Male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel.

In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are – about luck and identity and how the idea struck them. The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime.

Eleanor Catton, the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize.

Pair with Margaret Atwood on literature’s “women problem” and these illustrated biographies of women writers who shaped the literary canon, then consider what makes a great interview.

(via explore-blog)