Writing by Women

It is part of our project to create a library of the greatest poetry by women from every time and land—a “great wall of girls” —a collection so imposing in scope that women’s genius will be visible even from outer space. Literary translation is the primary means for securing this end.

96th of October Editions has already published books by Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva (Russian); Mascha Kalèko (German); Renée Vivien (French); Anna Margolin (Yiddish) Rachel Blaustein (Hebrew); and Sappho (Greek). Ancient literature written by women, and attributed to men, will be found in O’Malley’s Woman in Chinese and Faintly’s Hebrew Hussies and Hellcats. Our fully annotated editions of books by Julia Vinograd and Emily Dickinson are important turrets on the “wall.” These books are linked below in the list of women writers whose work has appeared in our magazine.

Forthcoming works are poetry by Delmira Agustini (Spanish); The Therigatha (Pali); and Zinaida Hippius (Russian).

We are actively interested in publishing new translations: do not hesitate to send us your work.

We accept as a fixed principle that politics have no place in the evaluation of literature: art cannot serve a political or other further purpose, for good art is itself already a purpose—and indeed all the purpose art can effectively accommodate.

Similarly, we resist and refute the assertion that feminism can fairly be assigned any further purpose than securing the rights of women.

We propose, as a literary magazine, to do our part to render great women audible. This we view as a necessary corollary to political feminism, but neither identical nor subordinate to the latter—just as securing women’s rights is a necessary corollary to securing universal human rights, but neither identical nor subordinate to that latter aim.

I am the heir of heirs, for I am death, who inherits all;
of all future things, I am their new beginning.
Of female things,  I am words,
I am those facets of the real
expressed in most womanly wise:
betokened by the spoken!
I am words, whose power is readily felt
in fame and reputation, rumor and report,
be they true or be they false. Such is the power of speech!
What’s said has no less effect upon us than what’s done.
and speech is woman’s particular power,
hers the force of recollection, she, with mind alert
holds firmly every word, makes the very tone her own,
preserves it with a patient and a persevering care.
Man speaks, but woman hears, and what she hears
is hers, unforgettingly, forever!

Bhagavad Gita 10:34, Oona Fernsby translation