Lately, I have been turning to older novels for my reading, as a means of escape from the stresses of being alive, here, in 2017. Older books offer a unique form of immersion in another time and place, as actually lived by the writer, rather than as imagined by a writer conjuring up a historical time … Continue reading Retreating into reading: The refuge of older books
In the introduction to the short story collection Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives that she edited, Sarah Weinman laments that "an entire generation of female crime writers...have faded from view." Many of these writers, popular and lauded in their day, have been forgotten over time. Weinman has selected stories by fourteen of them, ranging in publication date from … Continue reading Recommended Reading: Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives
I have posted a survey of feminist dystopian visions. I hope you enjoy.
I have have posted a survey of feminist utopian visions. Hope you enjoy.
What an amazing essay by Claire Vaye Watkins. Her novel Gold Fame Citrus is on my "I need to read this soon" list. A taste: Let us embrace a do-it-yourself canon, wherein we each make our own canon filled with what we love to read, what speaks to us and challenges us and opens us up, wherein … Continue reading On Pandering: How to Write Like a Man
I've resurrected an old idea of mine, which is to read science fiction about women and blog about it. I call the blog Sci Femme, and I hope to use it as a forum for longer-form essays about themes and trends in science fiction written by women. I'll be looking at both new and classic … Continue reading New blog: Sci Femme
For my yearly reading project in 2015, I have been focusing on women writers, specifically of speculative fiction. This project has led me down lots of wonderful side alleys discovering new writers, revisiting old favorites, and thinking about what they have to say. It's also helped me understand the bias that women writers continue to … Continue reading Women writing — some links
Maybe for a century or more to come, we’ll continue to need cultural spaces in which “women’s writing” is protected and encouraged to flourish as something separate from “men’s.” But that same small part of me fears that the gated-off arena can too easily become a prison. There’s something ironic, and a little depressing, in … Continue reading Are women-only book prizes necessary?
Did you know that #readingwomen2014 was a thing on Twitter? I did not know it until a short time ago, but with the end of the year coming up, I don't think we should stop reading women. Why should we make an effort to read more women writers? If you were not aware, there is a … Continue reading Reading women in 2015…
I've just finished two books that could not be more different, and yet they had one important thing in common. Both books, written by men, present an across-the-board indictment of women--all women. Granted, Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon is a schlocky horror novel published in the 1970s. However, the fear of women expressed in the novel, and … Continue reading When male writers show what they really think of women…
