Feminist Press

By the end of the 1960s, both Florence Howe and her husband Paul Lauter had taught in the Freedom Schools in Mississippi, and Howe was already attempting to compile a mini-women’s studies curriculum for her writing students at Goucher College in Baltimore.[2] As the 1970s approached, Howe was convinced that, just as she needed texts for teaching about women, so would other educators. Her initial appeal to a number of university and trade publishers to issue a series of critical feminist biographies[3] proved of no avail. Ultimately, the Baltimore Women’s Liberation, an active local group and publishers of a successful new journal, helped to raise money for the Press’s first publications. On November 17, 1970, the first meeting of the newly formed Press was held in Florence Howe's living room.[4] The first book to be published was Barbara Danish’s children's book The Dragon and the Doctor in 1971.[5] Howe saw her dreams of producing feminist biographies come true with the publication of Elizabeth Barrett Browning at the end of 1971.[5]

In the Press’s founding years, Tillie Olsen changed its course dramatically by giving Howe a photocopy of the 1861 pages of The Atlantic Monthly containing Rebecca Harding Davis's anonymously published novella Life in the Iron Mills.[6] In 1972, the Press issued this work by Rebecca Harding Davis as the first of its series of rediscovered feminist literary classics.[7] Olsen’s second suggestion, Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley, and Elaine Hedges’s suggestion, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, were published in 1973. Both have become staples of American literature and women’s studies curriculums since, with the 1990 Norton Anthology of American Literature including both Life in the Iron Mills and The Yellow Wallpaper.[8]

In the spring of 1971, Howe and her husband moved to New York, where she brought the burgeoning Press to her newly accepted professorship at Old Westbury. The president of the school allowed her to operate out of the corridor of a building originally intended as a garage for campus vehicles. The Press was met with excitement and support from students who worked in the small office in exchange for college work-study. Two New York City publishing professionals, Verne Moberg and Susan Lowes, contributed to the publication of three volumes of reprinted fiction released in 1972 and 1973, both of which Howe believes to exemplify the Press's enduring commitment to producing course-adoptable books to supplement curriculums dominated by male writers.[9] The Press continues its commitment to recovering and compiling the important work of otherwise overlooked and unpublished female artists in collections such as In Her Own Image[10] and the Women Writing Africa series.[11] In 1972, the Feminist Press became a 501(c)3 organization with tax-exempt status.[12]

In the summer of 1985, the Feminist Press moved to the CUNY campus on East Ninety-Fourth Street following an invitation from the school. Allowed to maintain an independent staff and board of directors, the Press gratefully welcomed the resources and visibility made available by this partnership.[13]

In 2001 Jean Casella became the Executive Director of the Press. She was followed by Gloria Jacobs, former Ms. Magazine editor, and Jennifer Baumgardner, cofounder of Soapbox Inc. Jamia Wilson is the current Executive Director of the Feminist Press, appointed in 2017.

Wilson is both the youngest director in the Press's forty-nine-year history and the first woman of color to head the organization. Under her leadership, the Press continues its commitment to publishing a broad range of voices. The Press has also recently endeavored to extend its reaches beyond merely publishing. In doing so, the Press has hosted a variety of events, conferences, and panels centering on key conversations in feminism.

“I grew up reading Feminist Press books from my mother’s shelf, and they were instrumental in developing my voice as an activist and writer. It’s an honor to join this intergenerational team to enliven the Press’s intersectional vision of publishing unapologetic, accessible texts that inspire action, teach empathy, and build community,” Wilson explained upon her appointment as ED.[14]

The Feminist Press remains rooted in the symbiotic relationship between a publication and its readership. In this exchange, a book not only promotes ideas to its reader, but it also inspires new formulations that could ultimately shape future publications.

The Feminist Press has remained current and relevant within the fast-changing world of modern politics and the rapid evolution of feminism. Recent bestsellers include debut short story collections Training School for Negro Girls by Camille Acker and Love War Stories by Ivelisse Rodriguez, both tracing the experiences of women and girls of color. Love War Stories was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2019.[15]

In 2016, the Press started Amethyst Editions, a queer imprint curated by Michelle Tea that champions emerging queer writers who employ genre-bending narratives and experimental writing styles, and complicates the conversation around American LGBTQ+ experiences beyond a coming out narrative. Tea's collection Against Memoir won the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay in 2019.[16] Brontez Purnell, whose novel Since I Laid My Burden Down was also published by the Amethyst Editions imprint, received a Whiting Award for Fiction in 2018.[17]

The Feminist Press has also demonstrated a commitment to publishing diverse voices in translation. Among their recent bestselling translated titles are Asja Bakic's Mars, translated by Jennifer Zoble; Cristina Rivera Garza's The Iliac Crest, translated by Sarah Booker; and Armonía Somer's The Naked Woman, translated by Kit Maude. Pretty Things, a novel by Virginie Despentes that was translated from the French by Emma Ramadan, was longlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award.[18] Trifonia Melibea Obono's La Bastarda, translated by Lawrence Schimel and the first novel by a woman from Equatorial Guinea to be published in English, was shortlisted for the 2019 Lambda Literary Awards in the Lesbian Fiction category.[19]

The Feminist Press also established the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, a literary prize for debut women and nonbinary authors of color, in partnership with TAYO Literary Magazine.[20] In 2017, YZ Chin became the first recipient of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize for her short story collection Though I Get Home. The prize has since been awarded to Claudia D. Hernández in 2018 for Knitting the Fog and Melissa Valentine in 2019 for The Names of All the Flowers.

The Feminist Press also publishes WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal. The journal began as Women's Studies Newsletter in 1972, and in 1981 it was renamed Women's Studies Quarterly.[21] Today it is a biannual release simply called WSQ. Covering a wide array of thematic subjects within emerging women's studies, the journal has published issues such as "Technologies," "Citizenship," and "Motherhood." The subject of each issue is considered through various lenses, including psychoanalytic, legal, queer, and historical interpretations in addition to many others.

• Harding Davis, Rebecca (1985). Life in the Iron Mills, and other stories. Old Westbury, New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9780935312393.
• Smedley, Agnes (1987). Daughter of Earth. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9780935312683.
• Paley, Grace (1991). Long Walks and Intimate Talks. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558610446.
• Aidoo, Ama Ata (1993). Changes: a love story. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558610651.
• Hull, Akasha; Bell-Scott, Patricia; Smith, Barbara (1993). But Some of Us Are Brave. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 0912670959.
  • Reprinted: Hull, Akasha; Bell-Scott, Patricia; Smith, Barbara (2015). But Some of Us Are Brave. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558618985.
• Ines de la Cruz, Juana (1994). La respuesta [The Answer: including a selection of poems]. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558610774.
• Perkins Gilman, Charlotte (1996). The yellow wall-paper. New York, New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558611580.
• de Rosa, Tina (1996). Paper Fish. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558611467.[22]
  • Reprinted: de Rosa, Tina (2003). Paper Fish. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614390.

• Klüger, Ruth (2001). Still Alive: a Holocaust girlhood remembered. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614369.
• Meriwether, Louise (2002). Daddy Was a Number Runner. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614420.
• Riverbend (2005). Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614895.
• Aldrich, Ann (2006). We Walk Alone. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558615250.
• Marshall, Paule (2006). Brown Girl, Brownstones. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614987.
• Despentes, Virginie (2010). King Kong Theory. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558616578.
• Ehrenreich, Barbara; English, Deirdre (2010). Witches, Midwives, & Nurses: a history of women healers (2nd ed.). New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558616615.
• Bond, Justin Vivian (2011). Tango: my childhood, backwards and in high heels. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558617476.
• Hurston, Zora Neale (2011). I Love Myself When I Am Laughing: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9780912670669.
• Parsipur, Shahrnush (2011). Women without men (2nd ed.). New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558617537.
• Darms, Lisa (2013). The Riot Grrrl Collection. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558618220.
• Preciado, Beatriz (2013). Testo Junkie. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558618374.
• Pussy Riot (2013). Pussy Riot!: a punk prayer for freedom: letters from prison, songs, poems, and courtroom statements, plus tributes to the punk band that shook the world. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558618343.
• Taormino, Tristan; Shimizu, Celine Parrenas; Penley, Constance; Miller-Young, Mireille (2013). The Feminist Porn Book. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558618183.
• Schulman, Sarah (2016). The Cosmopolitans. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558619104.
• Ross, Loretta J.; Roberts, Lynn; Derkas, Erika; Peoples, Whitney; Toure, Pamela (2017). Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614376.
• Cooper, Brittney C.; Morris, Susana M.; Boylorn, Robin M. (2017). The Crunk Feminist Collection. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558619432.
• Purnell, Brontez (2017). Since I Laid My Burden Down. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781558614314.
• Fitzgerald, Juniper; Peterson, Elise (2018). How Mamas Love Their Babies. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781936932009.
• Tea, Michelle (2018). Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 9781936932184.

The Feminist Press has launched multiple book series. Women Writing Africa was begun in 1994 with funding from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.[21] The four-volume series was completed in 2009. Like the two-volume Women Writing India, the series is composed of regionally unique women's literature. The Femmes Fatales series, featuring pulp, mystery, and noir novels by women writing in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s was launched in 2003, and includes recent releases such as the 2013 Return to Lesbos.

• 2X2 Series
• Classic Feminist Writers
• Contemporary Classics by Women
• The Defiant Muse
• Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp [23]
• The Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's Series
• Jewish Women Writers
• Women Changing the World
• Women's Lives, Women's Work
• Women Writing Africa Project
• Women Writing in India
• Women Writing the Middle East
• Women Writing Science
• Ordinary Terrible Things
• Amethyst Editions
• Drag Queen Story Hour
• Feminist Folktales from Around the World

• Bosman, Julie (January 3, 2007). "Tillie Olsen, Feminist Writer, Dies at 94". The New York Times.
• Howe, Florence (July 1, 1971). "Letter to the Editors: Feminist Press". The New York Review of Books.
• Thompson, Kathleen. "Florence Howe". Jewish Women's Archvie.
• Howe, Florence (2011). A Life in Motion. New York: The Feminist Press. ISBN 978-1-55861-697-4.
• Monaghan, Charles (April 27, 1986). "Book Report". The Washington Post Book World. p. 15.

• The Feminist Press