Storyteller's Voice: NAIAD Press

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Headquarters Library, Sunday, October 10th, 2:00PM

Barbara Grier and Donna J. McBride- founders of NAIAD Press

In January 1973, Barbara Grier and Donna J. McBride founded The Naiad Press (with at the time silent partners, Anyda Marchant and Muriel Crawford). Naiad would grow over the next 30 years to become the largest and oldest lesbian publishing company in the world.

From small beginnings, a handful of books in the first 9 years, Naiad went on to issue just under 600 ISBNs and to average 36 titles a year in the final 10 or so years. After nine years of working full time and doing Naiad at dawn and late at night, Barbara and Donna quit their jobs and became full-time employees at Naiad, causing enormous and instant growth. Emphasizing the slogans "Books by and for Lesbians" and "Lesbians always know, if it's a book by NAIAD PRESS, it's a book you want to own" and providing worldwide direct sales and expert distribution to women's and gay and lesbian stores throughout the world, Naiad emphasized its core market and interest levels, helping to carry the movement economy at times on its back.

Naiad Press published all kinds of writers, from Jane Rule, Patricia Highsmith, and Alma Routsong (Isabel Miller) through the wildly popular works by Katherine V. Forrest, Karin Kallmaker, Claire McNab, and dozens more in the romance, mystery, and adventure genres. Considered purveyors of only works of fiction, Naiad managed to slip in a few dozen fine non-fiction authors and works, the celebrated Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, which broke all records for other-country publishing (England, Ireland, France, Germany, Finland, Holland, Spain, Portugal, etc.) and Chicago author Ann Muller's wonderful Parents Matter, about the necessity of having parental support for a gay child.

In 1995, Grier and McBride donated their collection of over 15,000 lesbian-oriented books, monographs and manuscripts to the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center of the San Francisco Public Library.

In 2003 Barbara and Donna retired. Instead of selling Naiad Press to half a dozen suitors, they decided to give the press away in a manner that would not involve money and would allow the new women to take care of all the Naiad Press authors, all employees, all suppliers, every editor, typesetter, cover artist, reader, etc. No one lost a job, no one was left out. These people all transfered to the new company, Bella Books.

For the last five years Barbara and Donna have managed to learn leisure and sleep and some level of disappearance.The couple is now retired and live at Hidden Beaches, Florida when they are not following their favorite basketball team around the country.

http://www.naiadpress.com/

Storyteller's Voice is made possible through funding provided by the Alachua County Friends of the Library.