No Boys Allowed

It seemed a natural thing to focus on writing by women as we started commissioning the latest issue of the magazine. From that ageing Nobel laureate to the new man who says he’s a feminist – out and proud – men’s voices are loud and clear and ubiquitous. As Vida’s excellent report illustrated, women have been sorely underpublished by literary journals. Even though it meant tackling the difficult question of exclusivity, we decided this issue of Granta was going to be one that concentrated on women only and their experience living the F Word.

So, I’ve been reading a lot of women lately. And in the run-up to the Orange Prize, I’m reminded of my last year at university. My feminism was much noisier in its expression then. I’m reminded of my last year at university. My feminism was much noisier in its expression then. Faced with an English Lit curriculum that somehow didn’t feature a single black woman, I announced – to my teachers and anyone else within shouting distance – that I would not be reading any men that year.

Thankfully, the professors at my liberal arts college were indulgent and let me get on with it. So while my peers soldiered on with the requisite dead white male canon, I spent time with Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Annie Proulx, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin (yes, he slipped through) and a host of Africans . . . It meant I had some gaps to fill in later, but the books I collected that year still form the backbone of my bookshelves some twenty-odd years later.

The winner of the Orange Prize will be announced today, and as happens every year, there is a lot of discussion about the merits of a prize restricted to a single gender. While I know for a fact that women can compete with the best of them, and I am wary of ghettoization, this is a shortlist I always also look forward to and this year's is one of the strongest of the recent past.

Emma Donoghue, in Room, gives an entirely believable voice to her characters and proves no subject is beyond the imagination of a gifted writer. Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love, a masterclass in story telling, takes us to Sierra Leone and explores love, loss and responsibility in the aftermath of war. Emma Henderson’s Grace Williams Says It Loud, is a gloriously original debut with a protagonist whose voice, and circumstance, is unforgettable. Nicole Krauss’s The Great House is a compelling examination of loss and belonging written in one ferociously meticulous sentence after another. Téa Obreht’s tale of a granddaughter’s search for the truth of her grandfather’s last days in a recovering Balkan city, The Tiger’s Wife, is confident and assured, providing firm assurance that first novels can hold their own on the shortlist. An exhilarating variety in style, voice and technique, all excellently crafted. Annabel by Kathleen Winter is a sensitive portrayal of a coming-of-age that is more complicated than most.

There’s nothing restrictive about this list. Three debuts and six writers who between them represent eight different countries. An exhilarating variety in style, voice and technique, all excellently crafted. Whoever wins tonight, it’s a list of books worth spending time with. And though, as with most readers, my everyday choices resist limitation, every once in a while it feels good to focus in on the view from a very specific perspective. ■

Top image by Nicholas Morant, courtesy of National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque. Library and Archives Canada

Also on The F Word Online:

Old World female empowerment: Brazilian soap opera and Turkish folklore with Sevil Delin and her grandmother.

A Revolution of Equals: Lana Asfour reports on Feminism in Tunisia's new democracy.

The F-word in Pictures: The Artistic Director talks about art in the F-Word.