In the Media, January 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.

Image by Abigail Grey Swartz

Where is there to start other than with articles about the new American regime?

On the Women’s March:

• Paula Akpan, ‘Women’s March and the Selective Memory of Mainstream Feminism‘ on Galdem
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘When You Brag That The Women’s Marches Were Nonviolent‘ on The Establishment
• Ashley Weatherford, ‘What Does It Take to Make You March?‘ on The Cut
• Kara Brown, ‘I Want to Trust the Women’s Marchers‘ on Jezebel
• Stephanie Boland, ‘What will happen to women’s rights now that Donald Trump is President?‘ in The New Statesman
• Zoë Beaty, ‘Why are we still so surprised when men stand up for women’s rights?‘ on The Pool
• Josephine Livingstone, ‘The Problem With “Pussy”‘ on New Republic
• Janet Mock’s Speech on The Cut
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘How Susanna and Piers came to represent reason versus populism‘ on The Pool
• Sady Doyle, ‘The March Was Flawed and Messy and Glorious‘ in Elle
• Ann Friedman, ‘Was This Your First March? Don’t Stop Now.‘ on The Cut
• Rebecca Traister, ‘The Future of the Left Is Female‘ on The Cut
• Bim Adewunmi, ‘The Road Women Marched On This Weekend Was Paved By Black Resistance‘ on Buzzfeed
• Vonny Moyes, ‘Why do we still march, you ask? Because there’s still work to do‘ in The National
• Zoe Williams, ‘Memo to Piers Morgan: Why do we march? It’s not just protest, it’s about love‘ in The Guardian
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Radical Possibility of The Women’s March‘ in The New Yorker
• Angela Davis’ Speech on Elle
• Megan Garber, ‘The Inauguration, and the Counter-Inauguration‘ on The Atlantic
• Eve Ensler, ‘The Women’s March heralds a renaissance of resistance‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Traister, ‘The Complicated, Controversial, Historic, Inspiring Women’s March‘ in The Cut
• Poorna Bell, ‘As A Woman Of Colour, This Is What Women’s March London Means To Me‘ on Huffington Post
• Lauren Elkin, ‘When women march, they are seen. And they are heard‘ on The Pool
• Heidi Mitchell, ‘I’m Anti-Trump, But I Refuse to March‘ in The Cut
• Ann Friedman, ‘A March Can Change Your Life‘ in The Cut
• Linda Sarsour, ‘#WhyIMarch‘ on Women’s Media Centre

On Melania:

• Megan Garber, ‘On Pitying Melania‘ on The Atlantic
• Jess Zimmerman, ‘Compassion for Melania Is Misguided — But It Isn’t Wrong‘ on The Cut
• Roxana Robinson, ‘Donald Trump: Making the Word ‘Pussy’ Great Again, Bigly‘ on Literary Hub
• Marisa Bate, ‘Should we feel sorry for Melania Trump?‘ on The Pool

On American society under Trump:

• Camille Dungy, ‘Unwelcome in My Country, Unwelcome in My Church‘ on Literary Hub
• Mehrsa Baradaran, ‘I Was a “Terrorist Country” Refugee Who’d Grown Up Shouting “Death to America.” America Trusted Me Anyway.‘ on Slate
• Andrea Pitzer, ‘What We Get Wrong About Hannah Arendt‘ on Longreads
• Lee Matalone, ‘R.I.P. #8: Inauguration Day‘ on The Rumpus
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Fake News, Fake Science and Why Doctors Lie About Abortion‘ on The Cut
• Tyrese Coleman, ‘How I Lost My Hometown‘ on Catapult
• Marilynne Robinson, ‘With President Trump, American democracy faces its greatest test‘ in The Guardian
• Yaa Gyasi, ‘Why the next four years will be a test for all of us‘ in The Guardian
• Katie MacBride, ‘Why Today Feels Like Grieving The Loss Of A Loved One‘ on The Establishment
• Lisa Ko, ‘20 Lessons on How to Be American‘ on The Offing
• June Eric-Udorie, ‘Nobody can inspire like Michelle Obama can inspire‘ on The Pool
• Ann Patchett, ‘Barack Obama, Our President of Love‘ in Time
• Alana Semuels, ‘Do Regulations Really Kill Jobs?‘ on The Atlantic
• Kathryn VanArendonk, ‘Why You Should Watch Donald Trump’s Inauguration‘ on Vulture
• Allison Robicelli, ‘I Work in the Restaurant Industry. Obamacare Saved My Family’s Life.‘ on Eater
• Sady Doyle, ‘It’s Time to Take Sexism Seriously as a Political Force‘ in Elle
• Emily Ladau, ‘I’m A Disabled Woman Who’s NOT Celebrating Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes Speech‘ on The Establishment
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Meryl Streep’s anti-Trump speech is brave and brilliant in the face of intimidation ‘ on The Pool
• Rebecca Traister, ‘WARNING: Abortion’s Deadly DIY Past Could Soon Become Its Future‘ in The Cut

On Trump:

• Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin, ‘Like any woman working with a misogynist, Theresa May should call out Donald Trump’s sexism‘ in The New Statesman
• Adrienne Lafrance, ‘Calling Out a Presidential Lie‘ in The Atlantic
• Laurie Penny, ‘Searching for Time-Travelers on the Eve of the Trump Inauguration‘ on Pacific Standard
• Olga Kazan, ‘How to Overcome Political Irrationality About Facts‘ on The Atlantic
• Ruby Lott-Lavigna, ‘What does it mean for a leader when their entire country’s music culture rejects them?‘ in The New Statesman
• Jill Abramson, ‘‘Alternative facts’ are just lies, whatever Kellyanne Conway claims‘ in The Guardian
• Robin Wright, ‘Trump’s Vainglorious Affront to the C.I.A.‘ in The New Yorker
• Molly Crabapple, ‘Trump’s here. We have four years to write a better story‘ in The Guardian
• Helen Lewis, ‘Stop saying identity politics caused Trump‘ in The New Statesman
• Sara Nović, ‘Rhyme & Reason: Sign Language’s Anti-Authoritarian Streak‘ in Blunderbuss
• Molly Ball, ‘Welcome to the Trump Presidency‘ on The Atlantic
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘Welcome to a new era of politically sanctioned patriarchy‘ in The Guardian
• Sabine Heinlein, ‘A Prisoner’s View of the Trump Administration‘ on Literary Hub
• Amanda Hess, ‘Trump, Twitter and the Art of His Deal‘ in The New York Times
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘From Lying to Leering‘ in The LRB
• Dani Garavelli, ‘May caught in Trump’s post-truth trap‘ in The Scotsman

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Roxane Gay, ‘On Empathy, Race, and the Work of Alice Childress‘ on Literary Hub
• Sarah Perry, ‘‘I was weak, despairing, confused’: did writing a novel make me ill?‘ in The Guardian
• Sheila Kohler, ‘After losing my sister to a violent death, I turned to the solace of writing‘ on The Pool
• Lyz Lenz, ‘Taking a Stand with Roxane‘ on The Rumpus
• Julie Scelfo, ‘How Clara Hale and Audre Lorde Helped to Make New York‘ on Literary Hub
• Mariah Stovall, ‘On Falling Out of Love with Punk (and in Love with Books)‘ on Literary Hub
• Manjula Martin, ‘Against Fame: On Publishing, Popularity, and Ambition‘ on Catapult
• Melissa Febos, ‘The Heart-Work: Writing About Trauma as a Subversive Act‘ on Poets & Writers
• Adelia Saunders, ‘The Power and Politics of Language, from Oppressor to Oppressed‘ on Literary Hub
• Ottessa Moshfegh, ‘Finding Meaning in Going Nowhere‘ on The Atlantic
• Amanda Coe, ‘The Body in the Frame‘ on Huffington Post
• Sarah Hughes, ‘People, the final frontier: how sci-fi is taking on the human condition‘ in The Guardian
• ‘Meet the new faces of fiction for 2017‘ in The Guardian
• Clare Thorp, ‘Why we still need bookshops – in 2017 and always‘ on The Pool
• Diana Athill,’on Molly Keane: ‘I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved’‘ in The Guardian
• Janine Mikosza, ‘How Not to Speak Polish: On Language, Pain and (Not) Writing Memoir‘ on Electric Literature
• Christina Sharpe, ‘The Weather‘ on The New Enquiry
• Teow Lim Goh, ‘Tenacity, the Key to the Writing Life‘ on Literary Hub
• Danuta Keen, ‘The Da Vinci Code code: what’s the formula for a bestselling book?‘ in The Guardian
• Samantha Ellis, ‘How sibling rivalry made Anne the ‘neglected’ Brontë‘ on Penguin
• Anna Mazzola, ‘Bad Women: Do We Still Demonise Female Offenders?‘ on The Platform
• Emma Flint, ‘What makes the ‘perfect’ murder?‘ on PanMacmillan
• Alana Massey, ‘The Unbearable Niceness of Being‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Day, ‘Reading about nature is pure comfort when the world is full of chaos‘ on The Pool
• Emily Temple, ‘A Brief Survey of the Great American Novel(s)‘ on Literary Hub
• Lucy Worsley, ‘Jane Austen at 200: still a friend and a stranger‘ in The Guardian
• Tessa Hadley, ‘Some of my best ideas come in the bath’ in The Guardian
• Joanne Harris, ‘On Ghostwriting, Celebrity and That Guardian Review.‘ on her blog
• Susanna Rustin, ‘Winifred Holtby: author, feminist, campaigner‘ in The Guardian
• Katherine Arden, ‘on the landscape that inspired The Bear and the Nightingale‘ on Penguin
• Cathy Rentzenbrink, ‘Reading Lives‘ on International Literature Showcase
• Ruth Graham, ‘Why This Norwegian Novelist Should Be the Next Elena Ferrante‘ on Slate
• Eimear McBride, ‘The problems with erotica‘ in The New Statesman
• Samantha Ellis, ‘The Brontës’ very real and raw Irish roots‘ in The Irish Times
• Samantha Ellis, ‘The Brontës and Hester Chapone‘ on Brontë Blog
• Min Jin Lee, ‘On Selling Your First Novel After 11 Years‘ on Literary Hub
• Fiona Macdonald, ‘The Racy Side of Jane Austen‘ on The BBC
• Katherine Cowdrey, ‘Khorsandi withdrew from Jhalak Prize for fear of ‘alienating’ audience‘ in The Bookseller
• Noo Saro-Wiwa, ‘Playboy cars and pentecostal stars‘ in The TLS
• Emma Geen, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of ‘Being an Author’‘ on her blog
• Samantha Ellis, ‘Where are all the heroine mothers in fiction?‘ on The Pool
• Emily Gould, ‘Most Women In Publishing Don’t Have The Luxury Of Being Unlikable‘ on Buzzfeed

Personal essays/memoir:

• Evelyn Hampton, ‘Weightlessness‘ on Catapult
• Susan C. Ryan, ‘A Disaster Not to Be Found: On Survival (and Ultrasounds)‘ on Catapult
• Linda Chavers, ‘Fluids‘ on The Rumpus
• Porochista Khakpour, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Debut Novelist‘ on Literary Hub
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘The pros and cons of growing up in a Naked House‘ in The Pool
• Jennifer Maritza McCauley, ‘But There Is Also Rosa‘ on Passages North
• Enuma Okoro, ‘This is your morning‘ on Aeon
• D.M. Moehrle, ‘Womanly Arts‘ on The Rumpus
• Leia Menlove, ‘Drowning Little Things‘ on Catapult
• Zara Rahmen, ‘Close Calls‘ on Real Life
• Anjali Enjeti, ‘Drinking Chai to Savannah: Reflections on Identity, Inclusion and Power in the South‘ on Longreads
• Hermoine Holby, ‘rediscovering 60s ye-ye icon françoise hardy in the 90s‘ in i-D
• Noël Duan, ‘Beauty Shopping With My Mother, a Former Cultural Revolution Red Guard‘ on Racked
• Jody Allard, ‘Why I’ve Given Up On Being Healthy‘ on Buzzfeed
• Monica Uszerowicz, ‘Survivor Syndrome; or, Snacking While Jewish‘ on Avidly
• Angela Chen, ‘Why I No Longer Make Predictions‘ on Catapult
• Robyn Wilder, ‘My husband is the better parent – and it rankles‘ on The Pool
• Alice Jolly, ‘Donor siblings: do the ties of blood matter?‘ in The Guardian
• Lauren Alwan, ‘Arab Past, American Present: My Family’s Invisible History‘ on Catapult
• Laura Michele Diener, ‘Late Afternoon with Shadows Lengthening‘ on Numéro Cinq
• Laurie Frankel, ‘How do grandparents respond when their grandson becomes a granddaughter?‘ on The Pool
• Kathleen Alcott, ‘‘Restaurants have taught me who I am’‘ in The Guardian
• Charlotte Shane, ‘When Desire Goes Dark‘ on Hazlitt
• Nicky Loomis, ‘Pinecone Man‘ on Catapult
• D.S. ‘On Faith and Sexuality‘ on Dardishi
• Jamila Osman, ‘A Map of Lost Things: On Family, Grief, and the Meaning of Home‘ on Catapult
• Alexandra Heminsley, ‘The emotional challenges of IVF, and how one woman found solace in the sea‘ on The Pool
• Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, ‘The Woman Scared of Her Own Kimono‘ on Catapult
• Laura Goode, ‘Against Confession: On Intersectional Feminism, Radical Catholicism, and Redefining Remorse‘ on Longreads
• Isabel Hardman, ‘When my mind stopped working, I realised just how badly we treat mental health‘ in The Telegraph
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘Living In The Beautiful Bubble Of The Not-Quite Internet‘ on Buzzfeed
• Alexandra Heminsley, ‘My swimming odyssey: ‘It felt like a last chance to prove what I was capable of’‘ in The Guardian

Feminism:

• Jessye McGarry, ‘Why I’m Waiting for The Right Man to Tell Me I Should Read ‘Infinite Jest’‘ on Reductress
• Diane Shipley, ‘The sexist reality of being a woman with M.E.‘ on The Pool
• Moira Weigel, ‘How Ultrasound Became Political‘ on The Atlantic
• J.C. Pan, ‘Love’s Labor Earned‘ on Dissent
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘Older motherhood offers women the ultimate in having it all‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Monroe, ‘Sexual Assault in the Amazon‘ in The Cut
• Jen Palmares Meadows, ‘We Be Bleeding‘ on The Rumpus
• Sophie Wilkinson, ‘These Women Were all Prescribed the Pill – None of Them Needed it for Contraception‘ on The Debrief
• Clare Vaye Watkins, ‘A Trip of One’s Own‘ in New Republic
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘Media mockery of sex workers creates dangerous conditions for women‘ on The Pool
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘Casey Affleck’s Golden Globes win shows Hollywood’s double standard in action‘ on The Pool
• Meena Kandasamy, ‘Bengaluru attacks: Misogyny by night and day‘ on Aljazeera
• Lucy Rycroft-Swift, ‘I wore men’s clothes for a month – and it changed my life‘ on The F Word
• Connie Kuhns, ‘Strange Women‘ on Geist

Society and Politics:

• Kathryn Hughes, ‘Embarrassing bodies: what did the Victorians have to hide?‘ in The Guardian
• Amelia Tait, ‘The myth of Generation Snowflake: how did “sensitive” become a dirty word?‘ in The New Statesman
• Michele Kirsch, ‘My life as a cleaner in London‘ in The Independent
• Julie Beck, ‘Does Corruption Happen Slowly, or All at Once?‘ on The Atlantic
• Tahmina Begum, ‘You Talk Like a White Girl‘ on gal-dem
• Amelia Tait, ‘The best days of the internet are over – now our privacy will suffer‘ in The New Statesman
• Deafinitely Girly, ‘Deaf Girly and the Gap advert‘ on her blog
• Ruby Tandoh, ‘Bad fad – on how clean eating turned toxic‘ in The Guardian
• Vanessa Hua, ‘You might be thinking of someone else?‘ in The San Francisco Chronicle
• Ijeoma Oluo, ‘The Exploitation Of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy By White Supremacy‘ on The Establishment
• L.A. Kauffman, ‘In 1971, the People Didn’t Just March on Washington — They Shut It Down‘ on Longreads
• Brooke Jarvis, ‘Who Decides Who Counts as Native American?‘ in The New York Times
• Clare Chambers, ‘Time to abandon marriage?‘ in The TLS
• Jennifer Young, ‘Peetskill Blues‘ on Hazlitt
• Toni Jensen, ‘Women in the Fracklands: On Water, Land, Bodies, and Standing Rock‘ on Catapult
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘In Search of Black Atlantis‘ on Hazlitt
• Melinda Wenner Moyer, ‘A bug for Alzheimer’s?‘ on Aeon
• Carly Silver, ‘How Ancient Cure-Alls Paved the Way for Drug Regulation‘ on The Atlantic
• Laurie Shrage, ‘We need a contract for co-parenting, not just for marriage‘ on Aeon
• Rachel Aviv, ‘How Albert Woodfox Survived Solitary‘ in The New Yorker
• Jo Marchant, ‘This 3,500-Year-Old Greek Tomb Upended What We Thought We Knew About the Roots of Western Civilization‘ on Smithsonian
• Kathleen Hale, ‘Murder on Union Hill Road‘ on Hazlitt

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

• Emily Yahr, ‘From guilty pleasure to Emmy Awards: The delightfully weird history of Lifetime movies‘ in The Washington Post
• Victoria Coren Mitchell, ‘I’m so glad to spoil this film for you‘ in The Guardian
• Frances Katz, ‘Is Your TV Turned On? True Stories from the Cable Trenches‘ on Catapult
• Limara Salt, ‘Why are interracial relationships so rare in film?‘ on The Pool
• Helena Fitzgerald, ‘Bruce Springsteen: The Ultimate Dad‘ on The Catapult

The interviews/profiles:

• Alexandra Kleeman on Bookanista in The Guardian
• Janie Chang and Shilpi Gowda on Literary Hub
• Cat Marnell in The Cut
• Roxane Gay in The New York Times and Vogue 
• Sarah Pinborough in The Bookseller
• Joyce Carol Oates in The TLS
• Elizabeth Hand on Literary Hub
• Anne Applebaum on Spiegel
• Vic James on Reader Dad
• Yaa Gyasi in The Bookseller and The Guardian
• Claudia Rankine in The New Yorker
• Fiona Melrose on The Writes of Woman
• Kathleen Rooney on Literary Hub
• Mary Miller on Electric Literature
• Ayelet Waldman in The New York Times
• Bernadine Evaristo on the British Council
• Katherine Rooney on Electric Literature
• Erica Ferencik on Electric Literature
• Tara Betts on The Rumpus
• Ottessa Moshfegh on The Fanzine
• Elif Batuman in The New Yorker
• Xiaolu Guo in The Guardian
• Lucy Jane Bledsoe on The Rumpus
• Emma Flint on Foyles and in The Bookseller
• Deborah Lipstadt in The Guardian
• Mary Karr on Lenny
• Jo Mazelis on Alephi
• Jhumpa Lahiri on Medium
• Lindsey Lee Johnson 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
• 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, February 2016, part two

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

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society and Politics:

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

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

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

The interviews:

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

The regular columnists:

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

In the Media: 17th May 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. 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.

Two excellent UK prizes – the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize announced their longlist and shortlist, respectively this week. The former has eleven women on a longlist of fifteen. Yes, that does say ELEVEN, that’s 75% of the shortlist (well, 73.3 if you’re being pedantic). And the latter is an ALL WOMEN shortlist of three, from a longlist of ten that had gender parity. Excellent news.

You can read interviews with two of the Desmond Elliot shortlisted writers, Cary Bray and Emma Healey, in The Bookseller

Two important pieces about sexual abuse and victim blaming were published this week: Hayley Webster ‘31 years have passed with me thinking I asked for it…but what if I didn’t‘ on her blog and Lizzie Jones, ‘Sexual Assault: Society, Stop With the Slut Shaming‘ on The Huffington Post.

 

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Meytal Radzinski, ‘Women in Translation: The grim improvement of 2014‘ on Bibliblio
• Eve Ainsworth, ‘Why I wanted to tell the bully’s story‘ in The Guardian
• S.D. Sykes, ‘Memento Mori… Remember that you have to die‘ in Shots
• Laura Miller, ‘You Belong to Me: The fanfiction boom is reshaping the power dynamic between creators and consumers.’ on Vulture
• Kathryn Schulz, ‘Outside In‘ (on Nell Zink) in The New Yorker
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Crime and Violence: Those who do not flinch‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Sophie Hannah, ‘No one should condescend to Agatha Christie – she’s a genius‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Spicer, ‘Why is the term dadbod so brilliantly perfect?‘ in The Pool (more about neologisms than the concept of dadbod itself)
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘Why I stopped wearing the hijab‘ in The Pool
• Rebecca Bowler, ‘Dorothy M Richardson deserves the recognition she is finally receiving‘ in The Guardian
• Cheryl Strayed and Pankaj Mishra, ‘Is There a Double Standard for Judging Domestic Themes in Fiction?‘ in The New York Times
• Beluah Maud Devaney, ‘Signs That Agatha Christie Is About To Murder You‘ in The Toast
• Laura Miller, ‘Fairy tales, fantasy and dangerous female desire: Celebrating Angela Carter, the literary link between Bros. Grimm and “50 Shades”‘ on Salon
• Joanna Cabot, ‘On Reading a Book You Don’t Like‘ on TeleRead
• Susan Price, ‘Reviving the Female Canon‘ in The Atlantic
• Susan Harlan, ‘Great House Therapy: Elizabeth & Darcy’s Neither Formal Nor Falsely Adorned Pad of Privilege‘ in The Toast
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Killer Women festival: The female crime novelists transforming how the publishing industry works‘ in The Independent
• Maria Farrer, ‘Why teenagers have to take terrible risks in YA literature – and in real life too‘ in The Guardian
• Hannah Lavery, ‘Why Libraries Are Important To Me‘ on her blog
• Suzi Henderson, ‘The Great Literature Gender Gap‘ on The Inflectionist

• Hannah Depp, ‘Meghan Daum, Live in the Capital‘ on Literary Hub
• Melissa Moorer, ‘This Writer’s On Fire: Sofia Samatar‘ in The Butter
• Ali Hope, ‘Mary Hocking reading week 1st-7th June‘ on her blog
• Sara Nović, ‘Topography of a Novel: Girl at War‘ on Blunderbuss
• B.E. Andre, ‘How to Make the Truth Palatable‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• SD Sykes, ‘on writing crime during the time of a great plague‘ on Crime Files
• Sarah Bannan, ‘Can we do it? Yes, we can: on daring to use the first person plural‘ in the Irish Times
• M. Lynx Qualey, ‘Is There a Renaissance in Arabic Children’s Literature?‘ on Arabic Literature (in English)
• Sadie Stein, ‘Booksellers Week‘ on The Paris Review Blog
• Marian Palaia, ‘The Real World vs The MFA‘ on Literary Hub
• Jami Attenberg, ‘This week’s con.‘ on Tiny Letter
• Nicole Lee, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘Fear of causing offence becomes a fetish’‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Baby-Sitters Club vs. Sweet Valley High‘ in The Butter
• Mona Eltahawy, ‘World in 2050: Women in Power‘ on Literary Hub
• Frances Wilson, ‘The nourishing blood of the novelist‘ in the New Statesman
• Lauren Laverne, ‘My own personal Wonderland‘ in The Pool
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘The Forgotten Brontë Sister‘ in The Toast
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Books Are My Love Language & How to Treat Yourself‘ on Real Pants
• Sarah Pinborough, ‘Fantasy and Reality – Where Do You Draw the Line?‘ on the Huffington Post
• Cerrie Burnell, ‘Every child deserves to have their life represented in books‘ in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Are you talking to me? Writing under a new identity‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Jill Lepore, ‘Women in Science Fiction‘ on The New Yorker Podcast
• Bridget Penny, ‘an ostentation of solitariness: looking for the wilderness in abney park cemetery‘ in 3AM:Magazine
• Alice Bolin, ‘Miss Marple vs. the Mansplainers: Agatha Christie’s Feminist Detective Hero‘ on Electric Literature
• Naomi Frisby, ‘Reading Ourselves‘ on Fiction Uncovered

Personal essays/memoir:

• Jesmyn Ward, ‘Cracking the Code‘ in The New Yorker
• Julie Brister, ‘Large as Life‘ on Slate
• Sali Hughes, ‘There’s no such thing as TMI‘ in The Pool
• Laura June, ‘The Little Things‘ in The Awl
• Meridith De Avila Khan, ‘A Girl and Her Books: On the Loss of Sweet Briar College‘ on The Millions
• Sophie Heawood, ‘I’ve fallen out of love with music‘ in The Guardian
• Leah Reich, ‘The Birth of Uncool‘ on Medium
• Deborah Landau. ‘When I Got Pregnant At 40, Time Slowed Down‘ on Buzzfeed
• Myfanwy Collins, ‘Bruise: On Living with the Fear of Dying‘ in The Butter
• Monica Heisey, ‘Walt‘ on Maisonneuve
• Sadie Stein, ‘Like Rain on Your Wedding Day‘ on The Paris Review Blog
• Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Bored to Broken‘ in The Butter
• Shirley Muir, ‘Out of the Blackness‘ on Scottish Book Trust
• Ailidh Lennon, ‘“I wanted a house with a garden and chickens”‘ in The Pool
• Cyn Vargas, ‘I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Sofia Soter Henriques, ‘Nossa Família‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Samantha Hunt, ‘There Is Only One Direction‘ in The Cut
• Bryony Gordon, ‘‘I’m coming out of the mental health closet for my daughter’‘ in The Telegraph
• Leslie Nipkow, ‘How I became fat: “It’s tough to be a bad-ass girl in a dainty world”‘ on Salon
• Sarah Royal, ‘The Best Time I Was The Only Passenger Aboard A Cargo Freighter Container Ship Across the Pacific Ocean‘ on The Hairpin
• Jessica Valenti, ‘It’s great to have a vacation. And even better when you leave kids at home‘ in The Guardian

Feminism:

• Dawna I. Ballard and Sunshine Webster, ‘Why Women ‘Having It All’ Is an Empty Concept‘ on Medium
• Erika Hall, ‘Across the River and Into the Woods‘ on Medium
• Lauren Dozier, ‘The Inconsistent Acceptance of Black Beauty‘ on The Huffington Post
• Emily Mitchell, ‘A Boy My Sister Dated in High School‘ in Guernica
• Tracy Moore, ‘Single Mom By Choice: A Great Option for ‘Strong-Ass Bitches’‘ in Jezebel
• Anna Merlan, ‘‘Suck Dick, Fight or Quit Doing Gay Shit’: The Texas Prison Rape Problem‘ on Jezebel
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘What Makes a Good or Bad Female Role Model?‘ in Stylist
• Danielle Brooks, ‘How I Learned to Love My Body‘ in Glamour
• Minda Honey, ‘Empty Beds, Empty Wombs: Life Beyond the Blueprint‘ in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Olga Kazan, ‘Into the Body of Another‘ in The Atlantic
• Ann Friedman, ‘What Getting Your Nails Done Really Means‘ in The Cut
• Sarah Tomlinson, ‘My conflicted relationship with female beauty‘ on Salon
• Christina Tesoro, ‘I’m a Bitch and Proud of It‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Louise Foxcroft, ‘The diet industry has exploited our health fears for centuries – here’s how‘ in The Guardian
• Elissa Strauss, ‘The Rise of “Mama”‘ on Longreads
• Louise Raw, ‘Why Are We So Afraid of the Idea of Women in Power‘ on Morning Star

Society and Politics:

• Zoe Williams, ‘What does the new government mean for women?‘ in The Pool
• Lyndsey Gilpin, ‘Women Making Whiskey: An 800-Year History‘ in The Atlantic
• Susan Berfield, ‘Chinese Maternity Tourists and the Business of Being Born American‘ on Bloomberg
• Aude Konan, ‘Why Black people in France are still invisible‘ on Media Diversified
• Sarah Ladipo Manyika, ‘Coming of Age in the Time of the Hoodie‘ on AGNI
• Anna Holmes, ‘The Underground Art of the Insult‘ in The New York Times
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘Is it just me, or did you receive loads more online dating attention on post-election Sunday?‘ in the New Statesman
• Ann Jones, ‘“Farkhunda is Our Sister”‘ in Guernica
• Jean Friedman Rudovsky, ‘The Ecotourism Industry Is Saving Tanzania’s Animals and Threatening Its Indigenous People‘ in Vice
• Emma Green, ‘American Religion: Complicated, Not Dead‘ in The Atlantic
• Helen Macdonald, ‘Spies in the Sky: On How Birds Reflect Our National Anxieties‘ in The Guardian
• Roisin Kiberd, ‘Will love win in Ireland?‘ in The Pool
• Alexis Gumbs, ‘an element of radical waywardness‘ in The Offing
• Sarah Maslin, ‘Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers‘ in The New York Times
• Abby Tomlinson, ‘I’ll always be a Milifan. Ed was the best prime minister we never had‘ in The Guardian
• Caroline O’Donoghue, ‘Teenage girls are far smarter than we give them credit for‘ in The Pool

Film, Television, Music and Fashion:

• Anne Helen Petersen, ‘In Praise Of Betty Draper, Difficult Woman‘ on Buzzfeed
• Caroline Framke, ‘The Ascendancy of the ‘Awkward Older Sister’‘ in The Atlantic
• Jiayang Fan, ‘Chinese Whisperers‘ in The Awl
• Samira Sawlani, ‘What fresh hell is this? ‘The Princess of North Sudan; more scary tale than fairy tale’‘ on Media Diversified
• Jenn Lyons, ‘Women of the Wasteland – Mad Max: Fury Road‘ on her blog
• Alice Coote, ‘My life as a man‘ in The Guardian
• Eliana Dockterman, ‘How TV Sex Got Real‘ in Time
• Marissa Bate, ‘So, Hollywood thinks women aren’t superheroes?‘ in The Pool
• Jessica Winter, ‘David Letterman Raised Me‘ on Slate
• Sady Doyle, ‘Age of Robots: How Marvel Is Killing the Popcorn Movie‘ on Medium
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Why I owe it all to 1980s movies‘ in The Guardian

The interviews:

• Anne Enright in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
• Victoria Dahl in Jezebel
• Helen Macdonald on Electric Literature
• Sara Nović on Electric Literature
• Suzanne Scanlon in BOMB Magazine
• Aine Greaney on The Fem
• Margaret Jull Costa on Foyles’ Blog
• Jessica Hopper in The Hairpin and on Salon
• Lisa Kleypas on Jezebel
• Nell Zink on Literary Hub and on the Huffington Post
• Sora Kim-Russell on London Korean Links
• Kate Atkinson in The Globe and The Mail
• Amanda Palmer in Standard Issue
• Joanne Harris on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Sarah Govett on Teen Librarian
• Toni Morrison on Goodreads
• Cal Moriarty on Orenda Books
• Elisa Gabbert on Okey-Panky

 

If you want some fiction to read:

• ‘A Millennial Revenge Fantasy‘ by Jamie Lauren Keiles on The Hairpin
• The first five chapters of The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North in The Pool
• ‘Ghosts & Cyborgs‘ by Lyndsey Ellis in The Offing
• ‘Film Previews on a Plane: The Helpful Summaries‘ by Margaret Atwood in The National Post
• ‘Thanksgiving in Connecticut‘ by Katherine Bell on The Fem
• An extract from A Tale of Two Besties by Sophia Rossi on HelloGiggles
• An extract from My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff on Literary Hub
• ‘The Kind of Water I Like‘ by Lillian Akampurira Aujo on Sooo Many Stories
• ‘McCarthy and Woolf‘ by Chella Courington in Cacti Fur
• ‘Juke Joint Banshee‘ by Patty Templeton on Urban Fantasist
• ‘The Wretched Pet‘ by Betty McIntyre on Urban Fantasist
• ‘The Ice-Cream Van‘ by Jessica Patient on Urban Fantasist

If you want some poetry to read:

• ‘Extinction‘ by Jackie Kay in The Guardian
• ‘A Reading in New York‘ by Claire Potter in the New Statesman
• ‘[I can’t bear anymore what happens to the body]‘ by Victoria Lynne McCoy in The Offing
• ‘Words Like Applesauce‘ by Bethany Mary in The Fem
• ‘Thing is an Amen‘ by Rachael Katz in The Offing
• ‘Black Words Matter‘ Four poems by Baltimore Students on Real Pants
• ‘in this story…‘ by Lisa Marie Basile in Berfrois
• Six by Elisa Gabbert on Okey-Panky

The lists:

• 47 Books Every College Grad Should Read on Buzzfeed
• 10 Books to Read This Summer in the Wall Street Journal
• 8 reasons you absolutely have to watch Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in The Pool
• Judith Claire Mitchell’s Top 10 (unconventional) ghosts in literature in The Guardian
• Books of the Week, May 18, 2015 on Publishers Weekly
• Amelia Gray’s 10 Best Dark Books on Publishers Weekly
• 13 Best Quotes from Adichie’s Pen Festival Lecture on Brittle Paper
• 4 Small Press Books to Read in May (All-Women Edition) on BookRiot
• Kirsty Logan’s Seven New(ish) Island Books on The Island Review
• 11 Teen Books About Growing Up in Scotland on Scottish Book Trust
• Sarah Menkedick’s Four Books on Early Motherhood on Vela
• 12 Feminist Books ‘Mad Men’s Joan And Peggy Could Have Used To “Burn This Place Down” on Bustle

In the Media: 5th April 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers:

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

Personal essays/memoir:

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

Feminism:

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

Society:

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

Music:

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

The interviews:

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

If you want some fiction to read:

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

Photograph by Jane Feng

 

If you want some poetry to read:

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

If you want some non-fiction to read:

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

The lists:

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