From Sally Rooney to Raven Leilani, female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, with more buzz, prizes and bestsellers than men. But is this cultural shift something to celebrate or rectify?In March, Vintage, one of the UK’s largest literary fiction divisions, announced the five debut novelists it would be championing this year: Megan Nolan, Pip Williams, Ailsa McFarlane, Jo Hamya and Vera Kurian.All five of them are women. But you could be forgiven for not noticing it, so commonplace are female-dominated lists in 2021. Over the past 12 months, almost all of the buzz in fiction has been around young women: Patricia Lockwood, Yaa Gyasi, Raven Leilani, Avni Doshi, Lauren Oyler. Ask a novelist of any gender who they are reading and they will almost certainly mention one of Rachel Cusk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel Kushner, Gwendoline Riley, Monique Roffey or Maria Stepanova. Or they will be finding new resonances in Anita Brookner, Zora Neale Hurston, Natalia Ginzburg, Octavia Butler, Ivy Compton-Burnett. The energy, as anyone in the publishing world will tell you, is with women.It’s only relatively recently that fiction written by a woman about intimate subjects like sex has been classed as literary fictionClass is the dirty secret of publishing. Working-class male writers are now expected to answer for a past that isn’t oursMen think that to be allowed a place at the table, they need to have the right views and be these nice guysWhy wasn’t there uproar in the media... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-16 06:00:48 UTC ]
The Guardian called it: "Camilla Long’s comprehensive shredding of Rachel Cusk’s memoir of her divorce, Aftermath has won her the Hatchet Job of the Year award.” Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Harvill Secker has acquired The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, describing it as "an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Plympton—a startup publisher of serialized digital fiction—was created as 'a nimble alternative to the major publishers and online markets,' as the founders explain. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A week ago, Salon.com published an interview with the novelist Jeffrey Eugenides titled, “Jeffrey Eugenides: I don’t know why Jodi Picoult is belly-aching.” Eugenides was asked a question about gender bias in the publishing world (a topic about which Picoult, along with other novelists like... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The price-fixing case turns out well for Amazon but unsettles many others in the industry.Publishing insiders worry that a decisive court ruling benefiting retailer Amazon.com Inc. will undermine an industry already struggling with the transition to ebooks. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Many in the publishing world were convinced that Ms. Knox's story would be a huge best seller, overcoming concerns that she may not be a sympathetic figure to some of the public. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
For nearly a decade, some say even longer, people in the publishing industry have been decrying the death of the midlist. As the story goes, the industry consolidatedsmaller and midsize publishers were gobbled up and brought together into six large houses that themselves are small pieces of... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 18/10/2011 - 15:19 Digital publisher Open Road is launching a new imprint, Iconic E-books, with Erica Jong's Fear of Flying and Alice Walker's The Color Purple to be among its first titles. The Iconic E-Books titles will be those that have... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 05/08/2011 - 08:30 Pan Macmillan's Macmillan New Writing scheme will continue despite the head of the imprint leaving the company. Will Atkins, who worked at Pan Macmillan for five years and was its editorial director for fiction, has left... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Digital editions, the oft-dubbed Wild West of the publishing world, may be charted in the near future. Many publishers are investing large amounts of time and resources to navigating user behavior in tablet editions of magazines, and this data is being used in a variety of ways. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It's been two years since PW took the first snapshot of the publishing world on Twitter. In May 2009 we looked at the followings 16 imprints and publishers had on the social networking site. At the time, a lot of imprints weren't even on Twitter, and we thought the word "twittering" was an... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 09:41 The safeguarding of Waterstone's future will secure the midlist of history and science writing, literary fiction and memoir, the m.d. of Faber has said. Stephen Page, writing in the Guardian, said if the Waterstone's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Is the time ripe to place a bet on a brighter and profitable future for the grand dame of the publishing world? Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Each year the publishing world seems to become enamored with a new strategy that will redefine the industry. In 2011, that's marketing services. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
There may not be a ton of enthusiasm in the publishing world for Apple's new policy for subscription services--particularly when it comes to giving Cupertino a... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this