A women’s site has declared today “She Writes Day of Action” responding to a literary list that stirred up controversy on the Internets.
When Publishers Weekly released a series of Best Books of 2009 lists this week, the “Top Ten” list did not include any books by women authors. GalleyCat wrote about the ensuing controversy on Wednesday, as the founders of Women In Letters And Literary Arts (WILLA) passionately rejected the list. She Writes is urging upset readers to post on She Writes today; to buy a book by a female author; and to share posts with other readers.
In addition, Publishers Weekly reviews director Louisa Ermelino wrote one blogger to explain the controversial list: “[P]lease note that there are 100 best books, not just these ten. Also, our editorial staff is heavily female, none of us the retiring type. The editors all cover certain catagories but read voraciously across all the catagories. We came to the original meeting with our ‘picks’ and then over the course of several meeting whittled down the choices. We feel we ended up with books that we loved, that stood out from the pack… for 2009. Kind of a blind taste test.”