In the media is a weekly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous week and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. Also, just a note to make it clear that I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely.
I’ve spent a fair proportion of this week agog at some of the comment pieces, particularly in regard to the three girls from Bethnal Green who appear to be en route to Syria. Emma Barnett in the Telegraph wrote, ‘Stop pitying British schoolgirls joining Islamic State – they’re not victims‘; Grace Dent in the Independent said, ‘If teenage girls want to join Isis in the face of all its atrocities, then they should leave and never return‘; Mary Dejevsky wrote, ‘If Britons want to join Isis, let them go‘ in The Guardian and Allison Pearson said, ‘Let’s stop making excuses for these ‘jihadi brides‘ in the Telegraph. Judith Wanga responded on Media Diversified with, ‘The Denial of Childhood to Children of Colour‘, as did Chimene Suleyman with, ‘It’s Time To Talk About Why Our Young People Turn Against Their Country‘ and Nosheen Iqbal in The Guardian with, ‘The Syria-bound schoolgirls aren’t jihadi devil-women, they’re vulnerable children‘. Emma Barnett responded with ‘Racists are alive and well in Britain – but I’m not one of them‘ in the Telegraph. Chimene Suleyman also wrote, ‘‘Defining’ Terror, and Why ISIS Suits the West‘ on Media Diversified, prior to these most recent articles.
The Oscar ceremony was another place for some jaw-dropping comments. Megan Kearns wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette Undermined Her Own “Most Feminist Moment” of the Oscars‘ in Bitch Magazine; Betsy Woodruff commented, ‘The Gender Wage Gap Is Especially Terrible in Hollywood‘ on Slate; Maitri Mehta wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette Defends Her Oscars Backstage Comments On Twitter, But Still Misses The Point‘ on Bustle; Jenny Kutner also wrote about Arquette’s tweets on Salon, ‘Patricia Arquette doubles down on equal pay: “Why aren’t you an advocate for equality for all women?”‘; Amanda Marcotte wrote, ‘Patricia Arquette’s Feminism: Only for White Women‘ on Slate; Katie McDonough wrote, ‘“Fight for us now”: What Patricia Arquette got right (and wrong) about equal pay‘ on Salon. Brittney Cooper wrote, ‘Black America’s hidden tax: Why this feminist of color is going on strike‘ in Salon.
Remarks made by one television reporter about Zendaya Coleman’s locs prompted pieces by Loretta de Feo, ‘Why do we feel the need to taunt and judge black hair, rather than embrace it?‘ in Stylist; Jodie Layne, ‘Why Zendaya’s Response To Giuliana Rancic’s Awful ‘Fashion Police’ Comments Is Important‘ on Bustle, and Grisel E.Acosta wrote, ‘“Racism begins in our imagination:” How the overwhelming whiteness of “Boyhood” feeds dangerous Hollywood myths‘ on Salon.
The Brits were written about by Tracey Thorn in the New Statesman, ‘The Brits are so polite these days. One reason? There’s no bands left‘; Bidisha wrote, ‘Madonna is superhuman. She has to be to survive the ugly abuse‘ in The Guardian; while Salena Godden covered both the Oscars and the Brits in ‘Julianne Moore is 54. Madonna is 56.‘ on Waiting for Godden
Writing awards wise, the Sunday Times Short Story Award shortlist was announced and is dominated by women. As is the Walter Scott Prize longlist, released to the public for the first time.
There’s an entire series of articles currently being published in the Irish Times on Irish Women Writers. The link will take you to the round-up so far. While academic Diane Watt has just completed 28 days of LGBT book recommendations. You can read this week’s in a Storify here; links at the bottom of the page will take you to previous weeks.
And the woman with the most publicity this week is Kim Gordon. She’s this week’s New York Times ‘By the Book‘; there’s an excerpt from Girl in a Band in The Cut; you can listen to Gordon herself read an extract on Louder than War; there are five standout moments from her memoir on Slate, and in The New Yorker, Michelle Orange writes about ‘Kim Gordon, Kurt Cobain, and the Mythology of Punk‘.
The best of the rest articles/essays:
- A.N. Devers, ‘Kelly Link Is Beloved, But Still Underrated: A Primer on My Favorite Living Short Story Writer‘ on Longreads
- Michael Schulman, ‘The Second Wave‘ on Wendy Wasserstein in The New Yorker
- Caitlin Moran, ‘It’s Time to Act on Equalty‘ in The Times
- Emily Yoffe, ‘The Hunting Ground‘ on Slate
- Tobias Carroll, ‘Exploring and Rebuilding Genres: Notes on Jo Walton‘ on Electric Literature
- Lisa Miller, ‘Alas, I Will Never Actually De-Clutter My House‘ in The Cut
- Alana Massey, ‘I Know I’m Thin. Why Can’t I Say It?‘ on Buzzfeed
- Suzanna Weiss, ‘Dear Men: My Eating Disorder Was Never About You, So Stop Telling Me “Real Women Have Curves”‘ on Bustle
- Anonymous, ‘Today, I Break My Silence About My Former Eating Disorder‘ on Bustle
- Amanda Hess, ‘How One Dress United the Internet‘ on Slate
- Genevieve Valentine, ‘Catwoman #39: “Better Than He Does Himself”‘ on her blog
- Sarah Kane, ‘Why can’t theatre be as gripping as footie?‘ in The Guardian (archive piece)
- Molly Beer, ‘The Little Giant Sequoia‘ in Terrain.org
- Elizabeth Tannen, ‘What Do You Bring Pauline?‘ in The Rumpus
- Rachael de Moravia, ‘On skin and the self‘ in Minor Literature[s]
- Debbie Howells, ‘On book covers and that next book…‘ on her blog
- Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, ‘How Africa Went from Rising to Becoming a Virus‘ on Brittle Paper
- Michelle Filgate, ‘The Rise Of Independent Booksellers In The Time Of Amazon‘ on Buzzfeed
- Jessie Burton, ‘On Amsterdam‘ in The Guardian
- Claire Fuller, ‘On Giving Your Characters a Hard Time‘ on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa
- Allison Pearson, ‘Sandwich Woman: I’ve always been grateful to Madonna for being older than me‘ in the Telegraph
- Anthea Bell, ‘Translation matters: The unsung heroes of world literature‘ on BBC Arts
- Jane Demuth, ‘How Running Helped Me Explain My Transition To Myself‘ on Buzzfeed
- Lyz Lenz, ‘Fact-checking Grandma‘ in Aeon
- Stephanie Boland, ‘Just why are there so few female artists on music festival line-ups?‘ in the New Statesman
- Maria Konnikova, ‘No, Mornings Don’t Make You Moral‘ in The New Yorker
- Kaye Toal, ‘What I’ve Learned About How To Be A Girl‘ on Buzzfeed
- Rob Spillman, ‘On “Miranda July”‘ in Guernica
- Marjorie Sandor, ‘Unsettled Lives/Unsettling Fictions‘ on the Huffington Post
- Mallory Ortberg, ‘Ayn Rand’s You’ve Got Mail‘ in The Toast
- Stephanie Boland, ‘“She blinded me with library science”: why the Feminist Library is more vital than ever‘ in the New Statesman
- P.P. Wong, ‘Will Anyone Read YOUR Book?‘ on Inky Dumbbell
- Laura Bates, ‘Female academics face huge sexist bias – no wonder there are so few of them‘ in The Guardian
- Simone Gorrindo, ‘A Hidden Writing Life‘ in Vela
- Roslyn Bernstein, ‘The Left Front‘ in Guernica
- Alice Munroe, ‘Remember Roger Mortimer‘ in The New Yorker
- Ursula Heise, ‘What’s the Matter with Dystopia‘ on the Huffington Post
- Jenny Diski, ‘Why didn’t you just do what you were told?‘ in the London Review of Books
- Betsy Lam, ‘How to Soften a Fall: On Brokenness and Recovery‘ in The Butter
- Shveta Thakrar, ‘Thorns in my Throat: Writing Through the Scars‘ in The Butter
- Deborah Orr, ‘The big teenage pregnancy drop is a triumph of progressive politics‘ in The Guardian
- Robert Macfarlane, ‘Writing at its peak: How Nan Shepherd brought the Cairngorms to life‘ on BBC Arts
- All Hail Eimear McBride on The Plashing Vole
- Daniel Wainwright, ‘Caitlin Moran’s Raised By Wolves Bus Tour‘ on Native Monster
- Roz Morris, ‘Women Writing Women‘ on Women Writers, Women’s Books
- Suzanne Moore asked, ‘Why are we questioning the loyalty of British Muslims? We never ask anyone else‘ in The Guardian.
- Kristin Iverson, ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day: A New Dove Campaign Asks Women to Speak Beautiful‘ in Brooklyn Magazine
- Katherine Heiny, ‘How to Be Married to a Writer‘ on the Huffington Post
- Sady Doyle, ‘Season of the witch: why young women are flocking to the ancient craft‘ in The Guardian
- Kelly Davio, ‘The Waiting Room: Girls on Oxygen‘ in The Butter
- Kristin Chirico, ‘My Boyfriend Loves Fat Women‘ on Buzzfeed
- Lydia Davis, ‘Advice to Young Writers‘ on Electric Literature
- Leesa Cross-Smith, ‘Ancestory & DNA‘ on Real Pants
- Leila Cruickshank, ‘The Least Romantic Relationships in Literature‘ on Scottish Book Trust
- Helen Grant and Lydia Syson, ‘Why writing doesn’t have to be a lonely struggle‘ in response to Tim Lott in The Guardian
- Sali Hughes, ‘Date Make-Up and the Morning After‘ on the 4th Estate blog
- Imogen Russell Williams, ‘Teen novelists: the perils and positives of publishing early‘ in The Guardian
- Edan Lepucki, ‘To Be Eaten in Case of Emergency: Inspiration and Comfort for Writers‘ on The Millions
- Sadie Stein, ‘We Have the Stars‘ in The Paris Review
- K.T. Bradford, ‘I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year‘ on XOJane
- Jonathon Sturgeon, ‘‘All Our Happy Days Are Too Expensive’: Is Sheila Heti’s New Psychodrama an Exercise in Self-Immolation?‘ on Flavorwire
- Laura Miller, ‘Down and dirty fairy tales: How this rediscovered stash of darker-than-Grimm stories destroys our Prince Charming myths‘ on Salon
- Alison Flood, ‘Marvel’s Thor attacks critics who say “feminists are ruining everything”‘ in The Guardian
- Lyz Lenz, ‘Swinging with Absalom‘ in The Butter
- Chloe Benjamin, ‘The End of the End: Writers on Last Lines‘ on The Millions
- Emma Claire Sweeney, ‘Who Cares?‘ on Something Rhymed
- Julie Guthman and Becky Mansfield, ‘Plastic People‘ on Aeon
- Marian Wang, ‘Inside the Wild World of Charter Regulation‘ in Guernica
- Laura Hudson, ‘Life as a Target‘ on Slate
- Ilyasha Shabazz, ‘What Would Malcolm X Think?‘ in The New York Times
- Janet Manley, ‘I Dedicate This Novel to the Man Who Convinced Me to Stop Writing Silly Genre Fiction and Crank out a Thinly Veiled Memoir‘ in The Toast
- Claire Nielsen, ‘Apartheid’s Final Outpost‘ in Guernica
- Sarah Menkedick, ‘A Wilderness of Waiting‘ in Vela
- Adrienne Celt, ‘The Meaning of the Moon: On Family and Addiction‘ in The Butter
- Liz Prato, ‘What’s So Damn Funny About Death‘ on Read Her Like an Open Book
- Rosalind Jana, ‘Metamorphosis‘ on Clothes, Camera and Coffee
- Rosanna Boscawen, ‘Designing the cover for The Last Act of Love‘ by Cathy Rentzenbrink on the Picador blog
- Zoe Williams, ‘What is the price of tuition fees? A generation’s potential and creativity‘ in The Guardian
- Lizzy Kremer, ‘A Million Dream Maps: The Market‘ on Publishing for Humans
- Maureen O’Connor, ‘It’s Not Sexist to Ask About Clothes on the Red Carpet‘ in The Cut
- Aliyah Saleem, ‘Leaving Islam for Good‘ on her blog
- Deborah Treisman, ‘1965-1975‘ in The New Yorker
- Laurie Becklund, ‘As I Lay Dying‘ in The LA Times
- Yohana Desta, ‘A brief history of female authors with male pen names‘ on Mashable
- Jo Hogan, ‘Confessions of a Book Club Cynic (or, how I finally got round to growing up)‘ on her blog
The interviews:
- Jenny Offill in The Guardian
- Jayinee Basu on Electric Literature
- Sarah Gerard on Between the Covers
- MariNaomi on OkeyPanky
- Elisa Albert on NPR
- Ali Smith in the New Statesman
- Georgia Gould in The Times
- Katherine Heiny on the 4th Estate blog
- Anna Smaill on Hodderpod
- Emer O’Toole (and Panti Bliss) on The Concordian
- Sara Baume in the Honest Ulsterman
- Holly Smale in the Warrington Guardian
- Laura van den Berg on The Rumpus
- Ann Morgan and Han Kang on the Guardian Books’ Podcast
- Louisa Treger in the Washington Independent Review of Arts
- Paula Hawkins on Northern Soul
- Hannah Beckerman on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
- Emma Hooper in The Globe and The Mail
- Mimi Thi Nguyen in Bluestockings Magazine
- Rafia Zakaria on Slate
- Kate Mayfield on You Wrote the Book
- EJ Koh on Queen Mobs Teahouse
- SJI Holliday on From First Page to Last
- Saskia Vogel in The Quietus
If you want some fiction/poetry to read:
- Extracts from the Folio Prize shortlisted books (Ali Smith, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Miriam Towes, Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill) in the Telegraph
- ‘Dancing, or beginning to Dance‘ by Sara Baume in the Irish Times
- ‘Limbo‘ by Jen Thorpe on Brittle Paper
- ‘The Afterlife of Trees and Their Lovers‘ by Sumana Roy in Granta
- An extract from ‘Into the Nowhere‘ by Jenny T.Colgan on Men Who Stare at Books
- An extract from Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume in the Honest Ulsterman
- AN extract from Alarm Girl by Hannah Vincent (video) on Myriad Editions
- Bus Station: Unbound (an entire choose your own adventure style novel; free to read but donations are requested) by Jenn Ashworth and Richard Hirst on Curious Tales
- An extract from Turning Japanese by MariNaomi on Okey-Panky
Or some non-fiction:
- An extract from Akademie X by Chris Kraus
- An extract from The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield on Foyles
- An extract from Wasted: How Misunderstanding Young Britain Threatens Our Future by Georgia Gould in The Times
- An extract from One of Us by Åsne Seierstad (translated by Sarah Death) in The Guardian
The lists:
- Nicci Gerrard, Afsaneh Knight, Adele Parks, Emma Freud, Kathy Lette, ‘38 things you should know about being a mum‘ in The Guardian
- 20 Female Harlem Renaissance Writers You Should Know‘ on Flavorwire
- This Winter’s Best Bets on the Huffington Post
- Anne Tyler’s Life in Books on CBC Books
- 10 Books With Steamy Scenes AND Great Writing on Buzzfeed
- The Feminist Books that Inspired Us Part 1 and Part 2 on This Is Africa
- Insults And Put-Downs, Algonquin-Style on the Huffington Post
- Catherine Doyle’s ‘Top 10 bad boys in teen and YA Fiction‘ in The Guardian
- 6 Women Writers to Add to Your Bookshelf on the Huffington Post
- 26 Children’s Books That Celebrate Black Heroes on Buzzfeed
- Books You Need to Get Excited About this Spring on The Debrief
- Kelly Link’s 6 Favorite Books that Warp Reality on The Week