Rooney Interview in Bookslut!

Elizabeth Hildreth interviews Kathleen Rooney for the latest issue of Bookslut!

Talk Shows is an SPD bestseller!

The economy may be down, but Mónica de la Torre is UP...

Her book TALK SHOWS made Small Press Distribution's list for November bestsellers! Not too shabby for Switchback's first book, released in 2006!

Many congratulations and much love to Mónica!

Congrats, Liz! Best of the Web nom

New Switchbacker Elizabeth Hildreth recently had a poem nominated by No Tell Motel for Dzanc Books' Best of the Web anthology. Congratulations!

Click here to see the other noms and read her work!

Welcome Whitney Holmes!

Switchback has found a new managing editor, Whitney Holmes!

About Whitney:
S. Whitney Holmes was born and raised in north-central West Virginia. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, where she was a Teaching Writing Fellow and served as Poetry Editor for Black Warrior Review. Her recent poems appear in Third Coast, Ninth Letter, and Gulf Coast.

So happy to have you on Team Switchback, Whitney!

"Mad Girls’ Love Songs: Two Women Poets—a Professor and Graduate Student—Discuss Sylvia Plath, Angst, and the Poetics of Female Adolescence"

If you have access to Project Muse, you can read the article on Sylvia Plath and teenage girls that Founding Editor Becca Klaver co-wrote with advisory board member Arielle Greenberg.

If you don't have access and want to read it, email Becca at becca[at]switchbackbooks[dot]com.

Congratulations Becca! So proud of you.





Here's the abstract:

The legacy of Sylvia Plath’s poetry and the received notion of the teenage girl writer wallowing in self-pity are discussed in terms of their significance to adolescent female readers and their ramifications for girlhood culture at large. Plath’s legacy endures in part because of the recognition that a fluctuation in moods and personas is often the experience of young women, of writers, of those who struggle with depression or anxiety (and the overlap between these populations), and also because of Plath’s ability to craft the fever of her emotions into poems that rely on bold and rich figurative language. This essay uses memoir, a survey of Plath’s popular and critical reception, and a close reading of Plath poems that take on more adolescent concerns and themes, then concludes by looking at contemporary women poets whose aesthetics, attitudes and themes are relevant to contemporary teenage girl readers.

WILLA's take on Pub Weekly in the NY Times

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/no-1-omission-from-top-10-book-list-women/?ref=books

Take Back The (Network TV) Night

The New York Times' Bill Carter has a great piece out on the lack of women writers on the staffs of late night television shows.
from the article:

In many ways, television today is about women more than men.

More women watch television than men; female producers and writers have had huge success in prime time and daytime; in January, women will occupy two of the three seats as anchors of network evening newscasts.

But there is one glaring exception: very few women make it inside the writing rooms for late-night television hosts, despite that women make up a larger proportion of their audience than men.

Irin over at at Jezebel used Carter's article to break down the number of women writers per show. The results:

"The Jay Leno Show": Zero.
"Late Show with David Letterman": Zero.
"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien": Zero.
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson": One, apparently (his sister).
"Jimmy Kimmel Live!": One.
"The Colbert Report": One.
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart": Two female writers just added.
"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:" Three out of "about a dozen."


Among Late-Night Writers, Few Women in the Room (New York Times)

Guess How Many Female Writers There Are On Late Night? (Jezebel)

Web designer found

Be on the lookout for a new and improved Switchback website after the new year!

Still looking for a Managing Editor... Close your eyes and think of the most organized and proactive person you know. Is it you? Your long-lost soulmate? Your best friend Marv? Send them our way!

Editors@switchbackbooks.com