There has been a flurry of activity in the past few days in the movement to achieve equal treatment of women writers in the media (particularly in book review publications) and publishing (where even serious literary novels are adorned with “feminine” cover designs).

On Monday (Jan. 22) Joanna Walsh, a British writer and illustrator, published a piece in The Guardian describing how she created some “2014: The Year of Reading Women” bookmark-shaped New Year’s cards, inspired in part by two male reviewers (one English, one American) pledges to read only women authors in 2014. [How she missed this blog and my commitment to read only women starting in June 2013 is … well … inconthievable! 😉 ] When she posted a picture on Twitter, she received many requests for the list of 250 female writers on the back. Before she knew it, the hashtag #readwomen2014 had caught on. Walsh hopes the hashtag will lead readers to consider their sexist reading habits.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/jan/20/read-women-2014-change-sexist-reading-habits

The Guardian also published a news story declaring  2014 “the year of reading women.” http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/22/year-of-reading-women-2014-bias-male-writers

On Wednesday (Jan. 22), Los Angeles Times book critic Carolyn Kellogg posted a short piece on the Times’ “Jacket Copy” blog about the two Guardian stories.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-is-2014-the-year-of-reading-woman-20140122,0,1673667.story#axzz2rBSQ7npK