I haven’t read Kate Tobin’s essay but the reason there is a dearth of interesting male novelists publishing good work today is because the fiction-publishing industry is dominated by women. More than 80% of the literary agents and 80% of the editors at publishing houses are women. And these women have stopped publishing literary fiction by male writers. A few years ago I personally went to the website of one of the big-5 publishers and made a chart of the last 100 debut literary novels they published. Seventy-five were by women, mostly white women. Conversely, only like 6 white male authors.
I haven’t read Kate Tobin’s essay but the reason there is a dearth of interesting male novelists publishing good work today is because the fiction-publishing industry is dominated by women. More than 80% of the literary agents and 80% of the editors at publishing houses are women. And these women have stopped publishing literary fiction by male writers. A few years ago I personally went to the website of one of the big-5 publishers and made a chart of the last 100 debut literary novels they published. Seventy-five were by women, mostly white women. Conversely, only like 6 white male authors.