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Conditions (full title: Conditions: a feminist magazine of writing by women with a particular emphasis on writing by lesbians) was a lesbian feminist literary annual founded in 1976 in Brooklyn, New York, by Elly Bulkin, Jan Clausen, Irena Klepfisz and Rima Shore.
Contents
Publishing Collective
Conditions was a magazine that emphasised the lives and writings of lesbians, and, throughout its history, maintained an all-lesbian collective. This collective expressed a "long standing commitment to diversity; of writing style and content and of background of contributors", within the lesbian and feminist communities. Conditions was especially dedicated to publishing the work of lesbians, in particular working class lesbians and lesbians of color.
The Black Women's Issue
The journal's fifth issue, published in November 1979, was edited by Barbara Smith and Lorraine Bethel. Conditions 5 was "the first widely distributed collection of Black feminist writing in the U.S.", and was later to be the basis for the anthology Home Girls (1983), one of the first books released by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Conditions 5: The Black Women's Issue was hugely popular, and set a record in feminist publishing by selling 3000 copies in the first three weeks it was available.
Publication ceases
Conditions ceased publication in 1990.
Contributors
(partial list)