Written by:
Julia Bloch
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this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 15#3
Book review editor and book columnist Rachel Pepper, who over the years has also served as music editor, distribution manager and catalog model (and who has written for every single issue of the magazine, for god’s sake), says her favorite Curve piece of all time is her February 1995 feature on Ani DiFranco.
“It was actually the first time she was featured on the cover of a glossy magazine,” Pepper remembers. “She was really open and funny, and she told me that while we were doing the interview, she was shaving her head. In fact, apparently she even backed up the hotel toilet while doing so!”
Pepper, who was also once upon a time Frances Stevens’ boss, is known for her award-winning work on queer families — the second edition of her Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians, the first pregnancy book for lesbians ever published, comes out this fall. Pepper currently works as the business manager of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University and says her next goal in life is to star in a queer reality TV show about lesbian parents — “sort of like a dyke Supernanny.” Pepper lives with her daughter, Frances Ariel, in the greater New York area, where they enjoy such delights as dim sum, getting manicures, kicking back in Park Slope and heading to Disney World as often as possible.
How long have you been writing for Curve? And, in what capacities have you served?
I’ve been writing for Curve since the very first issues were published. I quickly became the music editor and wrote music reviews for several years, a job I loved. But once I opened a bookstore, my interest in books overtook music, and I switched to books editor. That’s been my regular gig at Curve for a while now, though I try to write other things whenever possible.
Were you a new writer or just new to Curve? How did you find us? Did you know Frances Stevens previously? Tell me the story.
I remember at the time the magazine started I was working as a buyer and manager at A Different Light Bookstore in San Francisco. I had recently hired Franco, and we were becoming pals. She put up a flyer at the bookstore announcing a meeting to form a magazine she had a vision for, a professionally produced magazine that lesbians could be proud of. A huge crowd of dykes showed up for that meeting, and from those humble beginnings, Curve was born. I helped Franco out a lot in the beginning, publicizing the magazine at street fairs, Gay Pride parades and festivals. I remember once being in Sacramento, Calif., and there was a huge wind storm. I’ve never experience anything like it! The most fun was working the Curve booth at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, back when the magazine was new. Women were so excited to get their hands on copies of Curve, and it was a great way to meet girls!
What has been your favorite piece in Curve?
My favorite piece I think that I’ve written for Curve was my interview I did with Ani DiFranco, many years ago now. It was so long ago that it was actually the first time she had been featured on the cover of a glossy magazine. She was really open and funny, and she even told me that while we were doing the interview, she was shaving her head. In fact, apparently she even backed up the hotel toilet while doing so!
What do you do when you're not writing for us?
Currently, I’m working as the business manager of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University. I’m also finishing up the second edition of my book, The Ultimate Guide to Pregnancy for Lesbians. It should be coming out this fall. My next goal in life is to become dyke Supernanny on a queer reality show. Wouldn’t that be a hoot!
You’re the expert, so what do you think we can expect from the next 15 years of lesbian books?
I think we’re in a lull right now. I’m waiting for the next Dorothy Allison or Sarah Waters to emerge. The large wave of major publisher support for lesbian fiction authors that we saw in the 1990s is done for the moment, unfortunately. Small presses like Cleis Press, my publisher, continue to publish groundbreaking nonfiction works, and some other smaller queer presses publish decent fiction. But not much of this is truly brilliant. I do think we’ll see more transgendered authors breaking through, like Ivan Coyote. Sadly, I haven’t read anything for a while by a lesbian author that shook the very ground I walked on, the way I felt, for example, when I read Dorothy Allison’s Trash. Or Sarah Schulman’s After Delores back in the late ’80s, or Heather Lewis’s House Rules. I also loved Lynn Breedlove’s Godspeed. There are a few younger writers I watch very carefully, and read everything by, like Michelle Tea. Her novel Valencia did so much to capture a particular moment in urban dyke life, like Schulman’s After Delores did before her. In fact, Michelle takes great care to anthologize and encourage the next generation of writers coming up. She knows them all from open mic sessions she’s hosted and zines she reads. Unfortunately, big publishers are not throwing money at these young writers in the way that they should be, but you should buy any anthology that Michelle edits, like Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class, because it’s a great way to see what the young dykes are writing.
Visit Rachel Pepper's site at http://www.rachel-pepper.com |
