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Meg Waite Clayton

Author of the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris, The Last Train to London, and 6 other novels

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April 26, 2009 By Meg Waite Clayton

"For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."

As I was tidying the yard with my husband this afternoon, I was thinking about the wonderful Virginia Wolff quote – “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” – perhaps because half of the six Pulitzer Prizes for drama and letters, which were announced on Monday, went to women. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout won for fiction, Ruined by Lynn Nottage for drama, and The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed for history.
Years ago, Francise Prose gave a lecture at the Sewanee Writers Conference on the bleak position of women in modern literature, in which she sited, among other things, the dearth of significant awards going to women writers, and the substantial imbalance in the number of reviews of books written by women as compared to books written by men. So I dug the mornings New York Times Book Review from out of the recycling bin and did something Francine Prose had suggested in that lecture: I counted from the table of contents. Tally:
Books Written by women that received TOC-level review: 3
Books Written by men that received TOC-level review: 15
The count of books written by women from the bestseller lists in the same NYTBR looks a bit better, though:
Hardcover: 13 of 31
Trade fiction: 11 of 20
And I confess I got bored with counting after that.
Progress comes slowly…

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Filed Under: Meg's Posts Tagged With: annette gordon-reed, awards, elizabeth strout, francine prose, lynn nottage, olive kitteridge, pulitzer, reviews, ruined, sewanee writers conference, the hemingses of monticello, women writers

Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of eight novels, including the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com

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