Tag Archive VIDA

ByGD

The Bookslut Gets Surreal

Remedios Varo biography coverI really do want to offer you dear readers reblogs that are simple, but I must share the posts that I find most interesting. Once again, I want to share with you something the Bookslut had to say. I wanted to share this untitled post because it includes one of Remedios Varo’s pictures, and she is one of my favorite surrealists. The Bookslut also talks about how the women in the surrealist movement are overlooked, which I never knew because Varo was my entry point for the movement.

Another reason I wanted to share this post is that I wrote about the VIDA count this year, and about how it inspired me consider my own reading habits. But I didn’t do anything as systematic and intelligent as the Bookslut, and I think more of us should try her rational approach to creating equity in our own education.

I hope that you will click this link to the Bookslut blog to read this post {2018 update: while its still up; the website is inactive and you never know when it might disappear} and maybe even come back here and share your thoughts.

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ByGD

February 2014: Statistically Speaking

I don’t know much about VIDA – no, I don’t mean “life,” although I’ve got plenty to learn there, too. I mean VIDA, the organization that formed in 2009 to create more space for women in the literary dialogue.

Having just attended the 2014 conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (more on that to come), I can confidently say that the representation of women in the community of people who identify themselves as writers is proportionate to the general population. But every year, VIDA undertakes a painstaking manual survey of literary publications and book reviews (think Audubon here) that quantifies women’s bylines, and the number of books written by women that get reviewed. The results are highly illuminating.

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