book publishing

My book, Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism, has just been released. More about that later, but for now I wanted to let those of you in the NYC area know about an upcoming book event:

Girl Zines at Bluestockings

Saturday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m.

Free!

I’ll do a brief reading from the book, and then fabulous zine creators Ayun Halliday, Victoria Law, Jenna Freedman, and Lauren Jade Martin will read from some of their zines.  Someone from BUST will also be there.

Here’s how Bluestockings is advertising the event:  The East Village Inky… Mend My Dress… Dear Stepdad… I’m So Fucking Beautiful… In the past two decades, women have produced 1000’s of unique zines which serve as engaged and tangible evidence of the third wave feminism. Join Alison Piepmeier for a reading and discussion of her book “Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism,” which explores these quirky, personalized booklets and the meaning of being a revolutionary girl.

I would love to see Girl with Pen readers there!

Below is a message from She Writes founder Kamy Wicoff.  Please pass it on!

Dear friends and colleagues,

Last week, Publisher’s Weekly came out with its first-ever Best Books of 2009 list, and its Top Ten Books of the year included zero books written by women. Yes, ZERO. PW‘s explanation for the omission was outrageous, insulting, and smug: “We ignored gender and genre and who had the buzz. We gave fair chance to the ‘big’ books of the year, but made them stand on their own two feet. It disturbed us when we were done that our list was all male.”  As if PW‘s Top Ten Books List were an immutable truth handed down by God. (Sorry, girls!) As if women writers and writers of color, who, with one exception, also failed to make the cut, can’t “stand on their own two feet.”

Some of you have already heard from me on this subject. If you are a member of the network I recently founded, shewrites.com–an online community of 5,000+ women writers, established and aspiring alike, from all fifty states and more than thirty countries–you have received an email describing the She Writes Day of Action planned in response to PW‘s list. And if you are receiving this email, you are part of my personal network, and I am writing to ask that you take part in Friday’s action.

The PW list, while just plain silly, is also indicative of a larger, more insidious attitude toward women who write and the stories they tell (“small,” “unambitious,” “personal”). And to my mind, the extreme stupidity of this list presents an excellent opportunity to question the assumption that men’s work is important, and women’s work is, well, women’s work.

I thought of creating an alternative She Writes Top Ten Books of 2009 List, but decided I‘d rather honor the efforts of our community than create another inevitably flawed list. So I am asking all of our members to do three things on She Writes by Friday, November 13th:

1) Buy a book published by a woman in 2009, and tell She Writes about it.  If you published a book in 2009, send me a line and we will highlight it on She Writes’ book cover banner.  (Please join the network first.)

2) Post a blog on She Writes in response to PW‘s article–share your favorite books of 2009, or use this opportunity to sound off more generally.

3) Invite five fellow women writers to add to our numbers, and our power, at She Writes.

Many of you have the stature, the eloquence, and the platforms to call attention to this action in a way that will make all the difference to its success. A post on She Writes can be as short as a shout-out for a favorite book of 2009, or as simple as reposting something you have already written on this subject (Katha Pollitt, Elaine Showalter, Francine Prose, and Laura Miller all come immediately to mind). My hope is to spur book sales and lively discussion. If you have any questions or want any assistance in joining the site or posting a blog, please don’t hesitate to write to me at kamy@shewrites.com.

Kamy

Just a quick shout out to a number of authors with FANTABULOUS feminist books out this fall.  Congrats, admiration, and heartfelt kudos to:

1. GWP’s very own Elline Lipkin, who penned Girls’ Studies, hot off the presses from Seal; it’s the latest in the Seal Studies series (which includes Shira Tarrant’s most excellent Men and Feminism of course too!) and gets the thumbs up from Peggy Orenstein who says “If I were to recommend one book to students of the field, Girls Studies would be it.”

2. Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Linda Tarr-Whelan, whose book Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World offers practical steps for women to bring their passions, brains, and background to the power tables and make life better for themselves, their companies/organizations, and the world.  We’ve still got a ways to go.

3. Clarie Mysko, formerly of Girls Inc, whose book Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?: The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby and whose body activism could not have come at a better time for this soon-to-be mama over here.

4. Jacquette Timmons, a compadre of mine from Woodhull, whose inaugural book Financial Intimacy: How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Your Money and Your Mate smartly addresses the financial issues that couples face, examining how family background, personal choices, and socioeconomic and cultural influences affect the way women merge love and money.

…and lastly, a book long-awaited, the publication of which is now poignantly bittersweet…

5. Nona Willis-Aronowitz and the late (and much missed) Emma Bee Bernstein, whose Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism. It’s a road trip, a blog, a book, and, quite frankly, an inspiration. You can join the community by visiting: http://www.girl-drive.com/community/.  Watch the trailer here.

I hope you’ll join me in supporting these amazing writers by buying, reading, and spreading word about their new and important work!

The one, the only Daphne Uviller (who coedited Only Child with me) had a great piece in yesterday’s City Section of the NYTimes — part of the series “Her Tales of the City”.  Daph’s essay is a great lead in to her latest book, a novel called Super in the City, which came out a few months ago.  Do check it out: “The Boiler that Broke Her Heart.”

(YOU GO, COED!)

I’ll be teaching next at Woodhull’s Raise Your Voice: Non-fiction Writers’ Retreat.  If you haven’t been to one of these and have wanted to, here’s your next chance!

WHEN: Friday, May 29 at 12:00pm – Sunday, May 31 at 6:00pm
WHERE: Ancramdale, NY

WHAT I’M TEACHING THERE (the third person description):

How to write a book proposal: In this module, instructor Deborah Siegel will teach the group how to take a subject about which they are passionate and generate from it an exciting, marketable, serious non-fiction book proposal. She will cover the proposal itself, the chapter outline, the bio, and the marketing section. (This module, like the op-ed and the feature article, simply expand and develop the core skills of the outline section). Deborah will then walk the participants through the cycle of submission to an agent; the agent’s submission of the proposal to multiple houses; the bidding process; the signing of the contract; the writing cycle; the editing and copy editing and fact checking cycle; the publishing cycle and the publicity phase of the hardback non-fiction book. She will show participants what the common mistakes are that writers make in crafting book proposals and will demonstrate the difference between an unpublishable and a highly commercial book proposal both of which are based on an identical subject.

To see more details and sign up, click here, or follow the Facebook link:http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=76369983156&mid=77cad7G1e120b00G1ae0659G7

You heard it here first!  Or rather, folks have heard it on Publisher’s Lunch last week, and I’m uberexcited to share the news with the GWP community.  Here’s the listing announcing my next project (title, of course, subject to change!):

NON-FICTION: HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS
Young feminist commentator and author of SISTERHOOD, INTERRUPTED: FROM RADICAL WOMEN TO GRRLS GONE WILD Deborah Siegel’s MAN ENOUGH: HOW THE NEW MANHOOD IS CHANGING WOMEN’S LIVES, exploring how young men today may express very different attitudes about gender equality than previous generations but at the same time our cultural ideals of masculinity have not changed very much, to Amy Caldwell at Beacon Press, in a nice deal, by Tracy Brown at Tracy Brown Literary Agency (NA).

I just hung up the phone with a new author who has a book project that I’m very excited about. I can’t tell you much about her project just yet—I’m trying to keep it on the down low for as long as possible—but I’ll say this: it kicks some serious bottom, and I can’t wait to work with her on it in the next handful of months.

I was telling her exactly this when she asked me The Question. “So,” she asked, “are you my editor?”

I don’t like this question. It makes me feel stuck somewhere between Kierkegaard’s Who am I?! and that PD Eastman book where the bird falls out of the tree and thinks the bulldozer is his mother.

I also don’t like the question because I tend not to handle the answering of it very well. I usually say something like, “Well, yes and no … ” Sometimes I say, “Well, no and yes …” Because that can be true, too.

Being a writer and all, I know my author can handle irony. But she didn’t seem too happy with me. So I did what I often do when I get asked The Question: I launched into an excessively detailed exegesis of the variations on Editor, and I’ll share it with you now so you never have to suffer the way my poor author did today.

As an author, you will likely have many editors. Some of them will edit your manuscript—that is, they will actually read what you have written and make suggestions for improvements to the language, pace, tone, and scope of your writing. Other editors will not edit your manuscript, but they will still be your editors.

The first editor an author meets is almost always the acquisitions editor. This is the person who is responsible for making a contractual offer for your project and negotiating the terms of the contract until it’s agreed upon by the publisher and the author. Some acquisitions editors only acquire, while others do other kinds of editing as well. Therefore, your acquisitions editor may or may not also be your …

Developmental editor. The developmental editor is the person who works with you to shape your project into a final and complete manuscript. A DE might make comments such as, “Have you ever thought about adding directions for a knitting project to the end of each chapter? Knitting is very in” or, “Chapter 12: more sex.” This is the most intensive/creative edit your book will get, though not all books even require a developmental edit. If yours does, your DE may or may not also be your …

Project editor. The project editor—also called your “in house” editor, or your shepherding editor, or your championing editor, or more often than anything else, generically “your editor”—may or may not actually do any editing of your book. She will, however, be the publisher’s point person for your project and, hopefully, an advocate for you and your book. She’ll discuss with you such things as cover design, deadlines, and your pub date, and she’ll convey any feedback the other staffers may have about your book (i.e., “Marketing says that Eat, Pray, Schlep isn’t really working for them as a title.”) Your project editor will likely oversee the descriptive copy that’s written about your book for publicity and catalog purposes to ensure it’s in line with what your manuscript will be delivering. Your project editor is most likely not also your …

Copyeditor. The copyeditor reads your manuscript and makes edits in accordance with such wonkiness as house style, grammar, and consistency. She may also ask you questions such as, “Re Charlotte Sometimes reference on page 233: Is this a reference to the time-travel YA novel by Penelope Farmer or the B side of The Cure’s Splintered in Her Head? Please clarify.” The copyeditors are actually the most underappreciated of the bunch—they are the unsung heroes of the editorial team, often a freelancer who polishes your manuscript until it shines and then disappears into the night. A tip: Ask your project editor if you can write a brief memo to the copyeditor before she begins her pass. That way you can flag any special words (“please stet spelling of golldangit”) or styles (“I prefer to refer to characters by a single capitalized letter and a long dash, as in ‘M—’, even though critics will likely find me affected for doing so. Please stet.”)

One more editor who will get her hands dirty on your book is the proofreader, who will review your book for accuracy after it’s been laid out. (Another tip: Ask your editor—you’ll know which one to ask when the time comes—if you can see the pages after the proofreader has taken her pass. Your editor may hate you for it, but it’s the only way you’ll see the absolutely final pages before they’re printed. She may say no—there often isn’t time for this extra step—but if you ask very, very nicely and promise to return with edits within, say, 24 hours, you might just get a yes.)

And now you know why The Question is so stressful. Why yes and no is accurate, as is no and yes. My recommendation: offer each so-called editor at your publisher a checklist and ask them to check all that apply.

Seriously.  I kid thee not.  In the May 18th issue currently on the stands, two members of my writers group have features!

For an adaptation from a chapter of her forthcoming book, In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood (Basic, May 11), see “Why I Froze My Eggs” by our very own Rachel Lehmann-Haupt.

Four pages later comes “Listening to Madness” by our Alissa Quart–also part of chapter of a forthcoming book.  The article looks at “why some mentally ill patients are rejecting their medication and making the case for ‘mad pride'” and is, like Alissa, rather brilliant.

It’s been humbling and inspiring and instructive to be part of this writers group, which we affectionately call Matilda, after the cat who lives at the Algonquin Hotel where we first met.  Rachel’s book in particular has paralleled aspects of my life–as it will the lives of many of us living on, as she calls it, the edge of our fertility.

For more on In Her Own Sweet Time, which should be available in bookstores asap, check out this interview with Rachel over at YourTango.

I got lots more to say on the whole fertility front, but I leave that for another post…

Kathryn Joyce is a journalist and author of the new release Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement (Beacon Press). A graduate of both Hampshire College and New York University, her freelance writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Nation, Mother Jones, and many other publications. Joyce recently spoke to Girl with Pen about her research experiences, intersectional conflicts within the Quiverfull movement, and the public’s response to her groundbreaking new work:

What experiences in your journalism career prompted a deeper exploration of the Quiverfull patriarchal movement?

I first came across the Quiverfull movement while researching the anti-contraception movement among pro-life pharmacists claiming “conscientious objections” to dispensing birth control. I had been unaware of anti-abortion claims that birth control functions as abortion, and hadn’t known that opposition to contraception had become an important issue among Protestants and evangelicals in addition to traditional opponents among Catholic and LDS churches. Looking into some of the groups that were supportive of the pharmacists’ movement, though, I came across a surprisingly well-organized coalition of evangelical anti-contraception groups, some of whom were arguing that Christians should leave their family size and spacing in the hands of God. As I began to read a number of books that shaped the community and conviction, particularly early movement texts like Mary Pride’s The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality, and Rick and Jan Hess’ Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ, I began to see a vehement anti-feminism and another, startling motivation for large Christian families as well, as the Quiverfull authors told readers that by having very large families, and teaching their children to do the same, they could win the culture wars through numbers alone.

The oppositions between feminism and Quiverfull Christianity are rooted in the patriarchal traditions of this sect. In your research, did you find any subversive femininst actions taken by former or current Quiverfull followers?

Quiverfull is not a sect of Christianity, but a grassroots movement that spans numerous denominations and church traditions.

That said, there is certainly a feminist subversiveness among women who have left the movement, such as Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, Vyckie Garrison and Laura Sutton, as well as other evangelical women who did not follow the Quiverfull conviction but did faithfully believe in the patriarchy doctrines they were taught in their churches. A number of women taught to follow these beliefs have responded by either leaving the faith and conviction entirely, or by attempting to reshape the teachings to fight abuse. However, I think the common thread of all the women I’ve spoken to who contended with these issues is the overwhelming pressure against their leaving these communities, and the financial, emotional and spiritual obstacles they have to overcome in order to do so.

My working title for Quiverfull was “Trust and Obey,” the name of an 1800s Presbyterian hymn that is frequently referenced by Quiverfull supporters as the foundation for their role in life. It reads: “Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way/ to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” The sentiment of the hymn really sums up the role of faith and obedience, or submission, in this movement—that, beyond the demographic dreams of leaders with a vision of thousands of Christian children taking over the country, this movement tells women they must have a faith strong enough to have children they may not necessarily be able to provide for, but to trust instead that God will take care of them if they are obedient to the authorities “he’s placed over them.” It’s a deceptively simple challenge to any woman who is having second thoughts about giving up so much self-determination.

How would you describe the demographics of the Quiverfull movement? In what ways are Quiverfull Christians defined by gender, race, class, and other forms of social and personal privilege?

Quiverfull is largely white, but not entirely so. There are families of color within the movement, as well as prominent biracial couples. I think there are racial undertones to a number of aspects of the movement, particularly its preoccupation with demography and population, and leaders utilizing falling fertility in European countries as a warning that countries that embrace family planning end up “invaded” by hordes of immigrants. Similarly, there are questionable ties between some movement leaders and far-right fringe groups that embrace neo-Confederate notions about slavery and race or immigration. Additionally, one movement author, Charles Provan, author of The Bible and Birth Control, was also notably a Holocaust revisionist. And a very popular author and women’s leader, Nancy Campbell, author of Be Fruitful and Multiply and publisher of the long-running Above Rubies magazine, frequently makes a pitch for large families in order to out-breed Muslims. I don’t think that all Quiverfull people are motivated by racist thinking whatsoever, or even that there’s more racism within the movement than in American culture at large, but I do think that there are troubling undertones to a lot of the messages that the leadership of the movement advances, and the way in which they seem to appeal to people’s racial or immigration fears or biases as a third motivation for having large families beyond obedience to God and the idea of Christian dominion through numbers.

In terms of gender, however, there is absolutely no pretense at equality between the sexes except, as many leaders are fond of repeating, equality under God. Men and women are equal in the eyes of God, they say, but have different roles here on earth. What that translates to in reality is a system of often strict male headship and female submissiveness, where Christian women are never supposed to be out from under the “protective covering” of a male authority any time in their life. Founders of the movement, including Mary Pride, made it clear that the ultimate target of the movement was feministic ideas of equality, and that in order to be good Christian wives, women had to subordinate themselves to their husbands as army privates submit to officers, so that a well-organized Christian army stands a better chance of winning. Other teachers of “biblical womanhood” – the total lifestyle patriarchy advocates promote as an antidote to feminism – include rising early to feed the family, being available anytime to satisfy a husband’s desires (barring a few “ungodly” or “homosexual” acts), seeking his approval regarding work, appearance, and leisure, and accepting that he has the “burden” of final say in arguments. After a wife has respectfully appealed her spouse’s decision — a privilege she should not abuse — she must accept his final answer as “God’s will for her at that time.”

How have the families you interviewed for this book responded to its publication?

I haven’t heard from all of the families I’ve spoken with. Those who have contacted me have generally found the book fair and respectful, although they of course disagree with the position I’m coming from. That’s been the reaction of a lot of reviewers, from Bitch magazine to Christianity Today. And I’ve heard from more women who have left Quiverfull or patriarchal churches, and they’ve remarked that they were surprised a secular outsider could understand the movement so well.

Although I haven’t heard from many critics yet, I think that one response that both I and exited Quiverfull women have heard a lot is that to have a negative experience of this lifestyle means that the woman or her family weren’t “doing it right,” or weren’t following the conviction with the right Christian spirit, but with a “legalistic” spirit concerned more with rules than with following Jesus. While I understand where this response comes from, I have to disagree. While apologists for Quiverfull or patriarchy teachings say that both can be wonderful things if practiced with the correct Christian heart and motivations – with an eye towards glorifying God, and not being mired in “legalistic” rules – in my observation, many, many women described beginning to follow the conviction out of a sense of faith, and very soon found that the lifestyle was one of hard and fast rules, and unforgiving standards that few women could keep up with.

Does the Quiverfull movement have a future? Do you feel that changes in American politics or the economy will impact the success of this growing movement?

I think of Quiverfull as a purist vanguard of the antiabortion and anti-contraception movements. I think there has certainly been a growth in the visibility of very large families following these convictions and lifestyles, but I don’t imagine that huge swaths of the country will begin having 18 children next year. Instead, however, I think they will continue to exist and grow as an ideal of the Christian right family: institutionalized already in the “Natural Family Manifesto” that’s promoted by the World Congress of Families: an interdenominational coalition of religious right groups that includes almost every major religious right political organization in the country. They explicitly endorse women having a “full quiver” of children, and have taken their message to Europe, where they tell countries with declining fertility to fight it (and immigration) by encouraging every woman to have 3-4 children each. Likewise, major denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, which has 16 million members, have begun making sympathetic statements in recent years (to complement their existing “complementarian” stance on wifely submission), saying that deliberate childlessness among Christians is moral rebellion against God. So I think they will have a trickle-down influence on religious right standards in that way, and will serve as inspiration to the anti-contraception groups that are trying to promote anti-birth control policy.

We’re pleased to bring you another cross-post from our friends at Feminist Review. In this week’s edition, Sarah Eve Nichols-Fulghum reviews Michelle Goldberg’s The Means of Reproduction. –Kristen

In The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, author and investigative journalist Michelle Goldberg uses her abilities to uncover the truth about the reproductive rights (and lack thereof) for women around the world. As we grow into a global community, the politics of sex, child bearing, and child rearing are monumental issues that are overlooked for the convenience of those in power. This book explores the reality of the situation, including many real life accounts of the struggles faced by women in countries that span four continents.

Chapter one begins with a heartbreaking tale of the first victim of an abortion ban in Nicaragua. The country deemed that abortion in any form was illegal. Jazmina Bojorge began suffering a miscarriage and due to fear of legal repercussions the doctors, against their better judgment, gave her medicine to stop the labor because helping her with the miscarriage—that is, terminating the pregnancy—would have been illegal. The delay in action caused her to die. If the doctors could have performed medical assistance in ways that are associated with abortions, it would have saved Jazmina’s life.

The book goes into great detail about the various issues that surround women’s rights and the laws and culture that repress them. Topics include contraception, pregnancy and childbirth, AIDS, female circumcision, abortion, sex-selective abortion, rape, and the role of women in society. The political stances of both the Left and the Right are dissected with suggestions of what should be done and how women can stand strong together to fight against the torment we collectively endure.

The Means of Reproduction is a hard hitting read. Goldberg opens the eyes of the reader to the unjust treatment of women due to reproduction. Feminist activists will be motivated to take stronger action after reading this book. Anyone else will be hit with the realization that they can no longer choose to be ignorant. The facts are stacked up, and it’s time to take action.

Review by Sarah Eve Nichols-Fulghum

(Crossposted at Feminist Review)