Intersectional weight penalties — 2015 VIDA count
Yesterday, VIDA published their 2015 count. This year, the count goes intersectional. I am dismayed at how few women writers are succeeding with more than one bias operating against us.
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Present tense: this wretched fad
I’ve talked before about present tense being over-used and misused in contemporary fiction: These days it seems fashionable for beginners, especially in…
Read moreBooker prize shortlist
Booker prize shortlisted authors (clockwise): Andrea Levy, Howard Jacobson, Tom McCarthy, Peter Carey, Emma Donoghue and Damon Galgut. Photograph: PR/Eamonn McCabe/Sarah Lee…
Read moregenre and literature: shaking the test tube
I’ve been astounded by the rumpus around the Booker: Harrumph, the litsnobs say, it’s historical fiction, not literature! [Imagine that drawn out…
Read moreWolf Hall wins the Booker
Hilary Mantel wins the Booker Prize for Wolf Hall, a novel about Thomas Cromwell. It’s a long meaty historical, apparently; the first…
Read moresir penguin
I currently have two goals: to win the Booker Prize and to be Sir Nicola. Well, if a penguin can do it,…
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