S146. Why Reviewing Matters: Diversity in Reviews

Room 200 H&I, Level 2
Saturday, April 11, 2015
10:30 am to 11:45 am

 

The VIDA count continues to show gender disparity in book reviewers and authors reviewed. This panel of book review editors and reviewers will discuss their efforts and offer practical strategies to combat this gender gap and lack of diversity by examining title and reviewer selection as well as when, where, and how reviews are published. New and seasoned reviewers will have the opportunity to engage in a discussion about how to select titles and work with publications to promote inclusivity.


Participants

Moderator:

Alyse Bensel is the book review editor at the Los Angeles Review and co-editor of Beecher's. She is the author of two chapbooks: Shift and Not of Their Own Making. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review and Ruminate, and she is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Kansas.

Robin Becker’s eight collections of poems include Tiger Heron in the Pitt Poetry Series. Liberal Arts Research Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, she has received fellowships from the Bunting Institute at Harvard, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the NEA, and writes for the Women's Review of Books.

Randon Billings Noble is an essayist. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from the New York Times; the Massachusetts Review; the Millions; Brain, Child; Rain Taxi Review of Books; the Rumpus; and Shenandoah. She is reviews editor at [PANK].

Camille-Yvette Welsch earned her MFA in poetry from Pennsylvania State University where she continues to teach. Her work has appeared in Indiana Review, Mid-American Review, the Women's Review of Books, and the Writer's Chronicle. She is a book reviews editor for Literary Mama

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center