While the print version of Granta 115: The F Word has been making waves and creating debate, the online edition has been gathering a wealth of interviews, features, essays, fiction, podcasts and short film from writers across the globe as an accompaniment.
Online, we’ve covered issues from Naomi Alderman’s feminist-shaping upbringing in anOrthodox Jewish community, to Leila Guerriero’s sexual education in Argentina, to women-only literary prizes. We’ve rounded up the content below from the online edition to make sure that everyone who has been following the issue doesn’t miss a thing.
Women and Writing
Tess Lynch, Hannah Gersen and Rachel Genn told us about the books they considered their Feminist Bibles, the books that shaped their feminism, and we published some of the best reactions we received on twitter. Mrs Tiggywinkle, Harriet the Spy and The Paperbag Princess were just a few of the unique favourites, while
Urvashi Butalia – the Indian feminist publisher who features in the magazine with her story about Indian Hijra’s – spoke to Saskia Vogel, along with Taiye Selasi, who made her fiction debut in the magazine, and talks about her surprise at the devastating picture she painted with her writing, and her forthcoming debut novel. We also kicked off our New Poets feature with a poem and an interview with Emily Berry.
Past and Present
We had women looking into their pasts, and women looking to the future: Sevil Delin remembered her grandmother’s marriage lessons, Rebecca Swift uncovered her feminist roots while Leila Guerriero recalled her sexual education in Argentina. Lana Asfour looked at the repercussions of the revolution on the Tunisian feminist movement and award-winning film makers Micah Garen and Marei-Helene Profiled four women of the Egyptian revolution; women who took to the internet and the streets to ensure their voices were heard.
Toby Litt is a Gentleman
In amongst the female and feminist writing, Toby Litt chimed in with what he believes makes a proper gentleman, which involved killing squirrels and the correct response to agony.
(female) Poetry
We featured a wealth of new poetry, Sharon Olds wrote about personal and bodily history burned into an easel, Sadaf Halai wrote about the great wave off Kanagawa, Amy Gerstler collaged Florence Nightingale’s words while Megan Levad tackled the age-old drunken slut/ Political Philosophy at the Apex of American Empire equation. Then we took our poetry under the knife: Parisa Ebrahimi wrote about Plath, Sexton and the influence of the confessional legacy on feminism, while on the other end of the poetry spectrum, Rachael Allen looked at Elizabeth Bishop’s genderless poetry.
Art
In a venture by our artistic director Michael Salu, we commissioned three moving image pieces inspired by the stories in the F-Word: Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits responded to Helen Simpson’s ‘Night Thoughts’; Kris Hofman to Rachel Cusk’s essay ‘Aftermath’, and Em Cooper to Maja Hrgovi?’s ‘Zlatka’.
‘What is a feminist, anyway? What does it mean, to call yourself one?’
Audio
As part of our launch week events, Granta teamed up with Liars’ League, a group of actors and writers who get regularly perform their work. For our latest podcast, we recorded actress and voiceover artist Louisa Gummer giving a dramatic reading ‘The Dreadful Mucamas’.
To listen to the podcast, click on the player below or visit our iTunes page, where you can subscribe to make sure you receive every episode. Follwing the theme of our events, our other feminist-themed podcast hear Sigrid Rausing, the publisher of Granta, Taiye Selasi, who made her fiction debut in the F Word, and Rachel Cusk, a Granta Best of Young British Novelist, talking about which writers passed feminism down to them, and what the word means to them today.
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Also on The F Word Online:
‘The Bible made me a raging heathen feminist. Does that count?’: your unadaluterated Feminist Bibles.
‘Kill something larger than a squirrel at least once a day’, and other Notes for a Young Gentleman from Toby Litt.
Elizabeth Bishop and Sacrificial Feminism: a look at women-only poetry anthologies.