WomanSpeak, Vol.7/2014 Soon Come

 

I spent the summer putting together the new issue of WomanSpeak, Vol.7/2014 and at the time of this writing we  are in the final stages of editing. It should be in print by the end of October. I am humbled, excited and a little terrified to see my little kitchen table publication, a personal labor of love, a forum for me and my friends, now growing into an international journal with writing and art by contemporary Caribbean women writers and painters from around the world. It is a tiny volume as international journals go, thirty contributors, 150 pages. But in it are the creative expressions of an emerging new school of feminist/womanist/wombanist/womanish writers and painters who in this collection at least direct the power of their art toward challenging the unjust status quo, in the world and in our heads, at work to diminish the freedom, autonomy and empowerment of women. This is a special community, the contributors all understand that we are creating something new together. They know it is a small journal from a small place. They know it is still invisible, that the readership is small. But they also seem to know they are the voices of a new school of women's lit and art coming out of the Caribbean. there is a renewed consciousness of the woman writer as activist that infuses many of these works. WomanSpeak is becoming a gathering place for such writers and painters. I am grateful to them all for for their good work, for their literary and painterly activism and for believing in this journal, and for believing in me. I want to let them know, the new issue soon come.