Headmistress Press
File:Headmistress_Press_Logo.jpg
{{short description|American publishing company}}
Headmistress Press is a small press based in Sequim, Washington. Founded in 2013, the press specializes in poetry by lesbian poets. Notable poets who have published collections with Headmistress include Janice Gould, Joy Ladin, Constance Merritt, and Lesléa Newman.
History
Headmistress Press was started in 2013 by founding editor Mary Meriam, founding editor Risa Denenberg, and Jessica Lowell Mason (formerly Jessica Mason McFadden), who gave the press its name.{{cite web |website=Ms. Magazine |title=As National Poetry Month Ends, We Welcome A New Women's Poetry Press |date=April 30, 2013 |url=http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/04/30/as-national-poetry-month-ends-we-welcome-a-new-womens-poetry-press/}} In 2015, Rita Mae Reese joined Meriam and Denenberg as "Mistress of Marketing." The advisory board includes Ellen Bass, R. Nemo Hill, JP Howard, Joy Ladin, and Hannah Barrett.{{cite web|title=Headmistress Press|url=http://www.pw.org/small_presses/headmistress_press|website=Poets & Writers}}{{cite web |website=Headmistress Press |title=Advisory Board |url=https://www.headmistress-press.com/2017/07/sapphos-prize-in-poetry.html/2017/07/advisory-board.html}}{{cite web |website=Headmistress Press |title=Mistresses |url=https://www.headmistress-press.com/2017/07/sapphos-prize-in-poetry.html/2017/07/mistresses.html?m=1}}
Several of its publications have won awards: The Body's Alphabet by Ann Tweedy (2016) won a Bisexual Book Award for Poetry,{{cite web |website=The Bi Writers Association |title=Fifth Annual Bisexual Book Awards Winners & Finalist List: Books of 2016 |url=http://www.biwriters.org/finalists-winners/}} and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction{{cite web |website=Lambda Literary |title=29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced |date=14 March 2017 |url=https://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/news/03/14/29th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists-announced/}} and for the Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Poetry.{{cite web |website=GCLS |url=http://www.goldencrown.org/page/2017Finalist |title=2017 Goldie Finalists}} I Carry My Mother by Lesléa Newman was named a 2016 "Must Read" title by the Massachusetts Center for the Book{{cite web |website=Mass. Center for the Book |url=http://massbook.org/programs/mass-book-awards/ |title=Mass Book Awards |access-date=2017-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922201000/http://massbook.org/programs/mass-book-awards/ |archive-date=2016-09-22 |url-status=dead }} and received the 2016 Golden Crown Literary Society Poetry Award.{{cite web |website=GCLS |title=2016 Goldie Winners |url=http://www.goldencrown.org/page/2016GoldieWinners}} Conjuring My Leafy Muse by Mary Meriam was nominated for the 2015 Poets' Prize, and Girlie Calendar by Mary Meriam was selected for the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow List in 2016.{{cite web |website=American Library Association |url=http://www.glbtrt.ala.org/overtherainbow/archives/546 |title=2016 Over the Rainbow List|date=19 January 2016 }}
In 2015, Headmistress published Lady of the Moon, edited by Mary Meriam, with a selection of poems by Amy Lowell, and lesbian-feminist scholar Lillian Faderman's groundbreaking essay on Amy Lowell. The press also published a general-audience anthology, Irresistible Sonnets, featuring sonnets by contemporary poets such as Robin Becker, Judy Grahn, Marilyn Hacker, Geoffrey Hill, Joshua Mehigan, Marilyn Nelson, Catherine Tufariello, and many others;{{cite web |website=Foreword Reviews |title=Review of Irresistible Sonnets |url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/irresistible-sonnets/}} it was selected for the Best Books List for June 2014 by Grace Cavalieri of the Washington Independent Review of Books.{{cite web |website=Washington Independent Review of Books |title=June 2014 Exemplars |url=http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/june-exemplars-poetry-reviews-by-grace-cavalieri}}
Headmistress debuted its Lesbian Poet Trading Cards in 2015. The trading card project, lauded by Kathleen Rooney in the Chicago Tribune and featured on Harriet, AfterEllen, and Nat. Brut, is the press's way of "honoring lesbian existence, recognizing a range of lesbian voices, and promoting lesbian representation in the arts." They feature such poets as Naomi Replansky, Amy Lowell, Charlotte Mew, Eloise Klein Healy, Judy Grahn, Audre Lorde, and Minnie Bruce Pratt, among others.{{cite news|last1=Rooney|first1=Kathleen|authorlink1=Kathleen Rooney|title=Third set of Lesbian Poet Trading Cards due out in March|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-lesbian-poets-trading-cards-20160210-story.html|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune|date=February 10, 2016}}{{cite web|title=Get Ready for the Third Installment of Lesbian Poet Trading Cards!|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2016/02/get-ready-for-the-third-installment-of-lesbian-poet-trading-cards/|website=Harriet|date=13 August 2022 |publisher=Poetry Foundation}}{{cite news|title=Morning Brew|url=http://www.afterellen.com/tv/473913-morning-brew-juliette-binoche-thing-lou-de-laage-wait|newspaper=AfterEllen.com|date=February 12, 2016}}{{cite web|title=3 Feminists You Need To Know: Jules Wood on Virgie Tovar, Ashara Ekundayo, & Headmistress Press|url=https://medium.com/nat-brut/3-feminists-you-1c029cca40d1#.cb6omrwwy|website=Nat. Brut|date=15 September 2015 }}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{Blogspot|headmistresspress|Official page}}
- [http://www.lavrev.net/ Lavender Review], lesbian poetry and art journal associated with Headmistress Press
Category:2013 establishments in the United States
Category:Book publishing companies based in Washington (state)
Category:Publishing companies established in 2013
Category:Small press publishing companies
Category:LGBTQ book publishing companies