Maureen Brady (born June 7, 1943) is an American writer, editor and educator. She is best known for her novels[1]Ginger's Fire, Folly,[2] and Give Me Your Good Ear.[3][4][5][6] She currently lives and works in
New York City and
Woodstock, NY.
Personal life
Brady was born on June 7, 1943, in
Mount Vernon,
New York and spent her adolescence in Florida. She practised as a physical therapist and also taught
physical therapy at
Russell Sage College,
Troy, New York.[7] In 1977, she attended a New School workshop in writing which gave her the confidence to begin writing.[8] She currently lives in New York with her partner, Martha.[9]
Career
In 1982, she wrote the novel Folly out of a desire to cast a woman who was an outsider in her community splintered by racism, homophobia, patriarchy and capitalism as a hero.[8][10] The novel focuses on a
workers strike of
North Carolinagarment workers with various sub-plots about the diverse set of characters lives in a
segregated town.[8][11] The novel has been described as "pro-labor, feminist, anti-racist, queer positive."[2] In 1994, it was reprinted as a
classic by
The Feminist Press.[12]
In 1978, Brady founded the lesbian feminist publishing company
Spinsters Ink with Judith McDaniel.[13] As one of the oldest lesbian feminist publishers in the world, Spinsters Ink is widely regarded as a pioneering feminist institution.[14][15][16][17] Brady has served as the editor of many books, including The Cancer Journals by
Audre Lorde, Spinsters Ink (1980), and The Words of a Woman Who Breathes Fire: Poetry and Prose by Kitty Tsui, Spinsters Ink (1983).[18]
A page from one of Brady's manuscripts was included in "Statements from Lesbian Artists", which accompanied the 1978 exhibition A Lesbian Show.[19] Curated by
Harmony Hammond, the show was the first lesbian-identified art exhibition in the United States.[20][19]
^Stein, Julia (1998). "Tangled Threads: Two Novels About Women in the Textile Trades, "Call the Darkness Light" by Nancy Zaroulis and Folly by Maureen Brady". Women's Studies Quarterly. 26 (1/2): 98–112.
ISSN0732-1562.
JSTOR40003463.