by Madeleine Nesbitt

“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.”– Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

It has been a year of books here at SPARK. In January 2013, we embarked on The Hiding Spot’s Feminist Reads Challenge– a quest to read and review one book each month with well-developed female characters and a feminist perspective. We may have missed a few months, but the books we read were fascinating, empowering, and shed light on who we are and what we want as readers and writers.

Each month, for me, was a discovery of a new, interesting read, its strengths and weaknesses, its essence. And I don’t want that to go away.

That’s why, this year, we’re doing it again, albeit with a slightly different theme. In 2013, we read books with female characters or books about feminism– this year, we’re reading books specifically written by women. Joanna Walsh, a writer and illustrator, started the “#readwomen2014” hashtag on Twitter after creating some bookmarks that can also function as New Year’s cards featuring authoresses along with “2014: The Year of Reading Women” printed at the top. Now, the hashtag has its own twitter account, and has been issued as a challenge to readers this year: will you make an effort to  read books by women?

Sure, we might still be catching up on A Song of Ice and Fire, but on the SPARK blog this year, our feminist reads will all be by female writers.

Works by women are often diminished in the publishing industry, with books filed under “chick lit” whether or not they fall into that category (or whether or not that category should even exist). They get the covers with the torso of a thin white girl on them, whether or not it’s relevant to the content. And they are sadly neglected by reviewers, with reviews of works by female authors tending to hover around the 30% mark, though some publications have more or less.

We hope you will #readwomen2014 with us– recommendations and commentary on our choices are always welcome. Here’s to a new year full of interesting writing by interesting women– why not try one of the Feminist Reads Challenge books for #readwomen2014?

 

The Full Year of the 2013 Feminist Reads Challenge:

Full Frontal Feminism
Out of Darkness Comes Light
O, Pioneers!
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
50 Stories About Stopping Street Harassers
Hedda Gabler
How to Be a Woman