2013 = THE YEAR OF THE WOMAN WRITER!
I'm just going ahead this morning and declaring that fact, on my own. Because what a year 2013 has been for female authors!
I'm reading THE GOLDFINCH right now, by Donna Tartt, which is making my head explode because it's so f**king great, but there are so many others, too.
Here is a short list of some of my favorite books by women this year:
"Men we Reaped," by Jesmyn Ward
"Harley Loco", by Rayya Elias
"Hyperbole and a Half," by Allie Brosh
"This is the Story of a Happy Marriage," by Ann Patchett
"House in the Sky", by Sara Corbett and Amanda Lindhout
"The Interestings", by Meg Wolitzer
"Book of Ages," by Jill Lepore
And there are so many more that I haven't gotten to yet — new and ambitious works by Amy Tan, Kathryn Harrison, Andrea Barrett, Kate Atkinson, Jhumpa Lahiri, Edna O'Brien, Alice McDermott…and then there is Sheryl Sandberg, in all her fierce and unapologetic power, pushing us all to LEAN IN, which it appears we are doing.
And to cap it all off… ALICE MUNRO WINS THE NOBEL FREAKING PRIZE!
Somewhere in the vast library of heaven, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton and a bunch of other fantastic female phantasms are having a celebratory bottle of champagne, smiling proudly over of us.
While I meanwhile, look at the next generation of literary girls and women coming up the ranks and I say unto them, whatever their age or background: "WRITE YOUR ASSES OFF!"
This is our moment. High time, too.
Happily,
Liz
