mulberry road

As noted, blogging may not be well paid, but at least our keyboards aren’t hairy.

All the Aussies know about this, via the Wheeler Centre on Twitter. So today, it’s Tumblr’s turn.

Chris Abouzeid is funny as well as truthful, an irresistible combination. Writers of the future, read and beware.

Lisa’s blog post for IWD is a corker. Plenty of good Australian links for International Women’s Day, along with a reprint of a piece on Asian women’s writing she wrote  after attending the Sharjah International Book Fair earlier this year.

Kate Mosse (Britain) and Oumaima al-Khamis (Saudia Arabia) spoke about the importance of writing about women, especially as it creates history — how it is almost impossible to describe to people of privilege how frustrating it feels to be oppressed, to be written out of history, and to have no literary role models to identify with. The importance of fiction, and writing in general, that features women cannot be understated. This is particularly striking when looking at the cultural makeup of the panel. The world is filled with white Western male heroes; the importance of representing diversity as well as gender in literature is vital.

On the same panel, Indian bestselling novelist and media commentator, Shobhaa De, agreed, saying: ‘In too many cultures, and too many countries, women speak the same language … of silence.’ But, ‘today more women are breaking the silence with bravery, sensitivity and passion.’

De was one of the first female novelists in India. Her first book was commissioned by a publisher, who nonetheless told her: ‘In our experience, madam, people are not interested in what women have to say. In our experience, madam, people do not buy books by women, there is no market.’ Luckily, he was proved wrong, and De went on to become one of India’s bestselling novelists of all time.

Read more here.

lareviewofbooks:

DAVID FREEMAN

The late English novelist Beryl Bainbridge was a favorite among writers. That’s a lovely honor but not a ticket to popular success. Bainbridge had two distinct periods. In the first she wrote about young women and the trials of their working lives, the men they never quite understood and who never quite understood them. Those books often open as conventional comedies before they turn black. When Bainbridge was finished mining her own early years, she began her second period with a series of historical novels that brought her additional acclaim in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Her novel of the doomed Scott expedition to Antarctica, The Birthday Boys, was the first of her books to find a significant audience in the stateside.

Read more at the link above…

(Source: lareviewofbooks)

I am doing my bit for the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge in my own way, part of which is to keep an eye on what an old and trusted favourite publisher is doing. 

I must have read buckets of their books in the nineties, all from the library. All the fine green-bound ladies. Good to see this outfit is still going strong.