This month marks the five-year anniversary of the Australian Women Writers Challenge. As those familiar with this blog will know, the AWW challenge was established with the aim of helping to counter the gender imbalance of reviewing of books by Australian women in mainstream media. To do this, the challenge sought to bring together an online community of individuals dedicated to reading and reviewing a full range of books by Australian women, including books from genres generally overlooked by mainstream media. It was envisaged that the challenge would include anyone who cared to join: writers and ordinary readers, male and female; book bloggers, library staff, book shop workers and educators; in effect, whoever could post a public review, either on a personal blog, Facebook note, or an online site like Goodreads.
Over the past five years, that’s what we’ve done. We got together a team of volunteers and sent out the call for participants to join. With the help of a specialist, we built a website which now includes a searchable database. Collectively we’ve read thousands of books, and written many thousands of reviews, mentioning more than a few of them in our regular roundups. After five years, it’s time to ask: to what extent has the AWW challenge achieved its goal?
A possible way to assess this would be to compare the number and type of AWW reviews with those that have appeared in mainstream media during a similar period. To this end, Stella Prize Manager Veronica Sullivan has kindly sent me the data captured by the Stella Count over the past few years. With the help of an AWW intern, I’m slowly making my way through this data and hope to be able to report on some findings before long.
Until then, we’d love to know what you think. Has the AWW challenge changed your reading and/or reviewing habits in any way?
I didn’t really think about whether I was reading mainly male or female authors until my first year of the AWW challenge. I looked around for more Australian female authors and have been surprised at what I have found. Such wonderful writing and diversity. I’m looking forward to joining in again in 2017.
That’s great to hear, Veronica. So glad you’ll be joining us again in 2017.
I don’t think participating in the challenge over the last few years has changed my reading choices/habits any, but I’ve enjoyed supporting the movement. Looking forward to the data though. Keep up the great work.
And we’ve appreciated the support Tracey. Thank you!
I think AWW came into my life at a fortuitous time – I began blogging, I was active on social media and the Stella Prize burst onto the scene all these things combined to mean yes, I was reading more by Australian women. I guess the main difference for me is that I have linked up with other like-minded readers via AWW and in turn become aware of what they’re reading and enjoying.
Congratulations on five years and I hope there’s many more.
It was part of the zeitgeist, wasn’t it? I’m glad you’ve linked up with other like-minded readers. I sometimes fear that we don’t have the same sense of community that we had the first couple of years (and I scratch my brains how to rebuild it!).
Being part of the AWW Challenge has definitely changed my reading habits. I’ve (more) actively searched Australian women authors to read and discovered some really great books (and authors) in the process. I’ve found new books through the posts by other participant. The only downside: I’m just not going to live long enough to read all of the books I want to read. My thanks to everyone who is part of this wonderful community.
Thanks, Jennifer. It’s great to know it has changed things for you. It makes it all worthwhile!