Thinking about Amy's post . . . [by Stacey Harwood]

Amy Lawless put up an interesting post that I admire. She's clearly working something out and is willing to put herself out there while she does, so I'll do the same. She's prompted these unmediated thoughts.  I'm interested in her comment about mostly buying books by men. I went through a period a long time ago when I purposefully read only books by women. Now, I read without judgement. I don't have to prove my feminist bone fides. I don't care who the writer is, if something about the book arouses my interest, I'll read it and I certainly won't apologize or judge myself negatively for doing so. I may at some point look at a reading period and realize that lately I've been reading a lot of books about X, or by Y and examine why. One thing I've learned is that I won't necessary have a stronger response to a book written by a woman just because I'm a woman too. I have nothing in common with a reclusive poet writing in the 19th century with a preference for idiosyncratic punctuation but I love her poetry. I have nothing in common with an urbane Oxford-educated god-fearing gay man writing in the middle of the last century yet his poetry can move me like nobody else's and I hate to think of what I would have missed had I been dogmatic about my reading choices. I also am offended when one assumes that he or she can generalize about one aspect of my demographic and speak for me. I reflexively start arguing in my head: "Hey! I know lots of women who have no problem whatsoever promoting themselves quite aggressively. Some of them are poets!" It's shameful that the mainstream press doesn't pay much attention to poetry (and when it does, so often it's to hurl insults at the poet-- eg see the NYT) so naturally when there's a tiny pie, there's a lot of fighting for the crumbs (this goes for book reviewing in general I guess as more and more newspapers cut their book review sections).  I'm glad the VIDA count has aroused so much interest and caused editors to think about their decisions, but I also know that it doesn't tell a complete story, as some who have written elsewhere have pointed out. I wonder how I would feel if I were to be among the first wave of women published by a magazine that is beginning a campaign to publish more women. Do I cheer when a woman gets an award? Yes. If I think she deserves it. I hate that I sometimes respond to such announcements by thinking "Oh, (insert name) got the award because it's time to give it to a (fill in the blank)." I wonder if anyone else has such a response. Clearly Amy has given me a lot to think about. Thanks, Amy. -- sdh