July 11-13, Amcrandale, NY:
Woodhull Institute Nonfiction Writing Intensive. It’s not too late! Join me–and Catherine Orenstein and Kristen Kemp–up in Ancramdale this weekend for some oped, magazine article, and book proposal writing good times! To register, email ecurtis@woodhull.org pronto and she’ll set you up.

August 11-13, NYC:
AFTER the honeymoon, I’ll be teaching a special three-day workshop this summer for the girls of Writopia Lab and am excited about the possibility of publishing some of the pieces that emerge from that workshop here on GWP. In the spring, I posted one by 14-year-old Writopia Writer, Sam French, on why she was supporting Hillary. In case you missed it, here tis.

Online seminar, 5 Tuesdays this fall:
Back with Version 2.0 of my Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade bloginar! Have you successfully tackled the book proposal but are struggling to find the right structure for your book, themes for your chapters, or hooks and anecdotes to draw the reader in? With In Progress: Getting Your Book DONE, I’ll take you beyond the book proposal and into the process of writing your first book.

Are you writing a book but lacking an author’s community? A writers’ group and the advice of someone who has done it before can aid you to overcome writer’s block or plain old frustration with structure and content. This one’s a hands-on seminar and author-led writer’s group for those in the middle of writing their first books for the public.

The course will offer:

-Exchanges with professionals in the field and your chance to ask those questions that have been plaguing you.
-Strategies for getting unblocked in the middle of Chapter Four
-Tips for crafting introductions and conclusions for the popular reader
-Workshops on playing with structure, chapter titles, and format
-And more.

For more info or to register, please email kristen.loveland@gmail.com.

And lastly, a fall blogging bloginar (how’s that for meta) may very well be in the works. If interested, please let Kristen know and we will send a heads up when details are underway.

Yet another conference I wish I could be at but will be on my honeymoon(!) instead:

If anyone attending would like to do some liveblogging from the conference here on GWP, please do let me know (girlwpen@gmail.com).

So I’m finishing up a report this week on media coverage of race, gender, class, and age in the 2008 primaries. And I’m so jazzed by Gina McCauley’s Michelle Obama Watch and what I’ve learned about it so far that it merits another post. And another, and another to be sure.

I corresponded with Gina yesterday and learned that there have been over 90,000 page views in the 20 days since the site’s been up. A recent piece about MOW in The Baltimore Sun tentatively asks “Michele Obama Ties Black, White Women?” and notes, “Gina McCauley’s blog on African-American women in pop culture has never attracted this kind of attention. But she launched a new Michelle Obama Watch blog in June to monitor and critique media coverage of the potential first lady, and since then, feminists of all colors have been linking and commenting.”

The solidarity is key, and Gina knows it’s about something more. As she wrote to me in an email:

“[T]his ultimately isn’t about Michelle Obama, it is an exercise in how the nation, the news media and entertainment industry in particular, an deal or not deal with an African American women who defies the dominant stereotypes perpetuated about us. If we let them get away with their chicanery with a Harvard-educated attorney, then the next Black woman to walk in her footsteps would have to to trod a more difficult path.”

Hells yes.

The site currently has 13 volunteer contributors who have contributed 88 posts. Got a news tip for the site? Direct your concerns, complaints, or praise about the media’s treatment of Michele Obama to michelleobamawatch@gmail.com. And watch for more from Gina over at What about Our Daughters, which has received credentials to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August.

This morning I’m pleased to bring you a review by Claire Mysko (pictured left), author of the just-released You’re Amazing!: A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self. I mean really, who better to review an anthology of very personal essays about what women see when they look in the mirror than a writer who is also the co-founder of Inside Beauty and 5 Resolutions to Transform the Fashion and Beauty Industries, two groundbreaking initiatives that have garnered international acclaim for responsibly addressing the intersections of health, body image, fashion, and beauty?! Without further ado, here’s Claire. – GWP

Weekend recap:
I look away for one minute and Talia, age 3,
has figured out how to post on my blog!

This here’s a shot of my dude Marco eating our friend Daphne’s baby, Gabriel, while Gabriel tries to eat his own arm.

That’s Daph in the back, furiously trying to pack up and get back to the city, which is where we’re headed tomorrow morning too. Alas. It’s been wonderful communing with our wedding site out here in upstate NY! I feel like Speed Bride; we got so many wedding errands done that now I’m ready for a vacation 🙂

Just two quick hits about women as op-ed writers and women as sociologists (how’s that for a connection?!) before I really sign off:

1. San Francisco Gate: The Opinion Pages: Mostly A Man’s World

When it comes to the opinion pages of some of the most influential American newspapers, it’s far too often a man’s world. One reason for the disparity is obvious: Women are still breaking through glass ceilings in business, government and academia.

2. Inside Higher Ed: Women in Sociology – Satisfied, but Not Equal

Women in sociology, 10 years after earning their Ph.D.’s, are achieving substantial professional success and high levels of research productivity, but also differ from men in some ways in their career trajectories, according to a new study released by the American Sociological Association.

Among the key findings:

-Male sociologists in the cohort were more likely than female sociologists to be married or living with a partner (83 percent vs. 68 percent), or to have children living with them (62 percent to 50 percent).

-Among sociologists who are parents, women are much more likely to be divorced (21 percent vs. 1.4 percent). Roberta Spalter-Roth, director of research at the sociology association and one of the report’s authors, said one reason for this was that many more women than men come to graduate school as single parents, having already been married and divorced.

-Many sociologists who do have children do so before their tenure reviews, with the largest group having a first child 3-4 years after earning a doctorate.

-Parenthood does not appear to limit research productivity, at least as measured by the number of articles published in refereed journals — a key measure for the discipline. Mothers and fathers reported an average of 10.0 refereed journal articles since they earned their doctorates, while childless men and women reported an average of 9.5.

-Mothers appeared, on average, to earn less than others in the cohort. The income question was asked with categories, not exact amounts. The median income for sociologists who are fathers, and for sociologists who don’t have children, was between $70,000 and $99,000. The median income for sociologists who are mothers was between $50,000 and $59,000.

-On many issues, mothers and fathers both reported high levels of stress related to advancing their careers while also caring for their families. Child care, the tenure process, and teaching loads were key issues for parents.

(Go Katie O and The Op-Ed Project! And thanks to Rebekah Spicuglia of the Women’s Media Center Daily News Brief for the tips.)

Ok GWP readers out there, make my day. I’m so SAD about missing the BlogHer conference this year (timing, timing) and would still very much like to somehow be involved. So here’s what I’ve come up with: Would anybody who is planning to attend the conference in SF like to do some live-blogging here at GWP while I’m off getting hitched that weekend (July 18-20)? If so, please email me at girlwpen@gmail.com and we can discuss!

Pity party over. And happily back to wedding planning. This weekend Marco and I are staying at the home of the friends whose backyard will be the scene of our wedding–it’s so beautiful here. And I’m getting all verklempt.

So I’ll be signing off now for the weekend. I wish everyone a VERY HAPPY 4th! ENJOY!

Those MotherTalk-ers have got it going on. They’ve just launched a matchmaking service for Books Seeking Reviewers, called Connections. The listings it seems are typically from authors or small presses who are looking for online reviewers but not a full-blown blog tour. To submit your own book for a listing, email info@mother-talk.com with 500 characters or less and include the book title(s) and contact information. To become a reviewer, get in touch with Melissa at melissa@mother-talk.com. Among others, they are currently seeking reviewers for Mama PhD for a blog tour that starts July 30.

And yet another reason I’m BUMMED I won’t be at BlogHer this year: The MotherTalk “First Drink On Us” party at BlogHer on Thursday, July 17th from 5-8 pm at Caruso’s. They’ll be giving away nearly 300 fabulous books, and author Shari MacDonald Strong will be on hand to sign copies of The Maternal Is Political.

I know, I know. I have a good excuse. I’m getting married. (Have I mentioned that?! YIKES – it’s now 2 weeks away!)

My dear fellow WGL (short for WomenGirlsLadies) Kristal Brent Zook wrote a great piece yesterday over at the Women’s Media Center, Blogging While Brown (and Female). In case you missed it, here’s the summary:

In a preview of the “Blogging While Brown” conference (Atlanta, July 25-27), WMC author Kristal Brent Zook spoke with Gina McCauley, founder of www.whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com and one of the organizers of the upcoming conference. McCauley’s foray into blogging began one year ago, when the Texas-based personal injury attorney was compelled to respond to the demeaning characterizations of black women that she saw making headlines. McCauley’s blog demonstrated the power of individuals to speak out and demand change, when she took on offensive programming from BET. McCauley’s righteous indignation helped to generate a wave of protest, leading BET to reposition, and then cancel, the show.

Then, in the midst of their success, everything changed for supporters of What About Our Daughters as its readers and writers were blindsided by a tragedy that would dramatically alter the tone and content of the site. As Zook reports, a tragedy at Dunbar Village, a West Palm Beach, Florida, public housing complex, helped bloggers at What About Our Daughters and other sites to find their voices on issues of misogyny and violence.

Read the article here.

And by the way, the WGLs (aka, our traveling panel “WomenGirlsLadies: A Fresh Conversation across Generations”) appear next in Washington DC, at the Association of Women in Communications Conference and at Georgetown on September 26. Details coming soon!