Women + Small Presses = Magic

Innovation with the help of hedgehogs and frogs

March is Small Press Month AND National Women's History Month (no matter what anyone says), so basically it's Galiot Press Month.

Last Thursday, Henriette and I attended a Female Funders and Female Founders networking event in downtown Boston. I know, I hear some of you groaning at the words "networking event." But let me tell you, remove all the men and things get really civilized! (Actually, there were two men, one of whom was lovely and helpful. Maybe the other one was, too, but we didn’t get to speak with him.)

Plus when one woman asked us how we got hooked up with the event, I got to answer "Thanks to my hedgehog." It's true! Last year during February school vacation we needed someone to pet sit for our hedgie. (Yes, hedgies are legal pets in Massachusetts.) I found a teen to take her into their home for the week, and the teen's mother, Rebecca Arnold, happens to be a writer. When her book, The Rooted Renegade, was about to come out, she reached out to me for some marketing advice. A few months later I attended her book launch and reconnected with an acquaintance I hadn't seen in a while. We caught up on each other's activities, and upon hearing of Galiot and our fundraising she put me in touch with the organizer of last week's event. Ta da! Thanks, hedgie.

The person who first asked the question about how we ended up at the event countered with her own story of how she bought a plant from Etsy and discovered that a frog had hitched a ride from Florida in the package. Alive. After her initial shock and throwing the plant across the room, she realized she shouldn't release a frog into a non-native environment. So she resigned herself to keeping it, and has since then—eight months ago—been making weekly reluctant trips to the pet store for live crickets. But here's the thing: the day she found this frog is the day she was offered the job she really wanted, which ultimately led her to this event. You be the judge, which is the better story? The hedgehog or the frog?

Find my real hedgie

But seriously, it was an engaging and inspiring event. There were women of all types of backgrounds, a refreshingly diverse mix. And such a range of important ventures. So many women who have identified real problems in various industries—coordination of healthcare, visibility of South Asian clothing designers, access to mental-health appointments for college students—and decided to do something about them. Every one was warm and friendly, genuinely interested in each other's projects and how we could mutually support them. Genuinely motivated by helping people and healing the Earth. The women who organized the event, Meeta Kapadia of HSBC and Kristen Craft of Fidelity, brought a real human dimension to their corporate positions. We came away with contacts and ideas and some renewed faith in humanity. And it's always gratifying when people tell us that they are avid readers. Books and stories really do unite us.

A new book about women innovating in publishing

This Publishers Weekly article highlights a fascinating-sounding new book: Women in Independent Publishing: A History of Unsung Innovators, 1953–1989, "an intimate yet thorough oral history that includes interviews with such editors and publishers as Lee Ann Brown of Tender Buttons Press, Lindy Hough of North Atlantic Books, Bernadette Mayer of United Artists Books, and C.D. Wright of Long Roads Press, all of whom injected new voices and perspectives into the literary landscape and approached the publishing process on their own terms."

Here's a couple of excerpts:

"The presses highlighted in the book constituted what Anderson calls ‘a feisty counterculture’ of feminist, lesbian, and Black presses publishing formally experimental and politically radical works. They were often based outside the publishing hub of New York City and housed ‘in unexpected places, like apartment kitchens and church basements,’ where books and zines were often collated and stitched by hand. While traditional printing spaces had what Anderson called a ‘history of sexist exclusion,’ the mimeograph made the production process widely accessible, leading to a boom in women-helmed small presses."

“Today, indie publishing has long grown past the mimeograph, but the collaborative and countercultural ethos that first drove women to embrace small press publishing in the midcentury continues to inspire. ‘I think women—and other individuals who have been historically marginalized—are drawn to independent publishing because it’s a more caring and democratic landscape,’ said Carey Salerno, publisher of the poetry press Alice James Books, founded in 1973. Diane Goettel, executive editor of Mount Vernon, N.Y.–based Black Lawrence Press, has a similar sense. ‘The small press world is a place where women can thrive, both authors and editors alike,’ she said. ‘I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we publish—and are steeped in—books and ideas that challenge power structures.’”

Hello, Los Angeles

I am headed to the mega writers conference-apalooza, AWP, in LA later this month. If any of you will be there, please drop us a line! info@galiotpress.com. It's always nice to see friendly faces on this type of trip, because otherwise the travel and the constantly being ON and open to input are exhausting. AND: if you know of any people/venues not too far from DTLA who might be interested in partnering with Galiot in any way (as a site for our book sales, as potential literary event venues, as Street Team members, as a source of possible students or authors for GP), please let me know.

We've got some exciting plans lined up. A real sense of momentum. Thank you for being on this journey with us. (And don’t forget to check out our upcoming classes, including these two happening very soon!)