Books

10 Essential Books About Writing

Must-read titles for writers include works by Elena Ferrante, Akwaeke Emezi, Meg Wolitzer, Yoko Ogawa, and more.

Douchebag Decree: Lori Gottlieb *IS* all the single ladies

Have you been wondering what would be the perfect metaphor for being single in your forties? Well now, just in time for Valentine's Day, Lori Gottlieb and her godsend of a new book (... Read more »

Bibliobitch: The 2010 Amelia Bloomer List

The Amelia Bloomer Project just released their 2010 list of “recommended feminist literature for birth through 18” and they’ve included what look like some great selections! Read more »

A Tiny Roundup: Blog shorts

What are you waiting for? Get reading! Read more »

Kathryn Stockett's The Help: Count on the Happy Ending

Although Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, came out nearly a year ago, it remains to date on the New York Times Top 10 Bestselling Fiction list… Forty weeks of its shelf life in fact, it has spent jostling with other titles on the list, still sitting comfortably at No. 4 as of January... Read more »

Sapphic Salon: Sex and Misogyny in the Publishing World

There's a great piece in this Sunday's New York Times Book Review by Katie Roiphe regarding the inclusion of sex in novels by American male writers over time. Roiphe... Read more »

Transcontinental Disability Choir: Disability in Comics -- A Discussion

Comics haven't always been a bastion of feminist values, but they have given readers some fairly positive examples of characters with disabilities over the years. I've pulled together a brief list of characters who are more than just tropes meant to teach a Very Special Lesson. Read more »

The Transcontinental Disability Choir: Art Imitating Life Imitating Art

Whenever someone starts talking about “crip-drag” - the slang term that basically means “currently non-disabled actor playing a disabled character” - the conversation tends to eventually (usually sooner, rather than later) turn to this: But but but! We shouldn’t accept a less-than-stellar... Read more »

Bound by Raw Survival: Working Class Women Writers

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Freire wrote, “Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with... Read more »

BiblioBitch: The Grammar Devotional

Grammarphiles of the world, rejoice! The fabulous Mignon Fogarty (aka Grammar Girl, profiled in the Buzz... Read more »

On the Map: Constructing Feminist Motherhood

Balancing Act is a newly published work of fiction by architect and author Meera Godbole Krishnamurthy that demonstrates the... Read more »

Pages

Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction

Dubbed “Amish romance novels,” “Amish fiction,” or the more waggish “bonnet rippers,” these novels just one entry point into the varying images of Amish communities in U.S. popular culture. Read more »

Eat, Pray, Spend: Priv-Lit and the New, Enlightened American Dream

Even as reports on joblessness, economic recovery, and home foreclosures suggest that no one is immune to risk during this recession, the popularity of women’s wellness media has persisted and, indeed, grown stronger.  Read more »

Rewriting the Future: Using Science Fiction to Re-Envision Justice

Our justice movements desperately need science fiction. Read more »

Know & Tell: The Literary Renaissance of Trans Women Writers

For so long, the people who wrote about us were not us. Finally, that is beginning to change. Read more »