Women in Independent Publishing - by Stephanie Anderson

Book Synopsis

Women in Independent Publishing is a collection of interviews with and resources about women actively engaged in small-press publishing between the 1950s and the 1980s. The interviewees include Hettie Jones, Margaret Randall, Bernadette Mayer, and many others.

The scope and range of the interviews showcase a variety of types of publishing possible within the small press community. These interviews illuminate the unifying and diverging elements between multiple publishing "scenes" and reveal their particularities and commonalities. Women in Independent Publishing is a timely and urgent documentation of literary history and reveals and celebrates the multifaceted roles of women editors and publishers and the communities they built.

The book includes a critical introduction, an afterword by contemporary small-press publisher M. C. Hyland and a robust resources section that provides further paths for reading and literary recovery.

Review Quotes

"This long-overdue tribute to women publishers and editors in the small and independent press world is chock full of fascinating interviews and resource information. While creating 'presses of their own, ' these women had a profound influence on the poetry, literature, and politics of the last half of the twentieth century. Women in Independent Publishing is a must-read for book lovers everywhere."--David Unowsky, founder of The Hungry Mind Review


"Lively discussions illuminate the personal histories and challenges of a vibrant era where women editors, graphic designers, and publishers working individually and with partners faced considerable hardships and challenges that entrepreneurial women often face. Before desktop publishing, grass roots publishers often worked at home on mimeograph machines to create magazines, journals, and books that celebrate a wealth of early literary, feminist, indigenous, and women of color writers and illustrators which laid the groundwork for contemporary BIPOC LGBTQ+ writers, audiences, and publishers to come."--Marilyn Stablein, author of Houseboat on the Ganges and a Room in Kathmandu

"Too much of our literary history has been lost or forgotten. This fantastic collection of interviews documents many of the important contributions by women writers, editors, and literary activists whose work changed our culture in so many ways. These singular stories, woven together, create a tapestry of memory and work, words that continue to sing to us, past, present, and future."--David Wilk, publisher

"Book artists will find in this work fascinating details about the publishing process, but every reader will be moved by the personal energy that drove these women to become publishers and the powerful network of friends and community that they helped to create."--Terence Diggory, author of Encyclopedia of New York School Poets