This is the first of a two part feature on feminist publishers and independent feminist bookstores. With the ever increasing number of chain bookstores that prioritize big publishers, and the introduction of amazon.ca to the book world, it is more important then ever to recognize and support small presses and independent booksellers who specialize in feminist and women's issues. Without them, new feminist voices will never be heard and some of the most important women's texts would not have been published or put on the shelves of an independent bookstore.

Here you will find some information about feminist publishers, and some recommendations for new academic books published by feminist presses. I have also included some non-academic books that I think are must-reads and would be suitable for academic research or teaching. In the next part, I will have more from feminist publishers, including a Turkish Women's Non-Profit organization that has published a book on Muslim women's sexuality.

In the next part we will also have a closer look at some feminist publishers from around the world including Australia's Spinifex Press, an independent feminist press, publishing innovative and controversial fiction and non-fiction (www.spinifexpress.com.au). We will be reviewing two of their latest books - a new edition of All That False Instruction by Kerryn Higgins (lesbian fiction) and Love Upon the Chopping Board by Marou Izumo (lesbian, feminist autobiography). If you are interested in reviewing either of these titles please contact Kim at reviews@thirdspace.ca.

PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE! Interested in any of these titles or presses? Check out our feminist bookstores guide for a site near you!

	Focus on Feminist Publishers and Bookstores, Part I
	Kim Snowden
	This is the first of a two part feature on feminist publishers and independent feminist bookstores. With the ever increasing number of chain bookstores that prioritize big publishers, and the introduction of amazon.ca to the book world, it is more important then ever to recognize and support small presses and independent booksellers who specialize in feminist and women's issues. Without them, new feminist voices will never be heard and some of the most important women's texts would not have been published or put on the shelves of an independent bookstore. Here you will find some information about feminist publishers, and some recommendations for new academic books published by feminist presses. I have also included some non-academic books that I think are must-reads and would be suitable for academic research or teaching. In the next part, I will have more from feminist publishers, including a Turkish Women's Non-Profit organization that has published a book on Muslim women's sexuality. In the next part we will also have a closer look at some feminist publishers from around the world including Australia's Spinifex Press, an independent feminist press, publishing innovative and controversial fiction and non-fiction (www.spinifexpress.com.au). We will be reviewing two of their latest books - a new edition of All That False Instruction by Kerryn Higgins (lesbian fiction) and Love Upon the Chopping Board by Marou Izumo (lesbian, feminist autobiography). If you are interested in reviewing either of these titles please contact Kim at reviews@thirdspace.ca. PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE! Interested in any of these titles or presses? Check out our feminist bookstores guide for a site near you! Featured publishers and titles Sumach Press Sumach Press is a women-owned and operated Canadian publisher specializing in thought-provoking works of literary fiction, non-fiction and feminist, academic books by and about women. For more information, for their latest titles, and to find out about their Women's Issues Publishing Program please see the Sumach Press website: http://www.sumachpress.com Double Jeopardy: Mother-Work and the Law by Lorna A. Turnball. ISBN: 1-89454911-2 Paperback $22.95. Sumach Press, 2002. In this important new work, Lorna Turnball explores all of the ways that mothers come into contact with the law and analyzes how the law fails to take into account the many different circumstances under which women mother and the work they do. Women's Press Women's Press publishes the works of feminist writers in Canada. Their objective is to conserve a publishing space devoted to the circulation of the ideas and experiences of women. Building on the strong feminist writing that has been the history of Women's Press, they publish innovative writing that is of a high standard. Fiction, creative non-fiction, children's books, plays, biography, autobiography, memoirs and poetry, all have a place within the inclusive feminist space that is Women's Press. To find out more about Women's Press please see their website: http://www.womenspress.ca Aversion and Desire: Negotiating Muslim Female Identity in the Diaspora by Shahnaz Khan. ISBN: 0-88961-400-8 Paperback $24.95. Women's Press, 2002. Based on interviews with 14 Muslim women about their sense of power, authenticity and place, Aversion and Desire explores how Muslim women construct and sustain their Islamic identity within Canada and challenges Western perceptions and stereotypes of Muslim womens' experience. Edgework Books Edgework Books was formed by a group of women writers who were worried about the shape and direction of the publishing industry and wished to provide an alternative to the mainstream New York publishing world. EdgeWork Books publishes well-written books with fresh artistic vision and a feminist perspective. (We will be reviewing some of Edgework Books' titles in our next issue.) For more information, log onto http://www.edgework.com. Non-Academic Books Dead Girls by Nancy Lee. ISBN: 0771052502 Paperback $22.99. McClelland & Stewart, 2002. It seems like a cliché to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read ... but it is and it bears reading again and again. My first instinct upon finishing this marvelous collection of short stories was to go back to the beginning and read it again. Nancy Lee is an incredible writer and the stories in Dead Girls are graceful, moving and brilliantly conceived. Lee's work deals mostly with women from Vancouver's downtown east-side and her stories are linked by the theme of missing women whose bodies have been discovered in the garden of a local man. In one story a mother watches the excavation of this man's yard on the news which is juxtaposed with memorials set up by the victim's families. As she watches, she wonders if her missing daughter will be found there. Another story explores a sexually charged and violent night in the life of three teenagers whose personal lives collide as they watch the story of the missing women unfold on television. Nancy Lee has crafted an amazing collection that deals with women's issues in a beautiful and prolific manner. I cannot express enough how much I loved this book. Translations: Aistreann by Tammy Armstrong. ISBN: 1550502034 Paperback $18.95. Coteau Books, 2002. Set in Dublin and New Brunswick, Translations is the story of Julia Casey, a reluctant academic in Ireland who is married to a professor of Irish History and struggling to complete her thesis despite his claims that her work is not academic enough. As her marriage falls apart, Julia begins a new thesis - the translation of her great aunt's diary from its original Gaelic. She returns home to New Brunswick with her two children, where she unravels the mysteries of her great aunt's past and discovers her own story in the process. Translations is a beautifully written novel that explores love, loss, language and what gets lost in translation. I Knew a Woman: Four Patients and Their Female Caregiver by Cortney Davis. ISBN: 0345438744 Paperback $21.00. Ballantine Books, 2001. Cortney Davis is a nurse practitioner is a women's clinic and a poet. I Knew a Woman is a book that every woman should read. Drawing on the insights she has gained in twenty five years of professional experience and weaving the stories of four women into her own, Cortney Davis explores the trials and triumphs of the female body and the ways in which women's lives are intertwined with the mysteries of their bodies. I Knew a Woman is a blend of memoir, fiction and clinical detail-it is as absorbing as a good novel but includes practical details about women's health. It is a delightful and riveting book and well worth reading. Other resources for feminist publishing: Feminist Academic Press Column a continuation of the university press column from the late, lamented Feminist Bookstore News. http://www.litwomen.org/fapc/fapc.html Keep Women in Print: Writing What is Wrong Lots of resources on feminist publishing, including new releases, reviews of new books, a look at e-books, and news about feminist publishing and bookselling. http://mortonweb.uah.edu/wip/ New Books on Women & Feminism published twice a year by the folks at the University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian [US] - a subject-arranged and indexed bibliography of books in English published anywhere in the world and by any publisher (feminist, small press, trade, university presses and university departments and institutes, organizations, government) covering all non-fiction categories about women/feminism/gender, plus poetry, drama, and translated or academic editions of fiction by women. NEW BOOKS ON WOMEN & FEMINISM is available online in the commercial database WOMEN'S RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL (Biblioline), from NISC, or in print by subscription. http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/wsperpub.htm Feminist Collections: A Quarterly Of Women's Studies Resources is published by the University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian [US] and contains news of the latest print and audiovisual resources for research and teaching in women's studies. See web-related content and sample articles from the publication (and get subscription info) online at: http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/fcmain.htm