In our second issue of thirdspace Jenéa and I wrote an editorial about “Time and the art of journal-making” where we discussed the ups and downs of feminist publishing and the challenge to produce a quality journal in our “spare time.” thirdspace is more-or-less a full time job – one that we do on top of graduate school, teaching, other work needed to pay the rent, and whatever life we may have left once that is all said-and-done! We also rely on editors who volunteer their time – most of them emerging scholars or graduate students also working for thirdspace when time permits. This past year, more than any, has provided us with more challenges than we had anticipated and has made us think long and hard about the future of thirdspace and feminist publishing in general. What do we want to achieve with this publication? How do we see it working with the academic careers that we are preparing for? How can we possibly produce a quality journal when our entire team is already pushed to the limit with work and is exhausted? And, like most small feminist organizations or publications, how can we possibly do any of it with no resources at our disposal?

The only thing that we know for certain is that we are not ready to throw in the towel, especially when we are still receiving exciting submissions of provocative and groundbreaking feminist scholarship. However, we will slowly be making some changes over the next year – one of which will be our publishing schedule. Our next issue will be published in July and will feature some of the papers from our last general call. We will be circulating a CFP shortly for our January 2007 issue which will mark the beginning of a new era for thirdspace including a brand new look! We hope that you will continue to support us and to support feminist publishing. As Jenéa and I work towards the final stages of our doctorates and move to the next stages of our academic careers, we are excited about taking thirdspace to a new level and having it evolve with us.

The high quality of submissions and the excellent work by our editorial team makes this endeavour worth while. Natalia Gerodetti was my co-editor for this issue – she has been a long-time thirdspace editor and we could not keep going without her efficiency and commitment. The same can be said for Karen Dias who has also been a long-time supporter of the journal. We welcomed Heather Latimer to our team this year and she also worked on this issue. Heather is working on a PhD in English and has an extensive background in literary theory, postcolonial literature and psychoanalytic theory. You can read some of Heather’s own work in this issue as she is also publishing with thirdspace for the first time. Elley Prior, Allison Addicott, and Sharon Larson have moved on to other endeavours and we wish them all well. Without the help and support of these fabulous feminist scholars, we would not be able to publish thirdspace at all.

The call for papers for this issue invited papers on any topic related to feminist research and scholarship as a means to represent the diversity of feminist scholarly work. We had many excellent submissions and the papers that we are publishing here represent an exciting cross-section of feminist work and feminist theory. The papers include Heather Latimer’s work on the novels of Hiromi Goto that provides an important contribution to feminist and Asian Canadian scholarship in its reading of the trope of eating in emerging writer, Hiromi Goto’s two novels. The paper puts forth an close analysis of Goto’s The Kappa Child and Chorus of Mushrooms through theories of eating and abjection using the work of feminist theorist Julia Kristeva.

Henrice Altink’s work on Afro-Jamaican women outlines the multiple oppressions they have suffered and examines the views of several black, educated, middle-class women in interwar Jamaica who have played an active role in seeking to improve the lives of women of African descent in Jamaican society. Rather than focusing on the outcomes of the work of these women and their organizations, Altink chooses to explore their specific discourses about the lives and status of Afro-Jamaican women. These discourses include the work of poets, playwrights, journalists, teachers, activists, and politicians. Altink shows that while their feminist programme contained some radical elements, ultimately, their views served to uphold the gender status quo in Jamaica.

Both pieces in our essay section offer insights into raced and gendered processes of writing and scholarship. Feminist theorist Hélène Cixous is the focus of Janet Melo-Thaiss’s essay, where she explores how the poetical, theoretical, and philosophical work of Cixous has been highly influential and liberating for women writers. Melo-Thaiss examines the open space of a ‘feminine libidinal economy’ and the concept of ‘feminine writing’ that becomes possible in Cixous’s work and opens a space for the exploration of alternative identities that are not socially bound by masculine laws. Through an examination of how Cixous writes and reads and focusing on her readings ‘with’ Clarice Lispector, Melo-Thaiss explores the possible ways of ‘escaping’ rules of the masculine economy including the laws of language, and examines the potential for transformation that occurs through the act of writing.

Zetta Elliot discusses her path through life as a feminist, a writer, a black Canadian woman, and an academic. She takes us on the journey of education and her struggles to find a community where she could be completely herself as she was often faced with having to choose a part of her identity. Elliot really shines when she talks about the conflict she feels with being an academic and a writer, and the challenge of completing a PhD without the security of an academic career or the certainty that this is truly what she desires. Her essay really captures the struggle that many of us in academia and graduate school have felt.

Our Books section includes a book review by Melissa Purdue on Octavia Butler’s most recent novel. This review is particularly pertinent now because Octavia Butler sadly passed away at the end of February. She was one of our best feminist science fiction writers and I hope that Melissa Purdue’s review will inspire our readers to pick up her work, perhaps for the first time or to remember her and honour her writing.

Finally, you will read an essay about the closing of Vancouver’s last women’s bookstore, Women In Print. I was lucky enough to work there for several years and Jenéa has spent many an hour (and many a pay check) there over the years. Women In Print will be sadly missed and I hope that this piece will encourage you to support your local independent bookstore and your local women’s bookstore if you have one. Women’s bookstores are becoming a part of our history – only your constant support can guarantee that they will survive to be a part of our future.

Once more, we thank you, our readers, for your continued support of thirdspace.