Talk:List of women writers

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[edit] Focus of list

This list is overwhelming focused on 20th century American women novelists; I've added several earlier writers, a bunch of poets, and a number of women from other countries, but the list is still very short. Smawnmahlau

I've just added quite a few...thinking of more... --Regeane Silverwolf 01:43, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I recently added names from the List of early-modern women playwrights (UK). Still Eurocentric, but from an earlier period, and from the UK. scribblingwoman 18:04, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm adding in feminist authors...Just as a note, I know some of the links are dead at the moment; I'm putting all the names in and then I'm going to go back and write articles for all of those who need them. Also, thanks to HMSaccount for putting in nationalities and dates! That does make the list easier to browse. Foreverfreebird2 17:05, 19 December 2006 (UTC)foreverfreebird2

You're welcome! Will do more later. I won't remove any of the dead links. HMAccount 20:42, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] working towards wikipedia list guidelines

Hi scribblingwoman and Foreverfreebird2. This note to let you know I do plan to complete adding the dates, nationalities and type of writing, it just may take several days. After (or during) that though, would anyone be interested in making this list even more useful in line with Wikipedia:List guideline? I'm thinking that would mean (1) creating an article about women writers which would at least include why there is interest in women as writers (as opposed to men), and who some of the towering/significant figures in this area are. (2) reorganizing the list itself on some principle other than the alphabet, based on how people are most likely to use it – I suspect by date is key? Or nationality? (Maybe it should even be several lists). (3) possibly formatting the list as a table (see the format at List of famous people who died young). Some column headings might be: Name, Dates, Nationality, Type of writing (novels, poetry, etc), Genre, Known for (major work or contribution). I always have more ideas than I succeed in carrying out, so help/ input would be great. Thanks for your thoughts. HMAccount 14:06, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi HMAccount! You ask some good questions here. I am finding lists difficult; useful, certainly. But how to organize them? I have two smaller lists on the go -- early modern women poets and early modern women dramatists -- and have been waffling about the organization. The dramatist list is shorter right now so it works chronologically I think, but the poets list quickly grew enormous so I shifted it to alphabetical and it seems more manageable. Ideally I guess lists would be able to be accessed in a couple of different ways (by date; by genre; &c.) but I don't think we can do that with the software. So short answer: I don't have any quick or useful answers about the format of the list. Maybe the answer is a series of shorter, more specialized lists linked to the giant list. I started my lists because I was interested in a particular focus. To your first point: the idea of an article is a good one, and I would certainly be interested in contributing to that. Possibly even drafting it, if no-one has started it by the time I have some spare time. scribblingwoman 14:52, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi scribblingwoman, thank you for responding. I won't touch the format for now but I like your idea "Maybe the answer is a series of shorter, more specialized lists linked to the giant list. I started my lists because I was interested in a particular focus." I'm still learning the formats here but category templates might be the way to achieve that, and this giant list could stay alphabetical as a sort of browsable master list. But I agree, having the links to all the shorter lists in one place would be terrific. Am also glad you agree about the article and might even be able to draft it. HMAccount 14:31, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Women's writing as an area of study

As some of you will have noticed, "Women writers" has been removed as a category. Here is the discussion. I posted something here, but so far, no-one has responded. I looked at the article " Categorization/Gender, race and sexuality" and it says:

Dedicated group-subject subcategories, such as Category:LGBT writers or Category:African American musicians, should only be created where that combination is itself recognized as a distinct and unique cultural topic in its own right. You should be able to write a substantial and encyclopedic head article (not just a list) for the category — if this cannot be done, then the category should be seen as not valid. Please note that this does not mean that the head article must already exist before a category can be created, but it must be at least possible to create one.

So, I have begun to draft such an article. It's not quite ready for prime time, but when it is, people friendly to the project of expanding Wikipedia coverage of women's writing are invited to stop by and help. (So far it's just a pile of links, many if not most of which I intend to discard but which link to items that might be helpful in drafting the article and arguing the case that "women's writing" is a legitimate area of literary study.) scribblingwoman 19:51, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Ugh, semantics. I agree with you, scribblingwoman, and have said as much on the discussion page. I wonder if we should perhaps advertise it elsewhere to attract more attention from various sources? Wikipedia:WikiProject Gender Studies, perhaps? María: (habla ~ cosas) 20:59, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Good idea, María. I just left a message over there, on the Talk page. scribblingwoman 01:00, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

María, if you (or anyone else reading this) wants to stop over and take a look at the draft-in-process on women's literature in English, I would appreciate the extra eyes (and brains!). scribblingwoman 03:36, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Update: I just (finally) submitted the category for review for reinstatement. Fingers crossed. scribblingwoman 15:03, 18 March 2007 (UTC)