Women make up 80 percent of the fiction reading audience in this country. So why, guest fiction editor Claire Messud asks, are women authors so frequently left off the best-of lists, and left out of prestigious book prizes?
The great twentieth-century American poet Elizabeth Bishop refused to be included in anthologies of women’s poetry, insisting that she was a poet plain and simple, rather than a “woman poet.” She wrote that “art is art and to separate writings, paintings, musical compositions, etc. into two sexes is to emphasize values that are not art.”
As an American writer of the early twenty-first century, I agree with her wholeheartedly. An artist’s work is in no way limited or defined by her gender. To allot space, then—such as this fiction section of Guernica—to women writers specifically is, surely, to limit and define them—us!—by an irrelevant fact of birth. Why not, at that point, organize a fiction section comprised of blue-eyed Capricorns from Atlanta?
When Tererai Trent graduated from Western Michigan University with a doctorate in late 2009, she fulfilled a dream that more than a decade ago was a jotting on a scrap of paper buried in a field where she herded cattle in Zimbabwe.
Trent’s mother had instructed her daughter to literally bury her life goals, not in an effort to forget them, but to make a “‘sacred agreement,’ a personal ritual for me to honor, which I should not take lightly,” said Trent.
Trent’s extraordinary life experience — having to teach herself to read as a child, being married off at about age 11 to a man who wound up beating her and achieving the seemingly impossible considering her circumstances — is described in the book, “Half the Sky,” written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It features the harrowing stories of several women in developing countries.
Trent’s story was brought to a national audience in an August New York Times Magazine essay written by Kristof and WuDunn in an adaptation of their book. She also appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in October 2009 (see the video here).
“Any time anyone tells you that a dream is impossible, any time you’re discouraged by impossible challenges, just mutter this mantra: Tererai Trent,” Kristof wrote in a Times opinion piece in November 2009.
Susan notes: My friend Maria is a force to be reckoned with: smart, sexy, sporty, street savvy and SO much more. She makes me go WOW! every time I talk to her, and I never know what she's going to be up to next. I want to be just like her when I grow up :)
Posted by Maria Petit
December 15, 2009
It’s December 2009, and I’m writing this profile in between chukkas in Argentina.
I’ve been living out of a suitcase since fall 2007, when I was relocated by my former employer Motorola Ltd to London, UK, from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
I had been living the Dubai ‘Golden Years’ as Motorola’s Middle East, North Africa and Turkey Financial Controller. It was the highlight of my nine-year career: business was booming – it was the year of the ‘razor’, Motorola V3 – and I lived in my home overlooking Dubai Marina.
Just in time for my 30th birthday, I was promoted to the position of Commercial Director Mobile Devices Business, Europe Middle East and Africa. The promotion meant I had to relocate back to the UK where I had previously spent two-years.
The movers packed my belongings for the third time in four years (Miami-London-Dubai-London) for a sea voyage, leaving behind two suitcases of mostly work clothes to keep me afloat while I transitioned and closed on a property I planned to purchase in London.
Had I known a month of transition would become two years of transformation, I would have at least packed my polo gear, which in retrospect was the one thing I missed the most, and which was thankfully replaced with relative ease. (That's me in the red helmut, having replaced my gear and giving it my all on the polo pitch :)
Susan notes: Patty Melnice went to South Africa as an independent volunteer to work for six months for Bobbi Bear, a small non-governmental organisation which rescues and supports children who have been raped.
She worked directly "in the trenches" with the Zulu women who are Child Safety Officers at Bobbi Bear. She rescued children, took them to the hospital for anti-retroviral drug treatment if appropriate, and followed their cases through court.
She also worked with the police, hospitals, schools - to educate them about child abuse, HIV, and the court system.
If these two letters don’t speak directly to your heart, nothing will. Read more at Melnice’s website Tough Angels .
Mid-December 2009
Dearest Friends,
I am flooded with a range of emotions . . . elation, fear, anticipation . . . I am fatigued, but grateful. Always grateful.
For the past month, the sun has taken leave. It is as if someone ran off with the sky and left this thick, heavy, low-lying ceiling that is suffocating at times. It is void of any color, texture, or light variations. It is just blank. We have had pouring rains and everything is soaked and muddy, including our attitudes.
It is supposed to be sunny, beautiful summer weather now so few are coping well with the unexpected climate. The weather has put a hold on the construction of Lady Fair’s house, and I have had to let go of any hopes that I will see even the walls go up before I leave. I have no doubts though that it is left in good hands and will advance quickly, as soon as the ground dries up. (Click here to read more about Lady Fair, who cares for 11 children, only two of which are her own).
Yesterday, I decided to take the day to begin organizing myself for packing and tying up loose ends before moving back to America. A lot has to happen before I leave and no sooner had I begun than I received a call that I would be picked up for a call-out on a 15-year old rape victim...
Susan notes: This story by Cecilie Surasky, the Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), came to me by email. JVP is an American Jewish organization whose core principle is full equality between Palestinians and Israelis.
Sursaky, the granddaughter of Zionist Socialist activists, joined JVP in 2003 as part of a Ford Foundation human rights fellowship; she has extensive experience in social justice communications and advocacy.
She and her analyses of Israel-Palestine politics have appeared in numerous media outlets around the world. She is the founder of Muzzlewatch, JVP's blog documenting efforts to silence open debate about Israel-Palestine policy.
The story touched my heart...
It was the last place in the world I expected to see Barbie's smiling face emblazoned on the front of a children's notebook.
It was a hot day in June, and as we traveled along a bumpy, dusty road in the south of Gaza, I thought how eerily quiet it was compared to the last time I had been here, when we were taunted by the whizzing sounds of small military drones following our every move.
Suddenly, our van arrived at a farmhouse where we were welcomed by a father and beekeeper wearing a flowing white robe. His name was Mohammed Shurrab. On his desk lay a stack of children's notebooks, each with an image of a Barbie doll on the cover.
Just months before, during Israel's attack on Gaza, Mohammed and his two sons waited for a lull in the fighting so they could flee to join the rest of their family. They weren't far from the farmhouse when they came under a hail of bullets from Israeli soldiers. All of them were shot...
Posted by Claire Messud
When Tererai Trent graduated from Western Michigan University with a doctorate in late 2009, she fulfilled a dream that more than a decade ago was a jotting on a scrap of paper buried in a field where she herded cattle in Zimbabwe.
She worked directly "in the trenches" with the Zulu women who are Child Safety Officers at Bobbi Bear. She rescued children, took them to the hospital for anti-retroviral drug treatment if appropriate, and followed their cases through court.
Susan notes: This story by Cecilie Surasky, the Deputy Director of