{"id":1122,"date":"2022-05-19T10:05:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T09:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2022-05-19T10:05:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T09:05:25","slug":"season-xviii-alphaday-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/season-xviii-alphaday-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Season XVIII &#8211; Alphaday 13"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to Alphaday 13, Season XVIII. The annual break is drawing near, and we will finish off the season with a celebration of everything we\u2019ve achieved during our companionable labours over the last many months. Our main achievement, I think, is the enthusiastic interaction between Alphas which has inspired us and motivated us to keep writing while exploring every aspect of what it means to be a writer. There are about as many different takes on writing as there are Alphas, and that is our cornucopia where we can dip in and enjoy the treasures on offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s agenda has an obvious winding down flavour with only three items. They aren\u2019t to be sneezed at, however, and I expect they\u2019ll provide you with plenty of food for thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Alphaday 13 agenda:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>This bulletin from me<\/li><li>The results and feedback from the Open Page 3<sup>rd<\/sup> edition from Ros<\/li><li>The Alpha Season XVIII survey from Christine<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Alpha survey is an annual event which every Alpha member has to complete. It\u2019ll allow me to plan for the next season and it\u2019ll allow you to evaluate our activities and make useful suggestions for improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>General news. <\/strong>I thought I\u2019d mention something that\u2019s happened here in France for a change. I try to avoid being parochial, but just this once won\u2019t hurt. Here\u2019s the big event: France has appointed a <em>woman<\/em> Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. She\u2019s the second French woman prime minister ever, but Edith Cresson in 1991-92 didn\u2019t even last a full year. Let\u2019s see how long Elisabeth Borne lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her inauguration speech she dedicated her election to \u201call the little girls\u201d \u2013 to show them that they can realise their dreams. That, in my view, is a sad indictment of the patriarchal state of affairs in France. With no sexist implications it would be like Boris Johnson in his inauguration speech saying that he was showing all the little boys that they could succeed \u2026 provided they pass through Eton and Oxbridge, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Somehow I think both Thatcher and Merkel disregarded the sexist angle because they believed in themselves \u2013 and that\u2019s probably the trick. Michele Obama has made similar comments, but adding the colour barrier to that of being a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I admire Bernardine Evaristo for her dedication to all those who\u2019re faced with discrimination barriers \u2013 as is evident from her Booker Prize novel titled \u2018Girl, Woman, Other\u2019. She\u2019s a very active and hard working campaigner for equality. She\u2019s also an academic with a brilliant record to her credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The success story of Tracey Emin is quite a different one \u2013 and yet. Talk about airing your dirty laundry in public! She did that. She turned herself inside out and depicted the most painful and unpleasant parts in paintings, sculptures, installations, poems and an autobiographical novel. She\u2019s also a CBE, and in December 2011 she was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy. This made her one of the first two female professors since the Academy was founded in 1768. Tracey Emin\u2019s career is in stark contrast to that of Elisabeth Borne when it comes to showing all the little girls that they can realise their dreams. It\u2019s a shame on society that the little girls actually need to be told that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 13, Season XVIII. The annual break is drawing near, and we will finish off the season with a celebration of everything we\u2019ve achieved during our companionable labours&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alphaday-bulletins-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}