Esther Tusquets: Editorial Practice as Feminist Praxis

For Esther Tusquets, feminism was not so much a doctrine as an approach to life. Thus, just as her narrative work and opinion pieces are underpinned by a constant reflection on gender equality and gender identity, her work as an editor reflects a keen awareness of the discrimination experienced as part of the female condition. The fundamental thesis of this article, therefore, is that editorial practice can also be a form of feminist praxis: not only because of all that it entails for a woman to hold a position of responsibility in an economically and culturally male-dominated world, but also because of the way in which many of the projects thereby undertaken served to spread and consolidate gender awareness. Particular attention will be paid to the presence in the catalogues published by Lumen and RqueR, the two firms that Esther Tusquets founded and directed at different times in her life, not only of fiction written by women, but also of comics and children's literature with a markedly vindicatory slant.