Lots o’ talk in e-world re: VIDA article on gender disparity in various aspects of the publishing industry. As a general rule, I agree that women are underrepresented. More so, I believe women of color are underrepresented in the publishing industry. Much has to do with falling through the cracks, or being compelled to choose between alliances: of color or woman?
I’ve already written my essay, “On Feminism, Women of Color, Poetics, and Reticence,” which is now published in two places: XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics 20, and A Megaphone (Chain Arts). And still, after speaking my piece, I never really feel like people listen, nor do I feel any sense of progression. Still the same issues of reticence come up, and a resignation to invisibility. I can’t say enough that we need to be more actively engaged, more assertive in the arenas of publishing and reviewing. That we need to exercise our professionalism and go get those things we as writers should be committed to getting: book contracts, reading/speaking/performance gigs, this is nothing new to report.
Fact is, I’m constantly blind sided by claims that the behavior I describe above is aggressive, intimidating. That’s the social strangeness I’ve been growing accustomed to dealing with; because I am constantly in “work” mode, I am too aggressive and intimidating. I’m just starting to get disheartened, that all of the community work I’m trying to do amounts to shite, because I’ll always be perceived as too aggressive, intimidating, and hence, far from the norm.
Fellow working woman of color author and workhorse Tara Betts recently tweeted, “It might help if women went to venues together & discussed working strategies more than shoes, even though I like shoes.” I totally get this. Why do we veer towards these “shoes” conversations, let these conversations dominate our time together, avoid the industry talk, then lament the lack of woman representation in publishing? What is this behavior about? What magic do we think is going to make racial and gender equality, especially for women of color, in publishing happen? In other words, I’d love to have a discussion about how we women of color are complicit in maintaining the disparity, and a tough, nitty-gritty discussion about how to support one another, hold one another accountable, and what to do to address, counter, reject that complicity.
Hi Barbara,
That VIDA article is astonishing, and I’m sure women of color represent a much, much smaller population on those graphs.
Thanks for reposting your essay. I’ve just read it for the first time, and there’s a lot here.
I think many of the women poets you discuss (Myung Mi Kim, Catalina Cariaga are obviously just a few you mention but they pop up as I write this) play with, subvert, and deconstruct language (English – ‘the master’s tools’) through poetic form. Institutionally, in the life and world of “po-biz’,” I wonder how this would look like.
This really struck me:
“Still, another reason for this perceived “reticence” of women writers of color to publish also has to do with a general and justifiable distrust of American letters and Western institutions.”
I think of presses like Aunt Lute which strive to privilege the voices of women of color. I realize that they are an exception not the rule, when it comes to publishing. What would it look like if more women of color were at the head of presses and had institutional power? How would U.S. poetries shift, change? How would it be marketed differently?
I’m going to reread the essay now. Thanks again for this!
Best,
R
Thanks Rachelle, for your comment – and for your own blog post, which I’ll comment on there!
I think your last paragraph here nails it: women of color with institutional power, representing women of color interests. I wonder tho, how that happens with a big house publisher, whose bottom line is $, and whether women of color narratives that don’t fit the popular commercial model can fare well there. I don’t know how this can change w/o major cultural upheaval. This is why I place my faith (and work, and money) in the indie press world. Can women of color owning the means of production or having a major presence there and thriving within the indie world make a difference? I want to believe it does. And what does it mean to thrive there?
And finally, what can we realistically and concretely do as authors, educators, readers, consumers? How can we step up?
Hi Barbara,
Yes, yes.
“I don’t know how this can change w/o major cultural upheaval.”
Honestly, I can’t see these changes with WOC being on the forefront of publishing without some SERIOUS change. I think that the indie world is definitely a place for WOC to begin and thrive but the mainstream publishing world definitely needs to be shaken up. I think it’s just messed up when WOC narratives become “the next big thing” for large publishers to make money. I hate the idea of our narratives as trends. I think of Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, etc.
“How can we step up?” I wrote a bit about the visibility of WOC (or POC in general) at the conference I recently attended. I think I alluded to more people of color attending these academic conferences but I think it needs to be more than visibility. Some questions I think about a lot in my writing life and regular life are: Is it my responsibility to teach/call out folks when some messed up shit is being said about race? Is it my responsibility to educate them? Often, I do call people out, and I think I’m perceived as aggressive on this. I realize I need to negotiate role better, and I’d rather use this energy towards working with young people of color and immigrant communities/ communities of color. Sorry for babbling on, but yes, I think as artists we need to financially, organizationally support the institutions we want to see grow.
Thanks Rachelle, for the dialogue. I am wondering, “WWGAD”? What would Gloria Anzaldua do? This is why she wrote books and edited anthologies, and of course why she taught.
I have a hard time feeling individually responsible for calling out each misogynistic, racist thing I see/hear from other people, in the media, etc. I feel like there’s so much reaction mode stuff that happens, snuffing out little fires. So for me, that’s a big part of why being an author is potentially so empowering. Now imagine many of us together working at this – is it at all possible to contribute to this cultural shifting we’re talking about? Or is this idealistic?
So then we’re back to whether WOC publishing venues exist, or can thrive, or need to be (re)started up.
I think most women writers of color feel as you did as an undergrad– that they aren’t publishable. We just need to seek them out (yes, publishing anthologies are powerful in that way) and assure them that their voice is important, and should be heard.