The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.
CANADIAN WOMEN IN THE LITERARY ARTS
Submitted by adickinson on April 26, 2013 - 2:54pm
An important new arts organization was started last year by Vancouver writer Gillian Jerome in response to conversations on gender and representation initiated by Sina Queryas and Natalie Zina Walschots (a.k.a. Natalie Zed). The Canadian Women in the Literary Arts (CWILA) is a non-profit group of about 350 writers, artists, critics, and academics. The organization has three main goals: 1) to track statistics on gender representation in reviewing; 2) to bring relevant issues of gender, race, and sexuality into the national literary conversation; and 3) to create a network supportive of the active careers of female writers, critics, and their literary communities. The organization has so far received a small grant for their work, but they need more help in order to conduct their statistics tracking, fund a burgeoning Critic-in-Residence position, and proceed with future projects, including a national conference. Check out their website to see all the good work they are doing.
