Welcome to Trivia: Voices of Feminism, issue 9
Thinking About Goddesses
A canoe trip in New England opens out suddenly into the sacred terrain of the Taíno goddesses of the Dominican Republic; a trip to Kerala India to study menarche rites leads to a profound appreciation of everyday objects; Inanna’s appearance in a dream shapes the course of a life and literary career; a dream helps a young wife and mother escape the influence of the Roman Catholic and Black Methodist Church and find her way to the Yoruban goddesses; a devoted midwife finds goddess in birthgiving and comes to see women’s bodies as “portals of the divine.” In most of the articles collected here, the scholarly is seamlessly woven with the intensely personal; rigorous thought and deep emotion are indissoluble. To orient oneself to goddess, both the essays and the poetry collected here suggest, is to liberate oneself from oppressive strictures, to learn from rivers and mountains, to listen attentively to birds, to revel in female sensuality, to honor pots and bowls and candles, to celebrate community, to live more consciously and joyfully. Issue 9 >>>
For a whirlwind tour of our site, first check out our current issue with its wealth of writing and imagery dedicated to thinking about the goddess. If you’re intrigued, next try the TRIVIA archives, which is divided into two sections. In the first section, Trivia: Voices of Feminism, you'll be able to read the past seven issues of our online journal, in their entirety. In the second section, Trivia: A Journal of Ideas, you'll find a list of authors and titles for each of the 22 issues of Trivia published from 1982 to 1995, with information on how to order.
Trivia 10, “Are Lesbians Going Extinct?” will appear in September of 2009 and be co-edited by Vancouver poet and essayist Betsy Warland. See our submission guidelines for more information about this issue. Please note that we are seeking a guest editor—or editors—for issue #11, scheduled to appear in March 2010. The theme can be of your choosing. Required: resonance with Trivia’s mission and significant editorial experience. Send queries directly to the editor:
See other calls for contributions too. Trivia has its own unique story, which we summarize in the mission and history section of the site. And in the feminist resources section, you'll find a beginning list of recommended books, journals, readings, and web sites; we urge you to send us your suggestions for additions.
In this issue, we introduce a new dimension of dialogue to the Trivia site, Trivia's facebook group page. Though we've been slow in beginning to actually use it, the possibilities are limited only by our imagination: readers can respond to writers, writers can respond to their readers, readers can make suggestions to the editors for future issues, reader/writers can respond to each other . . .
As you know, many journals charge for access to their web sites. We've decided to keep ours free. If any of you readers out there are moved to make a donation to Trivia to support the volunteer efforts of its editors and its web manager, we would be most grateful. For more information, please write to . If you’d like to receive an e-mail announcement when a new issue of Trivia is published, or when a call for contributions goes out, please send your name and e-mail address to that same editorial address,
Lise Weil, editor
Hye Sook Hwang, guest editor
In collaboration with Susan Kullmann, web publisher
