When I was a little girl–reading novel after novel, watching movie after movie–I noticed one thing: men got to retreat from the hubbub of family life into their own special rooms, and that their time in this room was sacrosanct. They were not to be disturbed unless it was an emergency. This truth cut across time and class. I saw no difference between the way that Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice retreated to his study…

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These questions have been on my mind for quite a while:



Why did I spend twenty years working on short stories as opposed to novels? Is it nature or nurture? Am I really predisposed to write short stories, or do I write them because it is the only prose form for which I received explicit instruction?



How do you write a novel? And how do you teach a class on how to write a novel?



Is our current and much discussed… Continue

Here's something that I think will interest many of the women writers in this forum. I think this blog post from the Guardian speaks directly to the problem we've all been talking about, worrying about: the literary clout of women's writers.



Here's a snippet: "There's a great deal of pleasure in publishing, particularly in… Continue

Why are there are no women on the Publishers Weekly Top Ten Best Books of 2009 list, and relatively few on the overall list? I have a theory. Some might say it’s a stretch. Some might say it’s the elephant in the room. Why no women on the list? The Literary Gatekeeping Machine is responding (unconsciously, I hope) to publishing trends.



What trends, you ask? This one: women buy the vast majority of books in this country, and the publishing industry needs to make sure… Continue

When I think about the lives of my women writer friends, the things we talk about in urgent yet hushed tones, I think of this essay by editor Carole DeSanti. It speaks to our problem which still has no name, that unnameable something that has probably brought many women to this forum--specifically the fact that "she needs help." Here's a preview: "Where are those who used to… Continue