Joanne Kyger was the Wednesday Editor at the Bolinas Hearsay News (1984-2012, Bolinas, CA). She was also one of the few women in Jack Kerouac’s male-dominated cultural fraternity, the Beats Generation. Kyger moved to San Francisco in 1957, and soon became part of the literary scene known as the San Francisco Renaissance. The cultural explosion in San Francisco gave Kyger access to multiple small presses, where she published poetry and prose in multiple publications. She first published her writing in print in Spicer’s mimeographed magazine J, writing “Tapestry # 3” (shown below).
On being a Wednesday editor
I liked being able to “produce” a publication/newspaper in one day. Very gratifying to see it all distributed at the various stores downtown and at the library. For some years there was home delivery by a crew of young kids on bikes. And also I liked meeting other members of the community who came to the office with articles or questions or to place a classified ad. One could get a feel for what the ephemeral but personal sense of what makes up ‘the news’ in a small community.
On publishing ventures separate from the Hearsay News:
THE TURKEY BUZZARD REVIEW was a loose gathering of friends, mostly women, who got together and drank coffee and brandy and decided what to publish. Dottie leMieux was the most ambitious, so we decided she would be the editor. We gave several ‘theatrical’ Turkey Buzzard readings for the community. It was always fun and barely serious. Some years before I helped edit WILD DOG, which moved from Idaho to San Francisco in 1965-66, when I was living there.
