Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 16:44:50 EST From: "Ellen Greenblatt" HerBooks Lesbian Feminist Literature Catalog HerBooks P.O. Box 7467 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 Dear Friend of HerBooks-- It's been ten years since I published the very first HerBooks collection, Lesbian Words: A Santa Cruz Anthology. I look back on ten years of publishing radical lesbian feminist books--the fierce stance of Unleashing Feminism, To Live with the Weeds, and The Second Coming of Joan of Arc; the groundbreaking anthologies Childless by Choice, and The Lesbian in Front of the Classroom; the innovative celebrations of lesbian culture in Cats (and their Dykes) and Garden Variety Dykes; the fine craft of Lizards/Los Padres, Sweet Dark Places, and Bubbe Meisehs by Shayneh Maidelehs. I am proud and happy to have nourished this small and passionate press and grateful to all the writers, readers, and skilled friends who have made this possible.. Ten years seems an appropriate bench upon which to rest briefly and think about the direction this press should take in the future, at least for the rest of the Nineties, as the years inevitably slide towards the millennium. I am asking myself--what do lesbian feminists need now from our presses? What do we need as a movement? And what do I need to sustain myself in this kind of work? Several things have already become clear to me in the past year. One is that I must take some time for my own writing, which is begging for attention. It is nearly impossible to almost single-handedly run a press, work nearly full time for a living wage, and write a novel. So, after the publication of our spring 1995 title, A Transported Life: Memories of Kindertransport, An Oral History of Thea Eden, I will be taking two years to work on my autobiographical novel, After the War, which is about children of Holocaust survivors. During this period 1995-1996 HerBooks will continue to actively distribute our titles, we just won't be publishing any new ones. In 1997 we will be back. Some possible directions we may take include publishing lesbian feminist novels, publishing oral history, publishing creative nonfiction with a focus on feminist nature writing. Writers, please query us in early 1997 for details. Thank you for your support of HerBooks and lesbian feminist culture. --Irene Reti Publisher and Editor September, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- New Title! The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and other Plays by Carolyn Gage "This is great theatre. Gage's dramatic and lesbian imagination is utterly original . . . daring, heartbreaking, principled, bitter, and often very funny . . . one swift and pleasurable intake of breath after another. I long to see any or all of these plays on Broadway . . . Women's mental health would improve, instantly, were they able to read and see these plays performed." --Phyllis Chesler author of Women and Madness and Mothers on Trial "These plays are a whole women's theatre tradition in one volume . . . wonderful to read--rich, original, deeply affirming--and must be phenomenal to see on stage. The culture we have never had is invented in Carolyn Gage's brilliant and beautiful plays." --Andrea Dworkin Feminist philosopher, activist, and author In this stunning collection of seven plays, Carolyn Gage shows us the real women behind the sterile patriarchal stereotypes: % The angry teenage lesbian Joan of Arc % The alcoholic butch Calamity Jane % The Louisa May Alcott with repressed incest memories % The political prisoner known as "Typhoid Mary" % The lesbian Jane Addams Blazing with anger and crackling with wit, Gage's women redraw the map of contemporary theatre in a formidable bid to TAKE BACK THE STAGE! $10.00 144 pages ISBN: 0-939-821-06-0 The Audio-Cassette Recording of Carolyn Gage in The Second Coming of Joan of Arc recorded live at the Institute for the Musical Arts with an introduction by June Millington is also distributed by HerBooks for $10.00. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Garden Variety Dykes Lesbian Traditions in Gardening edited by Irene Reti and Valerie Jean Chase ". . . There is something about lesbians and gardening and writing that cannot be denied. [Garden Variety Dykes] reaches deep into the heart of our culture and communities . . . a winner for sure . . . Lesbians do garden as passionately as we make love." --Patricia Roth Schwartz Lambda Book Report Tending eight-foot tall houseplants in a New York City high-rise apartment. Running an herb farm in the Ozarks. A corn field in Los Angeles. The dilemmas of killing snails. Gardening in a wheelchair. A feminist history of gardening. The ramblings of a Lesbian Rosarian. These and many other lesbian gardening stories, poems, essays, and photos in the first lesbian gardening anthology! $10.00 / 160 pages / ISBN:0-939821-05-2 ------------------------------------------------------------- messages: music for lesbians music by D.A. Clarke "These songs do more than make your dancing shoes fox-trot out of the closet, listened to again and again, they provoke the imagination into new dimensions." --Kore Archer Off Our Backs $6.00/cassette send less if you can't afford it -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Past, Present, and Future Passions Poetry by Barbara Ruth Distributed by HerBooks **for women only** "Because she is one of the first self-affirming disabled U.S. poets to write about disability, Barbara Ruth's major new book is likely to be greeted with excitement. That her work expresses other claimed identities -- those of lesbian, Native American, battered woman, sexual, fat, teacher, Jew , activist, over forty, poor -- only makes the interest greater." -- Adrienne Lauby Off Our Backs $8.00 214 pp. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LIZARDS/LOS PADRES lesbian stories by Bettianne Shoney Sien "I was sorry when I reached the last page of Lizards/Los Padres. Closing it was a bit like leaving a town in which I was just beginning to make friends and feel at home. Shoney Sien's characters are like that--real women, real dykes. This beautifully written book is full of tastes and colors and smells. You can actually feel the sun beating down on you, and taste the grit in your mouth on a summer afternoon helping with the harvest . . . the dykes in this book are a delight . . . varied and complex women, doing the best they can with their lives. Some of them I wanted to meet, some of them I could swear I already know, all of them believable." --Tara Ayres, Hag Rag $7.00 132 pp. ISBN: 0-939821-32-X ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Love, Politics and "Rescue" in Lesbian Relationships an essay by Diana Rabenold This little booklet first published in 1988, and written by Diana Rabenold, Radical Therapist has been an important, and very useful addition to the literature of co-dependency, since it is one of the only books to approach the subject from both a lesbian and a feminist perspective. $3.50 16 pp. ISBN: 0-939821-29-X ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweet Dark Places poetry by Leslea Newman "Leslea Newman's newest collection of poetry is a true find. Her poem "Rage" is dynamic . . . Its intensity left me gasping. Lesl a Newman is a poet who speaks to our hearts and minds with a profoundly original voice." --Bay Area Reporter "Whether she is writing about herself, her friends, lovers, or the Central Park jogger; whether she is writing about rage, fear, grief, or love; the rhythms of Newman's work demand attention, the images linger." --Women's Recovery Network $8.95 128 pp. ISBN: 0-939821-01-X ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Live with the Weeds poetry by D. A. Clarke It's been a long time since I read a book of women's poetry that really 'stuck' to me, made me want to sit down with the poet for hours." --Elana Dykewomon Lesbian-feminist poetry illustrated with early Celtic, Pictish and Anglo-Saxon designs. Printed on stone gray paper. Special gift edition available with rice paper endsheets. 76 pages $7.00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cats (and their Dykes) an anthology edited by Irene Reti and Shoney Sien "This marvelous anthology of cats explores feline/dyke relationships from every angle." --Women's Library Newsletter, Australia What's the connection between lesbians and cats? This is an anthology that takes an honest look at the role of cats in lesbian culture (or lesbians in cat culture). A book of politics, love, grief, rage, history, healing and connection. $10.00. 160 pp ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unleashing Feminism Critiquing Lesbian Sadomasochism in the Gay Nineties edited by Irene Reti "One of the most exciting and productive examples of radical feminist theory in recent years. . . . The contributors to this book are indeed 'unleashing feminism.' And they are unleashing a radical feminism which the book shows has come a long way in ten years . .. a radical feminism which has remained active and collective: a rare thing in the current climate." --Trouble and Strife "This book is about more than sadomasochism. It is an attempt to urge radical and lesbian feminists to renew a dynamic critique of our own sexuality and political theory." --off our backs "A valuable offering of arguments by seven very smart and ethical women." --Lavender Reader A collection of provocative radical feminist essays, short stories, and poems by Pat Parker, Kathy Miriam, Jamie Lee Evans, Sharon Lim-Hing, D. A. Clarke, Anna Livia, and Irene Reti presented in the spirit of hope, as an earnest plea for a revitalized, powerful feminism. $8.95 160 pp. ISBN: 0-939821-04-4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forthcoming Spring 1995 A transported Life: Memories of Kindertransport, The Oral History of Thea Eden edited by Irene Reti and Valerie Jean Chase "In July, 1939, some six weeks before we came to England, we were sent from the internment camp on the German-Polish border, to what I subsequently thought of as the "delousing station." We were ill-fed children, had lice, were covered with sores, trying to deal with having been jerked away from our parents. The people running this transit camp were well meaning. They got the children together and taught us songs. They told us, "You're going to new places. Remember, be merry." I remember a little Yiddish song called, "Be Merry." The song reinforced the message, to stuff our feelings, not to talk to people about what was hurting us. . . . I would wager to say that most of those kids cried a lot but they cried in silence and they cried alone. I know I did." Thea Eden was born in Cologne, Germany in 1926. She was a refugee who escaped to England on the Kindertransport program which saved 10,000 Jewish children by bringing them to England before War broke out. In her oral history she powerfully articulates the seldom talked about effects of the Holocaust on child survivors. In this time of War displacing millions of people, many of them children, this time of exile, this time of Holocaust revisionism, Thea Eden's courageous words are essential. $9.00/ 96 pp ------------------------------------------------------------ Childless by Choice: A Feminist Anthology edited by Irene Reti "All the selections in Childless by Choice are excellent." --Women Library Workers Journal "This book is important because it challenges us to reember that the freedom to choose whether or when to bear a child--one of the most basic of feminist principles--often includes "never." --Sojourner "Feminism has betrayed childless women." --from the Introduction While several sociological and psychological studies of childless women have been published in the last few years there has not been, until the publication of this title, a book written by the women themselves, an anthology which approaches this complex and sensitive subject from a positive, feminist perspective. The writing here is by women of diverse backgrounds and ages--working class and middle class; Jewish, Chicana, Euro-American, African American, Native American, lesbian and heterosexual; rural and urban. The style is accessible and creative, ranging from narrative, to short story, to poetry. $8.95 128 pp. ISBN: 0-939821-03-6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bubbe Meisehs by Shayneh Maidelehs an anthology of poetry by Jewish Granddaughters about Our Grandmothers edited by Leslea Newman "This book brings me back to my Nana's kitchen. I can smell the latkes (potato pancakes) and hear the women kvetching (complaining) about their tsouris (troubles). . . . It'll make you laugh, cry, and remember. A wonderful book to share with friends and daughters. So light the candles and enjoy!" --Sonoma County Women's Voices Editor Leslea Newman compiled this anthology of over fifty poems as a tribute to Jewish grandmothers everywhere: "with love and respect for your courage and dignity, your tsouris and your naches, your humor and your bitterness, and most of all, for your stubborn insistence upon survival." $8.00 128 pp. ISBN: 0-939821-00-1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Order Form Individuals: All titles are available through your local bookstore or can be ordered direct from HerBooks. Tax is included in the price of the book and orders must be pre-paid. Sorry we can't take charge cards. If you are ordering from outside the U.S. please include money for international shipping and payment in U.S. dollars. Bookstores: HerBooks offers a 40% discount to all bookstores, with no minimum order required. Returns for credit only, within one year. In addition, we offer the following discounts: 10-24 books (mixed titles) 42%; 25 or more books (mixed titles) 45%. Our terms are net 30. HerBooks titles are also distributed to the trade by Inland Book Company, Bookpeople, and Alamo Square Distributors. Please send me copies of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc / $10.00 copies of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc Cassette / $12.00 copies of A Transported Life / $9.00 copies of Garden Variety Dykes / $10.00 copies of Unleashing Feminism / $8.95 copies of Childless by Choice / $8.95 copies of Sweet Dark Places / $8.95 copies of Cats (and their Dykes) / $10.00 copies of Bubbe Meisehs / $8.00 copies of Lizards/Los Padres / $7.00 copies of To Live With the Weeds / $7.00 copies of Love, Politics and "Rescue"/ $3.50 copies of messages: music for lesbians / $6.00 copies of Past, Present and Future Passions / $8.00 Add $1.75 postage for the first book and $.25 for each additional book. Make checks payable to HerBooks. Bookstores 40% discount. Name Address City State Zip HerBooks P.O. Box 7467 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 Or contact us by email at: irener@scilibx.ucsc.edu