Publishing Newsautobiography / conference / crowdfunding / fake memoir / gender / genre critique / Kickstarter / Literary Criticism / Romance / sexism7 Comments
Library to Host Conference, “What Is Love? Romance Fiction in the Digital Age,” Feb. 10-11 – Next month Harlequin will be sponsoring a conference on Romance at the Library of Congress. Conference program and registration information can be found here. It looks like the Popular Romance Project is also a ... more >
Publishing Newsage / diversity / Fantasy / gender / genre critique / Haruki Murakami / Romance / scholarship2 Comments
Yet More on Female Characters in Fantasy – Rhiannon Thomas responds to Robin Hobb’s Facebook post on female characters in fantasy. Hobbs argues, among other things, that “I do not feel that gender defines a person any more than height does. Or shoe size. It’s one facet of a character. ... more >
Letters of OpinionAmerican literature / diversity / feminism / gender / genre critique / Literary Criticism / literary history / patriarchy15 Comments
As a genre celebrating love and largely written by and for women, I think it’s easy to view Romance as an inherently feminist genre. I have felt this way myself at times, and I’ve seen many other readers and authors make similar assertions. But what I’m going to propose today ... more >
Letters of Opinioncritical discourse / genre critique / reading / tropes / writing13 Comments
Last weekend delivered a hat trick of essays on critical reading, two on KJ Charles’s m/m novel Think of England, and one on Deborah Fletcher Mello’s The Sweetest Thing, in which Liz McCausland also addresses the intertwined issues of “good writing” and “good reading.” More specifically, she argues, I don’t ... more >
Letters of Opinionemotional justice / genre critique / id vortex / reader response / ways of reading15 Comments
One of my favorite things about blogging here is that I can write about a germ of an idea and see it grow and blossom in many different directions and to places I had not even anticipated. Last week’s post on emotional justice is a great example of that, because when ... more >
Letters of Opinionemotional justice / genre critique / grovel / love / tropes54 Comments
So I recently saw the movie version of Gone Girl, which had some provocative differences from the book, even though both were written by Gillian Flynn. Those differences, which include a reversal in sympathetic portrayals between the husband and wife, may have been a function of directorial or editorial vision. ... more >