Women in Literature: Past, Present, & Future

Last week, I had the great pleasure of being a guest in a Women in Literature class at Northern Virginia Community College (Woodbridge). Professor Indigo Eriksen, a fabulous poet and teacher whom I had met some years ago at a poetry festival, invited me to show her students a simple sewn binding technique that they could use for their end-of-term chapbook projects.

"Women in Literature" students hand-sewing their first notebooks.

That initial intent blossomed into spending an hour and a half with her wonderful class, sharing about the history of women in printing and publishing, sewing a couple of notebooks together, and letterpress printing a keepsake on an old traveling press. Later that afternoon, I gathered with about twenty other students in the campus auditorium to talk about poetry, writing, language, and to read a bit from my own work in The Open Gate: New & Selected Poems. 

I was incredibly moved and invigorated by the engagement of these young women in the class, and the women & men at the reading. They were so present, interested and interesting, bright, and energized. They asked thoughtful, insightful questions, and deepened my own curiosity and understanding about language and literature. The students in the class took to sewing like ducks to water, and they are now part of the great lineage of women who have made a book! I am honored to have crossed paths with them all, and look forward to seeing their creative lives unfold. 

Gathering in Professor Eriksen's "Women in Literature" class

Here's a video of a happy printer ~ Janae printing her first letterpress piece on the 1930 Kelsey 3x5 press!

Here are a few photos from our conversation later that afternoon about poetry, writing, and publishing:

Here are a few slides from what I shared with the students about the history of women in printing and publishing. It's a long and vibrant history, one that they are now a part of!

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) ~ first Black woman publisher in North America

Elizabeth Yeats (William Buter's sister) established the Cuala Press in Ireland (beginning in 1906 as the Dun Emer Press)

Virginia Woolf was the typesetter for Hogarth Press, which she & husband Leonard founded in 1917

Ruth Ellis established her Press in 1937, in Detroit, Michigan

Here's to the past, present, and future of women in the book arts!

Many, many thanks to Professor Indigo Eriksen, the fantastic students at Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge, and Deans David Epstein & Michael Turner for inviting me to spend a wonderful afternoon with them!

All best wishes to all, 

Emily Hancock

Walking into Winter

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One of the greatest gifts my parents and grandparents gave to me as a girl was the gift of walking. Of taking strolls along sandy roads at dusk, watching bats and stars appear. And hours-long rambles through rolling fields and woodlands—ears tuned to the drum of woodpeckers, eyes following threads of light among stands of hardwoods or pine. These walks wove the senses, and patterned the language that would eventually make poems from such experience. 

One of these poems is “Walking into Winter.” Included in my forthcoming book, The Open Gate: New & Selected Poems, it seemed a fitting piece to also offer to you all now, as the late November days begin to darken early and the last wild seeds are being cast to the wind. It’s a time of letting go, and of gathering in. 

Below, you can read “Walking into Winter,” listen to an audio clip as I read the poem aloud, and watch a brief movie of butterfly-weed pods opening in our field. As we journey into this winter season, may we each carry light and warmth within, tending the seeds that will sprout again come spring.

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Listen as the author reads her poem:

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Watch butterfly weed seeds in the breezy field at St Brigid Press. This native species of milkweed is slowly expanding on our land, providing food for insects.

If  you are in the area, please join us for the official book launch this coming Sunday, December 3rd, at 2pm, at Black Swan Books (Staunton, Va.). We'll have light refreshments, read some poems, and celebrate together.

If you can't attend, you may pre-order the book on our website here: