March is Women's History Month -- Let's Make Some History Together

We’re sure you know by now that it is Women’s History Month (the ‘gram is full of it). If not, welcome to Earth. It’s Women’s History Month. Let’s take a moment to thank the woman next to us for her contributions. She probably works her ass off to make the world go round without so much as a thank you, so it’s important to let her know she’s seen. She matters. Go on. We’ll wait. Now let’s remember the hard work the women of our pasts have done to get us here (although it is really hard to know where here is right now given the impending November doom): Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Sacajawea, The Bronte Sisters, Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein, Jane-Fucking-Austen, Ursula K. Le Guin, Sha’Carri Richardson, Angela Carter, Victoria Kolakowski, Sylvia Plath, and Sarah Winnemucca. Just a few. There are too many to list.

For the month of March, we made the bold decision to publish just ONE author: Lara Lillibridge. She deserved it. She’s a beast. Lillibridge (she/they) is the author of Mama, Mama, Only Mama (Skyhorse, 2019), Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home (Skyhorse, 2018), and co-editor of the anthology, Feminine Rising: Voices of Power and Invisibility (Cynren Press, 2019). Lillibridge is the Interviews Editor at Hippocampus Magazine and currently serves as a mentor for AWP’s Writer to Writer program. Lara graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. In 2016 she won Slippery Elm Literary Journal’s Prose Contest, and The American Literary Review's Contest in Nonfiction.

Her book, THE TRUTH ABOUT UNRINGING PHONES is out tomorrow and we would love for you to grab a copy. For paid subscribers, you can scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to download an excerpt from the book to see if it suits you (which it will).

If you would like to hear a bit of Lara’s work, head over to YouTube to watch our recent reading with her (and other amazing writers):

---

Here is the press information about the book:

---

2025 Year of Womxn

In addition to celebrating the launch of Lara’s book, we’d also like to turn our attention to what is coming your way in 2025. The year 2025 will be dubbed “The Year of Womxn” and we’d like to talk about that ‘x’ right there because it’s important. First, we’re aware that using the term ‘womxn’ vs ‘women’ may not be doing as much work as we’d like it to do, and some argue that it harms women empowerment, but hear us out. We have chosen to use the word ‘womxn’ because we are critically aware that some times that word doesn’t support everyone who identifies as a woman. We are using ‘womxn’ to represent all people who identify as a woman even though they may not fit into the ugly and outdated standards regarding gender. We aren’t talking sex here people….we don’t give a gold-covered poo what you were born as….but we sure as hell care about who you are. Thus, we have delicately chosen the word WOMXN. This isn’t a hype or woke thing. This is us caring about the women who are often left out of that word.

For 2025, we have curated a catalog of books that will feature 39 courageous and intellectually-fierce womxn. Recently we had to tag-in one author for another due to an urgent health situation. Luckily, we had a roster of badass womxn to email in the event that this happened….because sometimes life has different plans for everyone. Here is the official 2025 roster:

What a line-up. And our publisher is contributing. Because Summer guides the ship, her manuscript was treated with an obnoxious level of scrutiny and she was not allowed to be present for the meetings regarding the work. We also sent it to three poets, and we removed her name from the work. The consensus was absolutely yes. If they hadn’t said yes, we would have nixed her from the roster. That’s how it works.

As you can see, 2025 is going to be monumentous. You really shouldn’t miss it. Did you know that you can get the book written by every single author listed here for about $10.25 apiece when you preorder our “2025 Book Box”???? Seriously. Don’t fucking wait. Get it. It’s going to be silly fun and there are only 200 boxes available. They will be hand-packed by our publisher and there’s a guarantee that that woman is going to put some very peculiar items in the monthly boxes…because she’s quirky like that. Think press-on tattoos and cat stickers.

Fun fact. We’ve been trying to get a certain t-shirt on Amazon merch for about a week but they keep rejecting it….because womxn is too close to women, and someone trademarked “Year of Women”…..this is bullshit and we are in talks with a different shirt maker to get it done. Fuck Amazon. And trademarks like this. In the meantime, we made this amazing shirt and we are IN LOVE WITH IT:

The shirt comes in some cool colors, but we recommend buying it in RED because red is the color that we will be using on every 2025 book cover. Your purchase of this shirt directly supports the 2025 PR and marketing needed to get these books into the hands of readers.

---

More Women’s History Celebrating!!!!!

Every day from the 5th through the end of the month we will be celebrating a different lady in our lives on Instagram. We highly recommend you take part by following us and sharing. It takes a village people. Support our womxn.

---

Reading Series

This coming Wednesday (the 6th), Rosalia Scalia will be hosting another fun LIVE reading. The following authors will be reading: Rebecca Givens Rolland, David Nash, Caroliena Cabada, and Beth Burgemeyer. The reading will be on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Please tune in if you have time.

---

Fun Merchandise

We are also so stoked about our 2024 catalog that we made a t-shirt for them. You can order yours here: