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, April 2017, 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.

Photograph by Pari Dukovic

The Handmaid’s Tale is having a moment due to the television serial airing this coming week and the current political situation in America (and beyond).

• Madeleine Davies, ‘The Misogynist Future of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale Feels Terrifyingly Within Reach‘ on Jezebel
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Margaret Atwood, the Prophet of Dystopia‘ in The New Yorker
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Margaret Atwood’s Grimly Relevant Additions to “The Handmaid’s Tale” Audiobook‘ in The New Yorker
• Katrina Onstad, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale: A Newly Resonant Dystopia Comes to TV‘ in The New York Times
• Willa Paskin reviews the show on Slate
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Radical Feminist Aesthetic Of “The Handmaid’s Tale”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emily Temple, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale Adapts More than the Novel: Here Is America‘ on Literary Hub

As one series begins, another ended this week:

• Emma Gannon, ‘It’s time to move on from ‘Girls’…but I’ll always love Lena‘ in Glamour
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘What Was Missing From the Girls Finale‘ on The Atlantic
• Erica Jong, ‘Why Do Female Characters Have to Be “Likeable”‘ on the BBC
• Anna Leszkiewicz, ‘The final episode of Girls revealed Hannah Horvath’s two most important relationships‘ in the New Statesman
• Halima Marcus, ‘The Very Best Episodes of Girls Are Perfect Short Stories‘ on Electric Literature
• Jia Tolentino, ‘On Finally Watching “Girls”, A Different and Better Show than I’d Been Led to Imagine‘ in The New Yorker
• Elizabeth Wurtzel, ‘Of course ‘Girls’ spoke to my life. Its brilliance is that it could speak to everyone’s‘ in The Washington Post

And in women win prizes, ‘Heather Rose wins the Stella Prize for a novel that wouldn’t ‘let her go’‘ as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Negar Azimi, ‘The Extravagant Jane Bowles: Always on the Edge of Something‘ in The New York Times
• Megan Mayhew Bergman, ‘The Feminine Heroic‘ on The Paris Review
• Joanna Cannon, ‘Breaking and Mending‘ on her blog
• Sarah Churchwell, ‘Sylvia Plath, a voice that can’t be silenced‘ in The Guardian
• Paula Cocozza, ‘21st-century fox: how nature’s favourite outsider seduced the suburbs‘ in The Guardian
• Deidre Coyle, ‘Men Recommend David Foster Wallace to Me‘ on Electric literature
• Meghan Daum, ‘The Quality of Life Report, 2017‘ on VQR
• Adyita Desi, ‘Woman with Power Is Woman Unchecked: Reading Narratives of Indian Women‘ on The Millions
• Lissa Evans, ‘How my novel about film-making was turned into a film‘ in The Guardian
• Merve Fejzula, ‘Zadie Smith and Multiculturalism after Brexit‘ on Black Perspectives
• Elizabeth Fremantle, ‘“Cringing” Historical Novelists: on Mantel at the Oxford Lit Fest‘ on The History Girls
• Sarah Gerard, ‘Mourning My Grandfather Through The Velveteen Rabbit‘ on Literary Hub
• Louise Glück, ‘On Realism and Fantasy‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Hopesmith, ‘Women Who Shock‘ on Dead Ink Books
• Terry Huang, ‘Gender Gap in Non-Professional Writer Submissions‘ on The Black List
• Danielle Jackson, ‘Life in North Memphis, and the Women Who Taught Me to Read‘ on Literary Hub
• Lucy Mangan, ‘This way to the ginger pop shop! The day I stepped into the pages of the Famous Five‘ in The Guardian
• Edie Meidav, ‘Discovering the Power of Storytelling in a Tattered Old Pulp Paperback‘ on Literary Hub
• Jennifer Mills, ‘The beauty regimen of a woman writer‘ on Overland
• Eilis O’Hanlon, ‘“She’s a thief who steals others’ hard-won words” – on the plagiarist who stole her novel‘ in The Irish Independent
• Sarah Paretsky, ‘From Joan of Arc to Little Women, A History of Heroes‘ on Literary Hub
• Pamela Paul, ‘Why You Should Read Books You Hate‘ in The New York Times
• Grace Payley, ‘Of Poetry and Women and the World‘ on FSG Work in Progress
• Ella Risbridger, ‘The letters Sylvia Plath wrote to her therapist are not ours to see‘ on The Pool
• Michèle Roberts, ‘The fallen woman: prostitution in literature‘ in The Guardian
• Lucy Scholes, ‘The Sisters Who Are Secretly Evil‘ on the BBC
• Doree Shafrir, ‘Not Everyone Is Meant To Have A Book Club‘ on Buzzfeed
• Kathryn Schultz, ‘Literature’s Arctic Obsession‘ in The New Yorker
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Get That Life: How I Became a Writer, Historian, and Activist‘ in Cosmopolitan
• Sarah K. Stephens, ‘What Edith Wharton Taught Me about Marriage‘ on The Millions
• Beth Underdown, ‘Not From Around There: finding a place in historical fiction‘ on Northern Soul
• Saskia Vogel, ‘The Swedish Gangster’s Wife’s Bag‘ on The Paris Review
• Kyle Winkler, ‘Gertrude Stein: Unlikely Comp Teacher‘ on The Millions

Personal essays/memoir:

• Pearl Abraham, ‘Dreams of My Mother for One Last Passover‘ on Literary Hub
• Kerri Arsenault, ‘Growing Up in Maine’s “Cancer Valley”‘ on Literary Hub
• Jami Attenberg, ‘How Sicily Cemented an Unlikely Friendship‘ in The New York Times
• DeMisty D. Bellinger, ‘Tell Me Something Good‘ on The Rumpus
• Katie Booth, ‘The Bathrobe: On Quilting and Memory‘ on Catapult
• Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, ‘The Law of Historical Memory​’ on Catapult
• Elizabeth Crain, ‘On Girls, Trump, and Everyone I Ever Dated Before My Husband‘ on Literary Hub
• Elizabeth Ellen, ‘Messages for a Balloon: On Relocation and Families‘ on Catapult
• Jennifer Epperson, ‘When Good Hair Is Natural Hair‘ on Lenny
• Megan Galbraith, ‘Sin Will Find You Out‘ on Catapult
• Deepti Kapoor, ‘I Come from a Place on Your Bucket List‘ in Granta
• Maris Kreizman, ‘My “Sick” Body‘ on Medium
• Andrea Lauren, ‘Don’t Think Twice and the Power of Improvising Through the Unknown‘ on The Rumpus
• Vivien Lee, ‘The Loneliness Recipe‘ on Hazlitt
• Kimberly Melton, ‘Good Hair‘ on Oregon Humanities
• Grace Prassad, ‘Feathers from Home, and Other Family Heirlooms‘ on Catapult
• Elisabeth Sherman, ‘Am I Asian Enough?‘ on Catapult
• Tasha Kerry Smith, ‘Not Everything Legal is Clean‘ on Catapult
• Madeleine Thien, ‘The Land in Winter‘ on Granta
• Lidia Yuknavitch, ‘Civic Memory, Feminist Future‘ on Electric Literature
• Lidia Yuknavitch, ‘I Will Always Inhabit the Waters‘ on Literary Hub
• Iza Wojciechowska, ‘Family Trees‘ on Vela
• Laura Zera, ‘Waiting to Go Home: On Being a Traveler in Trinidad‘ on Catapult

Feminism:

• Laura Bates, ‘What I have learned from five years of Everyday Sexism‘ in The Guardian
• Sady Doyle, ‘Women Don’t Need to Apologize Less—Men Need to Learn How to Apologize‘ in Elle
• Petula Dvorak, ‘On Easter, Mary Magdalene will be maligned as a prostitute. Except she wasn’t‘ in The Washington Post
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘It feels almost impossible to escape the desire to make my body smaller‘ on The Pool
• Ashley C. Ford, ‘Millennial Women Are Conflicted About Being Breadwinners‘ on Refinery29
• Hadley Freeman, ‘Successful, lairy, scary – what does a vulnerable woman look like?‘ in The Guardian
• Ann Friedman, ‘When Women Pursue Sex, Even Men Don’t Get It‘ on The Cut
• Maya Harris, ‘Equal Pay Day Isn’t a Holiday. It’s a Call to Fight.‘ on Lenny
• Maddie Holden, ‘Why the Sentiment Behind Cosmopolitan’s Appalling Diet Tweet Is Not Unusual‘ on HighSnobiety
• Rachel Holmes, ‘A new feminist statue is a great idea. Shame they picked the wrong feminist‘ in The Guardian
• Brionne Janae, ‘No One Looks for Black Girls‘ on Bitch Media
• Jennifer McShane, ‘Why We’re Done With The Idea Of “Likeable” Women‘ on Image
• Vonny Moyes, ‘Why sex for rent is not a deal like any other‘ in The National
• Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, ‘The Forgotten Language that Only Women Once Knew‘ on Ozy
• Emer O’Toole, ‘The Sisters of Charity presided over abuse. They must not run a maternity hospital‘ in The Guardian
• Kate Ristow, ‘Why Didn’t I Get Help for Postpartum Depression Sooner?‘ on The Cut
• Sophie Walker, ‘Brexit will be disastrous for women unless we fight the rollback of our rights‘ in The Guardian

Photograph by Adrienne Mathiowetz

Society and Politics:

• Eula Biss, ‘Murder Mystery‘ in The TLS
• Caren Chesler, ‘The Blood of the Crab‘ on Popular Mechanics
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘My generation has to choose between a child or a career. We can’t afford both‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin Flanagan, ‘How Late-Night Comedy Fueled the Rise of Trump‘ on The Atlantic
• Elisa Gabbert, ‘Earth Is Not Vengeful—It’s Just Indifferent‘ on Pacific Standard
• Erika Hayasaki, ‘How a Single Gene Could Become a Volume Knob for Human Suffering‘ on Wired
• Gaby Hinsliff, ‘The viral image of Saffiyah Khan is an antidote to an era of escalating male rage‘ on The Pool
• Kate Imbach, ‘Fairytale Prisoner by Choice: The Photographic Eye of Melania Trump‘ on Medium
• Sarah Kendzior, ‘Trump craves praise. We praise him for bombings. What possibly could go wrong?‘ in The Globe and the Mail
• Sarah Lyall, ‘Will London Fall?‘ in The New York Times
• Eimear McBride, ‘in the West Bank: “All that is human in me recoils from this”‘ in The Irish Times
• Rachel Monroe, ‘#Vanlife, the Bohemian Social-Media Movement‘ in The New Yorker
• Suzanne Moore, ‘In dark times, this image has a glorious message – resistance is not futile‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Nicole Prickett, ‘Free the Roses‘ on Hazlitt
• Jana G. Pruden, ‘A Radical Grief‘ in The Globe and the Mail
• Sarah Scholes, ‘Brain-Altering Science and the Search for a New Normal‘ on Pacific Standard
• Elif Shafak, ‘Turkey could be about to leap from division to despotism‘ in The Guardian
• Sonia Weiser, ‘Do Women Actually Wear Men’s Dress Shirts After Sex?‘ on Racked

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

• Sarah Barker, ‘The Brutality of the Barkley Marathons‘ on Deadspin
• Angelica Jade Bastíen, ‘What the Debate Around Black American and British Actors Gets Wrong‘ on Vulture
• Francine Prose, ‘“Sex and the City” in Hell‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Fariha Róisín, ‘Kids Like Us‘ on Hazlitt
• Donna Seaman, ‘Surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie, Queen of the Bohemian Artists‘ on Literary Hub

The interviews/profiles:

• Sara Ahmed on Literary Hub
• Diana Athill on Lenny Letter
• Jennifer Finney Boylan on Vice
• Durga Chew-Bose in The Guardian and on Literary Hub
• Patty Yumi Cottrell in The Paris Review and on Electric Literature
• Jessa Crispin in The Observer and on Vox
• Rachel Dolezal (interviewed by Ijeoma Oluo) on The Stranger
• Sarah Gerard on Electric Literature
• Zoe Gilbert on The Word Factory
• Camilla Grudova on Minor Literature[s]
• Paula Hawkins on Northern Soul
• L.S. Hilton on The Pool
• Donna Leon in The Guardian
• Deborah Levy in The TLS
• Alia Malek in Gurenica
• Helen McClory on The Skinny
• Lisa McInerney in The Guardian and on TSS Publishing
• Dorthe Nors on The Man Booker Prize and Words Without Borders
• Hanna Nowinski on Teen Vogue
• Sarah Perry in The Radio Times
• Claudia Rankine in The Paris Review
• Emma Ramadan on Conversational Reading
• Samantha Schweblin on Words Without Borders
• Shanthi Sekaran on The Rumpus
• Olivia Sudjic on Flavorwire
• Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan on The Rumpus
• Angie Thomas on The Rumpus
• Mónica de la Torre on Literary Hub
• Laura Waddell on Nothing in the Rule Book
• Joanna Walsh on Review 31
• Lidia Yuknavitch on Electric Literature

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, April 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.

Photograph by Murdo MacLeod

 

Women have been dominating the prize wins for the past fortnight. Hollie McNish won the Ted Hughes Prize and Kiran Millwood Hargrave won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize with The Girl of Ink and Stars.

While The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist was announced. Rebecca May Johnson writes ‘Notes on . . . the Baileys Women’s Prize‘ (and reading women more generally) in the Financial Times. There are interviews with several of the longlisted writers on the prize’s site: Madeleine Thien, Naomi Alderman, Linda Grant, Yewande Omotoso, Heather O’Neill, Fiona Melrose, Eimear McBride, Emma Flint.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Claire Armistead, ‘Is Hilary Mantel’s view of historical fiction out of date?‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Bernhard, ‘Writing Behind Walls‘ on Catapult
• Catherine La Sota, ‘Reading Across America: A Scene Grows in Queens‘ on Literary Hub
• Alicia Maria Meier, ‘Marta Rojals’s “The Faithful,” and the American JASP‘ on Words Without Borders
• Megan Hunter, ‘Fiction to see the world through‘ in The TLS
• Vincent Scarpa, ‘The Uncanny Magic of Joy Williams, in a Single Paragraph‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura Waddell, ‘Is it time for a Handmaid’s Tale sequel, to reckon with the Trump era?‘ in The Guardian
• Aaron Bady, ‘Has Imbolo Mbue Written the Great American Novel?‘ on Literary Hub
• Mallory Soto, ‘Laura Kinney, Literary Fiction, and Coming-of-Age‘ on Bookriot
• Emily Temple, ‘A Brief History of Robots‘ on Literary Hub
• Terri Kapsalis, ‘Hysteria, Witches, and the Wandering Uterus: A Brief History‘ on Literary Hub
• Ayana Mathis, ‘On Impractical Urges‘ in Guernica
• Sophie Hughes, ‘Ferrante Fever and Knausgaard nuts‘ in The TLS
• Amelia Ayrelan Iuvino, ‘What Does it Mean to Set Your Novel at Harvard?‘ on Literary Hub
• Margaret Atwood, ‘on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in the Age of Trump‘ in The New York Times
• Edmund Gordon, ‘In Which Angela Carter Gives No Fucks‘ on Literary Hub
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘The Dark Morality of Fairy-Tale Animal Brides‘ on The Atlantic
• Fiona Taylor, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale: The Lost Pence Prequel‘ in The New Yorker
• Sarah Blackwood, ‘Parenting by the Books: ‘Little Women’‘ on The Hairpin
• Emily Temple, ‘Life Advice from Adrienne Rich‘ on Literary Hub
• Danika Ellis, ‘Let’s Talk About Star-Crossed: Why We Need Bisexual Kids Books, Backlash or Not‘ on Bookriot
• Naomi Alderman, ‘Dystopian dreams: how feminist science fiction predicted the future‘ in The Guardian
• Jami Attenberg, ‘Stop Reading My Fiction as the Story of My Life‘ in The New York Times
• Salena Godden, ‘How I Did It‘ on The Poetry School
• Scarlett Thomas, ‘Why I was wrong about children’s fiction‘ in The Guardian
• Ellen Feldman, ‘A Brief Literary History of Birth Control‘ on Literary Hub
• Laura Kaye, ‘on portraying England from a foreigner’s perspective‘ on the Literary Sofa
• Valerie Derbyshire, ‘Beauty and the Beast was originally a feminist fable disguised as marriage guidance‘ on The Conversation
• Bidisha, ‘The great contradiction‘ in The TLS
• Teri Vlassopoulos, ‘When I Think About Giving Up Writing‘ on Catapult
• Alexandra Alter, ‘New Crop of Young Adult Novels Explores Race and Police Brutality‘ in The New York Times
• Jami Attenberg, ‘Topography of a Novel: All Grown Up‘ on Blunderbuss
• Kathryn Heyman, ‘Fairytales are not just harmless, innocent fun. They need to be interrogated‘ in The Guardian
• Susan Braudy, ‘‘Sisters in Misery’: What It Was Like to Interview Joan Didion at Home in 1977‘ on Jezebel

Personal essays/memoir:

• Kim McLarin, ‘Outrunning Eshu: On Finally Seeking Treatment for Depression‘ on Literary Hub
• Marissa Bate, ‘Adventures aren’t always on the other side of the world‘ on The Pool
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘I’ve been an agony aunt since I could talk‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Turner, ‘How Do You Inherit Anxiety?‘ on Catapult
• Meg Elison, ‘El Hugé‘ on Catapult
• Melissa Febos, ‘Playing Cupid for a Gay Friend on a (Mostly) Straight Cruise‘ in The New York Times
• Ethel Rohan, ‘Bringing It Back Up‘ on The Hairpin
• Sinéad Gleeson, ‘Your Chroma‘ on RTÉ
• Melinda Salisbury, ‘Was my grandmother a witch?‘ in The Guardian
• Amy Jo Burns, ‘Writing, Risk, and Moonshine‘ on Electric Literature
• Dionne Ford, ‘Don’t Call Slaves “Immigrants”‘ on Literary Hub
• Melissa Wyse, ‘Learning to Live Alone Through the Legacy of Mary Tyler Moore‘ in The Rumpus
• Whitney Templeton, ‘The Evolution of a Trigger‘ on The Rumpus
• Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes, ‘Life and Breath: On Pregnancy and the Spirit World‘ on Catapult
• Gillian Jacobs, ‘I Can’t Have Enough Mothers‘ on Lenny
• Dina Nayeri, ‘How Love Ends: Scenes from a Refugee Hotel‘ on Electric Literature
• Maria Browning, ‘Doll in Shadow‘ on Guernica
• Xialou Guo, ‘Leaving the Village: on Traumatic Uprooting‘ on Literary Hub
• Alys Fowler, ‘There is no such thing as coming out: it’s a daily negotiation‘ in The Guardian
• Eve Peyser, ‘Trump, Trolls, and Rediscovering My Jewish Identity‘ on Vice
• Porochista Khakpour, ‘Why this Persian New Year is different‘ on CNN
• Ashley Ford, ‘Seeing My Body with Fresh Eyes‘ on Cup of Jo
• Laurie Frankel, ‘We adopted by choice not necessity‘ in The Guardian
• Ella Wilson, ‘Take Care: Mothers, Daughters, and Inheriting Self-Hatred‘ on Catapult
• Daisy Buchanan, ‘I am 32, successful and I am in therapy. This is why‘ on The Pool

Feminism:

• Helen Charman, ‘Literary Representations of Maternity‘ on Women Are Boring
• Heather Kirn Lanier, ‘Superbabies Don’t Cry‘ on Vela
• Jia Tolentino, ‘The Infantilizing Ways We Talk About Women’s Ambition‘ in The New Yorker
• Leslie Jamison, ‘In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale‘ in The New York Times
• Rebecca Traister, ‘Of Course Donald Trump Doesn’t Think Bill O’Reilly Did Anything Wrong‘ in The Cut
• Salimah Perkins, ‘Choosing Sides‘ on Queen Mob’s Tea House
• Minda Honey, ‘Women of Color in Wide Open Spaces‘ on Longreads
• Jess Zimmerman, ‘Why Is Male Anger So Threatening?‘ in Dame
• Jessica Valenti, ‘Mike Pence doesn’t eat alone with women. That speaks volumes‘ in The Guardian
• Phoebe Maltz Bovy, ‘It’s time to drop the vagina as a protest symbol‘ in The Washington Post
• Morgan Jerkins, ‘How America Fails Black Girls‘ in The New York Times
• Sandra Newman, ‘Why men rape‘ on Aeon
• Mia Violet, ‘Taking Selfies As A Form Of Self Care‘ on Femsplain
• Brittney McNamara, ‘White Women Are Less Likely to Protect Black Women From Sexual Assault, Study Finds‘ in Teen Vogue
• Roe McDermott, ‘There is no perfect victim. And there is no perfect way to respond to sexual assault‘ on The Pool
• Morgan M Page, ‘Trans Women Shouldn’t Have To Constantly Defend Their Own Womanhood‘ on Buzzfeed
• Cathy Young, ‘The Other Women’s Movement‘ on Foreign Policy
• David Smith, ‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on transgender row: “I have nothing to apologise for”‘ in The Guardian

Society and Politics:

• Jeanette Winterson, ‘We need to be more imaginative about modern marriage‘ in The Guardian
• Taffy Brodesser-Akner, ‘The High Price of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Life‘ in the New York Times
• Monica Mark, ‘Poor, Gifted and Black‘ on Buzzfeed
• Diana Darke, ‘A sarin attack and a swing in US policy‘ in The TLS
• Carla Bruce-Eddings, ‘Am I Going to Have Another Baby?‘ in The Cut
• Emily Holleman, ‘Is Hillary Clinton a Modern-Day Cleopatra?‘ on Literary Hub
• Hannah Goldfeld, ‘The Cool Brooklyn Dentist Who Wants Your Teeth to Look As Nice As Her Instagram Feed‘ in The Cut
• Suzanne Moore, ‘Labour is weak and immoral – as shown by Livingstone’s refusal to apologise‘ in The Guardian
• Alana Semuels, ‘Why It’s So Hard to Get Ahead in the South‘ in The Atlantic
• Zara Rahman, ‘Where Are You Really From‘ on Real Life
• Jeanne de Montbaston, ‘My Daughter’s Birth‘ on Reading Medieval Books
• Linda Besner, ‘Sleep Country‘ on Real Life
• Hilary Mantel, ‘The Tories will never confess to their social wrecking age‘ in The New Statesman
• Alana Massey, ‘Broken Links‘ on Aeon
• Sim Bajwa, ‘Multiculturalism hasn’t failed – but the rhetoric surrounding immigration has become poisonous‘ on The Pool
• Elena Passarello, ‘The Sense of an Endling‘ on Longreads
• Lisa Miller, ‘John Hinckley Left the Mental Hospital Seven Months Ago‘ in New York Magazine

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

• Jonatha Kottler, ‘Shopping at size 24: ‘The sales assistant shakes her head at me’‘ in The Guardian
• Caitlin McDonnell, ‘On Homeland‘s Carrie Mathison, Mental Illness, & the “Ugly Cry”‘ on Weird Sister
• Sophie Atkinson, ‘Feminism and the Pursuit of Relentless Happiness‘ on Electric Literature
• Christine Vines, ‘The Damage of ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’‘ on Electric Literature
• Laura McKeon, ‘Dressing Like Ladies‘ on Hazlitt
• Rachel Klein, ‘Smurfette’s Roots‘ on Hazlitt
• Lauren Schwartzberg, ‘Why Millennial Pink Refuses to Go Away‘ in The Cut
• Amy Wallace, ‘The Hollywood Exec and the Hand Transplant That Changed His Life‘ in Los Angeles Magazine
• Catherine Love, ‘Offside: the shocking moment female footballers were banned for 50 years‘ in The Guardian

The interviews/profiles:

• Durga Chew-Bose on Hazlitt
• Edna O’Brien on Kenyan Review
• Eleni Sikelianos in Numeró Cinq
• Sarah Waters in The Guardian
• Ursula K. Le Guin on Electric Literature
• Claire Fuller on Reading Women
• Julie Buntin on Electric Literature
• Ariel Levy on Electric Literature and The Fifth Sense
• Angie Thomas in The Guardian and The Cut
• Deb Olin Unferth on Electric Literature
• Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo in The Bookseller
• Valeria Luiselli in Brooklyn
• Aura Xilonen on Electric Literature
• Ana Marie Cox on Literary Hub
• Wioletta Greg and Eliza Marciniak on The Man Booker Prize
• Fay Weldon in The Guardian
• Brit Bennett on The Millions
• Marina Benjamin on Slate
• Maggie Nelson in The Cut
• Katie Kitamura in The LA Times
• Megan McDowell on Literary Hub
• Emma Richler on Maisonneuve
• Eve Ainsworth on Bookriot
• Anna Journey on Electric Literature
• Eileen Myles in The Irish Times
• Eula Bliss in The Los Angeles Review of Books
• Khadijah Queen on The Rumpus
• Emily Robbins on Hazlitt
• Helen McClory on Burning House Press
• Lidia Yuknavitch on Pen America
• Patty Yumi Cottrell on Literary Hub
• Nell Stevens in Vogue

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: 22nd 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.

The big news this week is that Kath Viner became the first woman appointed to the role of editor-in-chief at The Guardian in its 194 year history. The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet and only the second EIC of The Guardian to have attended a (selective) state school.

Unfortunately, the other trend in articles this week have been about the abuse women have suffered from a variety of sources; Heidi Stevens wrote in the Chicago Tribune ‘Hate mail lesson: Uncombed hair threatens the natural order‘; Sarah Xerta wrote ‘The Brick Wall: The Intersection of Patriarchy, Privilege, Anger, and Language‘ on VIDA; Juliet Annan ‘is a Lazy Feminist‘ in publishing on the Penguin Blog; Sara Pascoe wrote ‘The hymen remains an evolutionary mystery – and the focus of the oppression of women’s sexuality‘ in The Guardian; Katie McDonough wrote ‘If you’re shocked by this Penn State frat’s nude photo ring, you’re not paying attention‘ on Salon; Jessie Burton took ‘Speakers’ Corner‘ on Hunger TV; Claire Byrne wrote, ‘One sordid, gross and offensive comment must have been thought up while he sat there scratching himself in his grey fading jocks. I wonder what makes people think it’s acceptable to make comments like that?‘ in the Irish Independent, and Ashley Judd wrote, ‘Forget Your Team: Your Online Violence Toward Girls and Women Is What Can Kiss My Ass‘ on Mic.

And there’s been a number of articles about race; Rebecca Carroll wrote ‘Calling out one racist doesn’t make white people any less complicit in supremacy‘ in The Guardian; Jia Tolentino wrote ‘How to Talk About Race With Your Starbucks Barista: A Guide‘ in Jezebel; Maya Goodfellow wrote, ‘Climate change is easier to ignore because right now it’s people of colour who suffer the most‘ on Media Diversified; Vulture interviewed Claudia Rankine on ‘Serena, Indian Wells, and Race‘ and KCRW’s Bookworm asked her about writing the racial ‘other’.

This week’s Harper Lee news: To Kill a Mockingbird was named #78 on The Guardian list of The 100 Best Novels; Casey N. Cep reported on ‘Harper Lee’s Abandoned True-Crime Novel‘ in The New Yorker, and Jonathon Sturgeon asked ‘Is It Time to Get Hopeful About Harper Lee?‘ on Flavorwire.

And prizes this week went to Louise O’Neill who won the inaugural YA Book Prize and Louise Erdrich won the Library of Congress Award.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

• Mary Chris Escobar, ‘In Defence of Fluff‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Lizzy Kremer, ‘Let’s All Fall in Love: Reading and Romance‘ on Publishing for Humans
• Margaret Dilloway, ‘on Disobedient and Difficult Female Characters‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
• Andrea Calabretta, ‘Land of Fire and Ice‘ in Litro
• Bryce R. Covert, ‘When Men Want Kids — and Women Aren’t So Sure‘ in The Cut
• Chika Unigwe, ‘The Transformation of Mama Paulina‘ in Guernica
• Habibe Jafarian, ‘How to Be a Woman in Tehran‘ (tr. Salar Abdoh) in Guernica
• Melissa Harrison, ‘Rivertones 3‘ (two songs to accompany her new novel At Hawthorn Time on Caught By the River
• The Morning News Tournament of Books An Untamed State vs Station Eleven
• Rachel Brownson, ‘The Resurrection of the Body: On Family, Mental Illness, and Grief‘ in The Toast
• Shonda Rhimes at The Human Rights Campaign Gala in Los Angeles, 2015 on Medium
• Sarah Perry, ‘Sherlock’s swansong: the ideal Holmes expedition‘ in The Guardian
• Laura Sook Duncombe, ‘Literary Ladies Cage Fight: Winter of Our Discontent‘ in The Butter
• Sara Alaica, ‘Over the Mountains‘ in Vela
• Andre Gerard, ‘Names, Texts and WWI in To the Lighthouse‘ in Berfois
• Andre Gerard, ‘The Odyssey, The Times and Howard’s End in To the Lighthouse‘ in Berfois
• Andre Gerard, ‘Virgil, Tolstoy and War in To the Lighthouse‘ in Berfois
• Zadie Smith, ‘Yates Lane, NW8‘ in Five Dials
• Lynn Melnick, ‘First Loves‘ on Poetry Foundation
• Rita Dove, ‘Homage to Toni Morrison‘ on Critical Mass
• Brigid Schulte, ‘Why time is a feminist issue‘ on Daily Life
• Emily Drabble, ‘Carnegie medal and Kate Greenaway 2015 shortlists announced‘ in The Guardian
• Catharine Morris, ‘Ali Smith at the Wapping Project‘ on the TLS Blog
• Caroline Criado-Perez, ‘If the UK government doesn’t protect exploited domestic workers, it is complicit in slavery‘ in the New Statesman
• Roopa Farooki, ‘Making Time to Write‘ on the Tinder Press Blog
• Elaine Feeney, ‘Untitled‘ (on what it’s like to die) on The Bogman’s Cannon
• Rafi Schwartz, ‘Male Science-Fiction Authors Discuss The Women Writers Who Influenced Them‘ on Good
• Lorna Bradbury, ‘Picture books are not just for babies‘ in the Telegraph
• Thea Lenarduzzi, ‘When Virginia found her Rachel?‘ on the TLS Blog
• Julie Zeilinger, ‘This Author Is Exposing the Sexist Double Standard in Children’s Literature‘ on Mic
• Emma Hogan, ‘The Sweet Sting of Muriel Spark‘ on Intelligent Life
• Sari Botton, ‘Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep 10 Years Later‘ on Longreads
• Heather Havrilesky, ‘Like a Prayer‘ in Aeon
• Jeanette Winterson, ‘on The Waves‘ on the Penguin Blog
• Elif Shafak, ‘As storytellers, we speak for pluralism and democracy‘ in The Observer

• Liz Blocker, ‘Things We Don’t Talk About: On Coming Out to My Family‘ on The Toast
• Jaki McCarrick, ‘The Genesis of Belfast Girls‘ on CloudNine
• Deborah Smith, ‘Writing Against the Grain: Contemporary Korean Women to Watch‘ on For Books’ Sake
• Leslie Jamison, ‘Enough About Me‘ in The Atlantic
• Allison Williams, ‘Women and the Global Imagination: Sweet Time‘ on Prairie Scooner
• Anna Ross, ‘Report from the Field: I Don’t Know How She Does It‘ on VIDA
• Ilana Masad, ‘On Hebrew and Living in Gendered Language‘ in The Toast
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Why A Well-Written Story May Be Rejected, Or, Every Editor Has Their Things‘ on The Review Review
• Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘First Tastes and Endeavors‘ on Real Pants
• Tania James, ‘What Writers Can Gain From Seeing the World Through Different Eyes‘ in The Atlantic
• Kim Phillips-Fein, ‘Why Workers Won’t Unite‘ in The Atlantic
• Anne Hull, ‘For Hardee’s workers, it’s not a parable, it’s a job‘ in The Washington Post
• Ainehi Edoro, ‘Why Zadie Smith Tops Adichie’s List of Women Who Write Well and Dress Well‘ on Brittle Paper
• April Bernard, ‘Laura’s World‘ (on Laura Ingalls Wilder) in the New York Review of Books
• Elizabeth Mills, ‘Liminal Space, or: Depression, Transitioning, and What’s in Between‘ in The Toast
• Ashley Ford, ‘Disrupting Domesticity: Take Care‘ in The Butter
• Aeman Ansari, ‘Origin Story‘ on Hazlitt
• Sophie Gilbert, ‘Why Are Art Heists So Fascinating?‘ in The Atlantic
• Jessie Burton, ‘A Week in the Life of the Novelist‘ in the Wall Street Journal
• Hadley Freeman, ‘I had anorexia – but not because I wanted to look like a fashion model‘ in The Guardian
• Harriet Alida Lye, ‘The New Occupation of Paris‘ in Vice
• Nicole Cliffe, ‘Trapped in the Stairwell: My Birth Story‘ in The Toast
• Felicity Cloake, ‘So hot right now: the peppers that prove there’s a perv in all of us‘ in the New Statesman
• Sady Doyle, ‘Season of the witch: why young women are flocking to the ancient craft‘ in The Guardian
• Alice Hoffman, ‘My inspiration: Mary Poppins‘ in The Guardian
• Tracey Thorn, ‘There’s no magic to raising twins – I just had to find my own brand of baby care‘ in the New Statesman
• Jessica Levine, ‘Living Time, Writing Time: Narrating the Fourth Dimension in Fiction‘ on Bloom
• Susan Pinker, ‘Why face-to-face contact matters in our digital age‘ in The Guardian
• Bianca Stone, ‘The House With Feet: The Dire Importance of Ruth Stone’s Bequest‘ on VIDA
• Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘Zoella’s Clockwork Novels: Fanfiction, Ghostwriters, and the Bizarre, Automated Future of Publishing‘ on Flavorwire
• Rebecca Scherm, ‘New Genres: The Worm in the Apple‘ on Electric Literature
• Alison Flood, ‘How come the romantic novel of the year is a work of Young Adult fiction?‘ in The Guardian
• Gabrielle Glaser, ‘The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous‘ in The Atlantic
• Rebecca Mead, ‘Sole Cycle‘ in The New Yorker
• Kate Garrett, ‘Why We Do Poetry‘ on Pankhearst
• Robin Rinaldi, ‘Then They Took Off Their Clothes and Did That Thing‘ on Book Keeping
• Judith Thurman, ‘Doll’s Play‘ in The New Yorker
• Monique Rivalland and Louise France, ‘i’m a teen, there 4 i tweet‘ in The Times
• Edith Hall, ‘Challenging the Classical Conservatives‘ on Edithorial
• Margaret Atwood, ‘Game of Thrones: “Real people, every murderous one”‘ in The Observer
• Moira Redmond, ‘Judging a book by its title: when books don’t live up to their names‘ in The Guardian
• Rebecca Mascull and Louise Walters, ‘Moon Tiger discussion‘ on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Eve Makis, ‘on Cyprus‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
• Judith Shulevitz, ‘In College and Hiding From Scary Ideas‘ in The New York Times
• Sasha Garwood, ‘Trigger warning: in which intent and outcome are so rarely coincident‘ on The F Word

The interviews:

• Maggie Nelson in Guernica
• Laxmi Narayan Tripathi in Guernica
• Caitlin and Caz Moran on The Debrief
• Rachel Cusk on Foxed Quarterly
• Miranda July in The Scotsman
• Laura Munson on Blogcritics
• Kim Gordon in The NME and on It’s Nice That
• Robin Rinaldi on Salon
• Kirsty Gunn and Deborah Levy on the LRB Bookshop Podcast
• Emma Healey in Woman
• Kate Forsyth on New Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog
• Azar Nafisi in the New Humanist
• Lauren Olivier in The Guardian and on the Huffington Post
• Zen Cho and Stephanie Feldman on Electric Literature
• PP Wong on This Is Writing
• Naja Marie Aidt on Maisonneuve
• Eula Bliss and Kate Hamer on The Guardian Books’ Podcast
• Lucy Knisley on Publishers Weekly
• Polly Teale on Northern Soul

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

• ‘Andromeda‘ by Sam Mills in Litro
• ‘Calypso in Therapy‘ by Louise Palfreyman in Litro
• ‘The Tikbalang‘ by Bethany W. Pope in Litro
• ‘Petrification‘ by Ruth Brandt in Litro
• ‘Fimbulwinter‘ by Francoise Harvey in Litro
• ‘Arcadia, Mars‘ by Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers in Guernica
• ‘Subcortical‘ by Lee Conell in Guernica
• ‘An Optical Illusion‘ by Eimear Ryan on Long Story, Short
• ‘Postal Worker and Housewife‘ by Nellie Hermann on Blunderbuss
• An extract from The Holiday by Nell Osbourne on Goldfish
• ‘Caterpillars‘ by Hallie Bateman on Blunderbuss
• ‘The Slanted Life of Emily Dickinson‘ by Rosanna Bruno
• ‘Erasure Methods‘ by Annie Ostlund on Electric Literature
• ‘The Matter of Seggri‘ by Ursula K. Le Guin on poliscifi
• ‘Initiation‘ by Kamilah Aisha Moon in The Offing
• ‘I looked for you, I called your name‘ by Laura Van Den Berg on Bookanista
• ‘Routine‘ by Arike Oke in Litro
• ‘A-Z of the Death Drive‘ by Deborah Levy in Five Dials
• ‘Talking With the Dead‘ by Claire Fuller on her blog
• ‘Tra le righe/Between the Lines‘ by Mati Colarossi (tr. Mati Colarossi) on Parallel Texts

Or some non-fiction:

• A new introduction to The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf on the Penguin Blog
• An extract from Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
• ‘Escape from New York‘ by Ellen Willis from The Essential Ellen Willis on The Village Voice

The lists:

• 12 Super Short Stories You Can Read in a Flash on the Huffington Post
• Read Her Now: Five Women to Translate in 2015 on All Wrongs Reversed
• Five things we learnt… from Caitlin Moran at WOW on the Southbank Centre
• How Do You Get Over Someone? 15 Books to Get You Through a Breakup With Your Dignity Intact on Bustle
• 3 New Books to Read If You Loved The Girl on the Train in Glamour
• From Zadie Smith To Helen Oyeyemi And Emily Brontë, Bestselling Female Authors Who Nailed Their Biggest Hit Novel Under The Age Of 30 in Stylist
• 7 YA Reads That Will Sweep You Up in Politics on the Huffington Post
• 15+ Top Indian Women Authors Whose Books Should Be On Your Summer Reading List on Polka Cafe
• 10 Best Coming-of-Age Books You’ve Never Read on Publishers Weekly
• 17 Things We Just Learned About Elena Ferrante From Her Paris Review Interview on Vulture
• 10 Poets of Colour we Discovered (or Rediscovered) in 2014 on Media Diversified
• Spring Books Guide: 22 Novels, Memoirs, and Collections We Can’t Wait to Read in Vogue
• Kat Brown’s How to write a dystopian YA novel in 10 easy steps in the Telegraph
• IRL: Nonfiction to Read if You Loved AMERICANAH on BookRiot