"Immersion in the life of the world, a willingness to be inhabited by and to speak for others, including those beyond the realm of the human, these are the practices not just of the bodhisattva but of the writer." --Jane Hirshfield

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Women Woke Up

The judge of a national [UK] writing prize has ordered men to "wake up" after all of the £3,000 awards went this year to women. With eight of the nine contenders on the New Writing Ventures awards for emerging literary talent being women, the outcome was always unlikely to be otherwise.

"I've never believed in a difference of the sexes when it comes to literary talent, but there does seem to be a broader appeal in what women are writing than men."

I wonder if this is in any way related to Wednesday's post: "When Women Stop Reading the Novel Will Be Dead"? It would make sense for women to prefer books by women, and that a dearth of male readers would make male writers less likely to succeed. That's not exactly what happened in this contest, and it hasn't happened yet in publishing (as far as I've heard). Just something to think about. At the Guardian.

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