In honor of Father’s Day and dads across the land, do check out the latest on both The Daddying Movement and Reel Fathers. The latter is a collaboration between Allan Shedlin and Deborah Boldt, who are working toward the first annual REEL FATHERS Film Festival in Santa Fe on Fathers’ Day weekend 2009. How cool is that?

(Thank you, Suzanne, for the heads up!)

This month Seal Press offers up another new anthology, About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror, edited by Anne Burt and Christina Baker Kline. In this one, 24 women of varying ages (23 to 75) and races brave a standoff with their reflections. From the book’s description:

From lines to wrinkles, dark circles to freckles, a woman’s face tells the unique story of her life. In many ways it’s a roadmap — with each singular characteristic, crease, and blemish serving as a milestone of having lived, loved, and endured….In the essay “On Reflection,” contributor Patricia Chao stares at herself and dares to ponder who she is when she is not being loved or desired by a man. In “My Celebrity Face,” Alice Elliott Dark must endure hearing her college crush tell her that she looks like the man on the Quaker Oats box. This leads her to a life filled contradictions — but ultimately ends in contentment with the woman she’s become….About Face dares women to look at themselves — no flinching or turning away; no poses, and no excuses. Both challenging and warm, About Face will inspire women to examine their faces, flaws and all, and to learn to love what they see.

And hey wow: celebrity makeup artist Bobbi Brown wrote the foreword. Essayists include Jennifer Baumgardner, Bobbi Brown, Kristin Buckley, Marina Budhos, Patricia Chao, Alice Elliott Dark, Susan Davis, Louise DeSalvo, Bonnie Friedman, Kathryn Harrison, Annaliese Jakimides, Dana Kinstler, Benilde Little, Meredith Maran, Manijeh Nasrabadi, Ellen Papazian, Kym Ragusa, Jade Sanchez-Ventura, Pamela Redmond Satran, Rory Satran, Alix Kates Shulman, Catherine Texier, S. Kirk Walsh, and Kamy Wicoff.

Had I been writing an essay for this one (ahem! kidding. sort of), I would have written about my nose and teeth and ears — all of which caused me great suffering as a teenager. Right through the eighth grade, a mean boy named Jeff Foy called me, alternatingly, Bugs Bunny, Dumbo, and The Beak. Didn’t seem to help me to know that everyone called him Jeff Foy the Toy Boy. Yep, Jeff suffered too.

Anyway, as I was explaining just yesterday to a beautiful and dear friend, when your physical appearance was made fun of as a kid, that feeling of ugliness gets internalized. It’s often very hard to wish away. Adolescence may be time-limited, but that sense that there is something wrong with you persists. Shout outs to college, college therapists, and college boyfriends — all of whom, in my case, helped me face that self-doubt and feel better about, well, my face.

I look forward to reading this book! Would any GWP reader like to offer up a guest review? Email me at girlwpen@gmail.com and we’ll arrange.

My dad loves to read (yes, apple doesn’t fall far from tree). For dads open to reading about, well, dadhood, here’s a host of suggestions:

Philip Lerman, Dadditude: How a Real Man Became a Real Dad

Cameron Stracher, Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table

Kevin Powell, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America

Michael J. Diamond, My Father Before Me: How Fathers and Sons Influence Each Other Throughout Their Lives

Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

David Strah and Susanna Margolis, Gay Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood

Lewis Epstein, More Coaching for Fatherhood: Teaching Men New Life Roles

David Knox, Divorced Dad’s Survival Book: How to Stay Connected with Your Kids

And, finally, though I’m not personally digging this title AT ALL, others may, and, well, it takes all kinds (this book just came out):

Bobby Mercer and Alison D. Schonwald, Quarterback Dad: A Play by Play Guide to Tackling Your New Baby

Other suggestions? Or got ideas for the perfect gift for feminist dad? Please share.

Well here’s reason to feel depressed: In today’s Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik reports that interviews with 80 female faculty members at a research university — the largest qualitative study of its kind — have found that many women in careers are deeply frustrated by a system that they believe undervalues their work and denies them opportunities for a balanced life. While the study found some overt discrimination in the form of harassment or explicitly sexist remarks, many of the concerns involved more subtle “deeply entrenched inequities.” These include: unintended bias and outdated attitudes, devaluing positions once women hold them, and service and gender.

Ok, ye academic women GWP readers out there. Does this describe you? And if so, what do you do?

Image cred

But just because I’m missing doesn’t mean you have to. Yes, if I weren’t getting married that week, I would be running off to BlogHer 2008 and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. And at the latter, I’d be here: “Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question,” which happens July 13-18, and “Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile” on July 19-20, both taught by Sarah Saffian. For more info on these workshops, click here. For general registration, here.

And for the folks who have recently asked me for advice about MFA programs in creative nonfiction: While I know little about the difference between various programs, I do know that had I not maxed out my savings on a PhD I would be running to go get me one of those. Fellow writer and workshop teacher Elizabeth Merrick, however, knows a lot about these programs and offers counseling and coaching and the like. So I thought I’d point those wondering her way, since unfortunately I can be of little use in this particular respect.

Chill, drink and mingle while raising money to empower and engage young women in the political process. Plus amazing gourmet cupcakes from Eleni’s NY. Does it get much better than that?!

ROCK FOR YOUNG WOMEN
A benefit to support the Younger Women’s Task Force and the Voting Vixens Campaign

Hey, I’m not sure what a “voting vixen” is, but I’m pretty sure I’d like to be one.

Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 8:30pm
Location: Knitting Factory
Street: 74 Leonard Street
City/Town: New York, NY

$15 tickets for sale at knittingfactory.com or at the door. Featuring spoken word, musical performances and dj. Performers include: Mahogany Brown, James Jacobsen, Omni, Bouva, Dream Bitches, Changing Modes and DJ Allyson Toy. Co-Sponsors Include Girls In Government, Young People For, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, GoLeft.org, SAFER: Students Active For Ending Rape.

Check it out:
YWTF.org
myspace.com/ywtf

Also check out the Younger Women’s Task Force facebook group’s event information, and their blog.

There’s a new book out called Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). How much more timely could a book be? Because it asks those nagging questions like, if women have made so much “progress,” why haven’t their lives gotten any easier? Why do most American women say they don’t get enough sleep and that balancing work and family is getting harder? Why do they make 77 cents to a man’s dollar? And why must Maloney still fight to preserve rights—such as educational equality and even birth control—that seemed secure in the 1970s?

Excellent questions, all. Read an excerpt, here.

Praise, from Gloria Steinem: “Carolyn Maloney has given us a factual, lively, life-saving book full of reasons why American women are told we’re already equal — when we’re anything but. She also tells us how to move forward anyway. If you have time for only one book to save your sanity, advance women’s equality, and connect your life to politics in this election year, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated is definitely it.”

And from a making-it-pop perspective, I must say I love the title. Nicely invocative, on some level, of phrases like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, and, of course, that Mark Twain quote, Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. Very clever, given the recurring media refrain that feminism is dead.

Thank you, all, for your comments on yesterday’s post about Rebecca and Alice Walker (Mama Drama Take 2), and to all those you emailed me privately to share thoughts. I’m again subverting the post/comment convention to share some highlights because, as always, you GWP readers have so much insight to share:

Gloria Feldt: “I would have found Rebecca’s article amusing if it hadn’t been such sad statement about how women–once again–are damned if they do and damned if they don’t have a life beyond mothering.”

Sally: “I think that while it’s more about her own issues with her mother than it is about feminism & motherhood, it opens up the discussion about the pressures of motherhood and feminism.”

Anniegirl1138: “That was a terribly sad accounting of a childhood and if all true than she certainly does have cause to be upset about it. Past a certain point though our parents failings cannot be blamed for who we are as adults.”

Renee Siegel,: “I’m proud to be Debbie’s mom even if Debbie (GWP) experienced me as ‘overly available.’ Relationships need constant nourishing, interaction, and even conflict to continue to grow and evolve. What matters to me is not just conflict, but the repair of broken times when feelings that are hurt can be repaired and oxygenated in order to survive….Relationships are not static things to be put on shelves once we pass childhood. It’s a lot of work, but well worth it when two people love and respect each other. It is particularly sad if a mother cannot enjoy her daughter’s success and happiness in whatever the daughter choses as a path in life. This works two ways– daughters can be proud of their mothers, as well.”

I interrupt this post for the following message: Mom, I am so incredibly proud of you, and who you’ve become.

When I was writing my book Sisterhood, Interrupted, I knew that my manuscript submission deadline was to be but an arbitrary end. I could have kept writing and writing and writing. Because mama drama (Chapter 5) is a story that just doesn’t quit.

In a recent issue of The Daily Mail, Rebecca Walker writes, “My mother may be revered by women around the world – goodness knows, many even have shrines to her. But I honestly believe it’s time to puncture the myth and to reveal what life was really like to grow up as a child of the feminist revolution.” Rebecca is a colleague of mine, and a peer. She contributed an essay to my anthology Only Child. I’m saddened to hear, as she reveals in The Mail, that she’s having trouble conceiving a second of her own. But publicly blaming her mother, and through her mother, flaming feminism, seems extreme.

Like Rebecca, I’m starting my journey to motherhood later. Had it not been for feminism, I might have stayed married to a first husband who was wrong for me (we divorced). Had it not been for feminism, and more specifically, the Pill, I might have conceived in my early twenties, a time when I was still growing up myself and would have failed miserably at motherhood. And let’s face it: had it not been for feminism, I would not be a writer publishing feminist articles and books–including some that question and critique the movement’s hot contentions and debates.

Like Rebecca, I too have had my share of conflict with my mother. We’ve screamed, fought, brought each other to our therapists, and duked it out. My mother is not a famous feminist, and to be sure she’s been ever present in my life–perhaps unlike Alice Walker in that regard, according to Rebecca’s account. My mother was overly available, and therein our troubles began. As one of the writers in our Only Child anthology puts it, sometimes we onlies can long for neglect.

Yes, my mother-daughter troubles were of the fixable variety. Perhaps Rebecca and Alice’s are not, and perhaps it is unfair for me to even compare. The personal is by all means political; when your mother is Alice Walker, no doubt those boundaries are bound to slide. But when Rebecca writes that “Feminism has much to answer for denigrating men and encouraging women to seek independence whatever the cost to their families,” I fear she is revealing far less about a movement and more about herself.

Image cred

The online Making It PoP: Translating Your Ideas for Trade workshop is back!

This fall, I’ll once again be offering a 5-week hands-on seminar for researchers and academics on writing book proposals. This teleconference features guests from the publishing industry and is paired with an ongoing online web forum in the form of a closed class blog.

The course is designed to help researchers, scholars, and policy “wonks” bridge the translation gap. I’ll encourage you to make bold observations, learn new tricks, and unlearn old ones—like hiding your voice behind footnotes or lit reviews, or subordinating yourself to your topic. You’ll learn why it’s essential to think about audience and market in a different way. We’ll explore the differences between popular and academic writing, why a dissertation is not a trade book, and how to write an effective book proposal–meaning one with the best chances of being sold.

In this course you will also learn:
• Techniques for de-jargonizing your prose
• Why “making it pop” does not mean “dumbing it down” or “selling out,” and how to deal with institutional scorn
• How to know whether your book idea has commercial potential
• The elements of a strong book proposal
• The importance of narrative, and what else editors look for
• The role of an agent
• The in’s and out’s of publshing in different popular media venues (online and print)

When: Five weeks, Tuesdays, October 7th – November 4th, 7:00pm – 8:15pm (via phone; ongoing online forum during the week)

Guest instructors from the publishing industry will share their expertise each week. Past instructors have included:

Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers and Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child, published by Penguin Press in 2006, and contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly

Laura Mazer, an editor and book consultant who has worked with publishers including Seal Press, Counterpoint Books, Soft Skull Press, Avalon Publishing Group, and Random House (see Laura’s Book Smarts column here and here and here on GWP)

Christine Kenneally, author of The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language and a freelance journalist who has written for The New Yorker,The New York Times, Discover, Slate and Salon

Tracy Brown, President of the Tracy Brown Literary Agency

Amanda Moon, an editor at Basic Books and formerly an editor at Palgrave.

Jean Casella, a freelance book editor and formerly the publisher of The Feminist Press

For questions, pricing, and more, please contact girlwpen@gmail.com.