This is (not?) chick lit

The 'chick-lit: good or bad?' debate (you know which side we're on!) looks set to be re-invigorated yet again by two upcoming American books, both anthologies featuring some of the country's most respected writers- but with radically different agendas...  Next month, This Is Not Chick Lit is released- a collection of "Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers" including famous chick-lit hater Curtis Sittenfeld.  The blurb says, "This Is Not Chick Lit is a celebration of America’s most dynamic literary voices, as well as a much needed reminder that, for every stock protagonist with a designer handbag and three boyfriends [ouch!] there is a woman writer pushing the envelope of literary fiction with imagination, humor, and depth."  (This actually sounds like a great collection of stories- shame the snobby title will alienate so many potential readers).

This Is Chick-Lit, on the other hand, is a much more positive project: "The genre of fiction known as "chick-lit" has been a lightning rod for debate in the world of literature, raising questions such as Is chick-lit really literature or just harmless fluff? Is this really an accurate portrayal of the lives of modern women? Eighteen renowned authors—including Jennifer Coburn, Raelynn Hillhouse, Harley Jane Kozak, Cara Lockwood, and Rachel Pine—weigh in with the best of chick-lit—proving that this genre deserves as much, or more, respect as any other." [You said it!]

I guess the funny thing is that for all their snobbery, the women writers who allegedly don't like chick-lit or want anything to do with it are actually profiting from the term and their new book will forever be listed on Amazon amongst all those chick-lit classics they claim to hate.  You know, the ones with really HUGE sales...  Suddenly chick-lit's not the term of abuse you once thought, is it ladies?!

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