Rita Mae Reese is an American poet, fiction writer, and marketing director at

Headmistress Press Headmistress Press is a small press based in Sequim, Washington. Founded in 2013, the press specializes in poetry by lesbian poets. Notable poets who have published collections with Headmistress include Janice Gould, Joy Ladin, Constance Merritt ...

, an independent publisher of chapbooks and full-length collections by

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

poets.

Life

Reese was born and raised in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

, and lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She earned a B.A. in American studies and an M.A. in creative writing at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

, and an M.F.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first collection, ''The Alphabet Conspiracy'' (

Red Hen Press Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press located in Pasadena, California, and specializing in the publication of poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. The press is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, and was a final ...

), won the 2012 Drake Emerging Writers Award. Other awards include the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award for fiction in 2006, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, the Paumanok Poetry Award, and a Discovery/The Nation award. Her latest book, ''The Book of Hulga'', won the Felix Pollak Prize and will be published in 2016. Her work has been published in many journals and anthologies, including ''Poetry From Sojourner: A Feminist Anthology'' (2004) and Robert Olen Butler's ''From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction'' (2005). Headmistress Press was founded in 2013 by

Mary Meriam Mary Meriam (born 1955) is an American poet and editor. She is a founding editor of Headmistress Press, one of the few presses (possibly the only press) in the United States specializing in lesbian poetry. Biography Mary Meriam was born in Pas ...

(poet, ''Ms.'' magazine columnist, and founding editor of the ''Lavender Review'') and poet Risa Denenberg. Reese joined the staff as "Headmistress of Marketing" in 2015. She is the designer of the press's Lesbian Poet trading cards. The trading card project, lauded by Kathleen Rooney in the '' Chicago Tribune'' and featured on '' Harriet'', '' AfterEllen'', and ''

Nat. Brut Nat. Brut is an American literary magazine founded in 2012 by Anna Ploegh and Andrew Ridker. The magazine contains artwork, prose, and poetry by a set of diverse artists and is publicized both online and in print. The most recent issue iIssue 14 wh ...

'', is the press's way of "honoring lesbian existence, recognizing a range of lesbian voices, and promoting lesbian representation in the arts." They feature such poets as Naomi Replansky,

Lesléa Newman Lesléa Newman (born November 5, 1955 in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American author, editor, and feminist. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her ...

, Amy Lowell, Janice Gould,

Charlotte Mew Charlotte Mary Mew (15 November 1869 – 24 March 1928) was an English poet whose work spans the eras of Victorian poetry and Modernism. Early life and education Mew was born in Bloomsbury, London, daughter of the architect Frederick Mew (18 ...

Eloise Klein Healy Eloise Klein Healy (born 1943) is an American poet. She has published five books of poetry and three chapbooks. Her collection of poems, ''Passing'', was a finalist for the 2003 Lambda Literary Awards in Poetry and the Audre Lorde Award from The ...

Judy Grahn Judy Grahn (born July 28, 1940) is an American poet and author. Inspired by her experiences of disenfranchisement as a butch lesbian, she became a feminist poet, highly-regarded in underground circles before achieving public fame. A major influe ...

, Audre Lorde, and

Minnie Bruce Pratt Minnie Bruce Pratt (born September 12, 1946) is an American poet, educator, activist and essayist. She retired in 2015 from her position as Professor of Writing and Women's Studies at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York where she was invite ...

, among others.

References

External links

Rita Mae Reese (official website)

Headmistress Press

''Lavender Review''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reese, Rita Mae Living people Stegner Fellows Florida State University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Writers from Charleston, West Virginia Writers from Madison, Wisconsin American women poets Poets from West Virginia Poets from Wisconsin 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people)