Forever Feminists: A Conversation with FP Staff
Today, as part of our celebration of intergenerational feminism, we're hearing from two Feminist Press staff members: Drew Stevens, who has been art director at Feminist Press for the past seventeen years, and the most recent addition to our team, Tyler Hubbert, who joined as events and publicity coordinator in spring 2025.
Support the work that Drew and Tyler are doing with a donation to Feminist Press!
Drew Stevens
What brought you to Feminist Press?
In late 2008, I was supporting myself entirely through freelance book design and typesetting. The world economy was in shambles and the publishing industry was reeling as the sales of ebooks surpassed the sales of printed books. Anxiety and uncertainty were rampant, and I powerfully felt the need for a steady paycheck, so started looking for jobs. As soon as I spotted the ad for Feminist Press, my intuition told me that this was going to be my job. At the time, it seemed like a handy port in a storm, something to kite me over the economic rough patch. I had no idea that I would hold the job (and love it) for nearly two decades and counting.
How did you first learn about the Press?
I am a big fan of Gypsy Rose Lee and found a copy of her novel The G-String Murders, which FP had reissued in the early 2000s as part of the Femmes Fatales series. That was my first awareness that Feminist Press existed. I did not know much else about the Press until I joined the team.
Why do you think Feminist Press is important?
As our mission statement says, Feminist Press lifts up insurgent and marginalized voices from around the world to build a more just future. We have been lifting voices for fifty-five years, inspiring people to create a more just world, and changing minds one at a time. The work of the Press has always been important, and as the psychosis in our collective consciousness continues to rise to the surface for all to see, our work is more necessary than ever.
What does feminism mean to you?
My feminism springs from the spiritual understanding that we are not separate beings. We are all creations of a singular source consciousness, and therefore we are part of a whole, we are the same. What I do to another, I do to myself. To dishonor the Divine Feminine, the source of all creation, is to dishonor myself. Feminism, along with all forms of equality and justice, is a part of honoring ourselves completely.
Has your relationship to feminism changed over your lifetime?
And how. Born in 1964, I am old enough to have been aware of “Women’s Lib” when it came into the public consciousness. Back in those days, feminism was often a punch line. For the first four decades of my life, feminism to me was Maude Finley, bra burning, and ladies wearing pants. I rarely gave it much thought. However, in my early forties, my nascent spirituality started blooming and becoming more and more of a focus in my life. All at around the same time, I discovered plant medicine, my circle of friends widened to include people who were not like me (white, gay, male, middle class), awareness of systemic injustice in our institutions developed, and I began working at Feminist Press. Over the past twenty years, feminism has gone from being a punch line to a deeply serious and spiritual matter in my life.
What did you learn from the feminists who came before you?
A privilege of working with Feminist Press over the years is having the opportunity to meet great women (and men) who were at the forefront of second wave feminism. Courage, compassion, and humor seem to me the traits these people share in common. They inspire me to lead my own life.
What would you like younger generations of feminists to know about the movement and its history?
There are so many good stories out there, stories of courage and resilience, of justice and equality. I celebrate that feminism has become an important topic to so many young people in a way that it was not when I was a whippersnapper forty years ago. I encourage younger generations to learn about their foremothers (and forefathers, and everything in between) and to take inspiration from their stories.
Tyler Hubbert
What brought you to Feminist Press?
In the last year, I came to the decision that I wanted to do work that was politically engaging and actively fought against the harmful ideologies and rhetoric that our current administration is pushing. It felt really urgent to get involved with organizations and be in solidarity with people who, despite mounting challenges, were still committed to centering the work of marginalized people.
How did you first learn about the Press?
I first learned about Feminist Press when I was an undergraduate. I was really determined to find a publishing internship with a political focus, and when I searched “feminist book publishers,” FP was the first result. I was an FP intern my senior year and afterward went on to work in academic publishing for five years. When I saw that FP was looking for a new publicist, I knew that this was the exact role that I had been looking for.
Why do you think Feminist Press is important?
In times of chaos and uncertainty, literature and art is really important. And at a time like this when a lot of other publishers and media are buckling under pressure or sometimes folding altogether, Feminist Press is still determined with its mission. Publishing from the margins—authors of color, forgotten feminist works, queer authors, sex workers, translations from the global south—has always been central to FP’s work, not just a passing trend. Independent publishers and other leftist organizations are being stretched thin, and unfortunately, as more disappear, the public loses out on their cultural outputs and our creatives lose homes for their work. We can’t count on these institutions coming back once they’re gone.
What does feminism mean to you?
I once had someone tell me that feminism is about fighting the “isms”: classism, sexism, racism, ableism, and so on. I always really liked that way of putting it. To me, feminism is a commitment to uplifting our society's marginalized people and working to chip away at the systems that disempowered them in the first place.
Has your relationship to feminism changed over your lifetime? If so, how?
Absolutely, my feminism has definitely changed over my lifetime. I started developing a political consciousness around 2012. There was a sense of hope and an upward trajectory that I think a lot of young activists were feeling at that moment, like we were on the winning side of history. 2016 was a huge reality check, and 2024 was even more jarring.
Since then, I have definitely buckled down on my beliefs. Feminism is not just a personal interest but a guiding ideology and framework for how I choose to interact with the world around me and for both who and what I choose to support. Even when it’s hard.
What did you learn from the feminists who came before you?
People aren’t going to always like what you have to say (and that’s fine!). Most major social movements aren’t very popular in the beginning. What was once deeply controversial can become totally common practice within a generation or less. I try to remember this whenever I feel discouraged.
What would you like younger generations of feminists to know about the movement and its history?
That progress is not linear. A lot of feminists my age and younger never thought that we’d actually see rights and protections taken away once they were gained. Things don’t just stay the same or get better; sometimes they get worse. But when you look back at our history, progress has always moved both forwards and backwards. As feminists, we have to be persistent and learn when it’s time to push and when it’s time to be patient. Change is a long game.
