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Table of Contents

  • 1. “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000)”
    • Data Table
    • Significance & Context
      • Background & Scholarship
      • How Researchers Might Use This Dataset
    • Collection and Creation
    • Description
  • 2. FBN Issue List
    • Data Table
    • Description
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Versioning
  • Bibliography
  • Volunteer List / Acknowledgements

Feminist Bookstore News Issues and Articles (1976-2000)

print
feminist
bookstore
publishing
dataset
Authors

Julie R. Enszer

Salome Grasland

Cassidy Hunt

Michaela Hayes

Published

January 9, 2025

Doi

10.18737/410409

Abstract
This dataset contains metadata for all articles and issues of Feminist Bookstore News from 1976 to 2000.

Figure 1: Credit: Litmus Press

1. “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000)”

The “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000)” is a descriptive bibliography of articles in FBN for researchers to search and explore the thousands of published articles and wide range of material considered in the magazine.

Data Table

volnovol.noarticle_titleauthorcategoryyearmonthnotesvolunteertotal_pagesunique_id
1976 2000
6 158
vol
no
vol.no
article_title
author
category
year
month
notes
volunteer
total_pages
unique_id
1101.1Editor's Note?Carol SeajayEditor's Note1976OctoberLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA1
1101.1Hot New BooksCarol SeajayBooklist/Medialist1976OctoberLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA2
1101.1Books in SpanishCarol SeajayBooklist/Medialist1976OctoberLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA3
1101.1Brilliant IdeasCarol SeajayShort News1976OctoberLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA4
1101.1Coming SoonCarol SeajayOther1976OctoberPreview of next issueLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA5
1101.1Last Chance New TitlesCarol SeajayOther1976Octobervery shortLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA6
1101.1Mission/About NewsletterAndréEditor's Note1976OctoberLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA7
1101.1Come be midwife to our birthing Old Wives' TalesUnknownAdvertisements1976OctoberWomen's Visions and Books party on HalloweenLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA8
1101.1Rising Woman Books, Santa Rosa, California, had a burglaryUnknownShort News1976OctoberLi-Anne Wright8FBNDDA9
1201.2[No title]UnknownTable of Contents1976NovemberAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA10
1201.2Letters to the newsletterBetsy; Francine [31st Street Bookstore; Baltimore]; Betty [Alternative Booksellers]; Moonyean Womansplace; Elana Dykewoman [As Lesbian Gardens Bookstore; Northampton]; Lyndall [Full Moon]; Rising Woman Books; Karyn [Womanbooks].Letters1976NovemberAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA11
1201.2Young Women & Youth Liberation BooklistCarol Seajay; Youth Liberation BookstoreBooklist/Medialist1976NovemberAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA12
1201.2The following is a list of titles that can be placed in the "lesbian section" of a bookstore.Lyndall Cowan [Full Moon Bookstore; San Francisco]Booklist/Medialist1976November"A list of 136 titles that can be placed in the "lesbian section" of a bookstore."Andréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA13
1201.2[No title]André; Carol SeajayEditor's Note1976NovemberA quick word about this new issueAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA14
1201.2News!UnknownNews Feature1976NovemberMother Right bookstore opened; Rising Woman Books has moved; Carol and André details their expanses for the first FBN Issue.Andréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA15
1201.2Native American WomanUnknownBooklist/Medialist1976NovemberAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA16
1201.2Black WomenUnknownBooklist/Medialist1976NovemberAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA17
1201.2DistributorsUnknownBooklist/Medialist1976NovemberA list of distributorsAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA18
1201.2New TitlesUnknownBooklist/Medialist1976NovemberAndréanne Wahlman12FBNDDA19
1301.3Things you always wanted to know...Carol SeajayOther1977JanuarySome tips, addresses, discounts, etc.Andréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA20
1301.3LettersColetta Reid [Diana Press Inc.]; Jean & Gilda [New Words]; Rosalee Miller [Womanstore Of Women Unlimited].Letters1977JanuaryAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA21
1301.3Mail-OrderJesse Meredith [Rising Woman Books]; Donna Loercher [Feminist Book Mart]Short News1977JanuaryThe letter from Meredith to Feminist Book Mart and their response regarding a possible collaborationAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA22
1301.3[No title]UnknownEditor's Note1977JanuarySubscription information; next month issue.Andréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA23
1301.3Additions to lesbian booklist from LyndallUnknownBooklist/Medialist1977JanuaryList of lesbian titlesAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA24
1301.3Alexandria Books has a new home!UnknownShort News1977JanuaryAlexandria Books has a new homeAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA25
1301.3STOPUnknownOther1977JanuarySome info about Single Title Order PlanAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA26
1301.3[No title]UnknownShort News1977JanuarySome new titles, selling rights, etc.Andréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA27
1301.3Brilliant Ideas #3UnknownOther1977JanuaryAdvertising and promotion, selling at conferencesAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA28
1301.3More new books and pleasures...UnknownBooklist/Medialist1977JanuaryAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA29
1301.3Subscription formUnknownOther1977JanuaryAndréanne Wahlman13FBNDDA30
1401.4Update from Amazon Reality Co.Amazon Reality Co.Short News1977FebruaryBook "What Lesbians do" is not restricted to women only, High School Sexuality going through second printing, Come Out Comix and Dyke Life available in spring.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA31
1401.4Autumn SeaAstarte Shell PressAdvertisements1977FebruaryBook cover of Autumn Sea by Toke HoppenbrouwersKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA32
1401.4Discussions [Does Anybody Know]Carol SeajayLetters1977FebruaryCS asks if anyone knows where Out and Out Books went to. She cannot reach them by mail.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA33
1401.4News/Short StoriesCarol SeajayNews Feature1977Februarynews: for sale, to let, and a birthday; royalties on remainders; trivias; write nowKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA34
1401.4RecordsCarol SeajayShort News1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA35
1401.4On Publishers RowCarol Seajay; Mary Morell [Full Circle]; St; Ann MorsePresslist1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA36
1401.4Discussions [Price Fixing]Coventry BooksLetters1977FebruaryLetter directed to CS about price fixing in the midwest. Attorney General in Ohio talked to bookseller about bookstores all selling books at the same price. "If you are looking for collusion and price fixing that looks like a commie under the bed." Bookseller says it was an easily solved situationKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA37
1401.4Index of AdvertisersFbnOther1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA38
1401.4Classified Ads & Literary PersonalsFbnOther1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA39
1401.4LettersJeanne Neath [Spinsters Books]; Nancy [Jane Addams Bookstore]; Arleen [Giovanni's Room]Letters1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA40
1401.4Madwoman Press, Inc.Madwoman Press; IncAdvertisements1977FebruaryBook cover of The Grass Widow by Nanci LittleKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA41
1401.4More LettersPam Wilson-Pace [The Open Book]; Pamela & Leslie [Emma Collective; The Buffalo Women's Bookstore]Letters1977FebruaryPam Wilson-Pace says she appreciates the booklists and that she consistently receives letters from women asking how to open bookstores. EMMA The Buffalo Women's Bookstore introduces their collective to FBNKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA42
1401.4The Story of JanePantheonAdvertisements1977FebruaryBook cover of The Story of Jane by Laura KaplanKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA43
1401.4Discussions [Bookstore Apprenticeship Training Program]Paula & Carol [Old Wives' Tales]Letters1977FebruaryOld Wives' Tales has an opening for a three month apprenticeship.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA44
1401.4The Last of the QuickiesRita Conley [Common Woman]; Lilith [Bookstore]; Carol SeajayLetters1977FebruaryRita Conley looking for info on how to set up a mail order system, Seajay says lots of people are looking for that info, including New Earth and Lilith. Seajay says she feels guilt about not putting more philosophy/politics in the newsletterKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA45
1401.4QUICKIES and NotesRosalee Miller [Womanstore]; Linnea & Lori [The Plains Woman]; Carol [New Earth]Letters1977FebruaryShorter letters. Womanstore included 20 dollars to encourage FBN to keep doing their thing. The Plains Woman is an 8 month old bookstore and asks for tips on how to make connections with "straight press." New Earth encourages advertising but not at the cost of editorial policy.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA46
1401.4LettersRosalie Nochols [Lesbian Voices & Ms. Atlas Press & Bookstore]; Chris & Sharon [Sister Bear]; Betty Loneny [Sp?] [Alternative Booksellers];Letters1977FebruaryRosalie Nichols says feminist bookstores should cooperate and exchange information and mentions that lesbian and feminist writers are neglected by mass market publishers, also encourages the newsletter writers not to self-sacrifice their labor by not allowing ads and taking on printing costs themselves. Sister Bear mentions a program called "bear on the loose," where they sell books at Women's centers and donate 5% of profits to them, also mentions low sales in December. Alternative Booksellers mentions high rent prices and an entirely volunteer staff.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA47
1401.4Discussions [Ticket Selling]Sister Bear; Carol & Maria; Gahan [Sisterhood Bookstore]; Carol SeajayLetters1977FebruarySister Bear reports less sales in December than last December. Discussion about ticket selling for community concerts, etc. Gahan mentions charging a fee for the service.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA48
1401.4Discussions [Advertising]Sisterhood Books; Sister Bear; Alternative Booksellers; Old Wives' TalesLetters1977FebruaryThe most successful advertisers for the bookstores seem to be college papers, Women's organizations, and feminist newspapersKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA49
1401.4J.A.P Handbook AdSisterhood BookstoreAdvertisements1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA50
1401.4New Books and Other PleasuresUnknownBooklist/Medialist1977FebruaryList of new books. Books include Chrysalis, The Ways a Woman can be, Women Artists: 1550-1950, Nursing Homes: A Citizen's Guide to Action, The Economics of Being a Woman, Complete Book of Midwifery, Witchcraft of Salem Village, The Needles Eye, The Realms of Gold, Profile on the Mexican-American Woman, We're All Right Be We Ain's Special, Country Lesbians, Any Woman's Blues, Tangled Hair, Sister Heathenspinter's Almanac & Lunation Calendar, Little Sister Series, Health In the Middle Years, Lesbian Voices, Jewish Women in AmericaKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA51
1401.4Booklist on Battered WomenUnknownBooklist/Medialist1977FebruaryBooklist. Books include Houseworker's Handbook, Wife Beating, What's a Wife Worth?, Working on Wife Abuse, Social Responses to Battered Women, For Shelter and Beyond, Batter Women Materials, Disarm RapistsKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA52
1401.4Dear WomenUnknownShort News1977FebruaryShort introduction to the rest of the newsletter. Talks about how the newsletter's intention is made to be a newsletter for the readers, more so than for the people writing the newsletterKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA53
1401.4QuestionnaireUnknownShort News1977FebruaryQuestionnaire results about the logistics of the newsletter. Only received 23 of 80 questionnaires back. Questionnaire results favored bulk mailing (after 200 subscriptions), legal size paper, publisher subscriptions, yes to advertising (some said "feminist only, concerns about editorial autonomy). Asks for help editing notes from Women In Print conference.Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA54
1401.4Naiad Books and Other NewsUnknownShort News1977FebruaryKali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA55
1401.4Notes from Computer TableUnknownEditor's Note1977Februarywar, May 1991 Bookstore Day, ABA,Kali Herbst Minino14FBNDDA56
1501.5Women in PrintCarol Rowell; Marie KudaShort News1977AprilThe question of whether to have a Women in Print conference in 1977 or 1978Michaela Hayes11FBNDDA59
1501.5[No Title]Carol Seajay; AndréEditor's Note1977AprilAddress to publishers, distributors, and periodicals who might read FBN.Michaela Hayes11FBNDDA60
1501.5The Oracle Presents info from Publishers WeeklyLinda Ravenkamp From The OracleBooklist/Medialist1977AprilList of books of interest from January, February, and March of 1977.Michaela Hayes11FBNDDA61
1501.5As Promised from Sisterhood BookstoreSisterhood BookstoreBooklist/Medialist1977AprilList of feminist books that were reviewed by New York Times Book Reviews or New York Review of BooksMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA62
1501.5Feminist Bookstore NewsletterUnknownLetters1977AprilConversation between First Things First, Rising Woman Books, and Feminist Book Wart about the struggles of mail-order business. Some sections are unreadable due to fading printMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA63
1501.5NewsUnknownShort News1977AprilNews about Booklegger Press and Noon BooksMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA64
1501.5The List of Feminist Bookstores and Distributors in the U.S. and CanadaUnknownOther1977AprilMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA65
1501.5Tiptree RevealedUnknownShort News1977AprilThe person using the pen-name James Tiptree, Jr was revealed to be a 61-one year old psychologist named Alice SheldonMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA66
1501.5Response to the QuestionnairesUnknownShort News1977AprilAnswers from a questionnaire sent to various feminist bookstores on the matters of bulk mailing, format, publishers, and advertisingMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA67
1501.5Hot FlashUnknownShort News1977AprilNews about the success of Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae BrownMichaela Hayes11FBNDDA68
1501.5More RumorsUnknownShort News1977AprilRandom House declares that the market for Women's books is over; Booklist from the American Library Association now reviews books from the feminist press; the second edition of Sinister Wisdom is dedicated to lesbian literature; the opening of The Jane Addams Bookstore & Bakery;Michaela Hayes11FBNDDA69
1501.5Dear FriendsWomontyme DistributionLetters1977AprilLetter to FBN audience from Women in Distribution about its plans for the future, which include taking on more new books, a booth at the 1977 ABA conference, and working more with cooperative advertising.Michaela Hayes11FBNDDA70
1601.6[No Title]Carol Seajay; AndréEditor's Note1977JulyPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA71
1601.6From Eleanor at WomanbooksEleanor [Womanbooks]Advertisements1977JulyAdvertisement for Scream Quietly by Erin PizzeyPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA72
1601.6From New Seed PressHelen; Susan; Jane; Barbara; SusiePresslist1977JulyPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA73
1601.6Our BooksUnknownBooklist/Medialist1977JulyPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA74
1601.6About Our Printing Process...Unknown [Carol Seajay; André]Short News1977JulyCarol Seajay and André share the mechanical process that is involved in creating the newsletterPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA75
1601.6Joint AdvertisingUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Short News1977JulyInformation about the process of joint advertising; news about the opening of new bookstoresPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA76
1601.6New Bookstores!Unknown [Carol Seajay; André]Short News1977JulyWomanbooks' 2nd birthday celebrations; news about other recent events at WomanbooksPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA77
1601.6[No Title]Unknown [Carol Seajay; André]Short News1977JulyA piece by science Fiction writer, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, titled False Dawn, has been expanded to novel length and will be published by Doubleday in the Spring 1978Pelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA78
1601.6From the April Publisher's WeeklyUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Presslist1977JulySummer announcementsPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA79
1601.6PaperbacksUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Booklist/Medialist1977JulyList of paperback books for salePelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA80
1601.6HardbackUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Booklist/Medialist1977JulyList of hardback books for salePelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA81
1601.6Finally Out in PaperbackUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Booklist/Medialist1977JulyNew paperback releasesPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA82
1601.6From Our Own PressesUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Presslist1977JulyPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA83
1601.6[No Title]Unknown [Carol Seajay; André]Advertisements1977JulyPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA84
1601.6Special IssuesUnknown [Carol Seajay; André]Advertisements1977JulyAdvertisement for the book, Not a Fleeting Rage: A Handbook on RapePelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA85
1601.6[No Title]Unknown [Carol Seajay; André]Short News1977JulyBantam Representative informs FBN that Rita Mae Brown was taken to meet people in the advertising department. Her book, Rubyfruit Jungle is expected to get lots of good advertisingPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA86
1601.6Don't Eat Florida Citrus!!!Unknown [Carol Seajay; André]Other1977JulyThe end of the page features the words, 'Don't Eat Florida Citrus!!!'. The text is enclosed by a rectangular borderPelaya Arapakis6FBNDDA87
1701.7[No Title]Carol SeajayEditor's Note1977SeptemberCarol is trying to get the newsletter out every 4-6 weeks; André won't be working on the newsletter as regularlyPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA88
1701.7Books on Homosexuality: A Current ChecklistDaisy Maryles; Robert DahlinExternal Booklist and Awards1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA89
1701.7From Sonya Wetstone/Book and CheeseSonya Wetstone [Book; Cheese]Letters1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA90
1701.7They Went That-A-WayUnknown [Fbn]Column1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA91
1701.7Which Way?Unknown [Fbn]Other1977SeptemberFBN [Carol Seajay] asks readers if they know how to get in contact with Out and Out Books as they haven't responded to orders Carol had placed last SpringPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA92
1701.7New BookstoresUnknown [Fbn]Short News1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA93
1701.7TidbitsUnknown [Fbn]Short News1977SeptemberMentions The Price of Salt and how it was one of the first lesbian novels that ended in a 'happily ever after'. The title is available at Arno in a reprint edition; Time and Book of the Month Club are merging; After finding out that there are 60,000 print copies of Rubyfruit Jungle, Carol has beein interested in the size of press runs for different feminist books; reflections on subliminal advertisingPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA94
1701.7From Our Own PressesUnknown [Fbn]Presslist1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA95
1701.7PeriodicalsUnknown [Fbn]Booklist/Medialist1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA96
1701.7Comin Soon...Unknown [Fbn]Advertisements1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA97
1701.7ToysUnknown [Fbn]Other1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA98
1701.7More Small PressesUnknown [Fbn]Presslist1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA99
1701.7Finally in PaperbackUnknown [Fbn]Booklist/Medialist1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA100
1701.7Mass Market PaperbacksUnknown [Fbn]Booklist/Medialist1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA101
1701.7For Younger WomenUnknown [Fbn]Booklist/Medialist1977SeptemberPelaya Arapakis13FBNDDA102
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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Significance & Context

Feminist Bookstore News (FBN), a US-based publication, was the publisher of record for the “women in print” movement. A hand-printed, stapled-in-the-corner newsletter, FBN grew to be the preeminent book trade magazine for feminist bookstores including feminist and lesbian publishers, vendors selling to feminist bookstores, and interested feminist readers. In addition, a range of mainstream and specialty bookstores as well as corporate, independent press, and other social movement publishers read FBN avidly. Carol Seajay operated FBN from 1976 until 2000, publishing 134 issues. These issues ranged from eight pages to over 150 pages per issue. At the end of the run of the periodical, two issues were fully electronic, 22.5 and 23.1.

The “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News 1976-2000” is a descriptive bibliography of articles in FBN for researchers to search and explore the thousands of articles published and the wide range of material considered in the magazine. A second enumerative bibliography is planned with every book mentioned in Feminist Bookstore News during its lifespan; this second dataset is anticipated in 2025. Together, these datasets respond to Kate Ozment’s call for feminist book history that “knits a narrative of book history through librarianship, book collecting, and textual editing alongside the traditional space of bibliography.”

Background & Scholarship

Printing and publishing were crucial elements of women’s and gay liberation. In the case of women’s liberation, independent newspapers, magazines, journals, printing press operations, and publishing houses were so significant that women involved in these activities came to call themselves the “women in print movement,” organizing conferences and other activities to support their work. This explosion of printing and publishing work from 1969 through 2000 by feminists, with lesbian-feminists playing important leadership roles in the movement, resulted in a wide range of books, periodicals, and other printed material available for study.

Print culture is thus a vibrant node to explore women’s liberation and gay and lesbian liberation. For example, Martin Meeker highlights how print and publishing helped gay men and lesbians find one another. Since Trysh Travis’s “The Women in Print Movement” and its “analysis of how gender and power shaped ‘the little world of the book,’” multiple scholars have explicated feminist book history. Jaime Harker situates its southern roots; Kristen Hogan maps feminist bookstores as an important site of antiracist thinking and activism in feminist and lesbian communities, while Junko R. Onosaka considers the roles these bookstores played in making the stories of women’s lives and experiences more visible and available to readers. Kathy Liddle develops the concept of “cultural interaction spaces” to describe feminist bookstores as spaces where women developed “identities as feminists and/or lesbians.” I have written extensively about independent publishers in the movement and, more recently, about the significance of bibliography for figures like Barbara Grier and the transnational movements of texts through networks in the movement.

Still other scholars use the print material from the movement to elaborate further the issues and concerns of lesbians. Cait McKinney, for example, explores the “circle of lesbian indexers” who stepped up to make “critical choices about the tools” used and “the classifications schemes they assigned to ‘lesbian experience.’” June Thomas’s new book A Place Of Our Own provides a personal account of the impact of the women in print movement and lesbian-feminist activism during the era. These works complement recent engagements by Richard Jean So examining the race of authors in post-World War II fiction and by Dan Sinykin in documenting the impact of corporate conglomerates on American fiction — so, in particular, advocates for the significance of large datasets and their potential for humanities research with social justice outcomes.

While all these attentions are vital, assessments of the scope and impact of the women in print movement have not been fully explored. As these organizations recede into memory, describing, quantifying, and analyzing the work of the women in print movement becomes more important for the historical record.

How Researchers Might Use This Dataset

FBN is a rich archive for research about publishing, the women in print movement, and more. This database offers a way for researchers to find and locate materials more efficiently among the over 10,000 pages published by FBN.

This data has already proven generative at the journal Sinister Wisdom in the hands of volunteers, interns, and people interested in lesbian literature and histories.

Researchers might examine this data to explore questions like:

  • What was the economic and cultural scope of feminist bookstores during the 1980s and 1990s?
  • What were key contributions of social change publishing in the independent publishing scene between 1976 and 2000?
  • How did feminist bookstores spark a network of feminist merchants who built small, sustainable businesses around bookstores and other feminist cultural events such as music festivals?
  • What effects did desktop publishing have on independent publishing? What were crucial moments of desktop publishing’s entry into independent publishing?
  • How did other technologies (internet, web, mobile phones, etc.) effect independent publishing?
  • How did the visual language of feminism evolve during this period of increased computerization?
  • How did mainstream publishing respond to the feminist publishing movement?
  • What conditions facilitated publishing gay and lesbian literary work in commercial publishing?
  • What cultural, governmental, and/or political conditions influenced publishing during these decades? How did publishing influence cultural, governmental, and/or political conditions?

There is not another dataset that documents the range and diversity of activities of the women in print movement. The “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000)” offers a way to engage the histories of the women in print movement more robustly by making the over 10,000 pages of content easier to search, providing a view of the types of articles published that is easier to understand, and offering initial searchability for keywords to explore content further in the full corpus.

Collection and Creation

The “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000)” was hand-compiled and collated from digital copies of FBN. Reveal Digital digitized issues of FBN from volume seven through twenty-two, part of the feminist component of the Independent Voices project. These issues now are available freely through JSTOR.

The digital collection of FBN, however, was incomplete. Before compiling this data, volunteers at Sinister Wisdom created a complete digital collection of FBN by scanning issues and ephemera through the San Francisco Public Library. All issues of FBN are now digitized and freely available at the Lesbian Poetry Archives. FBN also published and distributed nationally five, full-color, glossy Feminist Bookstores’ Catalogs. Digital copies of these catalogs are available at the Lesbian Poetry Archive. Additional ephemera—inserts to the newsletters, flyers, and other material—have been digitized and labeled as “extras.” During the 2000s, Carol Seajay initiated and edited Books To Watch Out For. More information and archives of those issues are available here: http://www.lesbianpoetryarchive.org/BTWOF. Books To Watch Out For is not included in this bibliographic project.

Work on this dataset began with a brief note in a Sinister Wisdom email announcing our spring 2023 issue on its publication date, April 15, 2023. A postscript to the email said:

Psst! Julie and Sinister Wisdom are cooking up a new project and need some helping hands. Have a bit of time from May until August? A solid internet connection? Like feminist and lesbian books? Like organizing information? We have a project for you!
Email Julie for more information and to express your interest. We will build a cohort of volunteers for a nifty project over the summer. Keep your eyes peeled for a zoom launch meeting and get on the special email list for more information.

Over forty volunteers from Sinister Wisdom signed up to participate in the project. Chloe Berger, a graduate student in Spanish language and literature at the University of California-Berkeley, scanned the missing issues of FBN–and more—at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) and in consultation with Carol Seajay and her private collection.

By May 19th, the Sinister Wisdom Snapshot, our bi-weekly email of links, good reads, and lesbian/queer women’s happenings, posted this announcement:

Sinister Wisdom’s summer project working on an archive of Feminist Bookstore News is underway! If you have time this summer to volunteer on some database projects associated with it, please email Julie and mark your calendar for our kickoff meeting on Friday, 26 May 2023 at high noon ET. If you sign up for the project, you will receive a zoom link to the gathering.

Volunteers flocked to the project with great energy and enthusiasm. In total, close to fifty volunteers participated in the project; thirty-eight volunteers keyed data from specific issues.

With a complete set of FBN scans, volunteers embarked on the work of creating a database of all the articles in FBN. A shared spreadsheet on Google Sheets offered a collaborative space to enter data. Initially, the spreadsheet contained columns for basic bibliographic data for each article in FBN plus a column for notes that volunteers could enter about the articles. As the project developed, more standard categories for each article emerged and that column was added.

Individual volunteers signed up for a specific issue of FBN, read it, and entered bibliographic information into the shared spreadsheet. Sinister Wisdom organized a series of Zoom meetings to explain the project and the process and then hosted Zoom work sessions during the summer of 2023.

By August 31, 2023, volunteers and interns completed data entry on sixty issues of FBN, about half the corpus. During the fall of 2023, we paused to assess the strengths and limitations of the existing data structure and refine it before completing the second half of the data entry for the descriptive bibliography of FBN in the spring. From December 2023 through March 2024, Sinister Wisdom volunteers and interns returned to the project and completed the database.

Volunteers entered nearly all the data freeform. The primary reason for this freeform entry was that, while we tested the data entry on a smaller scale before opening to a broad community of volunteers even after that test, the team was unclear about what parameters to use to limit the data entry before final clean up. In addition, the team wanted to encourage volunteers to engage both with the individual issues of FBN and with the broader project through data entry that was open and invited each volunteer to engage and capture articles in ways that s/he determined. Ultimately, collectively the project team and the volunteers developed guidelines for some standardization in data entry, but the final database reflects differences among humans in reading, analysis, and entry.

When the database was completed, Salome “Sam” Grasland cleaned and standardized the data for final use and display. A few initial fields were removed because they lacked data (for example, initially the spreadsheet contained a column for ad size, but that data was not completed consistently). Sam cleaned the author name field, which sometimes had misspellings. If additional information was known about the author, but not their name, then that information was put into brackets []. The spelling of all months was standardized and issues which previously had a slashed month, for example September/October, only the first month listed was retained. Issue numbers were standardized to always be 9.10, for example for combined issues. Sam cleaned the category field and grouped like categories together. The graphics column was changed to yes/no. Spellcheck was also run on the overall data and many errors in spelling were corrected. However, throughout the data, capitalization is capacious and, given that the project team included people both in the United States and the United Kingdom, there is not a standardization of English.

In addition to the “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000),” Cassidy Hunt, a volunteer, generated a list of every issue published, with notes about numbering oddities and other bibliographic details. This list is included as an addition to the dataset in three formats: PDF, Word, and Excel files.

Salome “Sam” Grasland and her co-worker Nayeli Jaime at The Information Lab created a dashboard for the project. The dashboard searches the “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News (1976-2000)” and presents results next to renderings of the PDF issue in which the articles appear. The dashboard is hosted on Tableau Public and offers a searchable interface for the “Descriptive Database.” The dashboard is available here.

The labor to compile the “Descriptive Database” was done completely by queer volunteers at Sinister Wisdom. Many people working on the project recognize FBN and the communities that it networked as vital to lesbian history and heritage. I (Julie) believe that labor undertaken to preserve and analyze lesbian history should be compensated, and I also recognize that compensation is often not possible under the current conditions of capitalism in which we live.

Description

The “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstores News (1976-2000)” is a flat-file with each row describing one article in an issue of FBN. There are over 5,900 rows of data. There are fourteen columns in the dataset.

The columns are:

  • vol: FBN volume number (Sequentially numbered 1-23.)

  • no: FBN issue number (For most issues, these are numerals; combined issues, for instance the combined release of numbers 9 and 10, are represented as 9.10 in the dataset. There are seven occurrences of SP as an issue number, sp for special or supplemental issues. Volume 6 contains one SP which was a special insert into 6.2 that was mailed only to bookstores and not other subscribers. Beginning with volume 13 and extending through volume 18, SP issues are issues focused on sidelines. There are additional sidelines issues after volume 18, but they are numbered numerically and not with SP.)

  • volume.no: FBN volume and issue number combined (represented as x.y and useful for sorting)

  • total_pages: Number of pages in the issue that contain article content (pages in the archived .pdf. Pagination varies within the issues across the publication.)

  • year: Year the issue was published

  • month: Month the issue was published (Early issues are not dated as clearly as later issues. For some early issues, this column surmises the month, often from a mail cancellation.)

  • article_title: Article title (There is great variability among titles, subtitles, and title conventions over the lifetime of the periodical. There is no imposed standardization on this field.)

  • page_start: the page number on which the item first appears

  • page_end: the page number on which the item last appears. (Beginning in the early 1980s, FBN used a cardstock cover. These covers (front cover, inside front, inside back, and back cover) are unpaginated. The dataset uses c1, c2, c3, and c4 respectively in this field and the previous one to indicate these pages.)

  • author: Author of the article (when attributed. Carol Seajay is the presumptive author of many unattributed articles. There is inconsistency in the file of the application of her name to the author category, for instance, some records indicate unknown [Seajay] and others indicate unknown [FBN]; all may have been written by Carol Seajay. In some records, a presumptive author is indicated in brackets after unknown.)

  • category: See below for more information on descriptions of each category.

  • graphics? Yes/No if graphics were present in the article

  • notes: This column is broad and capacious. Volunteers used it to summarize the article, write down the different subheadings in an article, point out interesting things in the article, or explain what graphics appear in this article.

  • volunteer: Volunteer Name (A complete list of all volunteers who compiled data for the dataset is included at the end of this essay.)

  • unique_id: This column was appended in the final creation of the file for citation purposes.

A database necessarily imposes a structure onto materials that evolved over twenty-four years. In compiling the database, the team tried to capture the material in ways that respect the expressions and evolutions of the periodical. In collectively compiling the data, the volunteer team erred more on the side of expression than standardization.

The question of how to categorize articles was a subject of discussion among the research team. These notes were written initially by volunteer Li-Anne Wright.

What each category means:

  • Booklist/Medialist
    • A list of books on a theme. These may have a few paragraphs of preamble but mostly focus on giving a list of books.
    • Examples: Women’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Booklist, Bestsellers Lists, Kids’ Lit
  • External Booklists and Awards
    • This category captures external lists such as the Lambda Awards. It differs from the previous category, “Booklist/Media list” in that the lists for this category are determined by institutions other than Feminist Bookstore News.
  • Advertisements
    • These could include calls for submissions, posters, blurbs publicizing future events, advertisements for books, etc.
  • Letters
    • Letters written to FBN
    • In each FBN issue there is a section for letters. Make one row for all of the letters and index them together in that one row.
  • News Feature
    • These articles are longer (1.5+ full pages) and news (informative about some happening)
  • Short News
    • If the article fits a more specific category below, use the more specific category. Otherwise, you can just put “Short News.” More specific categories include:
      • Short News Publishers
        • News from publishers
      • Short News Bookstores
        • News from bookstores
    • These articles are shorter (a few paragraphs to a page) and news (informative about some happening)
    • Can use this category to refer to a collection of short news (like the “Back to Press and Other Good News” column)
  • Editor’s Note
    • Each issue opens with a letter from the editor. It might be called “From the Computer Desk” or something similar.
  • Workshop Summary
    • Articles of any length that summarize the findings from a conference or workshop.
  • They Went That-A-Way
    • A regular column that appears in every newsletter
  • Presslist
    • Used to refer to the lists of recently published books, such as “From the University Presses”
  • Other Feature
    • Any other longer articles that do not fit one of the above categories

The categories list developed over time and reflects the project’s evolution as well as the changes within the periodical.

2. FBN Issue List

The “FBN Issue List” is a file with a list of all of the issues of FBN.

Data Table

volumenumberyear_publishednumber_of_pagesformatnotes
1976 2000
7 162
volume
number
year_published
number_of_pages
format
notes
1119768Newsletter
12197612Newsletter
13197713Newsletter
14197714Newsletter
15197715Newsletter
1619777Newsletter
17197714Newsletter
18197712Newsletter
19.1197720NewsletterFirst double issue of FBN
21197818Newsletter
22197820Newsletter
23197815Newsletter
24197814NewsletterTheme: women's bookstores & censorship
25.6197886NewsletterThis special issue was comprised of a copy of BookLegger's Guide to the Passionate Perils of Publishing and a cover letter.
27.8197818Newsletter
31197920Newsletter
32197915Newsletter
33197922NewsletterThe Emergency Issue was comprised of a print-out of the names and addresses and bookstore terms for all of the 600+ publishers that WIND had distributed, so that the FBN bookstores could order those books directly in the face of WIND's demise.
34197918Newsletter
35197912Newsletter
36198018Newsletter
37198014Newsletter
41198026Newsletter
42198027Newsletter
43198023Newsletter
44198020Newsletter
45198118Newsletter
46198133Newsletter
51198138Newsletter
52198122Newsletter
53198141Newsletter
54198238NewsletterTheme: issue dedicated to discussions about anti-semitism through a series of letters and responses
61198231Newsletter
6SP198218SupplementSupplement to issue 6.2 that was only distributed to women's bookstores
62198220MagazineFBN switches from newsletter to magazine format
63198328Magazine
64.5198348Magazine
71198348Magazine
72198444Magazine
73198448Magazine
74198448Magazine
75198540Magazine
76198552Magazine
81198540MagazineFirst sidelines issue of FBN
82.3198572Magazine
84198552Magazine
85198652Magazine
86198660MagazineSidelines issue 1986
91.2198685MagazineTheme: International Issue. Double issue, labelled vol. 9 no.1 on front cover, is actually vol. 9 no.1-2 Note from Carol re. this issue "I've noted on my inventory list that FBN 9.1 is actually V9 N 1-2. It was "The International Issue" reporting on the Second International Feminist Bookfair in Oslo and everything there."
93.4198792MagazineFirst annual University Press Issue
95198752Magazine
96198799MagazineFBN 10th Anniversary special double issue - combines vol. 9 no. 6 with vol. 10 no. 1
102198784MagazineSidelines issue 1987
103198784Magazine
104198792MagazineSecond annual University Press Issue
105198878Magazine
106198868MagazineSpecial issue: 3rd International Feminist Bookfair 1988
111198884Magazine
112198824MagazineSidelines issue 1988
113198892Magazine
1141988102MagazineThird annual University Press Issue
115198986Magazine
1161989102MagazineSpecial issue: Recovery Books
121198996Magazine
122198996MagazineSidelines issue 1989
123198996Magazine
1241989100MagazineFourth annual University Press Issue
125199092MagazineSpecial issue: The Periodicals Issue
126199096Magazine
1311990100Magazine
13SP199068MagazineSidelines issue 1990. This issue is the first sidelines published and bound separately. Previous sidelines sections were published as inserts to a standing issue of FBN.
132199096Magazine
1331990130Magazine
1341990130MagazineFifth annual University Press Issue
135199180Magazine
1361991120Magazine
1411991108Magazine
142199196Magazine
14SP199152MagazineSidelines issue 1991. Published and bound separately.
1431991128Magazine
1441991112Magazine
1451992116MagazineSixth annual University Press Issue
1461992112Magazine
1511992128Magazine
152199292Magazine
15SP199244MagazineSidelines issue 1992. Published and bound separately.
1531992136Magazine
1541992116MagazineSeventh annual University Press Issue
1551993108MagazineTheme: The Children's Books Issue
1561993132Magazine
1611993132Magazine
16SP199364MagazineSidelines issue 1993. Published and bound separately.
1621993136Magazine
1631993136Magazine
1641993124MagazineEighth annual University Press Issue
1651994110MagazineTheme: Women and Travel Issue
1661994136Magazine
1711994140Magazine
1721994104Magazine
17SP199472MagazineSidelines issue 1994. Published and bound separately.
Showing 1 to 100 of 134 entries
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Description

The “FBN Issue List” contains the following columns: - volume: FBN volume number (Sequentially numbered 1-23.)

  • number: FBN issue number

  • year_published: Year the issue was published

  • number_of_pages: Number of pages in the archived .pdf (can differ from the total_pages in “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstores News (1976-2000)” because of paratext inclusion)

  • format: Newsletter is used for the first issues where the pages were mimeographed and the issue was stapled in the upper left hand corner. Magazine is used for the later format where pages were stapled together in a magazine format. Supplement is used for the one supplement of FBN. Electronic indicates the one issue published and distributed through email.

  • on_jstor: A N indicates that this issue is not on JSTOR; a Y indicates that it is.

  • on_lpa: A N indicates that this issue is not on the Lesbian Poetry Archive (LPA); a Y indicates that it is.

  • notes: These highlight particular themes of issues of interest to readers.

Ethical Considerations

Carol Seajay created FBN in the feminist context of the women in print movement which was part of the broader women’s liberation movement in the United States; FBN was dedicated to building a network of feminist booksellers and promoting the print, publishing, and book work of feminists. This database was compiled by volunteers through Sinister Wisdom, a lesbian-feminist periodical. While all involved in the project take a broad, capacious, and ecumenical view of feminism and believe passionately in this data to illuminate feminist as well as other, non-feminist and feminist-adjacent work, it would not be ethical to use this data in a way that would harm feminist writers, authors, activists, publishers, printers, or book projects. The expectation is that the data will be used with mindfulness about its feminist origins and intentions.

The dataset does not contain confidential information. It does contain information about the finances of FBN.

No institutional review board process is associated with this project.

Versioning

The research team at Sinister Wisdom is now working on another dataset enumerating every book mentioned in FBN. It is likely that through that research process errors or additional missing data may be discovered, compelling an update of this database. If an updated version is released, the target date would be at the end of calendar year 2025.

An additional report from Sinister Wisdom explores the project and its process. It is available at www.sinisterwisdom.org/FBN.

Bibliography

Baco, Joshua Ortiz, Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, Jim Casey, and Sarah H. Salter. “Toward an Experimental Bibliography of Hemispheric Reconstruction Newspapers,” Criticism, Summer/Fall 2022, vol 64, nos 3-4, pp. 453-470.
Enszer, Julie R. “Barbara Grier’s Enumerative Bibliographies: Iterating Communal Lesbian Identities,” Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts, Summer/Fall 2022, Vol. 64, Nos. 3–4, pp. 397–412.
-—-. “Binding Transnational Lesbian-Feminist Print Constellations: Exploring Feminist Print Cultures and Its Transnational Travels,” Mémoires du livre – Studies in Book Culture, special issue “Exploring Transnational Dimensions of Activism in Contemporary Book Culture,” Autumn 2022, vol 13, no 2.
Goodings, Lennie. A Bite of the Apple: A Life with Books, Writers and Virago. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Harker, Jaime. The Lesbian South. Charlotte, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
Hogan, Kristen. The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.
Liddle, K. “Distribution Matters: Feminist Bookstores as Cultural Interaction Spaces.” Cultural Sociology, (2019) 13(1), 57–75.
McKinney, Cait. Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020.
Meeker, Martin. Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s-1970s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Murray, Simone. Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing Politics. London: Pluto Press, 2004.
Murray, Heather. “Free for All Lesbians: Lesbian Cultural Production and Consumption in the United States during the 1970s.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 16, no. 2 (May 2007): 251–75.
Onosaka, Junko R. Feminist Revolution in Literacy: Women’s Bookstores in the United States. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Ozment, Kate. “Rationale for a Feminist Bibliography,” Textual Cultures 13.1 (2020): 149–178.
Sinykin, Dan. Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 2023.
Serby, Benjamin, “‘Not to Produce Newspapers, but Committed Radicals’: The Underground Press, the New Left, and the Gay Liberation Counterpublic in the United States, 1965–1976.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 32, no. 1 (January 2023).
Joan, Polly, and Andrea Chesman, Guide to Women’s Publishing, Paradise, CA: Dustbooks, 1978.
Rodger Streitmatter, Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1995.
So, Richard Jean, Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction, New York: Columbia University Press, 2020.
Thomas, June. A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces that Shaped Queer Women’s Culture. New York: Seal Press, 2024.
Travis, Trysh. “The Women in Print Movement: History and Implications,” Book History 11 (2008): 276.

Volunteer List / Acknowledgements

Thank you to two anonymous reviewers of this project for their invaluable feedback, and thank you to Dan Sinykin and Melanie Walsh for their feedback, editorial acumen, and support of this project.

Every person who worked on this project indexing an issue of FBN was a vital and valuable part of the project. Immense gratitude to everyone who helped.

Here is the complete list of volunteers who participated in the creation of the “Descriptive Database of Articles in Feminist Bookstore News 1976-2000:”

Alexa Mangione
Allison Quinlan
Ana A. Rico
Andréanne Wahlman
Anna Greene
Camilla Crane
Carla Bullock
Cassidy Hunt
Chloe Berger
Courtney Heidorn
Dana Westmoreland
Darla Tejada
Elizabeth Galoozis
Elizabeth Lanyon
Frankie Pokorny
Kali Herbst Minino
Katie Stollmack
Laura Gibbs
Li-Anne Wright
M’lyn Hines
Margaret Zanmiller
Matty Rihn
Michaela Hayes
Mikayla Hamilton
Nicole Olila
Noelle Hendrickson
Pelaya Arapakis
Rachel Minetti
Raquel Espasande
Rosal Lorico
Rose Norman
Sam Grasland
Sarah Horner
Sarah Parsons
Savannah Tweeddale
Taylor Doherty
Taylor Harding
Taylor Humin
Theo Baker

Reuse

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{enszer2025,
  author = {Enszer, Julie R. and Grasland, Salome and Hunt, Cassidy and
    Hayes, Michaela},
  editor = {Sinykin, Dan and Walsh, Melanie},
  title = {Feminist {Bookstore} {News} {Issues} and {Articles}
    (1976-2000)},
  journal = {Post45 Data Collective},
  date = {2025-01-09},
  url = {data.post45.org/feminist-bookstore-news/},
  doi = {10.18737/410409},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {This dataset contains metadata for all articles and issues
    of *\_Feminist Bookstore News\_* from 1976 to 2000.}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Enszer, Julie R., Salome Grasland, Cassidy Hunt, and Michaela Hayes. 2025. “Feminist Bookstore News Issues and Articles (1976-2000).” Edited by Dan Sinykin and Melanie Walsh. Post45 Data Collective, January. https://doi.org/10.18737/410409.
 

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