Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Battle of the Bylines: Bright Spot for Women in Magazine Award Nominations

Mother Jones co-editor Clara Jeffery keeps a close eye on the issue of byline parity for female and male writers.  Last year, she and co-editor Monika Bauerlein lamented the poor showing of women writers in nominations for the National Magazine Awards.  Yesterday, she reported that nominations of women are up sharply:

"Whether by chance or by collective soul searching, this year has seen dramatic improvement within the reporting and writing categories (public interest, reporting, feature writing, essays and criticism, columns and commentary, and fiction). Last year, women were only nominated for seven of the available 25 slots, and were completely shut out of four categories. This year, they've garnered 17 of the available 34 spots, and women are nominees in every category."

Of course, this is just one awards competition for one year, and being nominated isn't the same as winning.  But it's great news and I hope it's a sign of things to come. The winners will be announced May 2.

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