Publishers and Directors Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein
Discover more about Sybylla Feminist Press
The Sybylla Collective was set up in 1975 to print flyers and pamphlets from the Women's Liberation Movement. In 1982 they began publishing books, many of which were edited by the collective. In 2001 the list was handed to Spinifex Press.
Read more about the books here.
About us
Spinifex Press was established in March 1991 by Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein. Over 30 years later and with well over 200 titles in print and most available as eBooks, Spinifex Press continues to produce award-winning, innovative and controversial feminist books.
You can read a history of the press below.
1991 was a time of cutbacks in publishing following the recession in Australia and this was having a significant effect on two areas of interest to us: feminist and literary publishing. We began with four titles and of those titles two were reprinted, three were about to be translated and three were shortlisted for awards. We had set up distribution in the US and quickly found networks to expand into overseas markets with distribution soon following in NZ and UK and several translations picked up.
Spinifex has always been at the forefront of technological change – publishing books about new technologies – we were the first Australian publisher to offer a web-based catalogue and the third to have our full catalogue available for purchase from our website. In 2006, Spinifex was the first small press in Australia to release eBooks through an eBookstore attached to our website. We were the first publisher (1996) to set up an interactive site based on a book. We have continued to be active in this area and make our books readily accessible online.
We regularly post on social networking sites and participate in political and community events. For Spinifex, publishing is a political act as well as an opportunity to engage in creative ways of producing good quality books. Our titles on pornography, globalisation and ecology engage with debates in these fields, while writers of fiction and poetry, experiment with text, cross genres and produce high quality books which are useful class texts.
Spinifex has developed a number of strong specialist lists including Indigenous, writing from Asia and Africa, lesbian books as well as women’s health, violence against women, racism and cultural opportunism, ecology and economics, war and exile, prostitution and pornography.
Feminist publishing has gone from a thriving international network to being decimated by the advent of superstores and the depoliticisation of feminism in the late 1990s. But feminist publishing is getting a new lease of life through activism against corporates and with the repoliticisation of young women who are challenging the sexualisation of culture. Social networking has given us a way of contributing to and tapping into these new communities. In 1997 we set up a site about Women in Publishing in Asia and Pacific.
While the digital shift has become critical, so are issues around fairness, healthy environments, challenging exploitation and engaging with new ideas. Remaining fresh and interesting, ensuring the quality of work remains high, and breaking new ground are all necessary for us to continue doing what we do. Keeping our passions alive, keeping our connections with authors and all the other people in the book industry remains vital.
