Wednesday, March 13, 2013

‘It Isn’t Rocket Science’: ‘Tin House’ and ‘Granta’ Editors on How to Run a Publication That Isn’t Sexist


'It Isn't Rocket Science': 'Tin House' and 'Granta' Editors on How to Run a Publication That Isn't Sexist

By Emily Temple on


Last week, the literary world was yet again unsettled, if unsurprised, by the release of the VIDA count, our yearly reminder of the gender prejudices that seem to be systematic to most literary-minded magazines and journals. We reached out to several of the worst offenders to ask where they thought they had gone wrong — and get an update on the Forward‘s similar interviews from 2011, in which many editors promised to do better — but got very little in the way of responses. So we decided, instead, to reach out to the editors of the publications that actually had managed to show a relatively gender-equitable byline distribution in 2012. 

The good list is short: Tin House, Granta, and Boston Review all made good showings, with Tin House in the lead (the journal also has the distinction of being the only publication with more female than male writers in any category). In an attempt to work this all out, we asked Tin House‘s Rob Spillman and Granta‘s John Freeman to tell us why their magazines succeeded where so many others failed. … Read More

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