VIDA has released their 2011 count of male-to-female ratios in literary magazines. A quick scroll down the page reveals the usual predominance of red: The color denoting the number of male authors who wrote for, or are reviewed by, publications like The Atlantic, Harper’s, and the TLS. Only two of the publications surveyed were not in the red: the Boston Review (9 women reviewed, 5 men), and Granta (34 women, 30 men; thanks in large part to their summer issue dedicated to feminism). Why does this sound so familiar? Oh, yeah. This year, the disheartening charts are adorned with quotes from editors like David Remnick, exhorting the industry to do better next time, and barbs of wisdom from authors such as Roxanne Gay: “Many people want to understand why this disparity exists instead of addressing the disparity itself. I’m not going to do that anymore. There is a problem. I’m comfortable with that making me a bitch who be trippin’. There is work to be done—let’s get to it.”
After debuting at #87,199, Peter Kiernan’s nuanced study, Becoming China’s Bitch, has topped Amazon’s bestseller list. It’s also currently holding the top spot on Barnes and Noble’s bestseller list, and though it was released only yesterday, is already scheduled for a second print run.
Edouard Levé’s Suicide, Mathias Énard’s Zone, and Juan José Saer’s Scars are three of the many excellent books on the list for the University of Rochester’s annual Best Translated Book Award, which was released today. The winner will be announced at the upcoming PEN World Voices Festival (which takes places in New York from April 30 to May 6), and will net its author and translator $5,000 each.
Rapper CeeLo Green has struck a deal with Grand Central Publishing to publish a memoir next year. “After reading my book, there will be no doubt that I am meant to be,” CeeLo explained in his press release. “You will enter into the supernatural, the surreal, and extraordinary. As CeeLo Green, a.k.a. ‘everybody’s brother,’ I will make you a believer.”
