HUGE congratulations to friend of FWR Jesmyn Ward, who just won the 2011 National Book Award for fiction for her novel Salvage the Bones!

In reviewing Ward’s novel, Ron Charles wrote in the Washington Post,

When the finalists for the National Book Award in Fiction were announced last month, I’m embarrassed to admit that I was among those critics grumbling about the obscurity of some of the authors (Andrew Krivak?), even some of the publishers (Lookout Books?). [...]

I’m happy to eat my words. And my spinach. I’ve just read another one of the so-called obscure finalists, “Salvage the Bones ,” the second book from Alabama writer Jesmyn Ward, and it’ll be a long time before its magic wears off.

You can read an interview with Jesmyn right here on Fiction Writers Review. Congratulations again, Jesmyn!

Image: National Writers Series

On Thursday, October 20, the Traverse City National Writers Series will host An Evening with Jeffrey Eugenides at 8pm at the Lars Hockstad Auditorium in Traverse City, Michigan.  The evening will conclude with a reception and book signing with the author.

Image: National Writers Series

Here at Fiction Writers Review, we’re very excited about this reading–and not just because our own Jeremiah Chamberlin will be hosting, speaking with Eugenides about his new novel The Marriage Plot as well as his life and other work. The Traverse City National Writers Series’ events aren’t your typical readings.  Explains the organization’s website:

In 2009, Doug Stanton, wife Anne Stanton (investigative journalist and writer for the Northern Express) and attorney Grant Parsons founded the TC National Writers Series to support the education of area young people planning to study writing in college.

Rather than a typical book reading/signing series, the trio envisioned a unique “dinner party” format that would bring the nation’s best writers and storytellers in for a night of great conversation, lively entertainment and audience interaction. Proceeds from the series would go into a dedicated scholarship fund that would support area high school students in pursuing writing careers.

Net proceeds from the organization’s events are donated to a dedicated scholarship fund with the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation.

We’re delighted to represent such a fantastic author and to partner with a great nonprofit that supports young writers. You can learn more about the event here, and for those of you lucky enough to be in the area, tickets are still available and can be purchased online for $20.

Further resources:

• Get a glimpse of Eugenides’ novel The Marriage Plot in this interview on NPR.
• Find out more about the National Writers Series and their mission.
• Co-founder Doug Stanton is the author of the best-selling non-fiction books Horse Soldiers and In Harm’s Way. Visit the author’s website for more information.

Approximately one hour ago, the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards were announced on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s morning radio program, Think Out Loud. The event took place in front of a live audience at the new Literary Arts Center in Portland, Oregon, at approximately 9am Pacific Time. And we’re pleased to announce that some of our favorite fiction titles last year have been selected. Congratulations to:

Fiction:

We’re proud to have featured work on several of these authors and their books:

Here are the nominees in the other three categories. Congratulations!

Nonfiction:

Poetry:

Young People’s Literature:

In the introduction to his recent interview with McMahon, J. Caleb Winters describes the subject of this new novel. He writes:

In Tyler McMahon’s debut novel, How the Mistakes Were Made, Laura Loss comes of age in the 1980s hardcore punk scene, the jailbait bassist in her brother Anthony’s band. While on a reluctant tour through Montana, Laura meets Sean and Nathan, two talented young musicians dying to leave their small mountain town. With these two men, Laura forms the Mistakes, and at the height of their fame, the volatile bonds between the three explode. Hated by the fans she’s spent her life serving, Laura finally tells her side of how the Mistakes were made.

During their conversation, McMahon recalls the paranoia of Cold War America, shares his own experiences touring with a band, and discusses the influences of this new novel. In response to a question about how the Cold War shaped the book’s protagonist, Punk Rock, and the themes of the novel, McMahon says the following:

All my earliest memories involve being terrified by some sort of nuclear apocalypse. I would have nightmares about it all the time. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and cry about it. So many childhood sleepovers ended with somebody’s older brother or sister whispering about how the bombs worked—if they used keys or buttons, if the president could launch them from his limo, how big they were and what shape they had. There was something on television back then, maybe one of those Amazing Stories bits, in which all the nukes were fired and a little boy runs outside and screams “Stop!” and the missiles all froze in midair. I remember identifying with that at a young age.

For many years, I thought I was just paranoid or a coward. Then one day when I was in my twenties, my father told me a story about a college lecture he attended. I believe they were talking about the Cuban missile crisis. The professor was absolutely certain there would be a nuclear war between the US and the USSR in the next few years. My dad talked about how unsettling that was. After that, I realized it was a symptom of an age, not just my own psychological flaw.

I definitely think the nuclear threat was a significant factor in punk rock’s genesis, and in American hardcore especially. That’s a position I argued for often when I taught my rock history class to undergrads. I’ll concede that it might be too neat of a thesis, as a lot of bad stuff happened to the US in the 80s. But in the case of punk, it rings true.

When I began writing in Laura’s voice, she immediately had this tough, two-fisted, tomboy exterior. It became doubly important to give her some kind of soft underbelly, an inner frailty. The fear of nuclear weapons felt like a good fit. It helped place those flashbacks, both in a specific time and in D.C.

To read J. Caleb Winters’s complete interview with the author, please click here.

• We’re honored to count Tyler McMahon as one of our regular contributors here on Fiction Writers Review, and so it’s a particular pleasure to feature his new novel. For some of his most recent work for us, please read his “Stories We Love” post on Eric Rickstad’s story “Ballerina, Ballerina.”
• You can also read his reviews of Alan Heathcock’s debut collection Volt and Joshua Mohr’s debut novel Some Things That Meant the World to Me.
• Check out Tyler’s website for more information, including upcoming author events.
• You can also win one of three signed copies of this book, which we’ll be giving away next week to three of our Twitter followers.

To be eligible for this giveaway (and all future ones), simply click over to Twitter and “follow” us (@fictionwriters).

To all of you who are already fans, thank you!

As the new academic year revs up and our teaching-focused month winds down, we here at FWR want to take a moment and say a huge THANK YOU to our wonderful summer editorial intern, Nicole Aber. All summer long, Nicole provided invaluable assistance behind the scenes, as well as writing up some excellent posts for the blog (see below). No matter what challenge we threw at her, she handled it with aplomb! This year, Nicole will be Managing News Editor at the Michigan Daily, and we know she’ll be amazing there as well.

Dear readers, please join us in thanking Nicole so much for all her hard work this summer and wishing her all best in the upcoming year. And stay tuned–if we’re lucky, Nicole may write more blog posts in the future.

If you missed any of Nicole’s excellent blog posts, you can read them in our archives:

• On the postcard campaign to save NYPL funding–and one tween’s emphatic response: “How to save a library? With postcards–and some attitude“
• On how a venerable publishing institution is adapting to the digital world: “Columbia Publishing Course takes on digital publishing”
• On Facebook’s possible plans for publishing: “Facebook: the next ebook publisher?“
• On whether the recent self-publishing phenoms are the new norm: “Self-Publishing: A fad, or the next American Idol?“

So throughout the month of September, we’re devoting all the content at FWR to the art of teaching writing, and the teaching of writing as an art. (What better way to mark back to school season?)

We began our teaching theme on Monday with Anna Leahy’s wonderful review essay “The Future of Literary Citizenship,” and we continue our features today with Steven Wingate’s conversation with famed writing instructor Brett Lott in an interview entitled “Write From Your Own Chair.”

We’ve also begun a new blog series we’re calling “Under the Influence.” As we did in May with our “Stories We Love” posts, we’ve asked our contributors to highlight the influence a particular individual or class has had on their writing life. Whether it’s a workshop experience, an important teaching tip, an inspiring book, or an invaluable bit of advice from a mentor, we wanted to hear how our writers have been shaped by other writers–directly or indirectly.

We’ve posted our first two this week:

From the humorous to the serious, we’re happy to honor those who’ve influenced us along the way.

Additionally, we’ll be having a series of guest blog posts by writers and teachers of writing whose ideas on craft and criticism have shaped their students and the broader literary communities alike. Yesterday we published Richard Goodman’s essay “Writers Writing About Writing: The Dirty Little Secret, in which Goodman recommends his favorite craft texts: ones written by “authors whose books on writing are welcoming, openhearted, and humble. Whose books give out excellent, practical advice. And, most importantly, whose books are well written.” In the forthcoming weeks we’ll have guest blog posts by Peter Turchi, Kevin Haworth, and Robin Becker.

Finally, each Friday, we’ll offer a writing exercise or prompt to help your students—or you!—kick off the new school year. Look for our first September “Get Writing” prompt on the blog tomorrow. (And if you need an exercise NOW for your first week of class, check out our past “Get Writing” exercises.)

• Mary Stewart Atwell’s interview with Mark McGurl (author of The Program Era)
• “Where Are We Going Next? A Conversation about Creative Writing Pedagogy” (Pt. 1), with Cathy Day, Anna Leahy, and Stephanie Vanderslice
• “Where Are We Going Next? A Conversation about Creative Writing Pedagogy” (Pt. 2), with Cathy Day, Anna Leahy, and Stephanie Vanderslice

The editors and contributors of Fiction Writers Review cordially invite you to celebrate Short Story Month with them. Details below!

Who:
Short story lovers everywhere

When:
The entire month of May—coverage starts Sunday, May 1. As part of the celebration, we’ll have special weekend posts, too!

Where:
All across the site, from reviews to interviews to the blog

What:
Here’s just a preview of the content we’ll be featuring:

• Reviews of fantastic story collections
• Interviews with master short story writers like Mary Gaitskill and Robert Boswell
• “Stories We Love” blog posts – writers on the stories that inspire them—and why
• Book of the Week and Journal of the Week giveaways highlighting short stories
• Special weekend content – short stories online for instant reading gratification, plus writing prompts to get you started on pieces of your own
• The Collection Giveaway Project – chances to win FREE short story collections from writing blogs all over the internet
• And more!

Why:
Because we believe that short stories are more than “five-finger exercises,” workshop fodder, or writerly warm-ups. Because we see short stories as art forms in their own right, not lesser siblings of the novel. Because we admire how short stories can contain entire worlds in the span of just a few pages. Because, in short, we believe short stories are worth celebrating, and we hope that you do too.

REVIEWS

Lee Thomas reviews Michael David Lukas’s debut, The Oracle of Stamboul, recommending the novel—with its “sun-drenched marble, the heat and clamor of the bazaar, and a warm, salt breeze off the Sea of Marmara”—as an antidote to mid-winter malaise. (Yes, please!) The book features a precocious prodigy, eight-year-old Eleonora Cohen, as a guide through Lukas’s tale of political intrigue in late 19th-century Stamboul. The Oracle of Stamboul was also FWR’s March 1 Book of the Week.

In his review of FWR’s March 8 BOTW—Alan Heathcock’s debut story collection, Volt—Tyler McMahon praises the book not only for its individual stories, but for Heathcock’s triumph at crafting a successful collection:

The best collections, for my money, are the ones that work the form to its full advantage, turn its weaknesses into strengths, and make the stories inseparable from one another—greater even than the sum of their parts. Alan Heathcock’s Volt is one such collection. These stories are not merely chronological episodes adding up to a larger narrative. Nor does a common protagonist neatly stitch them together. Several characters do recur, but the main link between these pieces is Krafton. This fictional town is only a setting in so much as a church is a building—it’s better described as a group of people, a community.

In this review, Helen W. Mallon introduces Robin Oliveira’s debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter, “the gutsy tale of a youthful Albany, New York, midwife who becomes a nurse to soldiers of the Union Army—men who were more likely to die from now-preventable infections than they were from gunshots.” Mallon admires Oliveira’s portrayal of a heroine “hell-bent on becoming a surgeon at a time when no woman in this country had been admitted to a medical school,” praises the author’s command of point of view (which “seamlessly” shifts from character to character), and asks larger questions about how authors of historical fiction render the past as real for their readers.

INTERVIEWS and ESSAYS

Despite the boycott, Preeta Samarasan traveled to Sri Lanka in February for the Galle Literary Festival and found friends, eager young writers, and a love for a country that reminds her powerfully of her native Malaysia. In her essay “Four Days in Galle”, she reflects on the power of free speech in a country recovering from many years of civil war. An excerpt:

Yet the Reporters Without Borders petition made little sense to me on the most basic level: shouldn’t a literary festival be the last thing one should boycott in a country with a poor record of press freedom and human rights? I could see an argument for boycotting investment, or perhaps even tourism, but a literary festival? Really? Why sabotage an opportunity for free speech when they are so rare?

Where do film noir, post-communist Bulgarian fiction, and black comedy intersect? In Vladislav Todorov’s searing noir-meets-social-commentary novel, Zift. In this interview, FWR’s Steven Wingate and Todorov discuss poisonings, the resurgence of narrative fiction in post-communist Eastern Europe, the idea that “many people enjoyed spying on their neighbors” for the state, and much more. An excerpt from Todorov’s response to a question about political/historical context and Zift’s particular resonance today:

Under communism novelists had to be markedly aware of their social and political environment, and [they had] to follow strict guidelines of its representation—the so-called “socialist realism.” After the fall of communism, they could engage in soul-searching, which led to the “lyrical novel.” This type of novel lacks eventful storyline and refrains from discussing social issues. The same goes for Bulgarian cinema, which at the time amalgamated personal frustrations and idiosyncrasies with folklore imagery and poetical fabulousness. Within such literary and cinematic contexts, my task was to create a type of narrative that would be both lyrical (Zift’s story is told in the form of a confession), and genre-and-plot driven (it consciously adopts the hardboiled style of noir).

In his guide for writers, How to Write a Sentence, literary theorist Stanley Fish outlines a method for improving your prose style, showing readers how to dissect and learn from famous sentences of the past. His book is concise, lucid, and eloquent. But does his method work? In this essay, Daniel Wallace puts it to the test. Here’s a taste from Wallace’s piece:

It is already a commonplace, in essays and books on the craft of writing, that if you want to write good fiction, you must be able to write good sentences. The question Annie Dillard asks aspiring writers in The Writing Life—“Do you like sentences?”—is echoed, in longer form, by Francine Prose in the early pages of Reading Like a Writer. Rick Moody, in his introduction to Amy Hempel’s Collected Stories, twice states that, “It’s all about the sentences,” a claim given poetic form by Gary Lutz, who calls the sentence the “one true theater of endeavor.” Indeed, the sentence is the most concrete unit of written prose, containing a definite beginning and end, the place where writers lay out logical connections between the parts of speech. We think in many shapes, but we write in sentences. Whatever we attempt in English prose—whether essay, tale, or recipe—unless it is unusually experimental, must be made of sentences.

In 1990, Stephanie Vaughn published her debut collection of short fiction, Sweet Talk. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive. A reviewer for Mother Jones wrote, “There is not a weak story in Sweet Talk and few are less than spectacular […] Hers is a wise, touching, extraordinary voice—the sort rarely achieved at the end of a gifted career, let alone at the beginning.” To date, Vaughn’s first book has also been the only one her adoring fans have seen. In this new essay, “The Enduring Magic of Stephanie Vaughan’s Sweet Talk,” Forrest Anderson writes about the wonder of discovering this book in 2010. Via his essay, here’s an electric passage from Vaughan’s story “Dog Heaven”:

Every so often that dead dog dreams me up again.

It’s twenty-five years later. I’m walking along 42nd Street in Manhattan, the sounds of the city crashing beside me—horns, gearshifts, insults—somebody’s chewing gum holding my foot to the pavement, when that dog wakes from his long sleep and imagines me.

I’m sweet again. I’m sweet-breathed and flat-limbed. Our family is stationed at Fort Niagara, and the dog swims his red heavy fur into the black Niagara River.

NEWS

This week we were thrilled to launch our Journal of the Week program with one of our very favorite journals, One Story! Read all about it—and how you might win a free subscription to this revolutionary (and consistently awesome) journal—here.

Never miss an exciting moment on FWR by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, and—of course—visiting us at home and on the blog.

It’s exactly this enthusiasm that now allows us to expand the spotlight from books deserving your attention to literary journals deserving your attention. Starting this week, Fiction Writers Review will begin profiling publications we admire right here on the blog in a feature entitled “Journal of the Week.” In addition to inside access via micro-interviews with each journal’s editorial staff, readers will be eligible for free subscriptions, given away to Twitter followers at random.

We are honored to highlight One Story as our inaugural Journal of the Week. Since its founding in 2002 by Hannah Tinti and Maribeth Batcha, stories in the journal have been recognized by The Pushcart Award, Best American Short Stories, Best American Science Fiction Stories, Best American Fantasy, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories… and the list goes on. And beyond these awards, One Story has been recognized by readers and writers worldwide for its dedication to championing the art of short fiction.

This dedication rose from the horrific events of 9/11. Recognizing life and time to be precious, Tinti and Batcha forged forward with One Story’s core concept: stand-alone stories. More than an issue of formatting—each story is delivered single-serve—or layout—you’ll find no book reviews or essays bookending works—this concept serves to promote the art form that is the short story. Readers recognize this immediately upon picking up One Story. Issues aren’t “compact” so much as they are “curated.”

Visitors to the One Story booth at AWP may have noticed collections of stories bound together by theme. At this year’s conference, I purchased the “Crime” collection, boasting stories from Alan DeNiro, Melissa Yancy, Dika Lam, Leigh Newman, and Tomas Dobozy. Though collected under one “Crime” heading, DeNiro and Dobozy’s stories could not be more different; whereas DeNiro’s “Child Assassin” drips in dark experimentation, allowing readers to get lost in what exactly entails concepts like “murder” and victims that might or might not be “babies,” Dobozy’s “The Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kálmán Once Lived” utilizes historical research to paint a brutally accurate landscape of the violence and fear that defined WWII-era communism.

The breadth in just these two stories, collected in a set of five, speaks volumes to the 146 stories that have gone to print at the time of this post. Ranging from the magic realism of Kelly Link’s “The Great Divorce” to Tom Grattan’s gripping “Foreign Girls” to works in translation like the recent “Surprise Party” by Etgar Keret, One Story’s stable of high-profile authors delivers something new and different to readers’ mailboxes every three weeks.

Over email, I spoke with Associate Editor Marie-Helene Bertino to better understand what drives One Story and how this drive may change as we move toward an increasingly digital future.

What is the role of One Story in today’s literary community, be it for readers or writers?

Our role in the literary community is twofold: 1. To present sound stories that honor a variety of voices. 2. To secure the future of short stories by supporting emerging writers in real ways, like throwing them debutante balls where we literally present them to the lit community. At the literary “party,” One Story’s role is of the older sister with questionable but effortless fashion sense, who doesn’t take herself too seriously, who observes the party from the doorway with a glass of whiskey in her hand before calling you over to whisper to you what the real deal is. She drives a muscle car. And was the president of Science Club in high school. And has serious opinions about music.

How do you see One Story’s mission and tastes evolving in the next two years? Will the rise of digital publishing impact the composition of One Story?

I hope our tastes continue to evolve; as new writers take short stories in new directions, we’d like to go with them. Additionally, on the subject of taste and, I might add, style, I’ve always thought the surest way to look outdated fast is to be a slave to trends. So as an editor I am much more interested in finding the voice that is doing its own thing. As for our mission, it will continue to be to publish one great story at a time, but we will have new fun tech tools to help us! I am thrilled that One Story is offered on Kindle and the iPad. We recently live-tweeted a staff reading, which was lots of fun. We will figure out how each tech advancement can be used for our particular aesthetic and use them as tools, mercilessly!

If you could put three items in a time capsule (or USB drive) to be opened in 1,000 years to provide a snapshot of One Story’s aesthetic today, what would they be?

Great question. One of Hannah’s wishing stones from Positano, Italy, which represents our whimsical, magical realistic side and our yearly workshop that takes place in that town. A Mason jar of disgusting water from the Gowanus Canal which represents our realistic and gritty side and dedication to Brooklyn. And a picture we took a few years ago at our holiday party at Sharlene’s of the One Story staff wrapped in twinkle lights, which represents the people and writers who are the reason we do what we do. This would also embarrass my staff, which pleases me.

What album is playing on the One Story stereo these days?

Fantastic question! A CD compilation of South by Southwest’s Artists to Watch, Led Zeppelin III, and Luscious Jackson’s Natural Ingredients. We also have a separate record player that continuously plays Biggie Smalls (our managing editor Tanya Rey = Biggie Super Fan).

Given their love for all things Biggie, our New York readers should be aware that One Story is bringing its considerable music prowess to the Brooklyn party scene on Friday, April 29th, for its Second Annual Literary Debutante Ball.

This year’s Debutante Ball not only celebrates the five One Story authors who published their first books this year, but recognizes Dani Shapiro for her mentorship of emerging writers. With a “debutante procession,” art auction, and signature cocktails, it’s not to be missed, so you’ll want to snag tickets soon.

Later this summer, One Story will re-offer slots in its Summer Workshop for Emerging Writers. Details are forthcoming on their website.

Subscription information, back issues, and much more can be found at the One Story website. For even more goodness, follow their Twitter feeds (both One Story and Hannah Tinti’s personal feed) or “like” them on Facebook.

As a special bonus to readers of Fiction Writers Review, we’ll be giving away three free subscriptions to One Story! If you’d like to be eligible for this week’s drawing (and all future ones), please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us.

For those of you already in the FWR Twitter family, you know our presence there exists in part to inform followers of what’s happening here on the site, as well as to update the community on literary trends, worthwhile links, etc. We couldn’t be happier to see this role expand in a way that allows us to put journals we love in the hands of readers who will love them too.

Image credit: VIDA

Recently, I wrote about literary cameos on The Simpsons. In response, Charlotte wondered, “Are they tweaking on the Franzen gender controversy by only having literary cameos by men?”

This is a timely question. A recent study by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts showing that male writers vastly outnumber female writers at many major literary magazines—as writers, reviewers, and review subjects. The New Republic, startled by this disparity, did some number-crunching and found that publishers also publish fewer books by women than men:

In fact, these numbers we found show that the magazines are reviewing female authors in something close to the proportion of books by women published each year. The question now becomes why more books by women are not getting published.

The VIDA numbers provide a start toward an answer: Of the new writing published in Tin House, Granta,and The Paris Review, around one-third of it was by women. For many fiction writers and poets, publishing in these journals is a first step to getting a book contract. Do women submit work to these magazines at a lower rate than men, or are men’s submissions more likely to get accepted? We can’t be sure. But, as Robin Romm writes in Double X, “The gatekeepers of literary culture—at least at magazines—are still primarily male.” If these gatekeepers are showing a gender bias, there’s not much room to make it up later.

In response to VIDA’s study, Peter Strothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement—which overall published men 2.8 as many times as women—told The Guardian,

I’m not too appalled by our figure, as I’d be very surprised if the authorship of published books was 50/50. [...] The TLS is only interested in getting the best reviews of the most important books. Without making a fetish of having 50/50 contributors, we do have a lot of reviewers of both sexes and from all over the world. You have to keep an eye on it but I suspect we have a better story to tell than others.

Here at Fiction Writers Review, we also don’t “make a fetish” of having an even gender balance in our content. We review books that we feel passionate about, and we choose our subjects for interviews and reviews without regard for gender. But how are we doing overall? I did some counting up, and here is the unscientific gender breakdown for content at Fiction Writers Review:

Contributors overall: 85
36 male (42%)
49 female (58%)

Staff:
5 male (45%)
6 female (55%)

Reviews:
126 published as of count date
43 (34%) by male contributors
80 (63%) by female contributors
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because several “discussion” reviews with multiple authors were not counted.

71 (56%) were of books by male authors/editors
58 (46%) were of books by female authors/editors
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because several books had more than one editor.

Essays
57 published as of count date
36 (63%) by male contributors
21 (37%) by female contributors
Note: 6 essays were from the “Novel Dishes” series by Kathryn McGowan; 14 were from the “Quotes & Notes” series by Steven Wingate.

Interviews
52 published as of count date
24 (46%) were by male contributors
30 (58%) were by female contributors Note: Several reviews had 2 female interviewers working jointly.

29 (56%) featured male subjects
23 (44%) featured female subjects

Male interviewing male: 17 (33%)
Male interviewing female: 7 (14%)
Female interviewing female: 16 (31%)
Female interviewing male: 12 (23%)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% due to rounding.

Based on these data, our numbers at Fiction Writers Review are not exactly 50/50, but they’re a damn sight more equal than any of the journals in the VIDA study! We’re proud that, without placing any emphasis on a contributor’s or subject’s gender, our numbers come out to be fairly equitable.

Which raises an interesting question: if lit journals like the Times Literary Supplement are choosing what they feel is the “best” material out there, and we’re also choosing what we feel is the “best” material out there, why is our perception of “best” closer to 50/50, while theirs is so skewed towards male?