I've pointed out before that 12 of the 14 contributors to the first issue of 40 Towns are women -- a ratio almost exactly opposite to that of mainstream magazines that publish reported essays. That's not evidence of affirmative action on our part. It's simply a reflection of who's writing great literary journalism at the college level. So what happens to these talented writers? Why don't we see more of them publishing? Rising star literary journalist Sarah Menkedick, a cofounder of Vela -- literary journalism by women -- provides some clues:
"This past fall, I went with seven other third-year nonfiction MFA students from the University of Pittsburgh to New York to pitch editors and agents. Incidentally, we are all women. All young women. Not a single one of us was pitching a memoir or personal essay: one of us was writing a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, one a true crime story about a coal town murder, one immersion journalism about gay square dancing, one narrative nonfiction about a highway in Peru and its impacts, one a profile of a small-town filmmaker, and finally, in my case, literary journalism about Mexican migrants returning to Mexico after years in the U.S.
"We would sit around a table in a Midtown office with a generous view, and we’d each give our prepared pitch–Peru; Mexico; Alexander Graham Bell; Henry Ford and square dancing; Braddock, PA. And then the listener would sit back, digest, and say,: 'So, this is a story about a young girl…''
Read more of "It's Not Personal." If you're a woman writing literary journalism, this is required reading. If you're a man writing literary journalism, this is doubly required reading. And if you're an editor, memorize it.
--Jeff Sharlet
"This past fall, I went with seven other third-year nonfiction MFA students from the University of Pittsburgh to New York to pitch editors and agents. Incidentally, we are all women. All young women. Not a single one of us was pitching a memoir or personal essay: one of us was writing a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, one a true crime story about a coal town murder, one immersion journalism about gay square dancing, one narrative nonfiction about a highway in Peru and its impacts, one a profile of a small-town filmmaker, and finally, in my case, literary journalism about Mexican migrants returning to Mexico after years in the U.S.
"We would sit around a table in a Midtown office with a generous view, and we’d each give our prepared pitch–Peru; Mexico; Alexander Graham Bell; Henry Ford and square dancing; Braddock, PA. And then the listener would sit back, digest, and say,: 'So, this is a story about a young girl…''
Read more of "It's Not Personal." If you're a woman writing literary journalism, this is required reading. If you're a man writing literary journalism, this is doubly required reading. And if you're an editor, memorize it.
--Jeff Sharlet
RSS Feed