Judith Arcana
Encyclopedia
Judith Arcana is an American writer of poems, stories, essays and books. She was a teacher for forty years (1964–2004), and her writing has appeared in journals and anthologies since the early 1980s. She has been an activist for reproductive justice since spending two years in Chicago’s underground abortion service (1970–72) Jane Collective
. http://www.cwluherstory.org/feminist-politics-and-abortion-in-the-usa-2.html Judith is notable for her insistence on the organically political nature of art and literature.
Born February 5, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio, she is the daughter of Anne Solomon and Norman Rosenfield. Anne died in March,1944; the mother who raised Judith was Ida Epstein, who married Norman in July,1945. Mothering, perhaps as a consequence, has been one of Judith’s primary subjects. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
; she did her student teaching
there in spring of 1964, and returned in the fall as a full time
teacher. She taught at Niles until the spring of 1970, when the school board
fired her – despite tenure – along with two other teachers (John Palm and Nancy Tripp). The three were considered radically innovative, and even dangerous, by the school board.
Her last teaching job was at the Union Graduate School (which has since morphed into the Union Institute & University
). She began work there as a dean in early 1989 and left, as faculty emerita, in the early 2000s. At Union, Judith was a dean in the Graduate College, Founding Director of the Center for Women, adviser to interdisciplinary doctoral students, and a convener of residential colloquium and seminars.
Judith is an experienced speaker and performer of her work with TV/radio experience & years of performances at bookstores, colleges and community events. She has received awards and grants from Oregon Literary Arts
, the Barbara Deming
Memorial Fund/Money for Women, the Puffin Foundation, the Rockefeller Archive Center and the doctoral faculty of the Union Graduate School, as well as residencies and fellowships from Ragdale, Soapstone, the Montana Artists Refuge, the Mesa Refuge and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation.
She has taught literature, writing and interdisciplinary topics in Women's Studies
in high schools, colleges, libraries, living rooms, a state prison and a county jail. She holds a PhD in Literature (Loyola University of Chicago
1989), an MA in Women's Studies (Goddard College 1979), an Urban Preceptorship in Preventive Medicine
(University of Illinois Medical School
1973) and a BA in English (Northwestern University 1964). She lives in Portland, Oregon
.
In 2008-2009, Judith collaborated with Ash Creek Press in Portland
, Oregon
to publish The Ash Creek Series: an elegant signed/numbered edition folding broadside of five short poems (POEMS), a manuscript in a cartoon envelope – perhaps her most autobiographical work so far (Family Business), and 4th Period English, a chapbook of poems about immigration and related themes, spoken primarily in the voices of high school students.http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/4th_period_english
In her review of the collection in Affilia (see references), Merle Hoffman
describes Arcana's poems as "maps of interior psychological and physiological journeys" that meet the unnamed experience (abortion) "with bold lyricism, passion, and creative imagery."
Her two prose books about motherhood – Our Mothers’ Daughters (1979)http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/our_mothers_daughters/ and Every Mother’s Son (1983) http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/every_mothers_son/– are radical feminist
analysis; both have been read, taught and discussed for many years in the US, Canada and the UK. Grace Paley
’s Life Stories, A Literary Biography (1993)http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/grace_paleys_life_stories/, is Judith’s study of the well-loved & much admired writer/activist who died in August,2007. The initial interviews, research and draft for that book comprise her doctoral dissertation
.
What if your mother, Goshen: Chicory Blue Press, 2005 ISBN 1-887344-11-X)
Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography, Champaign: University of Illinois Press
, 1994, 1993 ISBN 0-252-06447-X
Every Mother's Son, US and UK: The Women's Press, 1996, 1992; Seattle: Seal Press, 1986; London: The Women's Press, 1983; New York: Doubleday, 1983, ISBN 0-931188-39-3
Our Mothers' Daughters, US and UK: The Women's Press, 1996, 1992; Berkeley: Shameless Hussy Press, 1986, 1979; London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-915288-38-9
Recently published:
Jane Collective
The Jane Collective was an underground abortion service which operated in Chicago, Illinois from 1969 to 1973. The collective was started by women when they realized that many illegal abortion providers were not doctors. Since illegal abortions were also dangerous and very expensive, founding...
. http://www.cwluherstory.org/feminist-politics-and-abortion-in-the-usa-2.html Judith is notable for her insistence on the organically political nature of art and literature.
Born February 5, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio, she is the daughter of Anne Solomon and Norman Rosenfield. Anne died in March,1944; the mother who raised Judith was Ida Epstein, who married Norman in July,1945. Mothering, perhaps as a consequence, has been one of Judith’s primary subjects. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Career
Judith’s first teaching job was at the high school she graduated from, Niles Township High School (East Division) in IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
; she did her student teaching
Student teaching
Student teaching is a college-supervised instructional experience; usually the culminating course in a university/college undergraduate education or graduate school program leading to teacher education and certification. Examples of programs include Early Childhood , Middle Childhood , and...
there in spring of 1964, and returned in the fall as a full time
Full time
Full-time employment is employment in which the employee works the full number of hours defined as such by his/her employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible workers, such as annual leave, sickleave, and health...
teacher. She taught at Niles until the spring of 1970, when the school board
Board of education
A board of education or a school board or school committee is the title of the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or higher administrative level....
fired her – despite tenure – along with two other teachers (John Palm and Nancy Tripp). The three were considered radically innovative, and even dangerous, by the school board.
Her last teaching job was at the Union Graduate School (which has since morphed into the Union Institute & University
Union Institute & University
Union Institute & University is a non-profit private college, specializing in limited residence and distance learning programs. With the main campus in Cincinnati, Union Institute & University operates -from Ohio- "satellite campuses" located in Montpelier, Vermont; Brattleboro, Vermont; North...
). She began work there as a dean in early 1989 and left, as faculty emerita, in the early 2000s. At Union, Judith was a dean in the Graduate College, Founding Director of the Center for Women, adviser to interdisciplinary doctoral students, and a convener of residential colloquium and seminars.
Judith is an experienced speaker and performer of her work with TV/radio experience & years of performances at bookstores, colleges and community events. She has received awards and grants from Oregon Literary Arts
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
, the Barbara Deming
Barbara Deming
Barbara Deming was an American feminist and advocate of nonviolent social change.- Early life :Barbara Deming was born in New York. She attended a Friends school up through her high school years....
Memorial Fund/Money for Women, the Puffin Foundation, the Rockefeller Archive Center and the doctoral faculty of the Union Graduate School, as well as residencies and fellowships from Ragdale, Soapstone, the Montana Artists Refuge, the Mesa Refuge and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation.
She has taught literature, writing and interdisciplinary topics in Women's Studies
Women's studies
Women's studies, also known as feminist studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field which explores politics, society and history from an intersectional, multicultural women's perspective...
in high schools, colleges, libraries, living rooms, a state prison and a county jail. She holds a PhD in Literature (Loyola University of Chicago
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...
1989), an MA in Women's Studies (Goddard College 1979), an Urban Preceptorship in Preventive Medicine
Preventive medicine
Preventive medicine or preventive care refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms...
(University of Illinois Medical School
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
1973) and a BA in English (Northwestern University 1964). She lives in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
.
In 2008-2009, Judith collaborated with Ash Creek Press in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
to publish The Ash Creek Series: an elegant signed/numbered edition folding broadside of five short poems (POEMS), a manuscript in a cartoon envelope – perhaps her most autobiographical work so far (Family Business), and 4th Period English, a chapbook of poems about immigration and related themes, spoken primarily in the voices of high school students.http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/4th_period_english
Writing
Arcana's poetry collection What if your mother (2005)http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/what_if_your_mother/ offers poems and monologues examining a constellation of motherhood themes including abortion, adoption, miscarriage and the biotechnology of childbirth, as well as the daily experience of mothering.In her review of the collection in Affilia (see references), Merle Hoffman
Merle Hoffman
Merle Hoffman is a women's health pioneer, activist, political organizer, publisher and author.Hoffman is the founder, president and CEO of CHOICES Women's Medical Center, one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive women's medical facilities, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of On...
describes Arcana's poems as "maps of interior psychological and physiological journeys" that meet the unnamed experience (abortion) "with bold lyricism, passion, and creative imagery."
Her two prose books about motherhood – Our Mothers’ Daughters (1979)http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/our_mothers_daughters/ and Every Mother’s Son (1983) http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/every_mothers_son/– are radical feminist
Radical feminism
Radical feminism is a current theoretical perspective within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on an assumption that "male supremacy" oppresses women...
analysis; both have been read, taught and discussed for many years in the US, Canada and the UK. Grace Paley
Grace Paley
Grace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...
’s Life Stories, A Literary Biography (1993)http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/grace_paleys_life_stories/, is Judith’s study of the well-loved & much admired writer/activist who died in August,2007. The initial interviews, research and draft for that book comprise her doctoral dissertation
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
.
Published works
Book-length:What if your mother, Goshen: Chicory Blue Press, 2005 ISBN 1-887344-11-X)
Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography, Champaign: University of Illinois Press
University of Illinois Press
The University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...
, 1994, 1993 ISBN 0-252-06447-X
Every Mother's Son, US and UK: The Women's Press, 1996, 1992; Seattle: Seal Press, 1986; London: The Women's Press, 1983; New York: Doubleday, 1983, ISBN 0-931188-39-3
Our Mothers' Daughters, US and UK: The Women's Press, 1996, 1992; Berkeley: Shameless Hussy Press, 1986, 1979; London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-915288-38-9
Recently published:
- A Two-Judith Conversation- ECLECTICA Magazine, Volume 13, #3 - summer 2009 http://www.eclectica.org/v13n3/arcana_barrington.html
- 4th Period English (Ash Creek Series) 2009 ISBN 0-615-28183-4
- Correspondence and The Man Who Loves Trees + What the birds say, Writers Dojo (online) end of January 2009 http://www.writersdojo.org/Judith+Arcana
- A Matter of Fact Feminist studies, Fall 2008
- There are no stars and If I Tell You and Not in China Thresholds, Fall/Winter 2008
- One rosy brown egg Oregonian 10/5/08
- You May Have Heard About My Situation and guest editor essay Persimmon Tree (online) Fall 2008 http://persimmontree.org/archive.php
- Crows, Junctures 2008 http://www.junctures.org/issues.php?issue=10&title=Group&colour=rgb(0,114,41)
- POEMS - folded broadside, signed/numbered edition (Ash Creek Series) 2008
- Family Business - chapbook ms in envelope (Ash Creek Series) 2008
- Midrash on Falling, Bridges spring 2008
- Facts of Life and tiny essay Letters to the World, 2008
- Past Lives Passager winter 2008
- In the cards blossombones (online) #1, 2008 http://www.blossombones.com/archives/winter08/arcana_w08.html
- Lois, Questions blossombones (online) #1, 2008* The Woman Sitting Next to Death blossombones (online) #1, 2008 http://www.blossombones.com/archives/winter08/arcana_w08.html
- Remembering Grace off our backs, Vol 37, #2/3 2008
- Whenever I Come to It Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass, late 2007 + Bridges 12/2-Fall
- Eight + tiny essay in Umbrella, late 2007 (online)
- Laughing and Thinking at the Same Time Persimmon Tree (online) 12/15/07
- folio of poems, Young Mothers issue, ARM Journal 9/1, 2007
- Celia Young Mothers issue of ARM Journal 9/1, late 2007
- For All the Mary Catholics White Ink, late 2007
- Felony Booking White Ink, late 2007
- National and Public Bridges, fall 2007 (12/2)
- Anecdotal Evidence of the Effects of Women’s Liberation on Male Children 5AM, Summer 2007 (#26)
- Maggie Answers Aunt Sylvia’s Question Persimmon Tree, June 2007 http://persimmontree.org/archive.php
- The Elders Repeat Themselves Umbrella, Summer 2007 http://www.umbrellajournal.com/summer2007/poetry/JudithArcana.html
- Not Like That Umbrella, Summer 2007 http://www.umbrellajournal.com/summer2007/poetry/JudithArcana.html
- Musee des Beaux Arts (further west, later on, for David) Studio, 2007 1/1 http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/studio/v01n01/studio2b.html
- A child said what is the grass Studio, 2007 1/1 http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/studio/v01n01/studio2b.html
- The Man Who Loves Trees Studio, 2007 1/1 http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/studio/v01n01/studio2b.html
- 86 in Diner, 2007 Volume 6
- Snow, Fall Not What I Expected, 2007
- Birth Days Passager Winter, 2007 (& on their website spring/summer 2007)