Women in Publishing Conference Friday 14th June 2019: Call for Papers

“All publishing was run by many badly-paid women and a few much better-paid men”
(Diana Athill,
Stet: An Editor’s Life
, 2002)

Feminist book history and print culture is thriving. Recent books and projects exploring feminist publishers, modernist presses, and women’s work in periodicals and magazines has revealed the variety of ways in which women contributed to the circulation and production of nineteenth and twentieth-century print cultures. Academic interest in the value of networks and collaboration and the often overlooked aspect of women’s creative labour (#thanksfortyping) is at the forefront of some of this renewed interest in women’s
diverse, deeply embedded work in publishing and the circulation of global print cultures. This one-day symposium at the University of Reading will engage with the varied nature and roles of women’s work in twentieth and twenty-first century magazines and book publishing. Though high-profile women publishers and editors continue to attract public and scholarly attention, there are many aspects of women’s labour in the print and publishing trades, understood broadly, that are often overlooked. We invite papers exploring the broad and diverse ways in which women have shaped recent modern print cultures in a variety of roles: as translators, designers, illustrators, booksellers, advertisers, patrons, editors, travellers, office staff, publisher’s readers. We are particularly interested in work exploring transnational exchanges.

Papers may consider any of the following:
– Women’s work in the book, magazine, newspaper, and publishing trades
– Women publishers, editors, author-publishers, publisher’s readers, travellers, booksellers, office staff, printers
– Women translators, designers, illustrators
– Sex + gender + literary production and the literary marketplace
– Women as patrons, booksellers, feminist bookshops
– Archives, cataloguing, and women’s labour
– Women in publishing and the gender pay gap
– Politics and methodologies of recovery work
– Women and the suffrage press, feminist presses, lesbian presses, BAME press
– Networks/collaborations
– Women entrepreneurs and the creative industries
– Womens’ trade organisations in publishing and bookselling

Please submit abstracts (up to 200 words) and a short 2-line bio by 26th April 2019 to Dr Nicola Wilson at n.l.wilson@reading.ac.uk.

Speakers will be notified by 3rd May.
The event will be held at Special Collections, University of Reading, UK, with no fees to attend.
https://www.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/
Organising committee: Dr Nicola Wilson, Dr Sophie Heywood, Dr Daniela la Penna.

About English Literature at Reading

The Department of English Literature at Reading has been an internationally recognised centre for research and teaching in English Studies for over a hundred years. Our teaching system, with its emphasis on seminars and tutorial work, encourages our students to discuss ideas with tutors and other students in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. All of our students have access to dedicated study advisors; our academic placement scheme and 'professional track' programme provide invaluable preparation for subsequent careers.
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