Why is history still written mainly by men?
Fantastic article in The Guardian: Only four female writers appeared in the list of top 50 bestselling history titles in the UK last year. And women are still perceived as more suited to writing about drawing rooms than battlefields. Why? Leading historians and biographers discuss sexism and subject matter. All the big British names in…
Popular history writing remains a male preserve, publishing study finds
Here is a fascinating, and depressing, article showing publishing’s overwhelming bias towards male historians and male historical subjects. Slate magazine studied 614 popular history titles published last year in the US and found a genre dominated by generals, presidents and male authors. Of those 614 titles, three-quarters were written by men. Of the published biographies,…
The Informed Imagination: Drusilla Modjeska discusses writing The Mountain
Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska has written an insightful and thought-provoking article in Meanjin about writing her latest book, The Mountain. I fear the excerpt below might make the article seem like hard work but it’s definitely not. The piece provides a fascinating glimpse into the decisions, difficulties and responsibilities of writing. … it was, for…
Sex and writing
A US writer was tired of receiving rejection slips for her unpublished novel. So she sent it out under a male name. No prizes for guessing the depressing result – the responses she was offered as a man were far more encouraging than those she received as a woman.