Alta (poet) explained

Alta
Birth Name:Alta Gerrey
Birth Date:22 May 1942
Birth Place:Reno, Nevada, U.S.
Death Place:Oakland, California, U.S.
Genre:Poetry
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Partner:2

Alta Gerrey (May 22, 1942 – March 10, 2024) was a British-American poet, prose writer, and publisher,[1] best known as the founder of the feminist press Shameless Hussy Press and editor of the Shameless Hussy Review.[2] Her 1980 collection The Shameless Hussy won the American Book Award in 1981. She is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.[3] [4]

Alta was also one of the early collective members of the influential Bay Area feminist newspaper PLEXUS, for which she wrote a monthly column on women's writing and creativity.

Biography

Shameless Hussy Press

Alta started Shameless Hussy Press in 1969.[5] The first women-owned feminist press in California, it opened during the time of second-wave feminism. Alta used a printing press in her garage to publish books by authors such as Susan Griffin, Pat Parker, and Mitsuye Yamada.[6] Yamada later described Alta as an "energetic feminist poet" who promoted Yamada's first volume of poetry "at women’s conferences, women’s health centers, and lesbian bars."[7] The press published the first edition of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, and Mary Mackey's first novel, Immersion (1972). They also published poetry by men: "Alta reasoned that since 6 percent of the books published in the U.S. were by women, 6 percent of the books she published should be by men."[6]

The press closed in 1989; its archive is held at University of California Santa Cruz.[8]

Poetry and prose

Her first volume of feminist poetry, Freedom's in Sight, was published in 1969,[9] and some of her poems were anthologized in such collections as From Feminism to Liberation (Philip G. Altbach and Edith S. Hoshino, eds, 1971).[10] Her 1980 collected works The Shameless Hussy (Crossing Press) won the American Book Award in 1981.[6] [11]

Personal life

Alta was born in Reno, Nevada on May 22, 1942.[12] She started the Shameless Hussy Press with her second husband. She wrote a volume of "blatant lesbian poems", Letters to Women (1969).[6] After the press closed she started operating an art gallery in Berkeley, California.[13] She died of breast cancer on March 10, 2024, in Oakland, California.[14] [15]

Works

Alta's works include:

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: The Oxford companion to women's writing in the United States. Cathy N. Davidson . Linda Wagner-Martin . Elizabeth Ammons. Oxford University Press. 1995. 978-0-19-506608-1.
  2. News: After 'Ariel': Celebrating the poetry of the women's movement. Moore. Honor. March–April 2009. Boston Review. 9 February 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120212194834/http://bostonreview.net/BR34.2/moore.php. 12 February 2012. dead.
  3. Web site: The Women.
  4. Web site: The Film — She's Beautiful When She's Angry . Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com . 2017-04-28.
  5. Web site: Alta and the History of Shameless Hussy Press, 1969-1989. University of California, Santa Cruz. 9 February 2012.
  6. Book: Love, Barbara J.. Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975. registration. 9 February 2012. 2006. U of Illinois P. 978-0-252-03189-2. 11–12.
  7. Book: Yamada, Mitsuye. Mitsuye Yamada

    . Mitsuye Yamada. Jennifer Sinor. Rona Kaufman. Placing the academy: essays on landscape, work, and identity. 2007. Utah State UP. 978-0-87421-657-8. 125–38. Living in a Transformed Desert.

  8. Web site: Guide to the Shameless Hussy Press records, 1968-1989. 2009. University of California, Santa Cruz. 9 February 2012.
  9. Book: Heinemann, Sue. Timelines of American women's history. 9 February 2012. 1996-03-01. Penguin. 978-0-399-51986-4. 326.
  10. Book: Yates, Gayle Graham. What Women Want: The Ideas of the Movement. 9 February 2012. 1975-12-12. Harvard UP. 978-0-674-95079-5. ix, 115–16.
  11. Web site: American Booksellers Association . The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation [1980–2012] ]. 2013 . BookWeb . 1981 [...] The Shameless Hussy, alta . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130313174235/http://bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html . March 13, 2013 . September 25, 2013.
  12. Book: Blain. Virginia. Clements. Patricia. Grundy. Isobel. The feminist companion to literature in English: women writers from the Middle Ages to the present. 9 February 2012. 1990. Batsford. 978-0-7134-5848-0.
  13. Web site: Berkeley gallery owner tries to grasp the art of staying solvent. August 9, 2009. Chris. Metinko. East Bay Times. 9 February 2012.
  14. Web site: Alta, Irreverent Feminist Poet and Small-Press Pioneer, Dies at 81. May 17, 2024. Green. Penelope. The New York Times. May 17, 2024.
  15. Web site: Gilbert . Andrew . Alta, ‘Shameless Hussy’ and Founder of Nation's First Feminist Press, Dies at 81 . KQED . 1 April 2024.

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