Women Contributors to In the Grove

residual discussion continues on issues of gender & poetry/literature. after reading another post today on the representation of female poets in the academic and/or small press poetry world, i couldn't help but think of george eliot, george sand, phyllis wheatley, and some other pioneers. i thought about mary wollstonecraft's great essay "a vindication of the rights of woman" and some of the french feminists i read in grad school, irigary and cixious. so to what extent has literature's playing field leveled out? i don't know, although i'd guess it's still a bit sloped. but i wanted to write a bit on this subject from my vantage point as the founding editor of a literary magazine called in the grove. i founded this small press literary magazine in 1996, and we have published 14 issues to date. i'm very proud of it. we publish california writers, focusing on the central valley. it is mainly a print/ hard copy magazine (we don't draw many bloggers, but i hope to publish more in the future), and our website got a facelift recently thanks to erik fritz, our magnificent web meistro. i've never counted, but i would estimate that we receive about 50% submissions from women, 50% from men. some of the outstanding female poets we have published include:

corrinne clegg hales, dixie salazar, gillian wegener, amy uyematsu, lee ann roripaugh, ruth schwartz, renny christopher, and joyce odam. in our next issue we will have poems by barbara jane reyes and denise duhamel (who was in fresno last summer), as well as a few notable male poets including martin espada.

in the grove publishes good poetry. we have had the good fortune to publish many exceptional poems and stories, and i encourage you to check us out, order a copy, and/or submit your best work. issue #15 should be excellent---all genders welcome.