VIDA: part 2– the count takes on Best American

VIDA, the organisation for women in the literary arts that caused such a stir back in February with its examination of the gender bias in literary magazines is continuing with its count.

This time, the Best American series in under scrutiny. You probably know those anthologies of essays, short stories and poetry that come out every year as some of the most widely read contemporary collections around– it’s a huge opportunity for writers and is meant to provide a representative sweep of the contemporary scene for readers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given VIDA’s previous findings, the Best American series falls short in represented women.

VIDA has taken on much of the earlier criticism thrown their way about their pie chart statistics by providing the raw data and other number type things. But the visual impact of the pie charts does get the point across– take a peek at them here.

Out of the three genres, Best American Essays comes across as the most hostile to women, with only 29% of the works published between 1986 and 2010 being written by women. David Lehman‘s Best American Poetry series doesn’t convey much better results with 39% overall of included poets being female.

It’s interesting that short fiction seems to be closest to gaining some kind of gender equal representation: “of the stories published in the anthologies from 1978 through 2010, 47% were written by women”.

It is perhaps easy to assign the bias within the essay series to the problems women face within academic institutions, and rising to more senior positions. I don’t know.

What interests me more is the discrepancy between short fiction and poetry within the Best American series, and how poetry appears to be a more volatile place for women.

Why?

As with VIDA’s previous findings it is the discussion that will follow that will provoke awareness and try to disentangle the problems of the publishing industry when it comes to women. Especially when it comes to poetry, apparently.