Sunday Salon: Celebrating Women’s Writing

Twice a year, in January and July, I join in an ‘Orange’ reading month, which celebrates women authors, and specifically those that were long-listed, short-listed, or won the Orange prize for Fiction. The Orange prize is awarded annually for the best original full-length novel by a female author of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK in the preceding year. You can read more about it on their official site.

While I normally don’t really pay attention to what gender, skin color, or nationality the authors of the books I pick up have, I am getting increasingly aware of it. Coincidentally (or not) the latest issue of Belletrista – a nonprofit, bi-monthly magazine celebrating the wonderfully varied literary work from women writers around the world – had an article about awards and gender in their latest issue. You can read the entire article here, but what really got me is that they ask the question of why we should care – about if women are awarded as many prizes as men, or if they are as well-represented as men are. Their answer? “Because it is about fairness, about equality, but it's also about widening our perspectives and reading and enjoying great books.” And they are right.

If we read only books written by white European (read: British) or American men, then we are narrowing our worldview to theirs. And I, for one, find that a shame. Due to reading ‘Orange’ I’ve picked up wonderful books I would never have read otherwise. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, short-listed for the Orange Prize in 1999, was one such book. I loved it (you can read my review here), but I never would have picked it up were it not for the fact that it was an Orange book. And right now I’m reading The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht, the winner of the 2011 Orange Prize, which I wouldn’t have picked up either under other circumstances, but which I love as well. So perhaps I should pay attention to gender more often – who knows what gems still await me?

What about you? Do you pay attention to the gender of authors when picking out books?