On Wednesday, October 16th, the finalists for the 2013 National Book Awards were announced. The National Book Awards are kind of a big deal in the literary world. The first awards were given in 1950 to recognize the best of American literature, and have been given to writers such as William Carlos Williams, William Faulkner, Rachel Carson, Ralph Ellison, and Jonathan Franzen. These writers, and their works, are thought to have helped shape the foundation and identity of American literature. The first awards ceremony honored the best in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, but over the years the categories being honored have changed. Currently, the National Book Foundation awards the best works in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature.
The finalists for the 2013 award include five authors in each of the four listed categories. In fiction, Rachel Kushner, Jhumpa Lahiri, James McBride, and George Saunders are all finalists. Nonfiction finalists are Jill Lepore, Wendy Lower, George Packer, Alan Taylor, and Lawrence Wright. Poetry finalists include Frank Bidart, Lucie Brock-Broido, Adrian Matejka, Matt Rasmussen, and Mary Szybist. Finally, finalists in the young people’s literature category are Kathi Appelt, Cynthia Kadohata, Tom McNeal, Meg Rosoff, and Gene Luen Yang.
This list of twenty finalists includes nine women and eleven men, an almost fifty/fifty split. While this may not seem like a big deal, it is important to look at the the past winners of this award to see how far women have come in the literary world. The National Book Awards have been given out for the past sixty-two years. This means sixty-two fiction writers have won an award in the fiction category, yet only fifteen of them have been women. In fact, the award was around for sixteen years before a women won in the fiction category. It is also important to note that a third of these female winners have all won in the past decade. The other National Book Awards categories have had even less female winners. The nonfiction category has only seen six female winners and the poetry category has only seen ten. On the other hand, the young people’s literature category, which only started in 1969, has had twenty-four female winners. Do these statistics show that more women write children’s books as opposed to serious fiction, or do these statistics instead show that women haven’t had as respected a place in the literary world as men until very recently?
The statistics for the Nobel Prize in Literature are even more disappointing. This award has been around since 1901, yet only twelve women have won. Again, a third of these winners have taken place in the last decade. That’s twelve female winners in one-hundred and twelve years. It cannot be that female writers are innately inferior to male writers. It is true that other factors such as the opportunity to go to college, free time away from the family in which to write a book, and societal expectations all played a role in the number of excellent novels women were able to produce in the earlier parts of the twentieth century. However, this does not excuse why in the past forty or so years women have not had a more prominent place in the literary world.
This September, the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” list was announced. This list is compiled by previous National Book Award winners and finalists in order to showcase the most promising writers in the country. This year was the first time in the list’s eight year history that only women were featured. However, past years have been dominated by women as well with three, often four, female honorees out of the five. While this example shows forward progress in a woman’s place in the literary world, it still isn’t enough. Male writers have been thought of as the true, serious writers for so long that it is hard to change these stereotypes. Men write about war and courage while women write about love and family life. Men write about worldly issues while women write about themselves. While these stereotypes may be true for some writers, they are not accurate for most. However, it is still hard for some to view female writers as serious and on the same footing as male writers.
So what can we do to change these perceptions? We can write, and write, and write some more. We can write true words and sad words and words that force people to think. We can decide not to shy away from sensitive topics. We can write about whatever we want because we are women, and our voice is just as strong as a man’s voice. We don’t have to feel confined to writing about the family life and our own lives. We can force the literary world to take notice because our words are important too. While men used to dominate the literary scene, they don’t have to any more.