16 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 6, 1998

EVENINGS OUT

After 25 years, Naiad's role is 'exactly the same'

by Harriet L. Schwartz

"We began with one book. I've published four hundred books. There's a wall behind me of books—I'm responsible for those,” said Barbara Grier, co-founder and co-publisher of Naiad Press.

The Florida publisher and producer of lesbian books, audio books, videos and CDs celebrated its 25th anniversary on January 1.

A lesbian activist for years, Grier said it was inevitable that she would devote her life to publishing lesbian titles.

"I knew I wanted to publish lesbian fiction and it was the logical obvious progress of my life," she said. "I began as a book collector, bibliographer, and reviewer. I started collecting lesbian literature when I was 16 years old. Then I started working for the magazine The Ladder, which was the carly lesbian magazine published between 1956 and 1972."

Grier worked for The Ladder throughout its entire existence, eventually reaching the pinnacle of publisher. Then in 1973 she and Donna J. McBride pursued their dream and founded Naiad. Not drawing any salary from the press for the first nine years, partners Grier and McBride would awaken carly in the morning to work for Naiad before going to their day jobs. They would return home, eat dinner, and do more Naiad work late into the evenings and most weekends as well.

Finally, in October 1981, Naiad had its first big break. "We had a best-selling book," Grier said. "A good friend of mine, Jane Rule, who had been a life-long friend, gave us the privilege of publishing Outlander, which was a collection of her short stories and essays."

"In those days, there weren't several thousand gay and lesbian titles, there were only a few. So Outlander was fallen upon eagerly, and became a tremendous best-seller for us.'

A few months later, Naiad made another big change. "Donna and I had reached the point where we were working so hard and finally Donna said, 'You have to quit your job and do Naiad,' " Grier remembers.

So, in 1982, Grier became Naiad's first paid employee. While the move seemed risky, another book affirmed that the press was on its way to greater stability.

"In that same month, we published a book called Fault Line by Sheila Ortiz Taylor who is a Florida State University professor, a woman we met here in the community. It was an overwhelming best seller, it was reviewed from coast to coast, it sold like crazy, was excerpted in half a dozen magazines, it was a hot shit thing. It happens to be a quixotic, delightful lesbian tale-it's still one of the best books we've ever published."

Grier and McBride continued working hard to establish the Naiad name. "We started doing clever things like making Naiad a synonym for lesbian," Grier said. "We have license plates on all our trucks-on the front, they say NAIAD. On the back we have the customized plates you can get from the state; our trucks are marked 'NAIAD 1, 2, 3, and 4.' We'll be driving down the road somewhere and a car full of women will go by shrieking and screaming and hanging out the windows, and it's certainly not because we're cute, it's because we have ‘Naiad' on both ends of the truck."

Three years later, Naiad published the book that may indeed be its legacy. Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, by Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan, was an international bestseller and moved Naiad into a spotlight well beyond the lesbian community.

Grier joyously tells the story of traveling after the book was published and had begun receiving mainstream media attention. She checked into a motel in a small Arizona town

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NAIAD PRESS

Naiad Press founders and staff, clockwise from left, Donna McBride, Tori Cook, Hannah Thigpen, Charity Barnes, Alex Jaeger, Candis Creekmore and Barbara Grier.

and noted "Naiad Press" under "business" on the registration form.

"I would guess a reasonably illiterate woman behind the counter who had seen one of the dozens of talk shows that featured the book said, 'You're those people that did that nun book, aren't you?" "Grier said, adopting a western accent, and laughing. "It was one of the best days of my life."

"For better or for worse, Lesbian Nuns will probably last a long time. It's the first overwhelming book, it's by far the best seller," she added.

One of the reasons Grier felt that the book was so popular was that people would buy it thinking they were going to find something of great prurient interest.

"Of course there wasn't any prurient interest in the book at all," she said. "The book is a really sober and serious book. But when you say lesbian nuns, you immediately, or at least certain minds, begin to imagine nuns chasing each other up and down convent corridors ripping off each others' robes. Of

course that's nothing to do with what this book is about. This book had an impact—it was reviewed in the New York Times and the Navajo Times and translated into every language on the planet."

Grier said that by the mid-90s, Naiad was financially "level." In part, she attributes their success to a strategy that runs counter to prevailing wisdom-Naiad has not tried to change with the times, nor in response to the evolving lesbian community or mainstream fascination with 'lesbian chic.'

"I don't think our role has changed, and I think the reason we are extraordinarily successful is that we have deliberately not changed," she said. "We are very clearly exactly what we are."

The most remarkable thing, Grier said, is that Naiad currently publishes about 30 books a year. "If you divide 365 days a year by 30, we're putting out a book about every twelve days and with a staff of just eight, that's exciting.

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