Elly Bulkin (born December 17, 1944) is an American writer. A founding editor of two nationally distributed periodicals: Conditions and Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends. Bridges mission statement explains that the journal sought to integrate “analysis of class and race into Jewish-feminist thought" and to be "a specifically Jewish participant in the multi-ethnic feminist movement.”[1]

She is an important figure in the history of lesbian writing.[1]

Personal life

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Bulkin grew up in the Bronx, New York, after her father and maternal grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe.

She worked for five years at the Women's Center at Brooklyn College.[1]

An activist since the 1970s, Elly has been part of DARE/Dykes Against Racism Everywhere (NYC), Women Free Women in Prison (NYC), Feminist Action Network (Albany, NY), Women in Black (Boston), and other local political groups, in addition to being a member of the National Feminist Task Force of New Jewish Agenda. More recently, she was a steering committee member of Communities In Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (CISKGIA).  A founding member of Jews Say No! (NYC) and Jews Against Islamophobia (JAI/NYC), she helped launch the Network Against Islamophobia (NAI), a project of Jewish Voice for Peace.[2]

Now retired, she provides grant writing technical assistance to grantee partners of Astraea, the Lesbian Fund for Justice.[2]

Career

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Bulkin emerged in the literary scene during the 1970s as a proud, Jewish lesbian. She regularly reviews women's poetry, but is most well-known for editing and co-editing many lesbian anthologies. She co-edited two anthologies with Joan Larkin, the first of which came out in 1975, titled Amazon Poetry: An Anthology of Lesbian Poetry. The second was from 1981 with Persephone Press, titled Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology. [3][1]

Bulkin was a founding editor of two nationally distributed periodicals: Conditions, a magazine of writing by women with an emphasis on writing by lesbians, and Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends.[2][4]

She has published articles on racism and writing; heterosexism and women’s studies; lesbian poetry; and other topics. Bulkin's articles on lesbian poetry cover both historical context and analysis[5] as well as pedagogical approaches.[6][7] She is co-author, with Minnie Bruce Pratt and Barbara Smith, of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism (1984) and, with Donna Nevel, of Islamophobia & Israel (2013).[2][8]

Works

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  • (ed. with Joan Larkin) Amazon Poetry: An anthology of Lesbian Poetry, 1975
  • (ed.) Lesbian Fiction: An Anthology, 1981
  • (ed. with Joan Larkin) Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology, 1981
  • (ed. with Minnie Bruce Pratt and Barbara Smith) Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Antisemitism and Racism, 1984[8]
  • Enter password, recovery : re-enter password, 1990[9]
  • (with Donna Nevel) Islamophobia & Israel (2014)[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Griffin, Gabriele (2003). Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing. Routledge. pp. 38–39. ISBN 9781134722099.
  2. ^ a b c d "Elly Bulkin: Author's Biography · Elly Bulkin: Jews, Blacks, and Lesbian Teens in the 1940s: Jo Sinclair's The Changelings and "The Long Moment" · OutHistory: It's About Time". outhistory.org. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  3. ^ "Lesbian Poetry | Lesbian Poetry Archive". www.lesbianpoetryarchive.org. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  4. ^ "Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  5. ^ "Jo Sinclair's 1940s Lesbians: 'We All Did Know Exactly Who and What We Were' | Wellesley Centers for Women". www.wcwonline.org. Archived from the original on 2021-09-28. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  6. ^ Bulkin, Elly (1979). ""A Whole New Poetry Beginning Here": Teaching Lesbian Poetry". College English. 40 (8): 874–888. doi:10.2307/376524. ISSN 0010-0994. JSTOR 376524.
  7. ^ Bulkin, Elly (1980-04-01). "Teaching Lesbian Poetry". Women's Studies Quarterly.
  8. ^ a b "Elly Bulkin". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  9. ^ Bulkin, Elly (1990). Enter password, recovery : re-enter password. Albany, N.Y.: Turtle Books. ISBN 0-9625469-0-9. OCLC 22773524.
  10. ^ Bulkin, Elly; Nevel, Donna (2014). Islamophobia & Israel. Route Books (published April 4, 2014). ISBN 9780615985732.