10 Reasons Why CALYX Loved Being at AWP This Year

10. Because of organizations like VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and fierce women like Amy King who came ultra-prepared to the Women’s Caucus ready to get the crowd both excited and pissed. Check out their website to see current information about the what journals and presses are woman-friendly, and which are woefully not (um, The New Yorker and The New Republic, I’m looking at you).

9.Because of this awesome lady DJ at The Black Cat, uniting the people with funky-fresh beats. This is what I’m talking about!

8. Because there’s feminist presses and publishers there. A big high-five to organizations like Kore Press, Argos Books, Akashic Books, and The Feminist Press for doing the important work of keeping women’s voices in print (oh, and, ahem, of course, CALYX).

7. Because there’s feminist writers there, silly. I had the chance to meet so many fearless women writers today of all ages and backgrounds who aren’t afraid to say, “Yes, I’m a writer. Yes, I’m a feminist. Yes, this matters.”

6. Because of Jhumpa Lahiri. Need I say more?

5. and Kay Ryan.

4. and Pam Houston.

3. Because feminists love Washington D.C. Where else can you find that many statues of Eleanor Rosevelt??

2. Because people get just as excited as you are when you say “We’re celebrating our 35th year as a journal!”

1. Because it’s rewarding and energizing and delightful to see the up-and-coming men and women feminists of the writing world wandering through the bookfair. Each person there is a reminder that books matter, art matters, creativity matters.

Thanks for a great conference everyone! See you next year–

-Rebecca Olson

Assistant Editor for CALYX Press

Young Feminist Challenge #1

Hey young feminists. I know you’re out there–starring star-eyed into cyberspace, reading Feminist Hulk tweets, slowly visualizing your takeover of the world and how that probably involves Janelle Monae‘s dazzling brand of funk music.

"Wow. This is great."

As I’m sure you know as literate, intelligent young women, magazines like CALYX have been hard at work bashing gender stereotypes since the ’70s. My challenge for you today is to push your boundaries and tastes, to shake up your ideas about gender and literature. I want you to read something that connects you to a feminist of another generation, written BY a feminist of another generation.

Today, I’m starting with the issue of CALYX Journal printed in the year that I was born. Here’s the opening line from “Eros,” written by Olga Broumas and published by CALYX in 1986 “On Death’s face all religion dances/ like pins on the head of a clit”. So…I finally have hard evidence that Olga Broumas was using artwork to resist patriarchy when I was mastering the art of holding my 3-month-old head aloft. Great.

Want to know what brilliant, hilarious, juicy, heart-breaking, wretched, angry, reflective, wise poems are in your birthday issue? Click here to find yours. Read! Connect! Be surprised by great writing and great women!

-Assistant Editor Becky O.

Feminism Friday: “Feminist Press: You Mean, Like, Books for Girls?”

As an editor of CALYX Press, a 34 year-old feminist publisher of art and literature that has published the likes of Barbara Kingsolver and Jane Hirshfield, it’s necessary to sometimes explain to curious parties what it means to be a feminist publisher.

I know what it means to be a feminist.  To me, it means a freedom of choice.  It’s not about women or men necessarily; it’s about the freedom that we deserve as human beings to choose what kind of lives we make for ourselves.  To some, this means the choice to have children, marry a partner, and be a stay at home mom.  For others, it means traveling the world or owning a motorcycle.  For me, it means living in Oregon apart from my family and devoting my life to books and writing because that’s what I love—I’m grateful that I had the ability to make that decision for myself.

So how does that freedom translate into publishing? Well, for one, the women of CALYX have always had freedom of editorial choice.  All of our editorial decisions are made collectively—that means that every submission that comes into the office is read by at least two women.  Twenty-five percent of all submissions are then discussed by 6 women and voted on—we sometimes hold stories and poems to read again later.  That means that we practice equality and fairness in our decision-making.

Freedom of choice is also big around the office in how we run our non-profit.  We work collectively to get jobs done, from our Director down to our wonderful student interns—everyone is encouraged to share their ideas about how to get the word out about different projects.   You should have seen us Wednesday crowded into the backroom, every staff member sticking stamps onto envelopes because that’s what we needed to get done and we all wanted to help.

We also choose to publish exceptional work by women that is representative of that freedom to be ourselves.  Some of the poetry and prose that goes into the journal has nothing to do with women or personal identity.  One story going into the new Summer Journal Vol. 26:2, for example, has a homeless man as the main protagonist (you’ll be excited when Lego Bionic Moses comes into the story).  On the other hand, some poems in Vol. 26:2 deeply personal and intimately explain experiences from women’s perspectives: what it’s like to give birth, look for a job as a woman, learn to Kayak for the first time.  The editors of CALYX choose work that we feel is well-written, interesting to read, and represents some important part of the diverse and dynamic experience of women.  There’s no one perspective that embodies everything that it means to be a woman (or a feminist, for that matter), so representing as many different viewpoints as we can is a good place to start.

What do you think about this? How does a business, a person, or a piece of writing be “feminist”?

-Rebecca Olson, Associate Editor

Staff Pick of the Week

The Violet Shyness of Their Eyes: Notes from Nepal

Revised edition, 2005, by Barbara J. Scot

Pacific Northwest Bookseller Award

The Violet Shyness of Their Eyes: Notes from Nepal, winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, is a moving memoir of a western woman’s transformative sojourn in Nepal. Scot’s vivid account of living, teaching, and trekking in Nepal demonstrated insight into cultural difference while confronting the complex issues of development work and the status of Nepali women. In 2004, Scot returned to Nepal, and in this new edition she records her reactions to the changes the country experienced in the last decade, particularly the current political unrest and the effects on the country of a Maoist insurgency. Scot looks back on her original experience in Nepal and its impact on her life, and reacts to the differences she observed during her recent journey.

Check out the book here