Battling bias on the shop floor: how bookstores can support diversity

A bookseller explains how Kamila Shamsie’s call for gender equality in the industry, and the fiery debate it provoked, could lead to greater diversity all aroundKamila Shamsie calling for a year of publishing only women has certainly unleashed a storm. Some disagree that gender bias exists, while others would rather celebrate the commercial success of some female authors. A couple of publishers have even taken Shamsie at her word.Most people agree that this is a complex issue, with so many levels during the publishing process at which bias can be perpetuated that it is impossible to pinpoint why and how many female writers struggle for recognition against their male counterparts. But one vitally important aspect of this debate seems to have been overlooked: books, once published, must be sold, and while many transactions are conducted online, many others continue to occur in old-fashioned brick-and-mortar shops. Customers don’t just buy what they’ve read about, they come in to browse, to find out what’s available, or to see what their local booksellers have enjoyed. Related: Kamila Shamsie: let’s have a year of publishing only women – a provocation Related: No men allowed: publisher accepts novelist's 'year of women' challenge Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]

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9 Books About the Spanish Civil War

If you’ve read only one book about the Spanish Civil War, chances are it’s either Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls or George Orwell’s memoir Homage to Catalonia. And if you’ve read only two, as to what they might be, I’d confidently push all my chips into the center of the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-11-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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BookLife’s Best of 2024

Since the launch of BookLife in 2014, we’ve witnessed phenomenal growth in the self-publishing world. Today, as evidenced by both BookLife reviews and submissions to the BookLife Prize, our biannual writing competition, the quality of self-published books is no longer in dispute. We are honored... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Suzanne Scanlon’s Memoir Confronts the Stories We Don’t Tell About Women and Madness

Suzanne Scanlon’s book, Committed: A Memoir of Finding Meaning in Madness, is a memoir unlike any I’ve read. Scanlon returns to the landscape of the past, reflecting on her experience of being committed in the New York State Psychiatric Hospital while a student at Barnard in the late 1990s.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-07-23 11:00:00 UTC ]
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I’ve Read Nearly Every Memoir by a Former Trump Official. Fauci’s Is Something Different.

The evenhanded scientist is generous to Trump, but you can tell what he really thinks. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2024-06-21 15:04:13 UTC ]
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A Samurai Comes of Age in This Graphic Novel

What's the most unique setting for a coming-of-age graphic novel that you've read? Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-06-12 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Ryan Gosling and Miller/Lord’s Project Hail Mary could be the sci-fi event of 2026

Do you like rip-roaring science fiction books? Do you like movies? Then you are in for a treat in, well, two years. Amazon MGM Studios just set a release date of March 20, 2026 for Project Hail Mary, according to Deadline. It’s based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name, which was one of our... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-04-19 17:44:40 UTC ]
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‘Historical reparation’: new bookshops in Europe give voice to female authors

Greta Livraria in Lisbon and Rare Birds in Edinburgh are among the new stores dedicated to women’s writingWith its neatly arranged tables and shelves laden with books written by women, Greta Livraria’s small space masks its big ambitions. Since opening earlier this year, the bookstore in Lisbon... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-12-28 05:00:25 UTC ]
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‘A smorgasbord of unlikability’: the authors helping ‘sad girl lit’ grow up

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[ The Guardian | 2023-08-08 15:19:43 UTC ]
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Why one children’s books editor turned down Roald Dahl titles | Letter

Sue Bradley on her conversation with the late Marni Hodgkin about the ‘malicious quality’ to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant PeachRe the letters criticising Roald Dahl’s works (Roald Dahl’s mean and nasty books don’t deserve all this attention, 23 February), in an oral... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-01 17:24:42 UTC ]
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Women’s prize to launch annual award for women’s non-fiction writing

The Women’s Prize Trust hopes to make the first award in 2024, after research showed female writers were far less likely than men to be reviewed or win prizes The Women’s prize is to launch a non-fiction award to sit alongside its long-running fiction prize, in response to research that found... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-02-08 08:00:10 UTC ]
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Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Jerry Lawson, the ‘father of the video game cartridge’

Google’s interactive Doodle today celebrates the life and accomplishments of video game pioneer Gerald “Jerry” Lawson on what would have been his 82nd birthday. The Doodle lets you play five retro pixel-art platformers in your browser — with two even letting you play as Lawson. The Doodles’... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-12-01 18:15:43 UTC ]
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Female Authors are Speaking Up, Strengthening Spirits

Female authors reveal honest stories of trauma, the challenges of motherhood, sexual dysfunction, and other rarely-talked about topics in new religion and spirituality books for women. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Sara Cox: ‘There were some tears, some “I can’t do this”’

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[ The Guardian | 2022-05-07 17:00:05 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Dodge, Detroit and the Revolutionary Union Movement of 1968

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[ Engadget | 2022-05-01 14:00:34 UTC ]
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Snow Days 2022: Cincinnati Bookstores Enjoy a Renaissance

Indie booksellers everywhere were disappointed when the American Booksellers Association called off this year's Winter Institute in Cincinnati, but local booksellers were even more disappointed: they had been looking forward to showing off their city’s rich literary offerings. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-02-25 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The books to read in 2022 based on what you loved in 2021

Now that you've read "Klara and the Sun" and "One Last Stop," it's time to look ahead. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-12-30 11:00:43 UTC ]
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Now that you’ve read ‘The Last Thing He Told Me,’ let’s talk about the ending

Laura Dave’s suspense novel is impossible to put down. But how satisfying is that conclusion? Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Why do so few men read books by women? | MA Sieghart

No matter if it is Austen or Atwood, the Brontës or Booker winners, data shows men are reluctant to read women – and this has real world implicationsThe byline at the top of this piece reads MA Sieghart, not Mary Ann. Why? Because I really want men to read it too. Female authors through the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-07-09 07:00:41 UTC ]
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What 2020 Children’s Book Roundups Are Missing

Feature image from Akiko Miyakoshi’s I Dream a Journey * I knew things were going to get hard when the library closed. I am, by profession, a writer and a professor of storytelling. I’ve read to my twin children—now four—since their infancy. But as avid readers as we already were, 2020 upped our... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-21 09:49:02 UTC ]
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Riot Recommendation: 53 of the Most Outstanding Short Stories You’ve Read

We asked for your favorite short stories and got a long list! Here are 53 of the most outstanding short stories our readers have read. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-11-02 11:31:00 UTC ]
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