Thanks to the generous work of Marcelle Heath, gender in publishing has been a topic of discussion on Luna Park for the past months—with contributions from editors and writers Roxane Gay, Sherisse Alvarez, Jarrett Haley, and half-a-dozen others. In our most recent addition, Helen Sedgwick from Fractured West adds to her co-editor’s comments about editors and gender with “You Girls, part two“:

In the same way as I listen to Beethoven’s music for the love of his music, I have always said that as an editor (and a reader) I would judge writing in terms of the writing itself, not the author. I often just skim cover emails and rarely read the author biographies I am sent. My decision on whether or not to publish a piece of work does not depend on how much or how little the author has previously published, or on their education, class, race, gender, or sexuality. Nor does it depend on the author’s personal politics. It depends on what the words on the page actually say.

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