It’s no secret that the literary arts are dominated by a select group of people: white, straight, cisgender men. We’re here to change that. We’ve been publishing revolutionary queer women for over 35 years, and we don’t plan to stop anytime soon.
Here at Aunt Lute Books, we’re committed to publishing literature by women whose voices have been traditionally underrepresented in mainstream and small press publishing. Our revolutionary writers use their weapons of words to smash through various borders in our world, and we proudly uplift their work.
We invite you to join us in our mission by donating to our press. Your financial support helps make our work possible. Not convinced yet about why you should donate?
Here are seven reasons why you should support Aunt Lute Books on Give Out Day.
1. We’re one of the few surviving women’s presses in the United States.
Presses committed solely to curating women writers are hard to find, and presses committed to publishing underrepresented and emerging writers are even harder to find. Not only are these presses hard to find, but the number of surviving presses is dwindling. We are deeply invested in the work we do. Since 1982, we’ve published 55 books and fostered the writing careers of 33 women.
2. We foster the future of women.
Our internship program has employed more than one hundred women and equipped them with the skills and knowledge needed to work in book publishing. Many of our interns apply the skills they developed at Aunt Lute to their future careers as writers, educators, artists, and leaders.
3. We just love building community.
In addition to supporting our writers, mentoring interns, and planning our own events, we co-present and sponsor events that empower our community both in the Bay Area and beyond. We’ve co-presented and sponsored events for: CAAM (Center of Asian American Media) Fest, RADAR Productions’s Sister Spit, and QWOCMAP (Queer Women of Color Film Festival). We are always open to collaborating with other community members!
4. We’re not afraid to be the first.
We published the first anthology on South Asian American daughterhood and families (Good Girls Marry Doctors) and the first comprehensive work of South Asian American and South Asian immigrant women in the U.S (Our Feet Walk the Sky). We published the first international anthology of Filipina writers published in the U.S. (Babaylan). We published the first anthology on the fat liberation movement (Shadow on a Tightrope). In taking the first step to publish these works, we hope to inspire the industry to follow suite.
5. Glenn Beck gave us a call one day.
“A few years ago a young woman called us, saying she was a representative of Glen Beck Radio Show (ultra-conservative) and wanted to know—since we were partially funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (public tax payers’ dollars)—how we could be exclusively a women’s press. Shay, who had taken the call, is a very together person and immediately listed the male editors and translators we had, plus the two books we’d done with WritersCorps that featured young girls and boys. And then she suggested we would be delighted to talk more at length with them about this subject. For a while we were paranoid about losing our NEA funding, but none of Beck’s people ever got back to us. I kind of think the caller was a summer intern and was given a task to find these odd things for Beck to go after; NEA must have been on their list that year. Sort of sorry he didn’t come after us as it probably would have made us a smash hit overnight!”
6. Unfortunately, there’s something else we have to worry about now.
The National Endowment of the Arts is in danger of losing its funding, which would be a huge blow to all literary arts, especially small presses like us. No matter the outcome, we’re going to find a way to continue our work. Your support can help us along the way.
7. No matter what anyone says, we’re still relevant AF.
Just look at all the positive feedback our latest release Good Girls Marry Doctors has received. This anthology was nominated as a finalist for 2016 Foreword INDIES Book for the Year and recognized for the NBC Asian American literary achievement. Envision a world where mainstream publishers regularly released literature written by women living at all different intersections. Ponder that dream universe. Then, head over to our Give Out Day page to make a donation.