Hello EICritical Thinkers & happy humping day (or whatever the saying is).

This week we're discussing the apparent mass-vanishing act of male authors, after a piece for The Guardian suggested that David Szalay's Booker win has "put masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction." Oh! Ok!

In a rebuttal for Vogue, author and friend of the podcast Eliza Clarke argues that it’s time to put this debate to bed. She writes: “Male writers still continue to dominate literary awards. They make up a large portion of our bestsellers, all the while continuing to be viewed as more worthy and deserving of critical plaudits. Bernadine Evaristo remains the only Black woman to have won a Booker Prize, ever, and she had to share that win with Margaret Atwood.”

With your help and takes we ask: is there any truth to it? And if so: what's driving women's dominion in literary fiction?

Thanks for all of your thoughts as ever! Follow us on IG @everythingiscontentpod. Love O, R, B x

Links:

Vogue - It's Time To Put The "Where Are All The Male Novelists" Debate To Bed

Compact Mag - The Vanishing White Male Writer

Current Affairs - The White Male Writer Is Fine I Promise

GQ - Why men need to read more novels

The Guardian - Do we need more male novelists?

VOX - What happened to the bestselling young white man?

Unherd - How to read like a man?

Wikipedia - Performative Male

The Guardian - The truth about boys and books

Substack - The dawn of the post-literate society

Books mentioned:

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Loren Ipsum by Andrew Gallix

Flesh by David Szalay

Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan

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