June 23, 2005

Do women need their own lit prizes? . . .

by

“Today, across the West, women are well represented in art, architecture, music and film schools and account for a majority of students attending college literature and creative writing courses,” observes Alan Riding. “Yet while women no longer regard the creative arts as a male province, when it comes to winning or even making the short list of prizes in fiction, poetry, art, architecture and music, they still fare poorly. Are there fewer women in these fields, are they less talented than men, or are women simply being denied equal opportunity?” In a report for The New York Times, he examines prizes, particularly literary prizes such as the Orange Prize, that are specifically for women. He finds that “in the lonely ritual of artistic creation, there is no intrinsic difference between the sexes — except in how their work is received.” As Debbie Taylor, editor of the magazine Mslexia, tells Riding, “My argument is that literature in general has been dominated by men for so long that we don’t know what’s good anymore, or what’s good is defined by masculine aesthetics. That’s an important reason to justify the Orange Prize and our prize. Some women say they don’t want to be ghettoized, that their work is good enough to stand alongside that of men. I say, fine, if there were a fair judgment.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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