‘ in Harper’s
• Katherine Fidler, ‘How it feels when your research is used to justify disability benefit cuts‘ in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘Britain is still searching for Maddie – why don’t we care about missing children of colour?‘ in International Business Times
• Julia Rampen, ‘View from Paisley: How the Conservatives are wooing Labour’s Scottish heartlands‘ in The New Statesman
• Rachel Monroe, ‘How rich hippies and developers went to war over Instagram’s favourite beach‘ in The Guardian
• Emma Green, ‘How Two Mississippi College Students Fell in Love and Decided to Join a Terrorist Group‘ on The Atlantic
• Irin Carmon, ‘If abortions become illegal, here’s how the government will prosecute women who have them‘ in The Washington Post
• Nina Caplan, ‘Beware of tea: the cuppa has started wars and ruined lives’ in The New Statesman
• Jess Phillips, ‘May says this is about stability. She should meet my constituents‘ in The Guardian
• Santilla Chingaipe, ‘Hair and social inclusivity‘ on The Saturday Paper
• Megan Garber, ‘Are We Having Too Much Fun?‘ in The Atlantic
• Ruth Whippman, ‘Work/life integration? No, thanks – I’d rather have balance‘ on The Pool

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

• Caity Weaver, ‘Dwayne Johnson for President!‘ in GQ
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘“I’m only human”: the rise and rise of male singers who cannot take criticism‘ in The New Statesman
• Helen Lewis, ‘From wars to power ballads: the geopolitics of Eurovision‘ in The New Statesman
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘What Does a Girlboss Look Like?‘ on The Atlantic
• Jude Rogers, ‘Bananarama – the ultimate British girl band – is back‘ on The Pool

The interviews/profiles:

• Joanna Ruocco in The Paris Review
• Dorothy Allison on Lenny
• Meg Howrey on Electric Literature
• Patricia Lockwood on The Pool, Literary Hub and The Observer
• Alyssa Cole on Jezebel
• Jess Arndt in The Cut
• Claudia Rankine on Literary Hub
• Dana Schwartz on Electric Literature
• Hala Alyan on Electric Literature
• Stephanie Powell Watts on Literary Hub
• Doree Shafrir on Hazlitt
• Edan Lepucki on The Millions
• Scaachi Koul on Hazlitt
• Olivia Sudjic in Vogue
• Irenosen Okojie on Medium and Minor Literature[s]
• Fiona Melrose on Short Story Day Africa
• Naomi Alderman in The New Statesman
• G. Willow Wilson in The New Yorker
• Kate Tempest in The Guardian
• Paula Cocozza in The Hackney Gazette
• Anne Elizabeth Moore on Literary Hub
• Claire Cameron on The Millions
• Lise Gaston on All Lit Up
• Sally Rooney on Short Story Award
• Lidia Yuknavitch on The Rumpus
• Monica Youn on Dive Dapper
• Morgan Parker in The New Yorker
• Amy Liptrot on Literary Hub
• Diane Schoemperlen on Queen Mob’s Tea House
• Jessie Burton in The TLS
• Aliette De Bodard on SciFiNow
• Elizabeth Strout in The New Yorker

The regular columnists:

• Ijeoma Oluo on The Establishment
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• 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
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Lola Okolosie in The Guardian
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mouthful‘ on Hazlitt
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, March 2017, 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.

This fortnight’s seen a number of prize lists announced. The big ones for women writers are the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist and the Stella Prize shortlist.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s comments on trans women have prompted a number of responses.

• Thembani Mduli, ‘When Callouts Become Anti-Black: On Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Transphobia, Disposability Culture & British Colonialism‘ on Rest for Resistance
• Rhyannon Styles, ‘The New Girl: A Trans Woman’s View Of White Male Privilege‘ in Elle
• Kuchenga Shenjé, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Transgender Comments Invalidated My Womanhood‘ on gal-dem
• Halle Kiefer, ‘Laverne Cox Responds to Chimamanda Adichie’s Comments About Trans Women and Male Privilege‘ on Vulture
• Jarune Uwujaren, ‘Why Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Comments on Trans Women are Wrong and Dangerous‘ on Unapologetic Feminism
• Racquel Willis, ‘A trans woman’s thoughts on Chimamanda Adichie‘ on Twitter
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is Getting Criticized for Her Comments About Transgender Women‘ on Teen Vogue
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Identity is the issue of our age: so why can’t we talk more honestly about trans women?‘ in The Guardian
• Glosswitch, ‘The debate over Jenni Murray suggests we don’t see older women as “real women”‘ in the New Statesman

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Emine Saner, ‘Books for girls, about girls: the publishers trying to balance the bookshelves‘ in The Guardian
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘When Femininity Is Code for Feelings‘ on Literary Hub
• Caitlin Moran, ‘Were I not a writer, I’d have the peachy, zingy buttocks of Gigi Hadid’ in The Guardian
• Andreá Stella, ‘Clarice Lispector’s Children’s Story Taught Me to Read Her Like An Adult‘ on Literary Hub
• Becky Chambers, ‘My Alien Family: Writing Across Cultures in Science Fiction‘ on Tor.com
• Lorraine Berry, ‘The Man Who Doesn’t Read Women‘ on Signature
• Shaj Mathew, ‘Poetry as Life, Life as Poetry‘ on Guernica
• Jami Attenberg, ‘How Working at a Bookstore Changed My Writing Career‘ on Literary Hub
• Roxane Gay, Aimee Bender, and more ‘On Assault and Harassment in the Literary World‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Brown, ‘How to Escape from Prison‘ in The TLS
• Jhumpa Lahiri, ‘on the Compulsion to Translate Domenico Starnone‘ on Literary Hub
• Madeleine Wattenbarger, ‘Finding a Room of One’s Own in the Mexico City Metro‘ on Literary Hub
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘On Silence, Pornography, and Feminist Literature‘ on Literary Hub
• Alex Clark, ‘Writers unite! The return of the protest novel‘ in The Guardian
• Margaret Atwood, ‘on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in the Age of Trump‘ in The New York Times
• Casey Stepaniuk, ‘Meet Your New Favourite Darkly Comic, Magical Realist Writer: Eden Robinson‘ on BookRiot
• Margaret Atwood, ‘on What it’s Like to Watch Her Own Dystopia Come True‘ on Literary Hub
• Larissa Pham, ‘Your Own Private Party: How reading Eve Babitz got me through the depths of winter‘ on The Paris Review
• Alexandra Schwartz, ‘Rereading Paula Fox’s “Desperate Characters”‘ in The New Yorker
• Lauren Oyler, ‘How the Push to ‘Break the Silence’ Fails the Feminist Movement‘ on Broadly
• Candy Royale, ‘Ali Cobby Eckermann’s poetry: inspiring those of us who feel like outsiders‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Carolyn Desalu, ‘The Kitchen Drawer: On Black Families and Suicide‘ on Catapult
• Katherine Laidlaw, ‘A Place of Absorption‘ on Hazlitt
• Anna Graham Hunter, ‘Lying Down With Older Men‘ on Medium
• Valeria Luiselli, ‘On the Choices People Make in Coming to America‘ on Literary Hub
• Nicole Cox, ‘Proper Young Ladies: Writing My Mother’s Shakespeare Essay‘ on Medium
• Funmi Iyanda, ‘Theory of Death” In Conversation with My Mother‘ on Medium
• Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes, ‘Life and Breath: On Pregnancy and the Spirit World‘ on Catapult
• Keph Senett, ‘A Bed of Fists: On Playing Soccer in Moscow‘ on Catapult
• Ashley P. Taylor, ‘Für Bess: On Neighbors, Music Parties, and Growing Up‘ on Catapult
• Jessica Furseth, ‘I Don’t Have Cancer (Yet)‘ on Buzzfeed
• Darcy Steinke, ‘How I Came to the Church of Rock and Roll‘ on Literary Hub
• Jessie Male, ‘Mirror Pain‘ on Guernica
• Nicole Chung, ‘The Worry I No Longer Remember Living Without‘ on Hazlitt
• Nneka Onwuzurike, ‘My Mother’s Name‘ on The Offing

Feminism:

• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘The Misogynistic History of Trying to Understand Women Who Self-Harm‘ on Broadly
• Liza Munday, ‘Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?‘ on The Atlantic
• Zoe Williams, ‘Cuts are a feminist issue. So what would a suffragette do?‘ in The Guardian
• Erin Vanderhoof, ‘How the Combative Beginning of Women’s Studies Shaped Feminist In-Fighting Today‘ on Broadly
• Arianna Rebolini, ‘Heads Up, ‘Slimming’ Is Not a Compliment‘ on Racked
• Jendella Benson, ‘Patriarchy and The Idealisation Of Motherhood‘ on Media Diversified
• Han Yujoo, ‘Misogyny blooming and the universal feminine‘ on The TLS
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Silence and powerlessness go hand in hand – women’s voices must be heard‘ in The Guardian
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Women’s Strike and the Messy Space of Change‘ in The New Yorker
• Joanna Cannon, ‘How to embody the “Be Bold For Change” ethos‘ on The Pool
• Maxine Beneba Clarke, ‘My Feminism‘ on Victoria Women’s Trust

Society and Politics:

• Jess Phillips, ‘I feel sorry for the people of Tatton – I hear their MP is just too busy to care‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Tait, ‘Joining Generation Rent isn’t a quirky choice – it’s our unavoidable state of economic insecurity‘ in the New Statesman
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here’s What You’ve Missed‘ on The Establishment
• Molly Ball, ‘Kellyanne’s Alternative Universe‘ on The Atlantic
• Vera Chok, ‘If you saw a nanny in this BBC interview, what does that say about you?‘ in The Guardian
• Molly Ball, ‘Washington’s Spy Paranoia‘ on The Atlantic
• Julie Beck, ‘This Article Won’t Change Your Mind‘ on The Atlantic
• Sara Noviç, ‘The Right to Remain Silent‘ in The New Enquiry
• Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, ‘“I want to try. Live or die”: how refugees decide whether to make the dangerous trip to Europe‘ in the New Statesman
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘The Making of a Mexican-American Dream‘ on Pacific Standard
• Renata Adler, ‘Brontosaurs Whistling in the Dark‘ in Lapham’s Quarterly
• Alana Semuels, ‘The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America‘ on The Atlantic

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

• Kate Robertson, ‘Why Female Cannibals Frighten and Fascinate‘ in The Atlantic
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘Is Girls Heading Toward a Conventional Happy Ending?‘ on The Atlantic

The interviews/profiles:

• Katie Kitamura in The Guardian
• Rachel Cusk in The Cut
• Jami Attenberg on The Millions, Vogue and Electric Literature
• Rebecca Solnit in Elle
• Ann Goldstein on Hazlitt
• Delia Bell Robinson on Bloom
• Can Xue on Words Without Borders
• Ariel Levy on Longreads and Jezebel
• Ahd Niazy on The Establishment
• Elif Batuman on Vulture and Publishers Weekly
• Megan Bradbury in The Skinny
• Allison Benis White on Electric Literature
• Gwendoline Riley on The Skinny
• Sawako Nakayasu on Asymptote
• Chris Kraus on Ssense
• Angie Thomas in The Bookseller
• Danielle Dutton on Catapult
• Claudia Roden on Food52
• Susan Hill on Waterstones
• Dorthe Nors on The Writes of Woman
• Sharon Olds on Literary Hub
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in The Guardian
• Ursula K. Le Guin in The TLS
• Judith Kerr in The Guardian

The regular columnists:

• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner
• Jendella Benson on Media Diversified
• Lola Okolosie in The Guardian
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mouthful‘ on Hazlitt
• Books by Women We’d Love to See in English on Literary Hub

In the Media, May 2016, Part Three

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews/profiles:

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

The regular columnists:

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

In the Media: 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: October 2015, Part Two

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

Photograph by Nadya Lev

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

Photograph by Chad Batka

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

Film, Television, Music, Art and Fashion:

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

The interviews:

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

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified

In the Media: 29th 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.

News this week from ABC that a Tasmanian writer, Marjorie Davey, has published her first novel at the age of 95. She might be the oldest but she’s not the only woman to be published later in life; Abby Ellin’s article, ‘Finding Success, Well Past the Age of Wunderkind‘ in the New York Times includes Lucille Gang Shulklapper, first published at 60, and Cathy writes about Leland Bardwell: The forgotten woman of Irish literature, first published at 48, on 746Books.

At the opposite end of the age spectrum (give or take) the big news this week was that Zayn Malik left pop band One Direction. Before the news broke, Leesa Cross-Smith wrote ‘One Direction & Other Boy Bands‘ on Real Pants (which had me watching more 1D videos than I’d ever seen before (which was none)) while advertisements for Granta popped up). Anna Leszkiewicz wrote ‘I’m an adult woman with a real boyfriend – and I’m absolutely heartbroken about Zayn Malik quitting One Direction‘ in The Independent, Mackenzie Kruvant wrote, ‘How One Direction Helped Me Find My Girls‘ on Buzzfeed, and Huma Munshi wrote, ‘The Courage of Zayn Malik and Why Strong Men Cry‘ on Media Diversified.

Media Diversified also published an open letter ‘To the organisers of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction‘ regarding Cathy Newman and Grace Dent being members of the judging panel.

Granta, in celebration of their new website, opened up some of their archive, including these letters from Iris Murdoch to Raymond Queneau; ‘Night‘ by Alice Munroe; Sayaka Murata’s ‘A Clean Marriage‘ (tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori), and ‘Hardy Animal‘ by M.J. Hyland

It was the anniversary of Virginia Woolf’s death this week. Daniel Swift wrote ‘Virginia Woolf in the Bomb-scarred City‘ in Five Dials and Louise Brearley read Virginia Woolf’s final letter to her husband in The Telegraph.

And in commemoration of the third anniversary of Adrienne Rich’s death, The Critical Flame have devoted a whole issue to her and her work. The table of contents is here.

Angelina Jolie Pitt turned to writing this week with her ‘Diary of a Surgery‘ in The New York Times. Fay Schopen responded with ‘Angelina Jolie says the decision to deal with her cancer was simple. Mine is not‘ in The Guardian, while Caroline Corcoran wrote about her own experience, ‘I never felt like I’m less of a woman because I don’t have breasts or ovaries‘ in The Independent.

But the woman with the most publicity this week seems to be JK Rowling. ‘JK Rowling says she received ‘loads’ of rejections before Harry Potter success‘ wrote Alison Flood in The Guardian; Stylist ran ‘JK Rowling’s Brilliant Response to Fan Who ‘Can’t See’ Dumbledore as Gay, Plus 9 Times She Owned Twitter‘; Matilda Battersby wrote, ‘JK Rowling defends Dumbledore on Twitter: Seven Things You Might Not Know About the Hogwarts’ Headmaster‘ in The Independent; Chris Mandle wrote, ‘Why we need more fictional gay role models like Albus Dumbledore‘ in The Telegraph and Stylist ran a piece titled, ‘JK Rowling Describes Hitting ‘Rock Bottom’ In a New Book About The Benefits Of Failure‘

In Harper Lee news, the cover of Go Set a Watchman was revealed this week. The Guardian are inviting people to design their own.

Finally, if you want a good reading list of books by women, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize announced its longlist this week, including Anneliese Mackintosh, Stella Duffy, Kirsty Logan, May-Lan Tan, Hilary Mantel and A.L. Kennedy.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Katie Barnes, ‘This Is Not My Cinderella‘ on Feministing
• Maggie Tokuda-Hall, ‘My Abortion Was A Hard Choice—But The Right One‘ on Ravishly
• Heather Cromarty, ‘Personal Jesus Built My Hotrod‘ on Queen Mob’s Tea House
• Robert McCrum, ‘The 100 best novels: No 79 – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1960)‘ in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Thinking at Night: Writing into the Silence‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Leslie Reese, ‘Little Leslie’s Report‘ (on Edwidge Danticat’ on Folklore & Literacy
• Brigid Delaney, ‘Leave Gwyneth Paltrow alone! Her website gives me joy‘ in The Guardian
• Jane Bradley, ‘Shapps fell into brand confusion trap‘ (Confusingly, mostly about female writers and pseudonyms) in The Scotsman
• Leo Jay Shire, ‘As a Mixed-Race Woman, in the Game of Racial Top Trumps My Blackness Always Wins‘ on Media Diversified
• Mallika Rao, ‘No Punctuation Is Funnier‘ on The Huffington Post
• Jaya Saxena, ‘The Way to the Heart is Not Through the Liver‘ on Archipelago
• Rivka Galchen, ‘Do Money Woes Spur Creativity or Stifle It?‘ in The New York Times
• Stacey Patton, ‘Loving White People Won’t Fix Racism‘ in Dame
• Roxane Gay, ‘Men You Meet While Traveling By Airplane‘ in The Butter
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Much Hinges: The joys of using the “wrong comma”‘ on The Smart Set
• Ester Bloom, ‘Dreams of Being a Feminist Housewife‘ on The Billfold
• Maya Dusenbery, ‘Is Medicine’s Gender Bias Killing Young Women?‘ on Feministing
• Casey Plett, ‘Rise of the Gender Novel‘ on The Walrus
• Martha Bayne, ‘Words Fail‘ in The Rumpus
• Kendra Atleework, ‘Why Must One House Burn While Another Is Spared?‘ in Guernica
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The Frog Prince‘ in The Toast
• Nathan Smith, ‘Feminist Artifacts: The Archive of Germaine Greer‘ in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Meera Syal, ‘Growing up between cultures is tough – until you realise it’s a creative blessing‘ in The Guardian
• Diana Williams, ‘I chose to be a mother at 50: Why would a single, middle-aged woman endure years of fertility treatment to have twins?‘ in The Independent
• Elen Caldecott, ‘My Inspiration: Gillian Cross‘ in The Guardian
• Anjum Hassan, ‘Sisters‘ in Granta
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: What My Self-Respect Looks Like‘ in The Butter
• Rachel Vorona Cote, ‘A For Books’ Sake Guide to Literary Self-Care‘ on For Books’ Sake

• Toni Morrison, ‘No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear‘ in The Nation
• Rachel Cusk, ‘Raising Teenagers: The Mother of All Problems‘ in The New York Times
• Eillie Anzilotti, ‘A Life in My Mother’s Clothes‘ in The Toast
• Sarah Seltzer, ‘Beyond Mansplaining: A New Lexicon of Misogynist Trolling Behaviors‘ on Flavorwire
• Joanne Harris, ‘Why I’m Saying “Fuck you” to Clean Reader‘ on her blog
• Lionel Shriver, ‘Why filthy literature should not be cleaned up‘ in The Guardian
• ‘Louise Doughty and Jacqui Lofthouse: Tortoises Rather Than Hares‘ on Something Rhymed
• Jacquie Lawrence, ‘Where have all the lesbians gone in TV and film?‘ in The Guardian
• Natasha Desborough, ‘Why I couldn’t use the phrase ‘camel toes’ in the title of my first novel‘ in The Guardian
• Beulah Maud Devaney, ‘Helpful Spring Cleaning Advice From Gothic Novelist Shirley Jackson‘ on Ravishly
• Brittney Cooper, ‘Black girls’ sexual burden: Why Mo’ne Davis was really called a “slut”‘ on Salon
• Catie L’Heureux, ‘Why I Live in an All-Women Boardinghouse in New York City‘ in The Cut
• Elizabeth Minkel, ‘From the Internet to the Ivy League: Fanfiction in the Classroom‘ on The Millions
• Jenny Diski, ‘Like a Lullaby‘ in The London Review of Books (£)
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Beauty Is Youth, Youth Beauty‘ on Real Pants
• Emma Frankland, ‘I’m a transgender woman – why shouldn’t I play Hamlet?‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Hancock, ‘This Is What It’s Actually Like to Go to Private School in the London Suburbs‘ in Vice
• Sarra Manning, ‘In Ross Poldark, we have reached romantic hero nirvana‘ in The Guardian
• Isabel Rogers, ‘Shopping List‘ on her blog
• Rebecca Winson, ‘I don’t give a toss about the number of women in boardrooms‘ on A Bit of Class
• Hannah Giorgis, ‘Many women of color don’t go to the police after sexual assault for a reason‘ in The Guardian
• Frances Ryan, ‘The benefit sanctions regime should be scrapped‘ in The Guardian
• Dorian Lynskey, ‘Kapow! Attack of the feminist superheroes‘ in The Guardian
• Melody Schreiber, ‘Facing the Beast: On Anxiety and Sisterhood‘ in The Toast
• Carmen Maria Machado, ‘O Adjunct! My Adjunct!‘ in The New Yorker
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Scenes From The Bell Jar And Other Sylvia Plath Works, As Remembered By Someone Who Never Finished Reading Sylvia Plath‘ in The Toast
• Sarah Perry, ‘Lent Talk: Behold the Man‘ on BBC Radio 4 (+ transcript)
• Rachel Smalter Hall, ‘Why I Need a Break From Books About Dead Girls‘ on Book Riot

 

• Andrea Cornwall, ‘Why gender equality by numbers will never measure up‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Juicebox, ‘The Consequences of Attacking Our Little Black Girls‘ on Blavity
• xTx, ‘Today I am a Lonely, Sexless Book Looking for Love and Understanding‘ in The Butter
• Anna Weiner, ‘The Most Wonderful Staircase‘ in The Offing
• Clare Pollard, ‘All the Amazing Women We’ve Never Heard Of‘ on her blog
• John C. Goodman, ‘……Regina Who? And Other Obscure Women Writers……..‘ on Queen Mob’s Teahouse
• Megan Carpentier, ‘All These Angry Women?‘ in Esquire
• Rene Denfeld, ‘Why we execute people is the big question, not how‘ in The Guardian
• Joshua Rothman, ‘Knausgaard or Ferrante?‘ in The New Yorker
• Nancy Tomich, ‘Elusive Aurora‘ in The Toast
• Anna Fitzpatrick, ‘A Post About Books, Sort Of‘ on The Hairpin
• Suzanne Koven, ‘Cheaters: A Life In Eyewear‘ in The Rumpus
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Shock news: contra to the headlines, people with depression have jobs‘ in the New Statesman
• Maureen O’Connor, ‘How I Became a Hoarder of Discontinued Makeup‘ in The Cut
• Kate Colby, ‘The Itch‘ on The Rumpus
• Jo Chandler, ‘Manus in the Balance‘ in The Monthly
• Michele McPhee, ‘The Monster Next Door‘ in Boston Magazine
• Lisa Hix, ‘The Tragic Life of the Courtesan in Japan’s Floating World‘ on Collectors Weekly
• Suzanne Dean, ‘The Shore: A Cover Story‘ on the Penguin Blog
• Hilary Mantel, ‘How to Play “Wolf Hall”‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Tracey Thorn, ‘Your songs are like your children – you have to wave them off into the world‘ in the New Statesman
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘Fiesta Barbie‘ on Hobart
• Sophie Heawood, ‘Stuck on an ice-bound ferry? What a great opportunity for apocalyptic sex‘ in The Guardian
• Parul Sehgal, ‘How ‘Flawless’ Became a Feminist Declaration‘ in The New York Times
• Marina O’Loughlin, ‘‘Something nasty is stirring’: inside Nigel Farage’s battle for South Thanet‘ in The Guardian
• Sasha Marie Storman, ‘The Role of Women in Horror Films‘ on The Inflectionist
• Catherine Chanter, ‘I found my birth mother through the newspaper small ads‘ in The Guardian
• Swetambara Chaudhary, ‘This Photo Was Removed By Instagram. The Owner Writes A Powerful Open Letter In Response‘ on Scoop Whoop
• Anne Thériault, ‘We Need To Stop Devaluing Femininity‘ on Ravishly

The interviews:

• Alison Stone in 3:AM Magazine
• Kim Gordon on Salon
• Bhatupe Mhango-Chipanta on Brittle Paper
• Jane Hirshfield on The Huffington Post
• Michelle Tea on Weird Sister
• Ruth Goodman on The Daily Beast
• Judy Finnigan in Woman
• Nuala Ní Chonchúir on 746Books
• Joanna Briscoe on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Alison Bechdel on The Millions
• Abigail Thomas in the Los Angeles Review of Books
• Megham Daum on Flavorwire
• Val McDermid and Kate Tough on Scottish Book Trust
• Evie Wyld on the Penguin Blog
• Sarah Manguso in The Rumpus
• Rachael Herron on Compulsory Podcast
• Judith Butler in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Ayelet Gundar-Goshen on Bookanista
• Porochista Khakpour on Electric Literature
• Renata Adler in Vice
• Helen Grant on Scottish Book Trust and Author Allsorts
• Sally Green in The Guardian
• Alice Urbino on Broken Frontier
• Johanna Basford on We Love This Book
• Ann Fisher-Wirth on Bloom
• Isabel Wolff on Random House
• Jennifer Jean on DP Life
• Can Xue in BOMB Magazine
• Eva Dolan on Goodreads
• Helen Marshall in Nightmare Magazine
• Sarah Hall in The Guardian
• Naomi Klein in The Independent
• Amelia Gray on Vice

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• An extract from Weightless by Sarah Bannan on Bloomsbury Books
• An extract from Binary Star by Sarah Gerard in The Quietus
• An extract from Disclaimer by Renée Knight
• ‘Lunch Poem‘ by Ashleigh Young on Eyelashroaming
• ‘Coach tour on the A99 to Wick‘ by Claire Askew on Scottish Book Trust
• An extract from The Night Falling by Katherine Webb on Orion Books
• ‘I Hope You Sing About Me‘ by Vanessa Willoughby in The Toast
• ‘When Joan Jumped Into the Sea‘ by Elle Nash in The Offing
• ‘Oboe solo for two players‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Richard‘ by Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian
• ‘A Poem‘ by Morgan Parker in The Awl
• ‘Beau Soleil‘ by Claire Lombardo in the Atticus Review
• ‘Opposites Detract‘ by Cath Bore on The Fem
• ‘tsunami as misguided kwannon‘ by Lee Ann Roripaugh on The The
• An excerpt from Shadows Over Paradise by Isabel Wolff on Random House
• ‘Keep It In the Ground‘ by Carol Ann Duffy in The Guardian
• ‘How to walk past a tree in winter‘ by Shinjini Bhattacharjee on Three Drops from a Cauldron
• ‘The Knot‘ by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin in The Irish Times
• Two Poems by Catherine Pond in Blunderbuss

The lists:

• Top 5 YA Debuts of 2015 on Max and Mummy
• If You Loved ‘Bad Feminist,’ Try Reading These 11 Books, Too on Bustle
• 29 Awesome Books With Strong Female Protagonists on Buzzfeed
• Five books by transgender authors that everyone should read on The Walrus
• 14 Novels About Muslim Life That Shouldn’t Be Missed on Buzzfeed
• Sarah Menkedick’s Four Books on Early Motherhood on Vela
• Quotes from Five African Woman Writers to Help You Jumpstart Your Writing Dreams on Brittle Paper
• 5 Flannery O’Connor Quotes to Live By on Flavorwire
• Feminist Books for Children on For Books’ Sake
• Sophie Kinsella’s Literary Heroines on the Penguin Blog
• Books of the Week on Publishers Weekly

In the Media: 15th March 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest articles/essays:

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

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

The interviews:

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

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

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

The lists:

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

In the Media: 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: 1st 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.

I’ve spent a fair proportion of this week agog at some of the comment pieces, particularly in regard to the three girls from Bethnal Green who appear to be en route to Syria. Emma Barnett in the Telegraph wrote, ‘Stop pitying British schoolgirls joining Islamic State – they’re not victims‘; Grace Dent in the Independent said, ‘If teenage girls want to join Isis in the face of all its atrocities, then they should leave and never return‘; Mary Dejevsky wrote, ‘If Britons want to join Isis, let them go‘ in The Guardian and Allison Pearson said, ‘Let’s stop making excuses for these ‘jihadi brides‘ in the Telegraph. Judith Wanga responded on Media Diversified with, ‘The Denial of Childhood to Children of Colour‘, as did Chimene Suleyman with, ‘It’s Time To Talk About Why Our Young People Turn Against Their Country‘ and Nosheen Iqbal in The Guardian with, ‘The Syria-bound schoolgirls aren’t jihadi devil-women, they’re vulnerable children‘. Emma Barnett responded with ‘Racists are alive and well in Britain – but I’m not one of them‘ in the Telegraph. Chimene Suleyman also wrote, ‘‘Defining’ Terror, and Why ISIS Suits the West‘ on Media Diversified, prior to these most recent articles.

The Oscar ceremony was another place for some jaw-dropping comments. Megan Kearns wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette Undermined Her Own “Most Feminist Moment” of the Oscars‘ in Bitch Magazine; Betsy Woodruff commented, ‘The Gender Wage Gap Is Especially Terrible in Hollywood‘ on Slate; Maitri Mehta wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette Defends Her Oscars Backstage Comments On Twitter, But Still Misses The Point‘ on Bustle; Jenny Kutner also wrote about Arquette’s tweets on Salon, ‘Patricia Arquette doubles down on equal pay: “Why aren’t you an advocate for equality for all women?”‘; Amanda Marcotte wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette’s Feminism: Only for White Women‘ on Slate; Katie McDonough wrote, ‘“Fight for us now”: What Patricia Arquette got right (and wrong) about equal pay‘ on Salon. Brittney Cooper wrote, ‘Black America’s hidden tax: Why this feminist of color is going on strike‘ in Salon.

Remarks made by one television reporter about Zendaya Coleman’s locs prompted pieces by Loretta de Feo, ‘Why do we feel the need to taunt and judge black hair, rather than embrace it?‘ in Stylist; Jodie Layne, ‘Why Zendaya’s Response To Giuliana Rancic’s Awful ‘Fashion Police’ Comments Is Important‘ on Bustle, and Grisel E.Acosta wrote, ‘“Racism begins in our imagination:” How the overwhelming whiteness of “Boyhood” feeds dangerous Hollywood myths‘ on Salon.

The Brits were written about by Tracey Thorn in the New Statesman, ‘The Brits are so polite these days. One reason? There’s no bands left‘; Bidisha wrote, ‘Madonna is superhuman. She has to be to survive the ugly abuse‘ in The Guardian; while Salena Godden covered both the Oscars and the Brits in ‘Julianne Moore is 54. Madonna is 56.‘ on Waiting for Godden

Writing awards wise, the Sunday Times Short Story Award shortlist was announced and is dominated by women. As is the Walter Scott Prize longlist, released to the public for the first time.

There’s an entire series of articles currently being published in the Irish Times on Irish Women Writers. The link will take you to the round-up so far. While academic Diane Watt has just completed 28 days of LGBT book recommendations. You can read this week’s in a Storify here; links at the bottom of the page will take you to previous weeks.

And the woman with the most publicity this week is Kim Gordon. She’s this week’s New York Times ‘By the Book‘; there’s an excerpt from Girl in a Band in The Cut; you can listen to Gordon herself read an extract on Louder than War; there are five standout moments from her memoir on Slate, and in The New Yorker, Michelle Orange writes about ‘Kim Gordon, Kurt Cobain, and the Mythology of Punk‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• A.N. Devers, ‘Kelly Link Is Beloved, But Still Underrated: A Primer on My Favorite Living Short Story Writer‘ on Longreads
• Michael Schulman, ‘The Second Wave‘ on Wendy Wasserstein in The New Yorker
• Caitlin Moran, ‘It’s Time to Act on Equalty‘ in The Times
• Emily Yoffe, ‘The Hunting Ground‘ on Slate
• Tobias Carroll, ‘Exploring and Rebuilding Genres: Notes on Jo Walton‘ on Electric Literature
• Lisa Miller, ‘Alas, I Will Never Actually De-Clutter My House‘ in The Cut
• Alana Massey, ‘I Know I’m Thin. Why Can’t I Say It?‘ on Buzzfeed
• Suzanna Weiss, ‘Dear Men: My Eating Disorder Was Never About You, So Stop Telling Me “Real Women Have Curves”‘ on Bustle
• Anonymous, ‘Today, I Break My Silence About My Former Eating Disorder‘ on Bustle
• Amanda Hess, ‘How One Dress United the Internet‘ on Slate
• Genevieve Valentine, ‘Catwoman #39: “Better Than He Does Himself”‘ on her blog
• Sarah Kane, ‘Why can’t theatre be as gripping as footie?‘ in The Guardian (archive piece)
• Molly Beer, ‘The Little Giant Sequoia‘ in Terrain.org
• Elizabeth Tannen, ‘What Do You Bring Pauline?‘ in The Rumpus
• Rachael de Moravia, ‘On skin and the self‘ in Minor Literature[s]
• Debbie Howells, ‘On book covers and that next book…‘ on her blog
• Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, ‘How Africa Went from Rising to Becoming a Virus‘ on Brittle Paper
• Michelle Filgate, ‘The Rise Of Independent Booksellers In The Time Of Amazon‘ on Buzzfeed
• Jessie Burton, ‘On Amsterdam‘ in The Guardian
• Claire Fuller, ‘On Giving Your Characters a Hard Time‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Allison Pearson, ‘Sandwich Woman: I’ve always been grateful to Madonna for being older than me‘ in the Telegraph
• Anthea Bell, ‘Translation matters: The unsung heroes of world literature‘ on BBC Arts
• Jane Demuth, ‘How Running Helped Me Explain My Transition To Myself‘ on Buzzfeed
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Fact-checking Grandma‘ in Aeon
• Stephanie Boland, ‘Just why are there so few female artists on music festival line-ups?‘ in the New Statesman
• Maria Konnikova, ‘No, Mornings Don’t Make You Moral‘ in The New Yorker
• Kaye Toal, ‘What I’ve Learned About How To Be A Girl‘ on Buzzfeed
• Rob Spillman, ‘On “Miranda July”‘ in Guernica
• Marjorie Sandor, ‘Unsettled Lives/Unsettling Fictions‘ on the Huffington Post
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Ayn Rand’s You’ve Got Mail‘ in The Toast
• Stephanie Boland, ‘“She blinded me with library science”: why the Feminist Library is more vital than ever‘ in the New Statesman
• P.P. Wong, ‘Will Anyone Read YOUR Book?‘ on Inky Dumbbell
• Laura Bates, ‘Female academics face huge sexist bias – no wonder there are so few of them‘ in The Guardian
• Simone Gorrindo, ‘A Hidden Writing Life‘ in Vela
• Roslyn Bernstein, ‘The Left Front‘ in Guernica
• Alice Munroe, ‘Remember Roger Mortimer‘ in The New Yorker
• Ursula Heise, ‘What’s the Matter with Dystopia‘ on the Huffington Post
• Jenny Diski, ‘Why didn’t you just do what you were told?‘ in the London Review of Books
• Betsy Lam, ‘How to Soften a Fall: On Brokenness and Recovery‘ in The Butter
• Shveta Thakrar, ‘Thorns in my Throat: Writing Through the Scars‘ in The Butter
• Deborah Orr, ‘The big teenage pregnancy drop is a triumph of progressive politics‘ in The Guardian
• Robert Macfarlane, ‘Writing at its peak: How Nan Shepherd brought the Cairngorms to life‘ on BBC Arts
• All Hail Eimear McBride on The Plashing Vole
• Daniel Wainwright, ‘Caitlin Moran’s Raised By Wolves Bus Tour‘ on Native Monster

• Roz Morris, ‘Women Writing Women‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Suzanne Moore asked, ‘Why are we questioning the loyalty of British Muslims? We never ask anyone else‘ in The Guardian.
• Kristin Iverson, ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day: A New Dove Campaign Asks Women to Speak Beautiful‘ in Brooklyn Magazine
• Katherine Heiny, ‘How to Be Married to a Writer‘ on the Huffington Post
• Sady Doyle, ‘Season of the witch: why young women are flocking to the ancient craft‘ in The Guardian
• Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: Girls on Oxygen‘ in The Butter
• Kristin Chirico, ‘My Boyfriend Loves Fat Women‘ on Buzzfeed
• Lydia Davis, ‘Advice to Young Writers‘ on Electric Literature
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Ancestory & DNA‘ on Real Pants
• Leila Cruickshank, ‘The Least Romantic Relationships in Literature‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Helen Grant and Lydia Syson, ‘Why writing doesn’t have to be a lonely struggle‘ in response to Tim Lott in The Guardian
• Sali Hughes, ‘Date Make-Up and the Morning After‘ on the 4th Estate blog
• Imogen Russell Williams, ‘Teen novelists: the perils and positives of publishing early‘ in The Guardian
• Edan Lepucki, ‘To Be Eaten in Case of Emergency: Inspiration and Comfort for Writers‘ on The Millions
• Sadie Stein, ‘We Have the Stars‘ in The Paris Review
• K.T. Bradford, ‘I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year‘ on XOJane
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘‘All Our Happy Days Are Too Expensive’: Is Sheila Heti’s New Psychodrama an Exercise in Self-Immolation?‘ on Flavorwire
• Laura Miller, ‘Down and dirty fairy tales: How this rediscovered stash of darker-than-Grimm stories destroys our Prince Charming myths‘ on Salon
• Alison Flood, ‘Marvel’s Thor attacks critics who say “feminists are ruining everything”‘ in The Guardian
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Swinging with Absalom‘ in The Butter
• Chloe Benjamin, ‘The End of the End: Writers on Last Lines‘ on The Millions
• Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Who Cares?‘ on Something Rhymed
• Julie Guthman and Becky Mansfield, ‘Plastic People‘ on Aeon
• Marian Wang, ‘Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation‘ in Guernica
• Laura Hudson, ‘Life as a Target‘ on Slate
• Ilyasha Shabazz, ‘What Would Malcolm X Think?‘ in The New York Times
• Janet Manley, ‘I Dedicate This Novel to the Man Who Convinced Me to Stop Writing Silly Genre Fiction and Crank out a Thinly Veiled Memoir‘ in The Toast
• Claire Nielsen, ‘Apartheid’s Final Outpost‘ in Guernica
• Sarah Menkedick, ‘A Wilderness of Waiting‘ in Vela
• Adrienne Celt, ‘The Meaning of the Moon: On Family and Addiction‘ in The Butter
• Liz Prato, ‘What’s So Damn Funny About Death‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Rosalind Jana, ‘Metamorphosis‘ on Clothes, Camera and Coffee
• Rosanna Boscawen, ‘Designing the cover for The Last Act of Love‘ by Cathy Rentzenbrink on the Picador blog
• Zoe Williams, ‘What is the price of tuition fees? A generation’s potential and creativity‘ in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘A Million Dream Maps: The Market‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Maureen O’Connor, ‘It’s Not Sexist to Ask About Clothes on the Red Carpet‘ in The Cut
• Aliyah Saleem, ‘Leaving Islam for Good‘ on her blog
• Deborah Treisman, ‘1965-1975‘ in The New Yorker
• Laurie Becklund, ‘As I Lay Dying‘ in The LA Times
• Yohana Desta, ‘A brief history of female authors with male pen names‘ on Mashable
• Jo Hogan, ‘Confessions of a Book Club Cynic (or, how I finally got round to growing up)‘ on her blog

The interviews:

• Jenny Offill in The Guardian
• Jayinee Basu on Electric Literature
• Sarah Gerard on Between the Covers
• MariNaomi on OkeyPanky
• Elisa Albert on NPR
• Ali Smith in the New Statesman
• Georgia Gould in The Times
• Katherine Heiny on the 4th Estate blog
• Anna Smaill on Hodderpod
• Emer O’Toole (and Panti Bliss) on The Concordian
• Sara Baume in the Honest Ulsterman
• Holly Smale in the Warrington Guardian
• Laura van den Berg on The Rumpus
• Ann Morgan and Han Kang on the Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Louisa Treger in the Washington Independent Review of Arts
• Paula Hawkins on Northern Soul
• Hannah Beckerman on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Emma Hooper in The Globe and The Mail
• Mimi Thi Nguyen in Bluestockings Magazine
• Rafia Zakaria on Slate
• Kate Mayfield on You Wrote the Book
• EJ Koh on Queen Mobs Teahouse
• SJI Holliday on From First Page to Last
• Saskia Vogel in The Quietus

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• Extracts from the Folio Prize shortlisted books (Ali Smith, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Miriam Towes, Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill) in the Telegraph
• ‘Dancing, or beginning to Dance‘ by Sara Baume in the Irish Times
• ‘Limbo‘ by Jen Thorpe on Brittle Paper
• ‘The Afterlife of Trees and Their Lovers‘ by Sumana Roy in Granta
• An extract from ‘Into the Nowhere‘ by Jenny T.Colgan on Men Who Stare at Books
• An extract from Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume in the Honest Ulsterman
• AN extract from Alarm Girl by Hannah Vincent (video) on Myriad Editions
• Bus Station: Unbound (an entire choose your own adventure style novel; free to read but donations are requested) by Jenn Ashworth and Richard Hirst on Curious Tales
• An extract from Turning Japanese by MariNaomi on Okey-Panky

Or some non-fiction:

• An extract from Akademie X by Chris Kraus
• An extract from The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield on Foyles
• An extract from Wasted: How Misunderstanding Young Britain Threatens Our Future by Georgia Gould in The Times
• An extract from One of Us by Åsne Seierstad (translated by Sarah Death) in The Guardian

The lists:

• Nicci Gerrard, Afsaneh Knight, Adele Parks, Emma Freud, Kathy Lette, ‘38 things you should know about being a mum‘ in The Guardian
• 20 Female Harlem Renaissance Writers You Should Know‘ on Flavorwire
• This Winter’s Best Bets on the Huffington Post
• Anne Tyler’s Life in Books on CBC Books
• 10 Books With Steamy Scenes AND Great Writing on Buzzfeed
• The Feminist Books that Inspired Us Part 1 and Part 2 on This Is Africa
• Insults And Put-Downs, Algonquin-Style on the Huffington Post
• Catherine Doyle’s ‘Top 10 bad boys in teen and YA Fiction‘ in The Guardian
• 6 Women Writers to Add to Your Bookshelf on the Huffington Post
• 26 Children’s Books That Celebrate Black Heroes on Buzzfeed
• Books You Need to Get Excited About this Spring on The Debrief
• Kelly Link’s 6 Favorite Books that Warp Reality on The Week