EDITORIAL

A SPECIAL issue on men’s writing? I can see your eyebrows rising from here. Surely there’s already far too much attention paid to men’s writing, I can hear you objecting. Surely Mslexia’s been lamenting men’s dominance of the literary scene for years?

Yes, that’s true. But we have never taken a long hard (sorry) look at what all those men of letters are up to. Do men still control the policies and purse strings in publishing, for example? Deputy Editor Melanie Ashby finds out.

Do men approach the challenge of creative writing differently? Jane Rogers and Sean O’Brien argue that aspiring male authors have a few things to learn from their female counterparts – and vice versa. And isn’t it time women started to portray convincing male characters? Helen Sandler finds out what it’s like to get under a man’s skin.

Wouldn’t you like to know what kinds of books all those men out there are reading? Sarah Spiller takes a straw poll. And what on earth are they writing? I have a go at identifying what characterises men’s writing at the beginning of the 21st Century. Is there a masculine literary aesthetic? If so, can women ever hope to compete?

Debbie Taylor
Editor