as national poetry month ends, we welcome a new women's poetry press
As National Poetry Month Ends, We Welcome A New Women’s Poetry Press
The three mistresses of Headmistress Press, which launched four months ago to publish poetry by lesbians, sat down in cyberspace to talk about their poetic new venture.
Mary Meriam: What came over me? I’m not sure, but suddenly I wanted a press, and I wanted it now. So last December, I asked Jessica Mason McFadden if she wanted to start a press with me, and if she could think of a name.
Jessica Mason McFadden: I went to town, making a list of every name that I was led to by Wikipedia and by my own imaginative desire. I sent Mary a couple of ideas and she wasn’t thrilled. She teased me with the idea of calling it Jess Press, while I put together a longer list of crone, moon, goddess and musical-themed names. Headmistress Press was at the top of the list and it was the first one I thought of on my own, without “Wikinspiration.”
Meriam: I live deep in the country, a wilderness really, so getting books printed would be a problem. Jess lives in a small town—no book printer there either. We were two now, we had a name, but it looked like this press was going nowhere. Then I decided we needed another lesbian poet to come on board, and I thought of Risa Denenberg. Her town had a printer, but then it dawned on me that we could use CreateSpace, a print-on-demand publisher and subsidiary of Amazon.
Risa Denenberg: I never wanted to be an editor or run a press. But I totally wanted Mary to run a press. She is a fabulous poet, and I love her e-zine, Lavender Review. But she simply does not have good business sense. She kind of needed me. So here I am.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/04/30/as-national-poetry-month-ends-we-welcome-a-new-womens-poetry-press/