Women in Horror
From the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/22/horror-sexism-fantasy-society
You can see the book they're referencing here:
http://www.jamescooper.org.uk/aseditor.htm
As a veteran of the horror slush pile (3 years at ChiZine, a year at City Slab, plus various stints reading for magazines you'd never, thankfully, heard of), it's been my experience that male horror writers outnumber female horror writers, at least from the bylines, by a 3 - 1 margin. So, the ONLY excuse for omitting any female writers from this volume would be if there simply weren't ANY women writing horror. And, of course, we know that's not true.
Listen, most of my own writing has appeared in the small press, so I say this with no disrespect, but the cross-section of writers interviewed for this book, aside from a couple more well-known names, certainly doesn't move me to purchase the book. I've certainly read and enjoyed some of the authors, but I'd be much more inclined to read an interview with, say, Ellen Datlow, M. Rickert, Lisa Tuttle, Kathe Koja, Melanie Tem, Sarah Langan, Barbara Roden, etc.
Fail. And this has happened in SF, as well:
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/08/toc-the-mammoth-book-of-mindblowing-sf-edited-by-mike-ashley/
At least the editor and publisher of the horror volume have owned up to the error. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/22/horror-sexism-fantasy-society
You can see the book they're referencing here:
http://www.jamescooper.org.uk/aseditor.htm
As a veteran of the horror slush pile (3 years at ChiZine, a year at City Slab, plus various stints reading for magazines you'd never, thankfully, heard of), it's been my experience that male horror writers outnumber female horror writers, at least from the bylines, by a 3 - 1 margin. So, the ONLY excuse for omitting any female writers from this volume would be if there simply weren't ANY women writing horror. And, of course, we know that's not true.
Listen, most of my own writing has appeared in the small press, so I say this with no disrespect, but the cross-section of writers interviewed for this book, aside from a couple more well-known names, certainly doesn't move me to purchase the book. I've certainly read and enjoyed some of the authors, but I'd be much more inclined to read an interview with, say, Ellen Datlow, M. Rickert, Lisa Tuttle, Kathe Koja, Melanie Tem, Sarah Langan, Barbara Roden, etc.
Fail. And this has happened in SF, as well:
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/08/toc-the-mammoth-book-of-mindblowing-sf-edited-by-mike-ashley/
At least the editor and publisher of the horror volume have owned up to the error. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.