Women's World Cup of Literature: Open Letter Books

I am so thankful that Open Letter and Chad Post work so hard to promote writing. I don't know whose idea it was but last summer during the World Cup they did the World Cup of Literature where they had battles between writers from various countries. What a great idea and what a great way to promote writing. (Incidentally, it was through this that I discovered the work of Mexican phenomenon Valeria Luiselli whose work Faces in the Crowd is a knock-out).

Brazilian writer Adriana Lisboa

They are currently running the Women's World Cup of Literature and has been really interesting to keep track of. I have to say as someone deeply involved in the world of literature, I am shocked at how hard it is to find women writers in many countries.

The Spanish-speaking world in general has only a handful of women writers publishing and if you do any search online for Spanish writing or Mexican writing or Argentine, etc., at least 90% of the writers are men. It's so unfortunate and so misleading.

Right now in the Women's World Cup of Literature there are four books battling it out:

Assault on Paradise by Costa Rican writer Tatiana Lobo

vs.

Crow Blue by Brazilian Adriana Lisboa

and at the same time:

Home by Toni Morrison  is battling it out with Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah.

I consistently admire what Open Letter does, not only are they working to combat the lack of women in the literary world, they work hard to introduce translated literature generally to the world. What a great mission.