Vida: Women in Literary Arts

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts is an organization based in the United States that "seeks to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women through meaningful conversation and the exchange of ideas among existing and emerging literary communities." ^[1]

History

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts was co-founded in 2009 by poets Erin Belieu and Cate Marvin. Belieu and Marvin, because they are both poets and teachers, had been acquainted with one another for some time. However, due to there being a small amount of opportunities for women in the literary community, they perceived themselves as being in competition with one another. That perception changed when Marvin sent Belieu an email detailing how isolated she felt as a female writer, and questioning why there was no feminist conversation happening in literary circles. Belieu then forwarded the email to hundreds of writers, and it received a huge response. Based on that response, Belieu and Marvin decided to co-found VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.^[2][3]

The Count

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts is best known for The Count. The Count is a yearly inventory of how many women and men are published in, or have their books reviewed by, notable literary magazines. The Count was first performed, and the results published, in 2010. It showed that significantly lower numbers of women than men had been published or had their books reviewed by notable literary magazines.^[4]

The 2010 version of The Count started a large conversation about inequity in the literary world. The comments section below the original publication of The Count shows the widely varied opinions about the relevance of, and reason for, the disparity in the numbers. Some people were not surprised, some were surprised and angered, some were inspired to act, some questioned the validity of the methods used to collect the numbers, and some questioned whether relevant information had been excluded from the numbers.^[4]

The conversation surrounding The Count propelled VIDA forward, and it continues to grow in membership and notoriety. Since 2010, VIDA has published a yearly version of The Count. The reactions of the magazines included in The Count are as varied as the comments section below The Count on VIDA's website. Some magazines have ignored the numbers, others have challenged the validity of the numbers, and some have actively tried to address the issue and change it.^[5]

Reactions

Responses to "The Count" have been widely varied, and VIDA's pie charts have been reproduced in many periodicals and journals. The conversation spurred by VIDA's Count has been explained in the Mother Jones article "Where are the Women Writers." Some magazines, such as The Coffin Factory, have openly and bluntly criticized VIDA for The Count, claiming that the questions asked by VIDA, and that the methods used to come to the conclusion that there is gender disparity in the publishing world are flawed.^[6] The most common criticism of VIDA's methods is that the numbers don't include information on how many submissions are made to each magazine by men and women respectively.^[3] The assertion is that if there is a disparity in the number of submissions by men versus women, then the presence of a disparity between published work by men versus women makes sense and is not evidence of gender bias. VIDA contributor and poet Danielle Pafunda responded to this concern in her article "Why the Submissions Numbers Don't Count." Here, she details seven reasons why submissions numbers are ultimately irrelevant.^[7]

Other magazines, such as Granta, Tin House, and Boston Review have responded to The Count by making a conscious effort to remedy the gender disparity within their journals. Not only do the editors of these publications say that they are making these efforts, but the numbers of The Count show this to be the case.^[8]

The Count has also inspired some activism by individuals, such as Lorraine Berry who, in response to Harper's highly disparate numbers for three years running, published her letter "Why I’m Canceling My Subscription: An Open Letter to ‘Harper’s’ from a Loyal Reader." In this letter, Berry details her history as a Harper's subscriber, including how much she has enjoyed reading it and how much she has been inspired by it. She then goes on to say how disheartened she was to see that Harper's has failed to do anything to correct the gender disparity in their publication, and that she will be cancelling her subscription as a result.^[9]

Her Kind

In May 2012 VIDA: Women in Literary Arts launched their online forum and blog "Her Kind," taking its name from an Anne Sexton poem. Her Kind "serves as a forum to create lively conversation about issues that are often dismissed or overlooked by the mainstream media."^[10][11]

HerKind retired in 2014 and archived its articles and essays to VIDAweb.org, which continues to publish up-to-date content.

Similar Organizations

Canadian Women in Literary Arts (CWILA) was founded by Gillian Jerome, a Canadian poet and essayist. "CWILA (Canadian Women in the Literary Arts) is an inclusive national literary organization for people who share feminist values and see the importance of strong and active female perspectives and presences within the Canadian literary landscape." ^[12]

Following VIDA's lead, CWILA began publishing their own version of The Count in 2012. CWILA focuses on Canadian literary magazines.^[13]

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References