READING GLOBAL WOMEN OF COLOR, 2014

READING GLOBAL WOMEN OF COLOR, 2014

 January 2014 has witnessed an exciting new set of blogs, challenges, twitters that relate to women’s writing and to Global Women of Color.  More about my own reaction to all this activity to come.  Here are some, old and new,  for you to check out.

 #readingwomen2014 

With this hashtag, Joanna Walsh inspired an amazing number of tweets, blogs and articles in about women’s books.  Her original list is available at her blog.

http://badaude.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/01/readwomen2014-the-list.html

In response sixteen major magazines and blogs have published their own lists of favorite woman authors and their books.  These had lots of suggestions to add to my own reading, but most were by USA/European authors.  Her blog provides an index to them, as of January 23.

http://badaude.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/01/readwomen2014-around-the-world.html

Follow the comments on these for even more recommendations.  They are not sorted by region or ethnicity, but the sheer volume is evidence that Walsh struck a responsive chord.

Critical Flame

This online literary magazine has decided to devote a year, starting May 2014 to publishing articles about authors who are women or people of color.  They seek articles and reviews as well as readers for this project.

http://criticalflame.org/

 

The Year of Reading Arab Women

M Lynx Qualey is a freelance writer at home in Cairo, Egypt, and the blogger who helped me find books by Arab women.  She raises the obvious question of which women will we read? 

Will it be, in the main, a celebration of English-language women’s voices? Of women at the center or the peripheries?

She offers a list of alternative; a book a month for the next year by an Arab woman.

http://arablit.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/the-year-of-reading-arab-women/

She also provides other useful lists and recommendations for this often ignored group of writers.

 

The Year of Reading South Asian Women

In 2012 Elen Turner completed a PhD at the Australian National University on contemporary Indian feminist publishing.  Her larger interest is in South Asian women writers.  She is an excellent person to compile a year of monthly reading.  Her list includes a variety of nationalities and types of writing by women.

http://southasiabookblog.com/2014/01/24/year-of-reading-women

South Asian Women Writers Challenge

In addition to these lists, women in India are hosting a challenge for readers of books by South Asian women, complete with reading suggestions for those not knowledgeable about them.

http://southasianwomenwriters.wordpress.com/

Australian Women Writers Challenge

Starting in 2012, this very sucessfull challenge and blog has lead the way in encouraging the reading of women authors.  They have a large file of reviews of books by Australian women as well as monthly summaries of the books in different categories.  Jessica White summarizes and discusses books that deal with diversity, including books by Indigenous Australian writers.  AWW has fostered a real interest in Indigenous writing.

http://australianwomenwriters.com/

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2014/01/24/2013-aww-challenge-wrap-up-diversity/