An Interesting Challenge
I don’t normally do shout-outs of publishers, but I would like to call your attention to two publishers – one in the U.S., one in Britain – who have taken up a challenge.
First, the challenge: In 2015, a British Pakistani writer named Kamila Shamsie came up with a challenge for publishers: publish only books by women for a year. She wrote the following:
“I’m going to assume that the only people who really doubt that there is a gender bias going on are those who stick with the idea that men are better writers and better critics. Enough … Why not have a year of publishing women: 2018, the centenary of women over the age of 30 getting the vote in the UK, seems appropriate.”
It was taken up for 2018 by one British publishing house: And Other Stories, based in Sheffield. The challenge has now also been taken up by Oregon’s Not A Pipe Publishing.
I think both publishers are doing something really good by taking up this challenge, and I am looking forward to reading the books they will put ut this year. I promise to review the books here and to keep folks up to date on how the publishers are doing while taking this challenge.
Not Just Another Grouchy Grammarian 