Saunter over to your women's studies bookshelf and open up that first flap to discover who published your favorite feminist tomes. Chances are it wasn't Random House or Simon & Schuster, or one of the other major biggies (with a few exceptions). Instead you were probably introduced to feminism thanks to the ingenuity of publishers like the Feminist Press, Seal Press, or one of the other many, many small, independent publishers that takes a chance on feminist lit.
I just sold a new book (stay tuned for details), so I've been thinking a lot about ye ole publishing industry and the way it works. It is an industry that started out with a deep commitment to Ideas--to giving people the goods on how to live a great life, to challenging the status quo, to the development of long careers of writing, reading, and editing. But because of market forces hard to explain in one little blog post (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, the rise of less literary forms of entertainment etc.), the publishing industry is not heavily dependent on dollars and cents.
This isn't to say that some books aren't published simply because they contain brilliant ideas, but it is to say that we would naïve if we really bought the idea that publishers aren't primarily interested in the bottom line these days. Did my editor at Simon & Schuster buy Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters because she felt a moral obligation to spread the word about food and fitness obsession? In part. But in truth, she was able to convince her publisher to buy it because they thought it would sell. Point blank.
Feminist presses, on the other hand, still strain to juggle the bottom line with a higher calling. They are committed to spreading the feminist gospel, to challenging traditional notions of gender, to finding new voices who are marginalized and/or left out all together by mainstream publishers. For this--and for Listen Up: Voices From the Next Feminist Generation, Riverbend's books out of Iraq, and Brown Girl, Brownstone etc.--we thank them from the bottom of our big, feminist hearts.
If there is a book, published by a feminist press, that changed your life, please let us know in the comments.
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Thank you for this post and thank you even MORE to women's presses AND feminist and independent bookstores!
Awesome life changing books:
From Seal Press:
Nobody Passes (Mattilda)
Colonize This
Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties (Lemus)
The Anti 9 to 5 Guide
From Cleis Press:
Opening Up (Taormino)
From Firebrand Books:
This is What Lesbian Looks Like (Kleindienst)
From Alyson Books:
Stone Butch Blues (Feinberg)
From Crossing Press:
Sister Outsider (Lorde)
From Bywater Books:
Greeting from Jamaica Wish You Were Queer (SanGiovanni)
From Soft Skull Press:
That's Revolting (Mattilda)
From Curbstone Press:
What Night Brings (Trujillo)
Feminist presses definitely deserve a big thank you, but I am frustrated once that Seal Press is once again being praised in a post on this blog without any mention of how they have consistently ignored and minimized the concerns of feminist WOC. I'm sure Feministing is aware that many WOC feminists are girlcotting Seal Press because of recent events that make their lack of commitment to anti-racist issues and issues affecting WOC perfectly clear. I don't mean to rain on the parade at all, but at least for me as a WOC, seeing Seal Press praised here feels like a slap in the face.
I, too, would like to cosign diablaazul's objection.
If white feminists are going to be taken seriously as allies, they're going to have to step up and unpack some of that privilege, not just once, but each and every time.
If you're going to do a "Thank you Thursday" on Feminist Publishing, how about something like:
Thank you to those feminists who're working to see that feminist publishing represents *all* feminist voices.
Thank you to all those women who've said to publishers like Seal Press, "You are not doing enough. You are not walking the walk."
Thank you to those feminist publishers who're willing to be brave and admit when they've done something racist and who vow to do better next time. Thank you for those feminist publishers who actually follow through on promises to rethink their approach to race and publishing. There aren't enough of them out there doing this.
Thank you to those feminist writers who've been lucky enough to get published and who are willing to look to their own privilege and see that we do not live in a meritocracy. Thank you to those feminist writers who therefore look for ways that they can thank feminist presses for what they do well while acknowledging that they can and should do it better.
Thank you diablaazul and Miriam Heddy for your comments! I'm happy to see that there are anti-racist feminists that are asking spaces like feministing "to step up and unpack some of that privilege, not just once, but each and every time." EACH AND EVERY TIME.
On that note, one publisher that has completely changed my life and forced me to analyze feminism through an interdisciplinary lens has been South End Press.
Ain't I a woman? by bell hooks is still something I refer to on a weekly/monthly basis. Her words empower, reaffirm, and shed light on issues that I deal with daily.
Conquest by Andrea Smith fills the silences left in history books and forces us to analyze how Native women are consistenyl the target of state sponsored violence and terror.
and lastly
The Shock of Arrival by Meena Alexander. Alexander's words resonated through my bones, one of the most powerful books I have read. Pick it up if you have a chance.
Let's continue to work together and spread knowledge and power!
Thank you diablaazul and Miriam Heddy for your comments! I'm happy to see that there are anti-racist feminists that are asking spaces like feministing "to step up and unpack some of that privilege, not just once, but each and every time." As a white anti-racist feminist it is a struggle to acknowledge my priviledge EACH AND EVERY TIME, but it is absolutely necessary in order to restore bridges and strengthen the feminist/womanist community.
On that note, one publisher that has completely changed my life and forced me to analyze feminism through an interdisciplinary lens has been South End Press.
Ain't I a woman? by bell hooks is still something I refer to on a weekly/monthly basis. Her words empower, reaffirm, and shed light on issues that I deal with daily.
Conquest by Andrea Smith fills the silences left in history books and forces us to analyze how Native women are consistently the target of state sponsored violence and terror.
and lastly
The Shock of Arrival by Meena Alexander. Alexander's words resonated through my bones, one of the most powerful books I have read. Pick it up if you have a chance.
Let's continue to work together and spread knowledge and power!
Thanks for your comments. I was trying to create a space where we recognized what these presses (Seal and many others) do well. I think Jess has written eloquently about the critical issues that Seal needs to work on.
Slightly OT, but I would love to thank feminist bookstores as well, which I don't see many of here in S. CA. We had a great one in Pasadena, Page One, which I discovered in the 1970s. I was just a teen and it really changed my life. Sadly, it is no longer there.
Courtney said: "I was trying to create a space where we recognized what these presses (Seal and many others) do well. I think Jess has written eloquently about the critical issues that Seal needs to work on."
The trouble is, Courtney, that when you don't mention the critical issues that Seal needs to work on in posts like this, you are "disappearing" the issues -- and believe me, people feel it.
I don't think anyone here would like it if there were a post creating a space to talk about how Barbie dolls were awesome parts of childhood, but which didn't acknowledge that Barbie dolls have got some critical issues to confront.
That's basically what you're doing here, with Seal Press.
Such a space is not incompatible with recognition that some of these presses still have a lot of work to do to make sure that the voices of ALL feminists are represented. This post praises what feminist presses have done for feminism (which is appropriate) without acknowledging that many kinds of feminism(s) still have yet to find an outlet for publication, even from feminist presses. For those of us who already feel like we have little voice, this only makes us feel all the more invisible. I'm sorry, but acknowledging the problems with Seal Press in one or two posts is just not enough, not if Feministing bloggers keep publishing with them and giving unqualified praise in all the other posts. Personally I find it very alienating.
I'm sorry, but acknowledging the problems with Seal Press in one or two posts is just not enough, not if Feministing bloggers keep publishing with them and giving unqualified praise in all the other posts. Personally I find it very alienating.
Not to mention, nowhere does this post point to previous posts that criticize Seal Press. So while those one or two posts that another Feministing blogger has made criticizing Seal Press are good and definitely needed, at the very least they need to be brought up in conjunction with mentions of Seal Press.
A Feminist Press book I love is Tatterhood. It's a collection of folk tales from around the world that are about women and girls saving the day through intelligence and perseverance. A feminist aunt gave me the book when I was 9 or 10. I re-read it a couple of months ago at 22 and the stories were still wonderful. The physical book, on the other hand, has been read almost to death and is pretty worn down.
This is also slightly OT - Courtney, I'm reading Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters right now and really loving it, so looking forward to the details on your new book.
I enjoy the obvious books, mostly because many of the book stores around here don't have much of a Women's Studies section. As soon as I have enough money to, of course I'll buy books online, but until then I stick with these:
-Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Mary Pipher, Ph.D.)
-Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (Inga Muscio)
-He's a Stud, She's a Slut (Jessica)
-Full Frontal Feminism (Jessica)
- The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order (Marcelle Karp)
-The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan)
I also read a lot of fiction, which while itself isn't necessarily feminist, I have books which prescribe to the feminist ideas, or at least explain some of the hardships women go through:
-Leftovers (Laura Weiss)
-Such a Pretty Girl (Laura Weiss)
-Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)
-Lucky (Alice Sebold)
-She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
-Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (Deborah Rodriguez)
-The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
-The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
I really loved Cunt by Inga Muscio so I was also very pleased with Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil. It is sad however that Seal Press has white women write about racism while they continue it themselves. I had no idea that Seal were doing this so I am glad it was brought up in the comments.
My all time fave is Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks.