Editor's Page


Dear Readers:

I have pleasing news and sad news for you.

I'm happy to announce that Persimmon Tree continues to grow-our number of subscriptions now pushes 4,500. After a year online, the word has gotten out about the quality of the magazine, and I hear everywhere from people who really appreciate what we (all of us) are doing.

One more satisfying development: We're in the process of setting up a way for readers to make tax-deductible contributions to Persimmon Tree. Up to this point we haven't been able to offer this. Even so, many of you already have sent us gifts through our "Donate" button on the website or by mailing us checks. I can't tell you how much your generosity has meant to us! But we want to open the way for those who won't donate unless we have a tax-deductible means.

In this age of consciousness about social networking, we think of Persimmon Tree as a place to belong. I urge you to claim the magazine as yours, a community you identify with. Hopefully we'll have a blog in the future and make it possible for you to share your thoughts and ideas with each other. In the meanwhile, continue to send your email letters to us at editor@persimmontree.org.

Because Persimmon Tree is a community, it saddens us especially to lose one of our own. On May 29, 2008, Paula Gunn Allen, a contributor to the magazine, died at the age of 68. For the last thirty years Paula was a foremost voice in Native American literature and the study of American literature. Her moving nonfiction piece, "The Perils of Being Paula," appeared in the Summer 2007 issue (now in Archive.) Here is an excerpt from one of her poems:

Even so, the spent voices are singing,
their thoughts are dancing in the dirty air.
Their feet touch the cement, the asphalt
delighting, still they weave dreams upon our
shadowed skulls, if we could listen.
If we could hear.

            -Paula Gunn Allen
            from "Kopis'taya, a Gathering of Spirits"


Best regards for a good summer

Nan Gefen
Editor
editor@persimmontree.org






Nan Fink Gefen, Persimmon Tree editor, was the founding publisher of Tikkun Magazine in 1985. The author of two books, Stranger in the Midst: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery and Discovering Jewish Meditation, she most recently has been working on a collection of short stories. Nan was a psychotherapist for over a decade, taught at Ohio State University , and has been the president of Chochmat HaLev, a center of Jewish Meditation in Berkeley where she has mentored numerous students. Central in her affections are her large family and her women’s group of eighteen years.
Older women Visual art Mills College Bay Area publishing Plays Crone Wisdom Online literary magazine Nan Gefen Nan Fink Gefen Chana Bloch Martha Boesing Sandy Boucher Sandra Butler Marcia Freedman Judith Arcana Paula Gunn Allen Anita Barrows Carol Bly Jill Breckinridge Esther Broner Rosellyn Brown Eve Ensler Lillian Faderman Marilyn French Tess Gallagher Sandra Gilbert Vivien Gornick Susan Griffin Marilyn Hacker Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz Maxine Kumin Maxine Hong Kingston Jane Lazarre Deena Metzger Naomi Newman Alicia Ostriker Letty Cottin Pogrebin Martha Roth Starhawk Marilyn Yalom Susan Yankowitz Daphne Muse