Nonprofit Publishing Since 1982
Mission
Aunt Lute Books is an intersectional, feminist press dedicated to publishing literature by those who have been traditionally underrepresented in or excluded by the literary canon. Core to Aunt Lute’s mission is the belief that the written word is critical to understanding and relating to each other as humans.Through the sharing of stories, we strengthen ties across cultures and experiences, and at the same time honor the hurt, loss, and harm incurred through structural power imbalances, prejudiced and gendered systems, and ancestral trauma. We uplift these voices in order to build a more just future.
Land Acknowledgement
We, Aunt Lute Books, acknowledge that we do our work of uplifting marginalized voices and striving toward justice via the written word on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. As the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As Guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the Ancestors, Elders and Relatives of the Ramaytush Community and by affirming their sovereign rights as First Peoples.
Community
As a grassroots press, our goal has always been to connect writers with broader audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. We always appreciate hearing from the readers of our books. We hope you’ll contact us to share stories about how you’ve connected to our books, send us syllabi that include Aunt Lute titles, and pass along any suggestions regarding our website. You can also stay connected to Aunt Lute through our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram pages, and learn more about contributing to our mission on the Get Involved page.
History
Aunt Lute Books was started in 1982 in Iowa City by Barb Wieser and Joan Pinkvoss, who believed that neither mainstream publishing nor the feminist movement of that time was promoting the voices of lesbians, especially lesbians and women of color. In 1986, Aunt Lute Books moved to San Francisco to partner with the small lesbian press Spinsters Ink, and did business under the name Spinsters/Aunt Lute. In 1990, Aunt Lute became a separate nonprofit under the umbrella of the Aunt Lute Foundation with the intention of creating a culturally diverse collective of staff, interns, and board members to address the lack of presses run by women of color. From 1990 onwards, Aunt Lute has created a place for the voices of women from many different cultures and helped to foster their careers.
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For over thirty years, we have been publishing literature that voices the perspectives of women from a broad range of communities. We have published a number of well-known feminist and lesbian authors, including Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldúa, Judy Grahn, LeAnne Howe, Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker. For a complete list of Aunt Lute Authors, visit our Authors page.
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Aunt Lute titles include the first U.S. collection of Filipina/Filipina American women writers (Babaylan), the first collection of Southeast Asian women writers (Our Feet Walk the Sky), as well as a number of translated texts (most recently Rosa Montero’s Beautiful and Dark). Our bestsellers include Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza and The Cancer Journals: Special Edition, titles used in classrooms throughout the U.S. and around the world. We invite you to browse our titles to learn more about our diverse collection of books.
Many of Aunt Lute’s titles are acknowledged as important contributions to the academic fields of lesbian studies and gender studies. Titles such as Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera and Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals have been included in the curricula of hundreds of educational institutions throughout the U.S. and around the world.