All the sad young literary men

所有忧郁的年轻文人

Today, Explained

新闻

2025-05-24

27 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Writer Ross Barkan says young men's voices have vanished from literary fiction. Economist Joel Waldfogel offers a reality check from the world of publishing. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. A reader by the book wall at the 2025 Turin Book Fair. Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • British writer and critic Jude Cook announced last month that he's starting a small independent press that will publish mainly literary fiction and memoirs by young men.

  • Mr. Cook told The Guardian that literary fiction, this is highbrow stuff,

  • has come to be dominated by women, quote,

  • giving rise to a situation where stories by new male authors are often overlooked with a perception that the male voice is problematic.

  • After that, we reached out to Jude Cook, who told us he'd rather not talk because,

  • quote, the discourse has got slightly out of hand.

  • Today Explained loves nothing more than out of hand discourse.

  • And so we're going to examine the claim that young white straight men are being shut out.

  • of high end fiction.

  • Most of the classic examples of prestige white male authors are now middle aged or senior citizens.

  • Jonathan Franzen is 65 years old.

  • That's coming up.

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