Snippets
Publisher’s Weekly has compiled their best books of 2009 and it has been pointed out, in a few places, that there are no women writers on the list. There are lots of other exclusions on that list too. Poor poetry. I’ve only read two of the books on the list—Await Your Reply and Shop Class as Soul Craft, both of which are fantastic—so I can’t really speak to the rest of the list but as I tried to think about major (mainstream) books written by women in 2009, the only two that come to mind are Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs (which I am currently reading, which I respect, which I do not love) and Margaret Atwood’s Year of the Flood. As I’ve thought about which books I would include on my own Top 10 list, none of them were mainstream books but about half were written by women. (My list, includes, in no order: American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell, Scorch Atlas by that one guy, Light Boxes by Shane Jones, AM/PM by Amelia Gray, and How to Leave Hiealeah by Jennine Capo Crucet.)
Were no great (mainstream) books written by women in 2009? What would appear on your Top 10 list for 2009?
i was about to post about what a hunk of shit that pw list is. i mean, do they even read?
i was about to post about what a hunk of shit that pw list is. i mean, do they even read?
i don’t know, i think the list-maker shows “verve, sensitivity, and perfect timing” and that the list itself is “utterly unputdownable” and “specific and universal all at the same time,” “unlike anything else out there.”
i don’t know, i think the list-maker shows “verve, sensitivity, and perfect timing” and that the list itself is “utterly unputdownable” and “specific and universal all at the same time,” “unlike anything else out there.”
What about A.S. Byatt’s new book? I haven’t read it yet, but surely it would make some kind of list like that?
What about A.S. Byatt’s new book? I haven’t read it yet, but surely it would make some kind of list like that?
The list is wholly bewildering.
The list is wholly bewildering.
Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin
Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin
I like Victor LaValle. Granted I have not read Big Machine, I liked his last book The Ecstatic.
I like Victor LaValle. Granted I have not read Big Machine, I liked his last book The Ecstatic.
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press)
I read this book and it sucked. It’s exactly the kind of book that virtous yuppies like to read, and wax on and on about the “dignity of working with your hands,” while never in a million years would they actually quit their jobs to go work on an assembly line or whatever. I mean, I guess this guy did, but boy is he pretentious about it. Blarf.
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press)
I read this book and it sucked. It’s exactly the kind of book that virtous yuppies like to read, and wax on and on about the “dignity of working with your hands,” while never in a million years would they actually quit their jobs to go work on an assembly line or whatever. I mean, I guess this guy did, but boy is he pretentious about it. Blarf.
Big Machine is as good as The Ecstatic.
Big Machine is as good as The Ecstatic.
“Were no great (mainstream) books written by women in 2009?”
I count 7 novels by women on their list?
“Were no great (mainstream) books written by women in 2009?”
I count 7 novels by women on their list?
Amber I totally get where you can see that in this boo. I read it in a rhetoric class as a study of techné and within that context, found it very interesting.
Amber I totally get where you can see that in this boo. I read it in a rhetoric class as a study of techné and within that context, found it very interesting.
Columbine was a good read.
Columbine was a good read.
Top 10 lists for a year are impossible for me to do cause I only read a handful of books from a year in they came out. My favorite read was Lipsyte’s The Ask… but that doesn’t technically come out until 2010. I also loved Brian Evenson’s Last Days (and Fugue State) and Clancy Martin’s How to Sell.
Top 10 lists for a year are impossible for me to do cause I only read a handful of books from a year in they came out. My favorite read was Lipsyte’s The Ask… but that doesn’t technically come out until 2010. I also loved Brian Evenson’s Last Days (and Fugue State) and Clancy Martin’s How to Sell.
I’m talking about the Top Ten.
I’m talking about the Top Ten.
Making a top 10 cross genre seems like a futile exercise. They probably should have just stuck to their favorite in each category.
Making a top 10 cross genre seems like a futile exercise. They probably should have just stuck to their favorite in each category.
Nice.
Nice.
That’s what I thought. It isn’t that the choices aren’t good (I don’t know enough about the books to judge that) but the cross genre approach seems problematic.
That’s what I thought. It isn’t that the choices aren’t good (I don’t know enough about the books to judge that) but the cross genre approach seems problematic.
It is a fair question though… like you, I can’t think of that many heavy hitters who had a book come out this year. Lorrie Moore and a few others, but not that many for 2009. I thought I had read Zadie Smith was supposed to have a novel? Lydia Davis had her collected stories, but I guess that doesn’t count. Hmm…
It is a fair question though… like you, I can’t think of that many heavy hitters who had a book come out this year. Lorrie Moore and a few others, but not that many for 2009. I thought I had read Zadie Smith was supposed to have a novel? Lydia Davis had her collected stories, but I guess that doesn’t count. Hmm…
Pitch-perfect list. Completely human.
Pitch-perfect list. Completely human.
Paul Yoon’s book is fantastic.
Paul Yoon’s book is fantastic.
Paul Yoon’s book belongs on anybody’s top ten list, and I think if people had read it, it would have been a finalist for one of the major year-end prizes.
Paul Yoon’s book belongs on anybody’s top ten list, and I think if people had read it, it would have been a finalist for one of the major year-end prizes.
Now THAT would be an interesting way to read it. I have to confess, it was recommended by friends who assured me that I would love it because I do a lot of work with “working class people” and so it was read in the wrong spirit right from the get-go. :)
Now THAT would be an interesting way to read it. I have to confess, it was recommended by friends who assured me that I would love it because I do a lot of work with “working class people” and so it was read in the wrong spirit right from the get-go. :)
I agree that Paul Yoon’s books is fantastic.
Fantastic book, and quite hard to describe in a few words. I believe it’s on this list only because of Random House sheer weight
I agree that Paul Yoon’s books is fantastic.
Fantastic book, and quite hard to describe in a few words. I believe it’s on this list only because of Random House sheer weight
lists should be personal and only shown when asked.
i don’t remember asking…
Speaking of books written by women in 2009, see the short story collection by Maile Meloy, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It.
lists should be personal and only shown when asked.
i don’t remember asking…
Speaking of books written by women in 2009, see the short story collection by Maile Meloy, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It.
Yeah. The exotic working class people angle is so disturbing on so many levels. Sometimes people don’t even hear what they’re really saying.
Yeah. The exotic working class people angle is so disturbing on so many levels. Sometimes people don’t even hear what they’re really saying.
still disappointed that she did not take the opportunity to title it “one of them”.
still disappointed that she did not take the opportunity to title it “one of them”.
Number, gender, year. Problemblematic. I’d rather see PW list every book it read in 2009, D C S + S W D P style. Besides, Happy Trails to You may as well be 2009 for all the attention it got in 2008 (little save the great Believer interview, below) Much like Hecht’s Correction, The Unprofessionals: NYT Top 10 (weird), otherwise ignored except by the growing number of readers who recognize that Julie Hecht is the American Bernhard.
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200805/?read=interview_hecht
Number, gender, year. Problemblematic. I’d rather see PW list every book it read in 2009, D C S + S W D P style. Besides, Happy Trails to You may as well be 2009 for all the attention it got in 2008 (little save the great Believer interview, below) Much like Hecht’s Correction, The Unprofessionals: NYT Top 10 (weird), otherwise ignored except by the growing number of readers who recognize that Julie Hecht is the American Bernhard.
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200805/?read=interview_hecht
Amber, have you read Neal Pollack’s “I Am Friends With A Working-Class Black Woman”? Nails nails nails people like your friends who suggested you read the book. It’s in the Neal Pollack Antho of American Literature.
Amber, have you read Neal Pollack’s “I Am Friends With A Working-Class Black Woman”? Nails nails nails people like your friends who suggested you read the book. It’s in the Neal Pollack Antho of American Literature.
Sounds awesome–I will definitely have to check that out. Thanks!
Sounds awesome–I will definitely have to check that out. Thanks!
I absolutely agree about Tina May Hall. I can’t believe I forgot. Such an awesome book. I re-read it over the weekend because I happened to see it on the bookshelf and I felt sad that it wasn’t being read. I would like to read more of her writing.
I absolutely agree about Tina May Hall. I can’t believe I forgot. Such an awesome book. I re-read it over the weekend because I happened to see it on the bookshelf and I felt sad that it wasn’t being read. I would like to read more of her writing.
Hey Roxane,
When you get a chance, check out her website (www.tinamayhall) for some more stories of her’s.
At this year’s &Now conference I heard her read a new story, which, if I remember right, was written from the perspective of a person talking from the grave. She also had a whole video with all kinds of strange, weird, startling imagery to go with it. Made for some interesting associations.
Hey Roxane,
When you get a chance, check out her website (www.tinamayhall) for some more stories of her’s.
At this year’s &Now conference I heard her read a new story, which, if I remember right, was written from the perspective of a person talking from the grave. She also had a whole video with all kinds of strange, weird, startling imagery to go with it. Made for some interesting associations.
I don’t think I could have a top 10 of 2009 because I don’t think that many of the things I’ve read this year were actually published this year. But favorites of the ones that were are Big World by Mary Miller, What The World Will Look Like When All The Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg, One Of These Things is Not Like The Others by Stephanie Johnson, All The Days Sad Stories by Tina May Hall, The Adderall Diaries… Almost all women. Not mainstream, though.
The Gate At The Stairs is next on my to-read list, after I finish Happy Baby and Kant’s Groundwork.
I don’t think I could have a top 10 of 2009 because I don’t think that many of the things I’ve read this year were actually published this year. But favorites of the ones that were are Big World by Mary Miller, What The World Will Look Like When All The Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg, One Of These Things is Not Like The Others by Stephanie Johnson, All The Days Sad Stories by Tina May Hall, The Adderall Diaries… Almost all women. Not mainstream, though.
The Gate At The Stairs is next on my to-read list, after I finish Happy Baby and Kant’s Groundwork.
Via Leni Zumas:
Why Weren’t Any Women Invited To Publishers Weekly’s Weenie Roast?
November 3, 2009
Publishers Weekly recently announced their Best Books of 2009 list. In their top ten, chosen by editorial staff, no books written by women were included. Quoted in The Huffington Post, PW confidently admitted that they’re “not the most politically correct” choices. This statement comes in a year in which new books appeared by writers such as Lorrie Moore, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Hilary Mantel, Mavis Gallant, Rita Dove, Heather McHugh, and Alicia Ostriker.
“The absence made me nearly speechless.” said writer Cate Marvin, cofounder of the newly launched national literary organization WILLA (Women In Letters And Literary Arts), which, since August, has attracted close to 5400 members on their Facebook web page, including many major and emerging women writers. “It continues to surprise me that literary editors are so comfortable with their bias toward male writing, despite the great and obvious contributions that women authors make to our contemporary literary culture.”
WILLA’s other cofounder, Erin Belieu, director of the creative writing program at Florida State University, asked, “So is the flipside here that including women authors on the list would just have been an empty, politically correct gesture? When PW’s editors tell us they’re not worried about ‘political correctness,’ that’s code for ‘your concerns as a feminist aren’t legitimate.’ They know they’re being blatantly sexist, but it looks like they feel good about that. I, on the other hand, have heard from a whole lot of people—writers and readers—who don’t feel good about it at all.”
PW also did a Top 100 list and, of the authors included, only 29 were women. The WILLA Advisory Board is in the process of putting together a list titled “Great Books Published By Women In 2009.” This will be posted to the organization’s Facebook page and website. A WILLA Wiki has also been started for people to share their nominations for Great Books By Women in 2009. Press release to follow.
WILLA was founded to bring increased attention to women’s literary accomplishments and to question the American literary establishment’s historical slow-footedness in recognizing and rewarding women writer’s achievements. WILLA is about to launch their website and is in the process of planning their first national conference to be held next year.
For more information contact:
Erin Belieu
ebelieu@fsu.edu
(850) 559-4030
Cate Marvin
catemarvin@gmail.com
(718) 749-8613
(Note: until recently, WILLA went under the acronym WILA, with one “L.” If you’re interested in the organization, please Google WILA with one “L” to see background on how this group was originally formed.)
Via Leni Zumas:
Why Weren’t Any Women Invited To Publishers Weekly’s Weenie Roast?
November 3, 2009
Publishers Weekly recently announced their Best Books of 2009 list. In their top ten, chosen by editorial staff, no books written by women were included. Quoted in The Huffington Post, PW confidently admitted that they’re “not the most politically correct” choices. This statement comes in a year in which new books appeared by writers such as Lorrie Moore, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Hilary Mantel, Mavis Gallant, Rita Dove, Heather McHugh, and Alicia Ostriker.
“The absence made me nearly speechless.” said writer Cate Marvin, cofounder of the newly launched national literary organization WILLA (Women In Letters And Literary Arts), which, since August, has attracted close to 5400 members on their Facebook web page, including many major and emerging women writers. “It continues to surprise me that literary editors are so comfortable with their bias toward male writing, despite the great and obvious contributions that women authors make to our contemporary literary culture.”
WILLA’s other cofounder, Erin Belieu, director of the creative writing program at Florida State University, asked, “So is the flipside here that including women authors on the list would just have been an empty, politically correct gesture? When PW’s editors tell us they’re not worried about ‘political correctness,’ that’s code for ‘your concerns as a feminist aren’t legitimate.’ They know they’re being blatantly sexist, but it looks like they feel good about that. I, on the other hand, have heard from a whole lot of people—writers and readers—who don’t feel good about it at all.”
PW also did a Top 100 list and, of the authors included, only 29 were women. The WILLA Advisory Board is in the process of putting together a list titled “Great Books Published By Women In 2009.” This will be posted to the organization’s Facebook page and website. A WILLA Wiki has also been started for people to share their nominations for Great Books By Women in 2009. Press release to follow.
WILLA was founded to bring increased attention to women’s literary accomplishments and to question the American literary establishment’s historical slow-footedness in recognizing and rewarding women writer’s achievements. WILLA is about to launch their website and is in the process of planning their first national conference to be held next year.
For more information contact:
Erin Belieu
ebelieu@fsu.edu
(850) 559-4030
Cate Marvin
catemarvin@gmail.com
(718) 749-8613
(Note: until recently, WILLA went under the acronym WILA, with one “L.” If you’re interested in the organization, please Google WILA with one “L” to see background on how this group was originally formed.)
That reads more like a spam message to join some facebook group than a reasoned critical response.
That reads more like a spam message to join some facebook group than a reasoned critical response.
so to respond to their irritation of a list of books with no women, this group will respond with a list just as limited in scope. seems kind of redundant-brained.
how about people start seeing people for people instead of sex parts? if anything, people should be criticizing the pw list for its banality of vision: a list generated mostly out of a very uninteresting and clearly under-read vision.
sure, i can’t believe there are no women at the top. but i also can’t believe how boring a list the majority of the books they chose were in general.
it isn’t sexist. it’s blank.
so to respond to their irritation of a list of books with no women, this group will respond with a list just as limited in scope. seems kind of redundant-brained.
how about people start seeing people for people instead of sex parts? if anything, people should be criticizing the pw list for its banality of vision: a list generated mostly out of a very uninteresting and clearly under-read vision.
sure, i can’t believe there are no women at the top. but i also can’t believe how boring a list the majority of the books they chose were in general.
it isn’t sexist. it’s blank.
i’d like a list of schmo jew writers who stutter
i’d like a list of schmo jew writers who stutter
Hey Roxane. I think the aesthetic rut Publisher’s Weekly exemplifies leads invariably to chronic underrepresentation or complete exclusion of women. It isn’t that that the books they did settle on aren’t ‘literate’ fiction. They are. And some might even be really remarkable. I’m not sure, I haven’t read but a few of them. But it is fairly obvious the compilers only cast a slightly-straining gaze around the catalogues of the established presses they already know by rolodex and backed the ‘winners’ (plus the requisite ‘dark horses’ that give a list like this edge and cred) according to the usual barometer: the mean reading proclivities of the median reader of the New Yorker. So the lack of women included speaks volumes in that regard too: there were not enough so-so women writers to find for inclusion. Still, the exclusion nonetheless remains absolutely sexist. When PW are all smugly anti-PC, they’re not just saying “hey, cats, we dig chick-writers, but the guys just were just a better crop this year, sorry, gals”, as if that weren’t bad enough, but also “we know Literature, k? we have EXACTING standards and only select the best out there, and geez, babes, you ain’t it.” That’s why it’s sexist. Because they don’t know literature at all but the lack of women – which should tell them otherwise – is the very thing that makes them even more certain that they do (i.e. we refuse to be held to any worldly standard like – how passe – gender, we follow the Talent, see?). Properly understood, PC obliges you to look other places, for better or worse. It says don’t talk talent til you’ve looked at more vectors than this trusted one with which you habitually approach it. The tired ‘bucking’ of PC is all about avoiding that obligation to look. It scoffs at that kind of ‘artifice’. I’m with artificiality.
Hey Roxane. I think the aesthetic rut Publisher’s Weekly exemplifies leads invariably to chronic underrepresentation or complete exclusion of women. It isn’t that that the books they did settle on aren’t ‘literate’ fiction. They are. And some might even be really remarkable. I’m not sure, I haven’t read but a few of them. But it is fairly obvious the compilers only cast a slightly-straining gaze around the catalogues of the established presses they already know by rolodex and backed the ‘winners’ (plus the requisite ‘dark horses’ that give a list like this edge and cred) according to the usual barometer: the mean reading proclivities of the median reader of the New Yorker. So the lack of women included speaks volumes in that regard too: there were not enough so-so women writers to find for inclusion. Still, the exclusion nonetheless remains absolutely sexist. When PW are all smugly anti-PC, they’re not just saying “hey, cats, we dig chick-writers, but the guys just were just a better crop this year, sorry, gals”, as if that weren’t bad enough, but also “we know Literature, k? we have EXACTING standards and only select the best out there, and geez, babes, you ain’t it.” That’s why it’s sexist. Because they don’t know literature at all but the lack of women – which should tell them otherwise – is the very thing that makes them even more certain that they do (i.e. we refuse to be held to any worldly standard like – how passe – gender, we follow the Talent, see?). Properly understood, PC obliges you to look other places, for better or worse. It says don’t talk talent til you’ve looked at more vectors than this trusted one with which you habitually approach it. The tired ‘bucking’ of PC is all about avoiding that obligation to look. It scoffs at that kind of ‘artifice’. I’m with artificiality.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess the compilers probably read as much or more than anyone here, for better or worse.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess the compilers probably read as much or more than anyone here, for better or worse.
they might read as much quantitatively but i guarantee it is another frame entirely
they might read as much quantitatively but i guarantee it is another frame entirely
Info–of course you’re right, tho that was not my intention (I’m not even a member.)
Blake–yes, blank, but Roxane asked a question, and Seth Abramson didn’t exactly step up to answer scientifically. Posted this without comment (meant to post only the first and fourth ¶s) but not without incident. An ad on HTMLGIANT probably helped put THE LAST 4 THINGS–an amazing book: you should open comments on ads–first on the SPD poetry bestseller list released today & THE DIFFICULT FARM seems likely to be next. We can all *believe* how boring the PW list is–just imagine how it was compiled. WILLA is at least asking for help. Why not give them THE MOTHERING COVEN, say, or ONE HOUR OF TELEVISION. They need it.
couldn’t have said better, blake
Info–of course you’re right, tho that was not my intention (I’m not even a member.)
Blake–yes, blank, but Roxane asked a question, and Seth Abramson didn’t exactly step up to answer scientifically. Posted this without comment (meant to post only the first and fourth ¶s) but not without incident. An ad on HTMLGIANT probably helped put THE LAST 4 THINGS–an amazing book: you should open comments on ads–first on the SPD poetry bestseller list released today & THE DIFFICULT FARM seems likely to be next. We can all *believe* how boring the PW list is–just imagine how it was compiled. WILLA is at least asking for help. Why not give them THE MOTHERING COVEN, say, or ONE HOUR OF TELEVISION. They need it.
couldn’t have said better, blake
*said it
see?
*said it
see?
A top-ten list put together by a critic does as much good for the reader as a list put together by a writer. Three separate universes, intersecting on some points but not all. What is good, what is a book, etc.
A top-ten list put together by a critic does as much good for the reader as a list put together by a writer. Three separate universes, intersecting on some points but not all. What is good, what is a book, etc.
as much good if the books are mostly not great, but mediocre?
hippie.
as much good if the books are mostly not great, but mediocre?
hippie.
whatever, fascist
whatever, fascist
Excellent, Amber, it’s the funniest piece in that collection. Neal has since turned to writing about being a hip parent (and I’ve stopped reading his stuff) but back in ’02-’03 I really enjoyed his work a lot.
Excellent, Amber, it’s the funniest piece in that collection. Neal has since turned to writing about being a hip parent (and I’ve stopped reading his stuff) but back in ’02-’03 I really enjoyed his work a lot.
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Museum of Accidents by Rachel Zucker is very good.
Museum of Accidents by Rachel Zucker is very good.