Editor Interview: We'Moon

Datebook w/ Art & Writing

We love independent, self-published writers, especially those with poetic political, feminist, environmental, activist, spiritual bents.

Rose Flint, Marna Hauk, Starhawk, Rae Abileah, Donna Henes, Alice Walker, Heather Roan-Robins, Gretchen Lawlor, Bethroot Gwynn, Sandra Pastorius, Susan Levitt, Mooncat, Musawa!

Mother Tongue Ink publishes creative work by women, celebrating earth-based spirituality and visions for a changing world. Since 1981, MT Ink has published We’Moon: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn, the earth-spirited handbook and unique collection of inspired art and writing by women. We are in our 33 year of publishing this annual datebook, 240 pages of riveting full-color art and amazing poetry and prose. We publish work by about 120 artists and writers every year. One of our missions is to promote women working on the creative edge, and each writer/artist is given the opportunity to advertise with a byline in the appendix. We also publish a wall calendar: We'Moon on the Wall, and a 6-pack of Greetings Cards every year. We keep our submission process simple and free, and encourage women to share their creative contributions weather their work has been published or not. We're always available via phone or email to assist with the process of completing the licensing paperwork. Because of our open-arms-submission-policy, we receive an abundance of rich, off-the-wall, edgy, inspiring material. Our selection process begins in the community: We take all of the submissions on the road for the month of September, to be opined by over 100 volunteer participants around the sate (we hope to bring this process to the East coast some year) Then we skim the most well loved work off the top, and work with that 20% or so in our small group consensus production process for final selection. This is a labor of love, to be sure!

Do it. You have nothing to lose. Entertain us, educate us, inform us, inspire us!

One page or less. We look for a wide range of subject matter, from earth based spirituality, ancestral musings, hilarity, irony, political and activist, direct experience, observation, reports on the color of the sky, intimacy, magic.

That we need to have hard copy submissions. We know it's old-school, but our selection process involves passing the work from hand to hand, to be read at various circles of women all over the state. Imagine sitting on a couch in a living room with 20 other women, cup of tea in hand, reading through folders of writing and viewing pages of art.
Also, including a SASE with submissions is often overlooked.

We don't look for cover letters, and previous publications have no influence with us. We're looking for cutting-edge work, not cookie-cutter work...

Every piece is read in it's entirety by at least 10 women. We'll only toss it if it's outright painful to read...that's rare.

I work with a group of about 4 other women, during the final production process. We sit around a table in my kitchen, crackers and tea close at hand, and we perseverate about every single page: do the art and writing speak to each other, are many cultures represented in the pages of our book, how will we represent this new moon cycle in Aquarius... and on and on. We work using consensus. We are artist and writers, graphic designers, and we process about the work a lot.