Everything In Conversation: Where Are All The Male Authors?

Nov 26, 2025

28:10

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Hello EICritical Thinkers & happy humping day (or whatever the saying is).

This week we're discussing the apparent mass-vanishing act of male authors, after a piece for The Guardian suggested that David Szalay's Booker win has "put masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction." Oh! Ok!

In a rebuttal for Vogue, author and friend of the podcast Eliza Clarke argues that it’s time to put this debate to bed. She writes: “Male writers still continue to dominate literary awards. They make up a large portion of our bestsellers, all the while continuing to be viewed as more worthy and deserving of critical plaudits. Bernadine Evaristo remains the only Black woman to have won a Booker Prize, ever, and she had to share that win with Margaret Atwood.”

With your help and takes we ask: is there any truth to it? And if so: what's driving women's dominion in literary fiction?

Thanks for all of your thoughts as ever! Follow us on IG @everythingiscontentpod. Love O, R, B x

Links:

Vogue - It's Time To Put The "Where Are All The Male Novelists" Debate To Bed

Compact Mag - The Vanishing White Male Writer

Current Affairs - The White Male Writer Is Fine I Promise

GQ - Why men need to read more novels

The Guardian - Do we need more male novelists?

VOX - What happened to the bestselling young white man?

Unherd - How to read like a man?

Wikipedia - Performative Male

The Guardian - The truth about boys and books