The Business of Women's Words

To celebrate Feminist Book Fortnight this year BOWW teamed up with The Feminist Bookshop to debate how to ‘put feminism, feminist writers, books and publishers squarely and firmly in the mainstream marketplace, onto the educational curriculum and on library shelves’.

The concept of the Selected Twenty was introduced as part of Feminist Book Fortnight (FBF) which first ran in 1984. Every year, twenty books were chosen by an independent panel of booksellers and librarians ‘which best represent the range and strength of feminist books’ published in a given year (Spare Rib 155: 43). Find out more about the history of the fortnight and the selected twenty here.

This year The Feminist Bookshop made their own list with some of the books they really wanted to champion. Selecting just twenty titles to highlight was an enormous challenge and their choices were necessarily subjective. You can read about their selection process in the full selected twenty catalogue available here.

Read on here to find out what made it onto The Feminist Bookshop list. https://thefeministbookshop.com/blogs/tfb-blog/tfbs-selected-twenty

Download the bookshop’s beautiful guide here!

Hear more from Ruth Wainwright, founder of The Feminist Bookshop, in Brighton on her personal reflections and inspirations as a bookseller with a mission. https://thefeministbookshop.com/blogs/tfb-blog/purpose-and-profit-in-feminist-bookselling

At Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham, Tuesday, 10 May 2022

A new history of a pioneering feminist book promotion of the 1980s, Feminist Book Fortnight, was published as this year’s revived event got underway.

Feminist Book Fortnight 2022 featured events across the country from 14-28 May.

It was launched with a livestreamed event from Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham on Tuesday 10 May 2022.

Bookseller Jane Anger and the history’s author Eleanor Careless explored the Fortnight’s history, its activist aims, distinctive regionalism, and relationship with the capitalist literary marketplace.

Feminist Book Fortnight initially ran from 1984-1991, evolving from the flourishing women’s movements of the time. It was revived in 2018 by radical bookseller Jane Anger and colleagues at Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham, with events in the UK and abroad.

Feminist Book Fortnight: A Short History has been written by former Sussex University research fellow Dr Eleanor Careless, supported by Professor Margaretta Jolly as part of the Leverhulme-funded project ‘The Business of Women’s Words: Purpose and Profit in Feminist Publishing’.

The history weaves together oral histories from feminist booksellers and activists, original archival findings, and the nationwide network of Fortnight events revealed by the Spare Rib map (developed as part of ‘The Business of Women’s Words project and hosted by the British Library).

Margaretta Jolly, Professor of Cultural Studies in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex, said: “It is wonderful to see the return of this celebration of all things feminist, womanist and bookish. It’s equally wonderful to learn more about the history of Feminist Book Fortnight.”

Feminist Book Fortnight ran from 14-28 May 2022. Details of all the associated programming, can be found on Feminist Book Fortnight’s website.

Karolina Szpyrko, PhD researcher at the School of Media, Arts, and Humanities, writes:

“I loved getting involved in this pre-holiday showcase of ethical, feminist business at the University of Sussex.

Our Fab Feminist Festive Fair brought together educational and sales stalls (The Feminist Bookshop, The Craft Society, The New Internationalist, The Careers and Entrepreneurship Centre, Leave No Trace Society), and I designed a follow-on Crafty Workshop with activist badge-making and festive crafts.

The Students’ Union kindly supported the fair, hosting it in Falmer House Reception. Its lively, central feel worked very well with our fair, making it into a little neighbourly market with snacks, activist-inspired gifts, crafts and other curiosities as well as chats about ethical business, feminism and winter holidays.

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Feminist Maps and Mapping Feminism: Lessons from The Women’s Atlas

Sussex Humanities Lab with the CLHLWR

With legendary geographer Joni Seager

Thursday 23 May 2019, 15.00-17.00pm

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