Books published by publisher The Feminist Press at CUNY

At the center of Australia is a vast red desert known as the Outback. For twelve-year-old Amy from Melbourne who arrives to visit her aunt, it is a world unlike anything she's ever seen before. But then she meets Lana, a local Aboriginal girl who, like Amy, has recently lost her mother, and the two girls overcome differences to form a surprising bond.With warmth and humor, Red Sand, Blue Sky charts the encounter between Amy and Lana and their deepening friendship. Through Lana, Amy learns about the harsh treatment suffered by the Aboriginal people at the hands of the white settlers who were her ancestors, while Lana comes to appreciate Amy's and her aunt's commitment to protect the sacredness of the land.

The most prolific African-American woman author from 1920 to 1950, Hurston was praised for her writing and condemned for her independence, arrogance, and audaciousness. This unique anthology, with fourteen superb examples of her fiction, journalism, folklore, and autobiography, rightfully establishes her as the intellectual and spiritual leader of the next generation of black writers. The original commentary by Alice Walker and Mary Helen Washington, two African-American writers in the forefront of the Hurston revival, provide illuminating insights into Hurston—the writer, and the person—as well as into American social and cultural history.

These twenty-five traditional tales come from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. All the central characters are spirited females—decisive heroes of extraordinary courage, wit, and achievement who set out to determine their own fate. Some of their stories are comic, some adventurous, some eerie, and some magical. The Chicago Sun-Times writes: "A sparkling gathering of traditional, yet little-known, tales from all parts of the globe. The female characters. . . manage to outsmart, outdo, and over-power the villains with nerves of steel, cunning minds, and disarming senses of humor."

"The Hunter Maiden" is a Southwestern Native American story where a resourceful daughter proves herself against both cultural double standards and malicious winter spirits. These high-spirited adventures feature a diverse cast of female protagonists handling adversity and injustice, from battling evil wizards in Russia to outsmarting tricky demons in South Africa. While many of the stories have been lost to mainstream media, these heroines are undeniably familiar to any reader lucky enough to know a smart, determined girl today.

The third volume in this beautifully illustrated anthology features traditional tales of heroic women from China to Canada and beyond.Long before Suzanne Collins created Katniss Everdeen and Octavia Butler wrote Parable of the Sower, there were many traditional folktales full of adventure, intrigue, and intrepid female characters. Feminist Folktales from Around the World collects these forgotten classics and presents them with original artwork by designer and illustrator Suki Boynton.Volume three in the series, Sea Girl features an introduction by Daniel Jose Older, the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Saints. In legends from China, Finland, India, Canada, and more, brave heroines encounter monstrous rivers and ogres' nests while outsmarting desperate sharks and hungry tigers. They courageously save families and villages—and, most importantly, they always choose their own fate.

This “impassioned, beautifully written memoir” by a survivor of female circumcision is a “brutally honest” story of tragedy and triumph (Publishers Weekly). As a nomad, Fadumo Korn freely roamed the wild steppes of her native Somalia until her mother delivered her into the hands of an “excisor” to become a woman in the eyes of her tribe by undergoing female genital cutting. But serious complications brought on by the circumcision would force her to leave her home on a journey of survival and self-discovery. Fadumo first traveled to the bustling city of Mogadishu and the household of a wealthy uncle, a brother of the Somali president. There, she entered a world of luxury underpinned by political instability and cruelty in a country eager for rebellion. As her symptoms worsened, she journeyed to Germany, where she received not only therapy but love and acceptance in the most unlikely of places. With this “courageous . . . indispensable testament,” Fadumo Korn weaves together a sensitive understanding of traditional practices with revelations about their disturbing effects. Full of sorrow and surprising humor, Born in the Big Rains provides a candid history of a life sculpted by crippling rheumatism and an unexpected path to recovery (Elfriede Jelinek, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Literature).

The American daughter of Egyptian Jewish immigrants journeys in search of belonging from Brazil to New Orleans and beyond—includes recipes and photos! Born to Egyptian Sephardic Jews who fled to the United States after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, Joyce Zonana spent her childhood in Brooklyn. But her experience of Jewish culture was very different from that of the other children she knew, from the foods they ate to the language they spoke. As she struggled to find a sense of inclusion, never feeling completely American or completely Egyptian, a childhood trip to Brazil became the basis for a lifelong quest to find her place in the world. Meeting members of her extended family who had migrated to Brazil was one step in discovering the kind of life she might have lived in Egypt, and exploring the woman she was becoming. Through travels that ranged from Cairo to Oklahoma and finally New Orleans in the shadow of Katrina, and including an evocative exploration of the way food varies from culture to culture, this is a “frank, spirited memoir of identity from a Brooklyn-raised, Egyptian-born Jewish feminist.” (Kirkus Reviews) “Zonana makes every human encounter lively” —Booklist

Annice, Pat, and Barby are best friends from Iowa, freshly arrived in booming 1950s Chicago to explore different paths toward independence, self-expression, and sexual freedom. From the hip-hang of a bohemian lifestyle to the sophisticated lure of romance with a handsome, wealthy, married boss to the happier security of a lesbian relationship, these three experience firsthand the dangers and limitations of women’s economic reliance on men. Lesbian pulp author Valerie Taylor skillfully paints a sociological portrait of the emotional and economic pitfalls of heterosexuality in 1950s America—and then offers a defiantly subversive alternative. A classic pulp tale showcasing predatory beatnik men, drug hallucinations, and secret lesbian trysts, The Girls in 3-B approaches the theme of sex from the stiffened vantage point of 1950s psychology.Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the series: Bedelia; Bunny Lake Is Missing; By Cecile; The G-String Murders; The Girls in 3-B; Laura; The Man Who Loved His Wife; Mother Finds a Body; Now, Voyager; Return to Lesbos; Skyscraper; Stranger on Lesbos; Stella Dallas; Women's Barracks.

Set in Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s, Paper Fish is populated by hardworking Italian-American immigrants whose heroism lies in their quiet, sometimes tragic humanity. At the center of the novel is young Carmolina, who is torn between the bonds of the past and the pull of the future —a need for home and a yearning for independence.Carmolina’s own story is interwoven with the stories of her family: the memories and legends of her Grandmother Doria; the courtship tales of her father, a gentle policeman and her mother, a lonely waitress; and the painful story of Doriana, her beautiful but silent sister.

This powerful, fact-based story is seen through the eyes of Hidden Doe, a young Native American girl who grows to maturity during the 1840s, when the U.S. government forces her people to leave their homeland in Iowa and make the long and bitter journey to a Kansas reservation. As she comes of age during this painful time, Hidden Doe is counseled in the ways of her people by her courageous grandmother, and soon also grows to know a young man who will win her love.

This classic pulp novel about three young women who leave behind their small-town roots for the big city is "a remarkable slice of bohemia from the 1950s" and a "wondrous tale of love, lesbianism, poetry, and sex" (Jack Halberstam).Annice, Pat, and Barby are best friends from Iowa, freshly arrived in booming 1950s Chicago to explore different paths toward independence, self-expression, and sexual freedom. From the hip-hang of a bohemian lifestyle to the sophisticated lure of romance with a handsome, wealthy, married boss to the happier security of a lesbian relationship, these three experience firsthand the dangers and limitations of women’s economic reliance on men.Lesbian pulp author Valerie Taylor skillfully paints a sociological portrait of the emotional and economic pitfalls of heterosexuality in 1950s America—and then offers a defiantly subversive alternative. A classic pulp tale showcasing predatory beatnik men, drug hallucinations, and secret lesbian trysts, The Girls in 3-B approaches the theme of sex from the stiffened vantage point of 1950s psychology.Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era.

“This June Jordan treasure is a rare piece of fiction from one of America's most vital poets and political essayists—a tender story of young love in the face of generational opposition, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet that sings and sways.” —Walter MosleyNominated for a National Book Award in 1971, His Own Where is the story of Buddy, a fifteen-year-old boy whose world is spinning out of control. He meets Angela, whose angry parents accuse her of being "wild." When life falls apart for Buddy and his father, and when Angela is attacked at home, they take action to create their own way of staying alive in Brooklyn. In the process, the two find refuge in one another and learn that love is real and necessary. His Own Where was one of The New York Times' Most Outstanding Books and was on the American Library Association's list of Best Books in 1971.June Jordan was a poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, activist, and educator known for challenging oppression through her inspirational words and actions. She was the founder of Poetry for the People at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught for many years. The author of over twenty books, her poetry is collected in Directed by Desire; her selected essays in Some of Us Did Not Die. Sapphire is the author of American Dreams, Black Wings & Blind Angels, and Push, which was made into the 2009 award-winning motion picture Precious.