Are you familiar with feminist presses? Their mission is to advance women’s rights and amplify feminist perspectives. They publish works from minority writers, such as women of color and LGBTQ authors. By doing so, they empower the writers whose voices are underrepresented to have their concerns addressed, and produce an arsenal of feminist discourse that can challenge the dominance of patriarchy. Publishers Weekly says:
According to the University of Wisconsin’s Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian, there are approximately 20 feminist presses in the U.S., and most of them are niche and/or micro presses…their sales have surged in recent years and that they are feeling optimistic about the future
In the same article, PW introduced The Feminist Press (located in New York), the oldest feminist publishing house in the U.S., est. 1970. Jisu Kim, the senior marketing, sales, and publicity manager, reported that sales in 2017 were up 80% from 2015.
The following books are the feminist best-sellers published by The Feminist Press:
Images via Amazon
From the left to the right, they are:
- The Crunk Feminist Collection by Brittney C. Cooper and African-American feminist bloggers (2016)
- Radical Reproductive Justice by Loretta J. Ross et al (2017)
- The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza (2017)
- Your Art Will Save Your Life by Beth Pickens (2018)
Moreover, PW introduced another feminist press－Aunt Lute (located in San Francisco)－which has published multicultural feminist books since 1982, and it claimed that sales in 2017 were up 20% from 2015.
The following books are the feminist best-sellers published by Aunt Lute:
Images via Amazon
From the left to the right, they are:
- Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa (1987)
- The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde (1980)
- ¡Cuentamelo! Oral Histories by LGBTQ Latino Immigrants by Juliana Delgado Lopera (2017)
Seal Press is another feminist press located in Berkeley California which was founded as an indie press in 1976 and sold to Avalon Publishing Group in 2001. In 2016, Seal Press became a Hachette imprint. The executive editor Laura Mazer said that the press has always remained true to its feminist origins.
The following two are recommended by Mazer:
Images via Amazon and Brookeaztell.com
From the left to the right, they are:
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (2018)
- She Is Rising by Brooke Axtell (Upcoming in May 2019)
I’m happy to see this boom in feminist publishing industry. As the French feminist Hélène Cixous argued in her article “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975), women should develop what Cixous called “Écriture féminine” (or “feminine writing”) by which women write themselves: their language, their bodies, their erotics, and their feelings. The power of Écriture féminine becomes a great weapon that challenges the violence of patriarchy.
Hey, let’s get copies of the above-mentioned feminist books and experience the power of Écriture féminine! BOOM!
Featured Image via GTL