Cover art for “I’m not interested in teaching books by women” (Interview with Hazlitt Blog) by David Gilmour

“I’m not interested in teaching books by women” (Interview with Hazlitt Blog)

“I’m not interested in teaching books by women” (Interview with Hazlitt Blog) Lyrics

I teach modern short fiction to third and first-year students. So I teach mostly Russian and American authors. Not much on the Canadian front. But I can only teach stuff I love. I can’t teach stuff that I don’t, and I haven’t encountered any Canadian writers yet that I love enough to teach.

I’m not interested in teaching books by women. Virginia Woolf is the only writer that interests me as a woman writer, so I do teach one of her short stories. But once again, when I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women. Except for Virginia Woolf. And when I tried to teach Virginia Woolf, she’s too sophisticated, even for a third-year class. Usually at the beginning of the semester a hand shoots up and someone asks why there aren’t any women writers in the course. I say I don’t love women writers enough to teach them, if you want women writers go down the hall. What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth.

[....]

I teach only the best.

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About

Genius Annotation

On September 25, 2013, novelist and University of Toronto professor David Gilmour loudly proclaimed his lack of interest in female writers (besides Virginia Woolf) in a conversation with Random House’s Hazlitt blog. This is an excerpt from his remarks; the full post is available here.

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