Virago Press

Frankie Fanko, it's now your turn in the spotlight round.

The subject you've chosen is a British publisher of women's writing, Virago Press.

Now, I seem to remember Virago books appearing very suddenly.

Do you think they changed British publishing as soon as they did appear?

When they first set up their company, this group of women, male journalists asked if they were worried they wouldn't have enough material and they fell about laughing because there was reams and reams of material from women who just wouldn't have been heard

otherwise.

Here come your questions on Virago Press.

The original Virago Modern Classics editions became instantly recognisable by spines of what colour?

But I was really interested in, um, sociology at school and interested in systems and cultural systems and, um, social systems and the theories, and I got into reading, um, uh, about sort of feminism as well.

And one of the first things that, I suppose I remember one of the first essays I got really into kind of writing was about Virago Press and, um, and, and, and why they were so important to publishing.

So all of these things kind of link up to sort of then understanding, you know, if that feeds into being a curator, then you, you're looking at kind of the representation of women and, and feminist practices or how, you know, what women are thinking through their work and how they're working quite sort of relationally and different as well.

So I've kind of used all of that kind of, um, background and thinking in, in my exhibition making and practice as well as a curator.