Judy Grahn audio recordings, circa 1970s

Judy Grahn audio recordings, circa 1970s

Judy Grahn is a poet, activist and scholar who has published 14 books of date and is widely recognized for her writing that engages queer, feminist themes. At the age 21, Grahn was discharged from the Air Force for being openly gay, a source of great shame and anger that contributed to her radicalization. She went on to write and publish her own poetry and became a founding member of the West Coast New Feminist Movement.

Grahn was a member of the Gay Women’s Liberation Group and a co-founder of the Women's Press Collective in 1969, a collective of women devoted to publishing works by female authors, raising the voices of disenfranchised lesbians. Through the collective, Grahn published and circulated her earliest books of poetry including Edward the Dyke and Other Poems (1971) and She Who (1972). Her later works include non-fiction, such as her autobiography entitled A Simple Revolution: The Making of an Activist Poetry.

Grahn's poetry is heavily influenced by feminist mythology and Metaformic Theory which links modern culture to ancient menstruation rites, which she first explored in the book: She is a leading theorist and scholar of feminist mythology, which she teaches at California Institute of Integral Studies.

Grahn received a number of awards for her poetry including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, two Lambda Literary Awards and American Book Award, a Foremothers of Women’s Spirituality Award and a Stonewall Award. Since 1997, Publishing Triangle has awarded The Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Non Fiction to an outstanding work of lesbian nonfiction annually, in honor of her.

Judy Grahn has been the Grand Marshall of both the San Francisco and Seattle Pride Parades in the past and continues to dedicate her life to queer activism and cultural studies and writing poetry.