So the debate about whether women can write crime fiction has flared up again with interesting posts from Sandra Seamans, Heath Lowrance, and Cat Valente. In response to Heath's post, "Chicks Can't Write Crime Fiction"(which is NOT his position at all), K.A. Laity, who writes crime, horror and romance, shared a link to the site Gender Analyzer, which uses AI to determine if a woman or man wrote the home page of a site. I ran this blog through it and GA suggests, with 77 percent certainty, that a woman wrote it. They're also 88 percent sure that a man writes NoHo Noir. (And I guess, to be fair, they'd be right about 50 percent of the time since I share posting duties with Mark Satchwill.) Running material through the analyzer is addictive and, may I add, a most excellent way of procrastinating.
If you're still on the fence about whether women can bring the hard-boiled, you need to do some reading. Heath's post and the comments will give you a reading list.
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One only needs to look at Otto Penzler's favorite books of 2011 (LA TIMES MAGAZINE) to see what women are up against. Fifteen book, all by men. And last years' picks were the same. I see this over and over on blogs, on zines, in print. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI would add to Heath's list.
ReplyDeleteThe following are all at A Twist Of Noir (hey, you knew I'd be promoting it in this comment, right?):
Callan's Purgatory Sex Twins, Katherine Tomlinson's Water Sports, Jane Hammons's The Unknown Substance, Patti Abbott's Shame, R.S. Bohn's Exit, Kathleen A. Ryan's Heat Of Passion, Cindy Rosmus's All Gone and K.A. Laity's Mandrake Anthrax.
And those are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
Can women write dark crime fiction? Only an idiot would argue in the negative.
Thanks, Christopher. And thanks for publishing it.
ReplyDeleteYeah seriously Otto...what's up with that?
ReplyDeleteI think it's time to create a new award--and call it the Patti.
And Christopher...ATON is just the best place ever for a writer of any sex.I know I appreciate your support more than I can say.