Publisher to Publish Only Women Authors for One Year
In the year 2018, the literary publisher And Other Stories will only release titles written by women.
The idea to do so was first floated by writer Kamila Shamsie. In an op-ed in The Guardian, she argued for a Year of Publishing Women to address the fact that literary fiction remains heavily male-dominated: male authors are overrepresented in book reviews by high-profile, prestigious publications and more likely to win literary prizes. A book featuring a male main character also has a greater chance of winning an award, regardless of whether the author is male or female.
Shamsie had had enough, and called upon publishers to “sign up to a concerted campaign to redress the inequality” by only publishing women authors in 2018. And Other Stories is the first publisher to accept her challenge.
Senior Editor Sophie Lewis explained the decision in The Independent: “We will end up, we hope, publishing a few excellent women writers we might not otherwise have discovered…Only publishing women in 2018 [also] means we will be able to carry out a thorough investigation of how different books reach us, and how we can encourage more underrepresented voices to be heard.”
While And Other Stories is a small publisher, releasing 10 to 12 titles a year, we couldn’t be happier with the example they’ve decided to set. Even in 2015, we still need more stories by women and about women—and a small step in that direction will always be a good thing.
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TAKE THE LEAD prepares, develops, inspires and propels women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025. It’s today’s women’s movement — a unique catalyst for women to embrace power and reach leadership parity.