Stephen DeVries

Magnify

“I am a feminist because…”

“As editors of UAB's awarding-winning, all women's journal PMS poemmemoirstory, we have no fear of the F-word--after all, words are our bread and butter, or better yet, our chocolate, our wine. Our feminism drives us to provide a forum to celebrate and promote women writers who wield words with a fierce grace.”

Tina is an English professor and the editor of PMS - a women’s literary journal published each year by UAB. “Women have important things to say,” she asserts. Since its first edition in 2001, the journal has earned national and international attention.

When did you first get involved with the project? In 2000 or 2001. I read for the first two issues. I started submitting to PMS and finally got a memoir published, and then, I eventually got two poems published. Linda [Frost, former Editor-in-Chief] asked me to take over it before she left. I was a little scared. You know, Linda is fantastic. She'd been (and is somewhat, still) the driving force behind the magazine. Everything she touches turns out really well. So, this is a women's journal.

Do you ever have men wanting to contribute? If men wanted to submit something to us under a woman's name, we wouldn't know that. There have been claims that that has been the case, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I think it's ironic and interesting, because for so many years, women would publish under men's names [simply because] they'd be more likely to be published, have greater research or more sales. Even the woman who did Harry Potter. I heard rumor that they asked her to just put her initials, because I guess they wanted it to be ambiguous. I think it's cool that if we have a venue for just women. It's a slight turning of the tables. I don't really want to exclude men, but it's a testament to how much it's changed. I think it speaks to the power of what this community has been able to do for one another.

Explain how the journal's name. I love it. I think it's funny. My interns took it down to sell it at the book festival. They said they got the stink eye. Women would come by and give them a dirty look. But, it works on the other end. It's a catchy term. I used it at festivals and conferences. "Hey, have you got your PMS yet?" People turn around and they'll talk to you.

What's one of the most rewarding aspects of your involvement? It creates this community, and it has this real tone of gathering people that are really supportive. [One of the writers] was published, won an award for her story and took 50 copies of the book to Uganda to the women there to teach a writing workshop.