Shewrites.com Unites Community For a “Day Of Action” to Protest Publishers Weekly’s Exclusion of Women Writers on its 2009 Ten Best Books List

Shewrites.com Unites Community For a "Day Of Action" to Protest Publishers Weekly's Exclusion of Women Writers on its 2009 Ten Best Books List
When Publishers Weekly, the American weekly trade news magazine for publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents, released its top ten books of 2009 and did not include a single book authored by a woman, the shot was heard 'round the world. Thank you for organizing us in such a way that I KNOW I will get this done and, therefore, make a difference… I should, but I don’t take the time to do this myself

New York, NY November 23, 2009 -- (SHE WRITES) When Publishers Weekly, the American weekly trade news magazine for publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents, released its top ten books of 2009 and did not include a single book authored by a woman, the shot was heard ‘round the world.
PW Reviews Director, author and journalist, Louisa Ermelino, when asked about the egregious omission, wrote (unedited), “our editorial staff is heavily female, none of us the retiring type. The editors all cover certain categories (sic) but read voraciously across all the catagories. (sic) We came to the original meeting with our ‘picks’ and then over the course of several meeting (sic) whittled down the choices. We feel we ended up with books that we loved, that stood out from the pack... for 2009. Kind of a blind taste test. We welcome the comments, we welcome the attention for books and we hope everyone buys and reads all of them.”
To protest the blatantly sexist list, which failed to recognize award-winning books like “Wolf Hall,” by Hilary Mantel, which was the recipient of this year’s Man Booker Prize, throngs of She Writers, led by the Founder and CEO of She Writes, Kamy Wicoff, participated in a coordinated “Day of Action” on Friday the 13th that called for members to flex their “She-Muscles” in three ways: by blogging it out, creating their own top 10 lists, and purchasing at least one book published by a woman in 2009. The response was overwhelming. The four-and-a-half-month old, 5,000+ member-strong-network purchased a total of 503 books written by women in 2009. The website more than tripled its daily traffic, and received hundreds of posts in support of women authors and their contribution to the craft—including this response from She Writes member and bestselling author of Driving with Dead People and Cowboy and Wills, Monica Holloway, who wrote, “Thank you for organizing us in such a way that I KNOW I will get this done and, therefore, make a difference… I should, but I don’t take the time to do this myself…I feel like a part of this amazingly smart, talented and enormous community of women, and that gives me strength. I just want to thank you for that and to say how proud I am to be a member of She Writes.” Endorsements like these rang out across the network over several days. Leading women's activist and bestselling author Gloria Feldt urged authors to “Forget PW-Get Your Coven Together and Support Women’s Books on Friday the 13th,” with the reminder, “We need our circle of women friends, our old or new girls network. Our sister courage. Our girl gangs…Kamy has challenged us to create our own revolution.” http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/forget-pwget-your-coven
Shewrites.com created a fan page at Facebook that grew into the hundreds in its first hour and then more than doubled over the next two days. Hundreds of “tweets” and thousands more followers on Twitter are proving this fledgling network’s sustainability as it emerges as the number one community for women writers at every stage of their careers. Wicoff, an author herself (I Do But I Don’t: Why the Way We Marry Matters) could not be more humbled and inspired by the outpouring: At the end of the “Day of Action,” Kamy posted to the She Writes Blog “…legions of you have posted. I am sort of speechless about the quality of the writing you've shared with us here. I can't thank you enough… An active community will be key to our success in lifting the boat, even if it's just a little, that we all find ourselves in.”
As of this release, the National Book award winners have been announced and there was not a woman among them. Wicoff is encouraging She-Writers to respond in a writerly fashion by reading the nominated books and engaging in discussion about them. “Writers are readers, after all,” says Wicoff. “Let’s read together and remember why we write.”
About She Writes:
She Writes (www.shewrites.com) is a social network where women writers working in every genre—in every part of the world and of all ages and backgrounds—can come together in a space of mutual support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8dBI9OLtA0
Contact:
Kathryn Gordon
SVP Marketing & Business Development, She Writes
212-400-4839
http://www.shewrites.com