Literary women, literary prizes. Not often to be found in the same room.

[Bidisha]

Following V S Naipaul's well thought through and generous comments about all women writers, the release of several major prizes' shortlists and longlists for 2011 and the upcoming 16th annual Orange Prize for Fiction, I have written an article about women writers and the prize circuit. A shortened version of the piece was used in the paper Guardian on Friday 3rd June but due to a technical glitch was not put online. It is possible to read the original here.

bidisha-online.blogspot.com/2011/06/literary-women-literary-prizes-not.html

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

I like the sound of your summer reading program, SGM!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Tea Obreht wins Orange Prize at the age of 25 with her first novel, The Tiger's Wife...! That's some achievement.

Anyone read it?

[HerBeX]

Yes Dittany and I wish women would do that more in general. So much of the narrative of our lives, is controlled by men. Right from the start. Was it on here I read that for babies and toddlers, books which are marketed at boys or unisex, have boys as the heroes or the main protagonists, whereas those which have girls as the main character in the book, are purely "girl's books". So right from the start, boys are taught that girls are bit players while girls are taught... that girls are bit players except in an exclusively female domain. And it continues all the way through. So while women will read both male and female authors, because they are used to hearing the voice of only the male half of humanity being reported with any authority, men will tend to read only male authors, because the other half of humanity isn't worth listening to.

It's dismaying.

(The honourable exception which springs to mind immediately, is Philip Pullman's Lyra)

[HerBeX]

God if women withdrew their support from men's endeavours, the way they do from our's...

[hester]

ooh hello Bidisha.

Can I just take this opportunity to brag that my dp (a woman) won a literary prize a couple of years ago. A very minor one, but still... [bursting with pride emoticon]

HerBex, I completely agree. It's galling the way we keep reading their books but they're expected to be 'above' ours.

[HerBeX]

I am seized with a resolve never to buy a literary novel written by a man again.

I know that sounds mad, but honestly, the bastards have a fucking closed shop where they have a permanent boycott of women writers going on all the time and it's seen as normal and right.

And most of them write portentous, self-important rubbish. Since women are the main book buyers, we should just stop supporting them. But they'd see that as being even cleverer - the fewer people who buy or perish the thought, actually fight their weary bored way through read your books, the better the quality and the more self-congratulatory backslapping and award ceremonies they can do, is that how it works?

[MooncupGoddess]

Great article, Bidisha. And a shame that digital gremlins have prevented it being put up on the Guardian website (to be met, no doubt, with the ill-argued derision of the misogynist denizens of Comment is Free).

Two recent examples that support the point. Philip Roth was awarded the Man Booker International prize for lifetime achievement. Roth is known particularly for his focus on the subject of masculine sexuality. Can we really imagine a female writer known best for her focus on feminine sexuality winning the Man Booker International?

Hilary Mantel won the Booker a year or two ago for the magnificently brilliant Wolf Hall. Now, as it happens, I know quite a few men who have read (and enjoyed) Wolf Hall. But Mantel's protagonist is Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's right-hand man in the latter years of his reign. Would the book have been so popular among men (we ask ourselves) had Mantel's protagonist been an important Tudor woman...?

[sunshineandbooks]

Hi Bidisha, please stay. You've raised an extremely interesting issue and you fit in well here. There's no problem.

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Yes, do stick around Bidisha! You can always name-change if you want a more anonymous persona so you can get stuck in to some of the dust-ups discussions and/or avoid "inhibiting" other posters.

I'm always linking to my blogs from MN for various reasons (not generally blatant self-publicity, honest...!) and it's fine.

As a former radio broadcaster, I enjoyed found your article about female voices on the airwaves very interesting, btw.

[DaisyHayes]

Nooooooooooo! Don't go! We love you!

[belledechocchipcookie]

People post links to blogs on here all the time Bidisha, it's a good article. Feel free to stick around, not everyone is a bint on here.

[Bidisha]

Hello, this is Bidisha.

I have been cheeky in posting my article link up on Mumsnet - and if the Gaian Deities of Mumsnet are reading this, please rebuke me if necessary for using the site like a newswire and it won't happen again. I had so wanted the article to be read online after appearing in the paper version of the Guardian. It is pure mischance that the usually-automatic online publishing of the feature didn't work out this time. Given the topicality and speed of the Guardian online, I am not sure it will be put up now.

I wrote the article because I, and many people of both sexes within the publishing industry, have long been concerned by the strange dynamics of sex and power which have resulted in such skewed prize lists. Women writers are bought in their millions by readers, but their talent and intellect are not honoured by culture or remembered by history. The Orange Prize has been an attempt to counteract that, to recreate the canon, and it has gained support from book lovers all over the world. I hope it changes the overall culture in a deeper and more permanent way, because the world really is full of exceptional women writers covering every topic in every manner.

I find the online forum world of Mumsnet inspiring, interesting, informative, honest and often very witty. However, it has just occurred to me that posting the article link and then lurking on the thread will be inhibiting to other participants. Therefore I will leave now and simply remind everyone that the winner of the 16th Orange Prize for Fiction will be announced on the evening of Wednesday, 8th June.

[MitchiestInge]

Wow is this bidisha bidisha? Hello! Have crush on you. Will just read and try not to be mn's gushiest sycophant if poss. Wow though!

[claig]

and that includes the fiction ones. I don't know enough about them. I don't know how the books are chosen or who chooses them etc.

[claig]

I don't think so. I'm not saying these prizes are fair.