next »

[heathercm]

I'm sad to hear that Kira Salak, author of Four Corners and The Cruelest Journey, wasn't included in either anthology mentioned.

-Heather

[fiona]

Give us the link.

The Fiona

[terpsichore]

Here it is:

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i43/43b01401.htm

[fiona]

Thank you. Now feel free to discuss.

The Fiona

[terpsichore]

A special category of nonfiction that lacks women authors is work about science. There are a lot of popular books about every aspect of science, some written by scientists, including Carl Sagan, Steven Hawkings,  Oliver Sacks, and Henry Petroski (engineering), to cite some of the more famous examples, and some by non-scientists, including John McPhee, Michael Pollen, and so on.   

But books about science by women, whether scientists or science writers, are unusual. Sure there are exceptions, like Dava Sobel and Jane Goodall, but they are rare. Possibly even more rare than women scientists are. This fits the pattern noted by the author of the article. I can't help but think this is a loss to the field.

[dolljepopp]

Mods,

Might we have a non-subscription link?

Thank you.

[fiona]

Here's a free link.

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=WZjv5ZPKkPrhRdvtyG4dVVzHjfbzvx5g

The Fiona

[doctor_torrseal]

Ira Glass likes navel-gazers.  I mean, I like his show, sometimes, and also I like Sandra Tsing Loh (not in the anthology, but mentioned in the Chron article), but they are not really representative of the totality of reported nonfiction.  I looked at the table of contents of this book, and there seems to be more reflexive material than there are actual "lighting out for the territories" essays.  Buford's "Among the Thugs" being an exception; but that's not even particularly new.

I'd consider Elizabeth Kolbert's "Field Notes from a Catastrophe" a premier example of recent reported non-fiction (and science writing by a woman, as mentioned upthread).  But it is not the kind of first-person me-and-my-reactions writing you'd hear an excerpt from on Ira Glass's radio program.

[dolljepopp]

Thanks for the link, Fiona.

[fiona]

I think this is the slowest-starting discussion on the fora.

Feel free to continue.

The Fiona

[marlborough]

I really like Natalie Angier for science writing.  Every year, I get the Best American Science and Nature Writing volume and women are increasingly represented in the articles culled from the more popular periodicals.  I'm always on the lookout for people who can explain things well to me.

[terpsichore]

Ira Glass likes navel-gazers.  I mean, I like his show, sometimes, and also I like Sandra Tsing Loh (not in the anthology, but mentioned in the Chron article), but they are not really representative of the totality of reported nonfiction.  I looked at the table of contents of this book, and there seems to be more reflexive material than there are actual "lighting out for the territories" essays. 

According to Anne Trubek, the sort of first person non-fiction writing that Ira Glass usually features would be exactly the sort that women are more likely to write. That makes the lack of women authors in his anthology even more notable.

(Just trying to move the discussion along here...)