Alta started Shameless Hussy Press in 1969.[6] The first women-owned feminist press in California, it opened during the time of
second-wave feminism. Alta used a printing press in her garage to publish books by authors such as
Susan Griffin,
Pat Parker, and
Mitsuye Yamada.[7] Yamada later described Alta as an "energetic feminist poet" who promoted Yamada's first volume of poetry "at women’s conferences, women’s health centers, and lesbian bars."[8] The press published the first edition of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enuf by
Ntozake Shange, and
Mary Mackey's first novel, Immersion (1972). They also published poetry by men: "Alta reasoned that since 6 percent of the books published in the U.S. were by women, 6 percent of the books she published should be by men."[7]
Her first volume of
feminist poetry, Freedom's in Sight, was published in 1969,[10] and some of her poems were anthologized in such collections as From Feminism to Liberation (Philip G. Altbach and Edith S. Hoshino, eds, 1971).[11] Her 1980 collected works The Shameless Hussy (Crossing Press) won the American Book Award in 1981.[7][12]
Personal life
Alta started the Shameless Hussy Press with her second husband. She wrote a volume of "blatant lesbian poems", Letters to Women (1969).[7] After the press closed she started operating an art gallery in
Berkeley, California.[13]
Works
Alta's works include:
Freedom's in Sight. Aldebaran Review, 1969.
Letters to Women. Shameless Hussy Press, 1970.
poems & prose by alta. k.n.o.w., 1971.
burn this & memorize yourself. Times Change, 1971.
song of the wife, song of the mistress. Shameless Hussy Press, 1971.
No Visible Means of Support. Shameless Hussy Press, 1971.
True Story. Mama's Press, 1973.
Momma. Times Change, 1974.
i am not a practicing angel. Crossing Press, 1975.
Pauline & the Mysterious Pervert. Wyrd Press, 1975.
Theme & Variations. Aldeberan Review, 1975.
The Shameless Hussy, 1980.
Deluged with dudes: platonic & erotic love poems to men. Shameless Hussy Press, 1989.