Catch Aunt Lute at Dominican University’s Virtual Panel: Three Radical Presses Discuss Visions for Change
Join our Executive Director Joan Pinkvoss and Marketing & Programming Director Emma Rosenbaum in conversation with editors from Sixteen Rivers Press and Black Freighter Press. They will be discussing literary production and envisioning change.
When: this Friday, June 11th, 3-5 pm PT
Register here!
Nancy Agabian Named 2021 Recipient of the Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction
Lambda Literary’s Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, in memory of the beloved activist and author, honors lesbian/queer-identified women and trans/gender non-conforming nonfiction authors. The award will go to a writer committed to nonfiction work that captures the depth and complexity of lesbian/queer life, culture, and/or history. The winner of the prize will have published at least one book and show promise in continuing to produce groundbreaking and challenging work.
Nancy is the author of Me As Her Again, a narrative alternately comical and wrenching. Moving between memories of growing up Armenian and American in Walpole, Massachusetts, and her later experiences at Wellesley College, then Hollywood and, finally, Turkey, Agabian offers an illuminating meditation on the sometimes bizarre entanglement of individual desire (sexual and otherwise) in the web of family life and history.
At the heart of this unraveling is a grappling with the history of trauma and upheaval experienced by her paternal grandmother, who survived the Armenian Genocide, and the legacy of that wounding experience for Agabian and her extended family.
Olivia on the Record by Ginny Berson Reviewed by Rain and Thunder Magazine
“Ginny’s book is filled with her personal stories. She shares the joys, the struggles and controversies, the attacks from within the women’s movement. She also acknowledges her own blind spots... Ginny’s story shows how we make the road by walking. She stays true to her revolutionary lesbian feminist vision, by living it in every detail of her life. The means are the ends.”
— Amy Donohue for Rain and Thunder Magazine
The burgeoning lesbian and feminist movements of the '70s and '80s created an impetus to form more independent and equitable social and cultural institutions—bookstores, publishers, health clinics, and more—to support the unprecedented surge in women's arts of all kinds. Olivia Records was at the forefront of these models, not only recording and distributing women's music but also creating important new social spaces for previously isolated women and lesbians through concerts and festivals.
Ginny Z. Berson, one of Olivia's founding members and visionaries, kept copious records during those heady days—days also fraught with contradictions, conflicts, and economic pitfalls. With great honesty, Berson offers her personal take on what those times were like, revisiting the excitement and the hardships of creating a fair and equitable lesbian-feminist business model—one that had no precedent.
“Olivia on the Record is a must read for feminists young and old, those who were part of the 1970s women’s liberation movement and those who missed it. It is a guide for how much a small group of women can accomplish, planting the seeds for future feminist institutions. Reading this book made me grateful for all the small groups of women who built the women's culture which I grew up into and took for granted (including Aunt Lute Books, this book's publisher) and the importance of supporting them.”
— Amy Donohue for Rain and Thunder Magazine
Rain and Thunder is a grassroots publication created and distributed by a collective of radical feminist women. Published three times a year, Rain and Thunder brings you the very best in radical feminist news, analysis, theory, community building, and activism.
The magazine is available for purchase here (issue 77).
Author Updates
ire’ne lara silva
ire’ne has many events scheduled in the coming months, from workshops and readings, to panels and festivals.
Learn more here.
Tongo Eisen Martin
The Kronos Quartet Performing Arts Association will be joined by San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin in Third in the World, a new film with original poetry, focusing on the Black American struggle for civil rights. Learn more here.
Tongo will also be in conversation with us on the Radical Press Panel!
Juli Delgado Lopera
Juli’s multilingual debut novel Fiebre Tropical won a Lambda Literary award for Lesbian Fiction!
Read more here.
Nancy Agabian
Nancy will be featured on a panel of queer Armenian writers this Saturday, June 12th at 1 pm ET/10 am PT/9 pm Yerevan. It will be a reading and discussion among several LGBTQ Armenian writers about the development of queer Armenian literature over the past few generations.
Learn more here.
Ramy El-Etreby
Learn more here.
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