#Readwomen2014: Get involved!
#readwomen2014, Artwork by Joanna Walsh
“I had no inkling #readwomen2014 would become so successful, but revolutions start small.” Joanna Walsh said in the Guardian.
Joanna started the hashtag #readwomen2014 on twitter after creating New Years bookmarks with a list of female authors on the back.
Her goal? To equalize the gender imbalance in our collective reading habits.
Since then #readwomen2014 has taken twitter by storm and articles appeared in various media sources.
We contacted Joanna and asked her…
Which 5 books by women writers would you recommend?
I’m going to make it a bit harder for myself, and make it five out-of-print books, which I hope might see new editions soon. Leonora Carrington’s surreal stories. I’d like to see a collected – or selected – edition. I’m currently reading The Oval Lady, which is available online at Monoskop. The Debutante has almost everything I want from a short story.The last English-language editions were produced by Dutton in the 1980s.
Jean Rhys’ collected stories – the last edition was published in the early 1990s. Essential Modernism, with a wide appeal. How has this gone out of print?
I’d also like to see Christine Brooke-Rose’s Go When You See the Green Man Walking (also stories) back in print – or maybe – better still – an anthology of leftfield British women’s writing from the 1960s, some in danger of being forgotten: Brophy, Figes, Kavan, Brooke-Rose, Quin. Google a few of these names! (And if any publisher out there would like me to edit, please drop me a line…).
Deborah Levy’s early experimental work, especially the beautiful Swallowing Geography. Oh wait, Hamish Hamilton is about to publish a new edition, with an introduction by Lauren Elkin – hoorah!
What is currently on your to read pile?
It’s massive, as always, and I tend to read at least five books at once, which is not always the best strategy as some get buried, overtaken… I’ve nearly finished Dalkey’s excellent anthology, Best European Fiction 2014, George Saunders’ Tenth of December, and Italo Calvino’s Numbers in the Dark.
I’m about half way through Lessing’s Golden Notebook, and am looking forward to starting Elena Ferrante’s Days of Abandonment , Natalie Young’s Season To Taste, and Zoe Pilger’s Eat My Heart Out.
Joanna Walsh is a writer and illustrator. Her first book, London Walks!, visual essays about the city, was published by Tate in 2011, sold out in less than nine months and has been reprinted twice.Fractals, her collection of short stories, is published by 3:AM Press.
She has written for Granta, The London Review of Books, The Guardian, The White Review, The European Short Story Network, 3:AM Magazine, Narrative Magazine, Guernica and others.
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
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Sites That Link to this Post
- “Rejoice”: Readers, Books, and an End to Literary Sexism | MATTERS OF SENSE | April 22, 2015
- #Readwomen2014: An Update - Women Writers, Women Books : Women Writers, Women Books | June 2, 2014
- #Readwomen2014: 5 ways to get involved - Women Writers, Women Books : Women Writers, Women Books | February 24, 2014
- Lesenswertes #1 | unregelmäßige Gedankensplitter | January 24, 2014
Thanks for this project, Joanna! I have been an advocate for women writers for some years now as well and I even created a weekly meme called “Feminist Sundays” to talk about the women writers – past and present – who are still ignored nowadays.
Very exciting initiative.
So glad it’s gathering momentum.
— Anora
I’m glad to know about this effort and will look for the hashtag now. My favorite authors– Joan Anderson, May Sarton, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Pat Schneider– all women. I’m glad to know I gravitate towards the voice of women.
Thanks for this interview with Joanna. Her delightfully subversive bookmarks and #readwomen2014 have taken the world by storm, as all good revolutions should. Brava! It’s very cool to get a peek at her reading list and her suggestions for books that need to be back in print.
Thanks, Joanna for inspiring and challenging us to read, to think, and to light a fire!