The attitude of the literary establishment is, however, depressing. Best to do what minorities have nearly always done: ignore the bastards. Go right to your audience and your work.

A good story is a good story. Women and men, as a generalization, may focus on different things to write about, but I don’t think gender is a restriction on style or experimentation. If you stripped out author names, and just gave me paragraphs, I would not be able to guess the gender or race of the writer with infallibility. I might be able to guess based on subject, but that’s a kind of stereotype. The gift of writing is being able to be a chameleon.