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The Feminist Utopia Project

The LA Review of Books has an interview with the editors of a forthcoming book called The Feminist Utopia Project: Fifty-Seven Visions of a Wildly Better Future. The book features interviews, essays, fiction, poetry, manifestos, and art by the likes of Sheila Heti, Janet Mock, and Mia McKenzie. Overall, the book seeks to envision a radical future from a feminist point of view. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

RACHEL KAUDER NALEBUFF: A big theme that emerged was that utopias don’t necessarily need to be carefree places. Our cultural prioritization of happiness might even be a flawed, capitalist notion in the first place. This is why Katherine Cross, in her sweeping essay that rewrites an entirely feminist constitution, replaces the “the pursuit of happiness” with another inalienable right: the right to “eudaimonia” — which translates roughly to fulfillment. Or, as Katherine explains, the ability “to dance through a full range of human experience — from the most pleasurable emotions, states, and practices” to (excluding oppression) “the thoroughly unpleasant ones. It means to live a life full of meaning.”

ALEXANDRA BRODSKY: I think editing an anthology is, in some ways, an experiment of embracing contradictions. There are real conflicts between some pieces. We don’t agree with all the pieces in the book either. But we affirmatively wanted to avoid an anthology that would fit together too neatly, as though to outline a single, uncomplicated vision. Different people want different things, and are building futures from different truths about today. That’s hard work. That’s important.

Image of Sheila Heti via Vol. 1 Brooklyn