Persephone Press was a publishing company and communications network run by a lesbian-feminist collective in

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Sq ...

. The company published fourteen books between 1976 and 1983, when the organization was sold to

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as Jame ...

History

The company was established as Pomegranate Productions in 1976 in

, by a group of lesbian feminists. Pomegranate Productions later changed their name to Persephone Press.Persephone Press Records, 1975–1984
MC 1030. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed May 06, 2020 Pat McGloin, Gloria Z. Greenfield, and Marianne Rubenstein were the founding members of the collective. After publishing ''A Feminist Tarot'' by

Sally Gearhart Sally Miller Gearhart (April 15, 1931 – July 14, 2021) was an American teacher, radical feminist, science-fiction writer, and political activist. In 1973, she became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was ...

and Susan Rennie in 1976, Pomegranate Productions was able to subsidize a conference called "Through the Looking Glass: A Gynergenetic Experience." This conference on women's spirituality was held in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in April 1976. Rubenstein departed from the venture in 1977, and Deborah Snow joined in 1978. The collective was reorganized in 1980 to form Persephone Press when Greenfield and McGloin incorporated the group as a partnership. The work of the press was divided with Greenfield serving as financial administrator and McGloin working as the director of marketing. Greenfield and McGloin would later describe Persephone Press as "a means to actualize women's visions." Many of the works published by the Press focused on the Jewish lesbian-feminist perspective. After just eight years of operation, Persephone Press folded in May of 1983. The organization's financial difficulties included rejected loan renewals, back withholding taxes and penalties owed to the IRS, and the royalties owed authors, substantially higher than most offered in the publishing industry. Because Persephone Press titles sold rapidly, reprinting their backlist rapidly depleted the organization's liquid funds before they could accrue revenue in sales of titles. Controversy arose as the operation folded when author

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde ( ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, professor, philosopher, Intersectional feminism, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Bl ...

criticized Persephone press for leaving women of color "holding the bag." Forthcoming titles from the Press, which they no longer has the capacity to publish, were authored by Black women, including ''Abeng'' by

Michelle Cliff Michelle Carla Cliff (2 November 1946 – 12 June 2016) was a Jamaican-American author whose notable works included ''Abeng'' (1985), '' No Telephone to Heaven'' (1987), and ''Free Enterprise'' (1993). In addition to novels, Cliff also wrote ...

and ''Home Girls'', an anthology edited by

Barbara Smith Barbara Smith (born November 16, 1946) is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in Black feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s, she has been active as a scholar, activist, critic, lecturer, ...

. McGloin and Greenfield indicated they offered to help authors relocate their work to new publishers, but were instead in many cases asked only to revert the rights to the creator. McGloin and Greenfield also claim that when they sought support from the feminist community, including their own authors, their requests were "met not with concern, but with hostility that made our situation even more difficult." They describe the fundamental conflict in their work, that Persephone Press was founded on feminist ideals, but "it used a business structure to achieve impact." Persephone Press was sold to Beacon Press in 1983. Though Beacon began negotiations to establish a joint imprint with the Press, this ultimately failed.

Publications

List of publications: * ''A Feminist Tarot'' by Sally Gearhart and Susan Rennie (1976) * ''Fourteenth Witch'' by Shelley Blue Grabel (1977) * ''

The Wanderground ''The Wanderground'' is a speculative fiction novel by Sally Miller Gearhart, published in 1978 by Persephone Press. It is Gearhart's first and most famous novel, and continues to be used in women's studies classes as a characteristic example of ...

'' by Sally Gearhart (1979) * ''Choices'' by Nancy Toder (1980) * ''Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise'' by Michelle Cliff (1980) * ''Coming Out Stories'' edited by Julia Stanley and Susan Wolfe (1980) * ''Woman, Church & State'' by Matilda Jocelyn Gage, with new introduction by Sally Wagner (1980) * ''

This Bridge Called My Back ''This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color'' is a Feminism, feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa first published in 1981 by Persephone Press. The book centers on the experiences of women of colo ...

: Writings by Radical Women of Color'', edited by

Cherríe Moraga Cherríe Moraga (born September 25, 1952) is an influential Chicana feminist writer, activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. A prominent figure in Chicana literature and feminist theory, Moraga's work explores the intersections of gender, sex ...

and

Gloria Anzaldúa Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (September 26, 1942 – May 15, 2004) was an American scholar of Chicana feminism, cultural theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, '' Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza'' (1987), on h ...

(1981) * ''Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology'' edited by

Elly Bulkin Elly Bulkin (born December 17, 1944) is an American writer. A founding editor of two nationally distributed periodicals: '' Conditions'' and ''Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends.'' ''Bridges'' mission statement explains that th ...

and

Joan Larkin Joan Larkin (born April 16, 1939 in Boston) is an American poet, playwright, and writing teacher. She was active in the small press lesbian feminist publishing explosion of the 1970s, co-founding the independent publishing company Out & Out Boo ...

(1981) * ''Lesbian Fiction: An Anthology'' edited by Elly Bulkin (1981) * ''Lifetime Guarantee'' by Alice Bloch (1981) * ''Keeper of Accounts'' by Irena Klepfisz (1982) * ''Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology'' edited by

Evelyn Torton Beck Evelyn Torton Beck (born January 18, 1933) is a retired American academic. Until her retirement in 2002 she specialized in women's studies, Jewish women's studies and lesbian studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Beck has publishe ...

(1982) * Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde (1982)

References

External links

Live event recording, from approximately 1980–1981
"Persephone Press: Short Time, Long-Lasting Impact" from Schlesinger Library Publishing companies established in the 1970s Publishing collectives Feminist book publishing companies Feminist collectives Small press publishing companies Lesbian culture in Massachusetts Defunct lesbian organizations in the United States LGBTQ history in Massachusetts 1976 establishments in Massachusetts

History

Publications

References

Further reading

External links