Hey Girls! Meet the White Men Who Were Just Named A Jury Of Your Peers!

Last week, Barbara Jones, the visionary and all-around fabulous Editorial Director of Hyperion Books and Voice (the imprint of books for women) that published She Writers Julie Metz and Deborah Kogan), sent me an email with the subject line "women are apparently not fit to judge this year." In the body of the email was this link, and all I had to do was read the link to know exactly what it was going to say:

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2010/02/17/exclusive-houghton-mifflin-announces-new-best-american-guest-editors/

Hmmm -- perhaps all the writers named to edit the Best American anthologies for 2010 are male, and of course, all white? YEP! (I have featured a photo of the ever-charming Christopher Hitchens, known for his ardent admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, and for his excoriating attacks of Mother Teresa and Hillary Clinton), but scroll down to see all the photos of what Houghton Mifflin Harcourt believes is the jury of your peers.

Does this mean that the writers these men will honor in the Best American anthologies they edit will exclude women and minorities? Not likely. Does this mean that there is a conspiracy against women and people of color in the literary elite? Nope -- I'm confident that the omission of non-white dudes from influential positions like these isn't as well organized, carefully considered or conscious as a conspiracy, though in a way I wish it were. Because then I could believe that somebody, somewhere, was even a little bit conscious (just a little!) of how silly, stupid and distorted it is to leave women and non-white men, who do in fact win Pulitzers and National Book Awards (against all odds, apparently), entirely out of powerful positions of editorial influence like these. Did nobody stop to say, hmm, how about that, every single editor we chose is a white man, and hmm, maybe making them the sole judges of one of the most important series of anthologies in this country is kinda like saying women and people of color should not be allowed to vote? (No wonder Christopher Hitchens is a big Thomas Jefferson fan. I guess white male property owners really are smarter than everybody else, and better judges of literature too.) Did any of these men bother to ask whether their fellow editors were a diverse lot? And not "diverse" as code for "white men + one black woman," or as another word for "throwing those women and colored people a bone so they will shut up," but "diverse" like "actually representative of the best literary talent in this country," or "diverse" like "not a replica of a mid-century Shriner's meeting"?

If you are thinking "well perhaps these are simply the 'best' editors, and women should not complain, and there should not be reverse sexism, blah blah blah," think again! It simply isn't possible that there was not a single women writer capable of undertaking this job, and it simply isn't possible that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ever would have done the opposite: imagine if this list named NINE WOMEN and ZERO MEN as the editors of these anthologies. IT JUST ISN'T.

So without further ado, my friends, how about a big round of applause for A Jury Of Your Peers!

The Best American Short Stories 2010: Richard Russo
The Best American Essays 2010: Christopher Hitchens
The Best American Comics: Neil Gaiman
The Best American Nonrequired Reading: Dave Eggers (guest introducer: David Sedaris)
The Best American Science and Nature Writing: Freeman Dyson
The Best American Mystery Stories: Lee Child
The Best American Travel Writing: Bill Buford
The Best American Sports Writing 2010: Peter Gammons
The Best American Noir of the Century: Otto Penzler and James Ellroy (this title, a hardcover, won’t be a part of the annual series — it’s a stand-alone)

(Isn't it AWESOME, by the way, that women can't even get in on the "guest introducer" spot, just as the Publisher's Weekly list of the Best Books of 2009 couldn't see its way clear to giving a woman one of its honorable mentions, either?)

STAY TUNED FOR OUR SHE WRITES ACTION IN RESPONSE. CAUSE HELL YA, THERE IS GOING TO BE ONE.

Tags: #issues we face, #publishing, activist, feminist, industry news

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Comment by Carleen on February 25, 2010 at 1:13pm: Sigh.

Comment by Sharon Cathcart on February 25, 2010 at 11:07am: Women writing, for the most part, is apparently viewed as "cute." Men who write are viewed as "serious." I suspect this has to do with the proliferation of so-called "chick lit." I could be wrong, but it is frustrating.

To me, the assumption that a female author is not serious is the equivalent of assuming that all women like to eat salads.

Ugh.

Comment by Alice Elliott Dark on February 25, 2010 at 8:12am: I love this! Boy do I feel this all around. Things are worse than they were 30 years ago. Now that women are equal, it's okay to make them unequal. What are we gonna do--bitch about it?
As far as I can see the old boy network has broadened to include successful guys, bestseller guys, white or not. GUYS.

Comment by Theresa M. Diamond on February 25, 2010 at 7:38am: We should lobby for strict gender parity for this anthology committee. Any chance for a Trojan Woman tactic?

Comment by Renate Stendhal on February 24, 2010 at 11:15pm: It's the same old story, isn't it? Glad there is some fresh energy to make some noise about it, Kamy and everyone else!
Take comfort from Gertrude Stein who already knew that story by heart: "Men can not count, they do not know that two and two make four if women do not tell them so." (Last Operas and Plays)

Comment by Brooke Linville on February 24, 2010 at 9:39pm: To be fair, the Best American Nonrequired Reading panel is also made up of a fairly diverse panel of high school students: http://bestamericannonrequiredreading.blogspot.com/

Comment by Meg Waite Clayton on February 24, 2010 at 5:55pm: >And what can we DO!!??? I am working on that one.

Me too. Although it could be worse. We could be "lady" writers as the "lady" figure skaters, speed skaters, and even snowboarders are to the Olympic Committee. I'm sure those snow boarders, at least, are really into upholding the implications of good behavior that my Websters assures me that term implies.

***headdesk***

Comment by Kamy Wicoff on February 24, 2010 at 5:28pm: Thank you for these comments, all! I cracked up reading about mansplaining (everyone should check out that link from Julie), and at the same time I just felt a little exhausted, like, how many times can we talk about this, and it just keeps happening the same old way? And what can we DO!!??? I am working on that one.

Comment by Julie Polk on February 24, 2010 at 12:35pm: Aarrgh. But this is an awesome post, Kamy - and I think you're so dead-on about the lack of consciousness being an even tougher nut to crack (so to speak... not that I'm, erm, suggesting anything...) than an actual conspiracy. I keep finding that the conversation that gets people to see there's an issue at all is a much harder one than the one pointing out why the issue is an issue.

There was an interesting related conversation recently on YA author Justine Larbalestier's blog, on the topic of mansplaining. Worth a look:

http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2010/01/28/mansplaining/

Comment by K. A. Laity on February 24, 2010 at 12:32pm: If I were Gaiman or Eggers, I'd start to worry about the effects of editing on the crowning glory -- correlation between editorial panels and hair loss? ;-)

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