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more about #writers more comments β whynotshesaid: I really got into Joan Didion in my mid-20s, right as I was starting journalism school, and she is one of the handful of writers whose style makes app... more » Maggie Glass: I'm going to go ahead and say that I couldn't get into Slouching Toward Bethlehem at all. I found her voice to be sort of self-righteous in a weird wa... more » girlscoutcookie is back from hiatus: I couldn't make it through The Year of Magical Thinking. Couldn't even make it through the first chapter. Too hard. But my mom read it, and our conver... more » girlleastlikelyto: I do look at writers like Didion -- and Munro and Atwood and Le Guin -- as an example of my mother's generation, but it doesn't offer me any insight i... more » hughman: joan didion was one of my writer idols in high school (another was oriana fallaci). i was a gay boy in the south and it was the 70s. needless to say, ... more » Trulymadlyme: I didn't expect to like her writing. In fact, I absolutely hated "Play It As It Lays." But right around the time when I was 28, single, living in the ... more » heliotrollop: I read Year of Magical Thinking this year and it took my breath away. She has a true gift for putting words to what I thought were indescribable emot... more » CoalMineCanary: Driving from my parent's house in tiny, foggy Morro Bay, CA to San Diego, where I had a class that evening, a fire jumped the highway just north of Sa... more » SarahHeartburn: I love and admire her too, but I hope she lives long enough to write a "get the fuck offa me awready" response. Or something like that. more » TRexstasy: St. Joan the Unblinking has risen to the top of my personal canon of great writers over the last year. No one, male or female, looks at our American ... more » sybann: Writers never write for us. Good artists produce because they must. more » PilgrimSoul: Am I weird? I love Didion's writing, but I in no way flatter myself to claim I know her. I hadn't realized she was of some particular amazingness to... more » BetteD: When I am her age, I want to be inside that picture. Like, everthing about it screams person-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up. Punk as fuck. #leonbing more » Penny: I can light a cigarette in a shitstorm. #leonbing more » kellybones: The Haunting of Hill House was such a cool book to read when I was an adolescent. I remember the less sad/creepy parts about Eleanor were really inte... more » -
#magicalthinking
Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
A couple of years ago, my then-boyfriend wrote a piece of erotica about Joan Didion, which fact should go some ways towards explaining both why the relationship lasted as long as it did, and why we were ultimately incompatible: More » -
#famouswomen
"She could probably light a cigarette in a thunderstorm."
To go from modeling in the 1960s to writing a seminal study of L.A. gang culture in the 90s is uncommon. LΓ©on Bing managed to fit in dating Ed Ruschka and living with Hollywood's leading coke dealer to boot. [NYTimes] -
#thelottery
The Haunting Of Shirley Jackson
Since it's both Halloween and the 50th anniversary of The Haunting of Hill House, it seems like a good time to pay our respects to a master of horror: More » -
#quoteunquote
Margaret Atwood, In 140 Characters
"Twitter isn't writing, it's signaling...It could be writing. In fact, I thought of doing something like John Cage's symphony that will be played over 100 years. You could put a word a day on to the 'twit', or 'tweet'?" [Reuters] -
#rip
R.I.P. Norma Fox Mazer
Sad news: Norma Fox Mazer, the author of several critically acclaimed books for children and young adults, including When She Was Good, Silver, and Newbery Honor Book After The Rain, has died at the age of 78. [PublishersWeekly] -
#rip
Author Of Whore Found Dead
Quebec writer Nelly Arcan was found dead late last night. Arcan, author of Putain, an autobiographical novel about her life as a prostitute, was one of Canada's most important feminist writers. Police are investigating her death as a suicide. [CBC] -
#sexthebitchy
Is "Bitch Lit" The Cure For The Common Chick Lit Novel?
Sydney Zamora is a brash, calculating and unrepentant heroine who is quick to drop a suitor and curse him out as she extracts herself from the date. Is she the new prototype for chick lit characters?
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#praxis
'I'm The Only Feminist There Is β The Others Are All Out Of Step'
Fay Weldon is a grande dame of feminist literature - albeit a renegade one. She chose her choices - and does it make her less of an icon?
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#womanofletters
R.I.P. Karla Kuskin
Karla Kuskin, the author of more than 50 books for children, including many books of verse and the classic The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, has died at 77. [NYT] -
#womanofletters
The (Sound) Waves
Via Feminist Law Professors comes this amazing clip of Virginia Woolf speaking as part of a BBC radio conference in 1937. It is the only known recording of Woolf's voice. Click through to listen. [FeministLawProfessors] -
#madworld
Female Writers Live Mad Men
The Mad Men blitz has included a wave of Twitter followers and sleek avatars, a rash of retro cocktails and a mass screening in Times Square. Not bad for a stealth women's show. More » -
#theawfultruth
Is This Woman Actually "Mad"? Results Inconclusive, Fascinating
It seems we're not the only ones obsessed with professional oversharer, food-phobic, American-and-child-hater Liz Jones. Begins a tart profile in the Guardian, "Is Liz Jones mad? I'm not sure. She certainly looks a bit mad." But that's just for starters:
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#womenofletters
R.I.P. Judi Ann Mason
Judi Ann Mason, a playwright and screenwriter, has died at 54. Mason started writing professionally at only 19 and, on shows like A Different World and Sanford, was one of the first female African-American sitcom writers. [NYT] -
#womanofwords
Awards
Canadian writer Alice Munro has won the third Man Booker International Prize, which is awarded every two years to a living fiction writer for their entire body of work. "I am totally amazed and delighted," said Munro, 77, of the award. [BBC] -
#notthatinnocent
House Of Mirth
Trustees of the Mount, Edith Wharton's Massachusetts estate, have restructured the site's finances to reduce its multimillion-dollar debt. Measures include adding Mount-hosted festivals, writing workshops, and lecture series. Marrying well's not an option? [AP] -
#rip
Flower Power
Eleanor Perenyi, whose Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden is a classic of gardening literature, has died at 91. Oh, and apparently she was also a baroness! [NYT] -
#thewomensroom
R.I.P. Marilyn French
Marilyn French, the activist writer who declared, "my goal in life is to change the entire social and economic structure of Western civilization, to make it a feminist world," has died at 79. [NYT] -
#caroling
Poetry In Motion
Carol Ann Duffy has been named Britain's poet laureate. Duffy, the first woman to hold the post in its 341-year history, is known for a wide and varied body of modern poetry. [NYT] -
#curtissittenfeld
Trade Secrets
Curtis Sittenfeld: "For naming characters, I love the Social Security Administration's most popular baby names site." [New York Times]
