Publishers pledge support to The Feminist Library

Penguin Random House, Virago, 4th Estate and the team behind The Women’s Prize have all made significant book donations to The Feminist Library to celebrate Feminist Book Fortnight and the collection’s 43rd birthday.

Run by volunteers, The Feminist Library is a large archive of Women's Liberation Movement literature based in South London that also supports research, activist and community projects in this field. Its collection contains over 7,000 books, 1,500 periodical titles from around the world, archives of feminist individuals and organisations, pamphlets, papers, posters, and ephemera.

Eleanor Dryden, publishing director of Bonnier Zaffre, who is an acquisitions volunteer at The Feminist Library, said publishers' generosity had resulted in several new additions to the collection. 

"Over the last fortnight we’ve been delighted to add to The Feminist Library collection some incredible new books, from a selection of Virago Modern Classics to the entire longlist of this year’s Women’s Prize For Fiction, plus hugely important brand new titles like Slay In Your Lane by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené from 4th Estate," said Dryden. "And Penguin Random House have generously donated a copy of every PRH book that featured in the pop-up Like a Woman Bookshop on International Women’s Day earlier this year." 

She added: "The Feminist Library is a vital and vibrant resource and is kept going almost entirely on donations. We have been overjoyed with the support and kindness of the UK Publishing teams we’ve reached out to. We hope this is the start of something."

The Feminist Library now has over 33,000 followers on Twitter, nearly 8,000 Facebook followers, 3,000 Instagram followers, and over 2,500 subscribers to its e-bulletin and newsletter. It recently participated in the Tate Exchange programme, Lush UK invited it to take part in several Charity Pot Parties in its shops around London, Rowman & Littlefield International awarded the Feminist Library a bursary for one of its volunteers to attend the forthcoming CILIP conference, and it has held events at the recent Antiuniversity and for Feminist Book Fortnight. At the beginning of June it also held a "Vagina Day" to fundraise for the Library by making and selling vagina cupcakes, which was supported by the Vagina Museum, Bloody Good Period, This is a Vagina, Drawing People Together, among others. 

Publishers who would like to get involved by donating a forthcoming or recently published feminist book, whether fiction or non-fiction, can send donations or review copies to Dryden at The Feminist Library 5a Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7XW. She is contactable on Eleanor.dryden@bonnierzaffre.co.uk">Eleanor.dryden@bonnierzaffre.co.uk. Those who would like to organise their own version of Vagina Day to fundraise to help the Feminist Library survive can sign up by following this link.

Feminist Book Fortnight, an initiative led by independent bookshops, celebrated the women's movement with a host of talks, signings and parties across nearly 50 independent bookshops country-wide. It was spearheaded by Five Leaves Bookshop and concluded over the weekend.