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
Genres:-->
Subjects:-->
Notablework:-->
Spouse:
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).[8] 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.[9]

Poetry and prose

Her first volume of feminist poetry, Freedom's in Sight, was published in 1969,[10] and some of her poems were anthologized in such collections as From Feminism to Liberation (Philip G. Altbach and Edith S. Hoshino, eds, 1971).[11] Her 1980 collected works The Shameless Hussy (Crossing Press) won the American Book Award in 1981.[6] [12]

Personal life

Alta was born in Reno, Nevada on May 22, 1942.[13] [14] 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.[15] She died of breast cancer on March 10, 2024, in Oakland, California.

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: Gilbert . Andrew . Alta, 'Shameless Hussy' and Founder of Nation's First Feminist Press, Dies at 81 . KQED. March 26, 2024 . 1 April 2024.
  9. Web site: Guide to the Shameless Hussy Press records, 1968-1989. 2009. University of California, Santa Cruz. 9 February 2012.
  10. Book: Heinemann, Sue. Timelines of American women's history. 9 February 2012. 1996-03-01. Penguin. 978-0-399-51986-4. 326.
  11. Book: Yates, Gayle Graham. What Women Want: The Ideas of the Movement. 9 February 2012. 1975-12-12. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-95079-5. ix, 115–16.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. Web site: Berkeley gallery owner tries to grasp the art of staying solvent. August 9, 2009. Chris. Metinko. East Bay Times. 9 February 2012.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alta (poet)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2025, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.