What a plea­sure it is to see, in the midst of dis­heart­en­ing news about the low num­ber of women writ­ers whose writ­ing appears in major national peri­od­i­cals, that the Atlantic is at least at the top of the list.

It’s a par­tic­u­lar plea­sure to me because the Atlantic—then called the Atlantic Monthly—gave me a boost when I started my life as a writer.

A favor­able review of my first col­lec­tion of short sto­ries, and pub­li­ca­tion of two sto­ries I was writ­ing then, was the most excit­ing thing that could hap­pen to me dur­ing the two years after I grad­u­ated from college.

I was not yet grown-up enough to be able to express my thanks ade­quately to the edi­tors; it is late, now, to be thank­ing them since they are no longer around.

But on behalf of all the women writ­ers who strug­gle, as we do, to find accep­tance in the closed world of East Coast lit­er­ary life, I want to thank them now, and to encour­age all of you who are look­ing for a lit­tle hope in this bleak world to write and thank them as well—and maybe send them some­thing they might publish.

Tagged as: The Atlantic, The Atlantic Monthly, VIDA, women writers

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