Short-changing Women?

A post over at the Guardian's books blog askes, "Is the books world short-changing its bright young women?" The evidence: the six-person shortlist for this year's John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the five-person shortlist for the Guardian First Book Prize are filled with men. The poster (Brian Schofield) suspects "the literary industry as a whole–agents, editors, booksellers and critics–currently offer disproportionate encouragement to aspiring male writers to produce the kind of serious-minded, bookish work that gets on shortlists, compared to young female writers." Do you agree?