Women Authors Snubbed. Again?
By Cynthia Spurr on Nov 18, 2009 in Uncategorized
I recently read a couple of articles about the Publisher’s Weekly (PW) top 100 books for 2009. What I found to be really stunning, like so many writers in my community, is that out of 100 authors only 29 were women. In the top 10, NOT 1 author was a woman.
In this day and age, really? Seriously? Do they look at the name before picking? Are you trying to tell me that there aren’t that many good women authors out there?
I have read several blogs and tweets since the list was published and although I am pro-women and am just as upset at this obvious bias, I also wondered about a more in-depth question.
Are there no women authors on this list because this “panel” doesn’t care for women authors or because the publishing industry isn’t publishing as many women authors as men?
I would like your feedback on this issue. Where/what is the true issue? Is it in the publishing world or the people who create the list?
I’m not trying to create a battle of female versus male, but surely Margaret Atwood, Emily Chenoweth, Gillian Flynn, Victoria Patterson, Amelia Gray, Sheila Lowe etc.. should have ranked better, higher in this list, or, er..um.. made the list.
I was going to call on all of you to post your list of the best 2009 Women Authors, however WILLA has beat me to it. So click here and add to their list. In the meantime, post a comment and let me know your thoughts about why women authors were largely neglected from the list. Again, I’m not trying to start a she said he said war, but I believe conversations need to be created and debates started so we can identify the issue and correct it.
Wow – I wasn't aware of this. How disappointing that it should be this way. I'll have to check out the list and see what kind of books and authors they did pick.
Trisha Pearson | Nov 18, 2009 | Reply
My belated response.
http://bit.ly/6Vq3dc
Lostcheerio | Dec 31, 2009 | Reply