Amy King, VIDA Chair, Executive Committee
The VIDA 2015 report is out—the result of many long hours by dedicated volunteers, and from the data it's clear that VIDA is having an impact. As is often the case with social issues that are improving, there is good news in the report, but we’ve still got a way to go.
There’s a lot of information in the report so here are some of the highlights of the count. The following 3 paragraphs are directly from the VIDA report. The full report also includes data on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, and ability which are summarized along with detailed infographics on each of the publications.
---FROM THE REPORT
Our Larger Literary Landscape count is in its third year, and we are seeing results worth celebrating!
Of the 26 publications in our 2015 Larger Literary Landscape Count, 15 of them published as many bylines by women writers as men, or more! We are celebrating A Public Space (72%), The Normal School (69%), Crab Orchard Review (64%), Jubilat (59%),Ninth Letter (59%), Cincinnati Review (58%), N+1 (57%), Conjunctions (56%), Gettysburg Review (55%), Kenyon Review (55%), Prairie Schooner (54%), Colorado Review (53%),Missouri Review (52%), Pleiades (50%), and Harvard Review (50%).
In 2015, nine publications are closing in on gender parity, with bylines by women writers representing 40 to 49 percent of the pie: Copper Nickel (49%), Callaloo (48%), Fence(48%), The Believer (47%), New American Writing (46%), McSweeney’s (45%), Virginia Quarterly Review (45%), AGNI (43%), and Southwest Review (40%). We don’t think it’s pie in the sky to hope to see these publications close the gap in 2016! Some are already so close!
Women’s share of the pie represented less than 40 percent at only two publications:Southern Review (35%) and New England Review (39%).
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Hats off to VIDA, a wonderful project that’s making a difference.