Symposium Date: September 25, 2025

Symposium Location: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

Deadline for Abstracts: August 1, 2025

Notification of Decisions by: August 15, 2025

In 1984 Sister Vision Press was co-founded by Makeda Silvera and Stephanie Martin. In describing the significance of the name Silvera notes: “We looked close to home for a name, in other words, at who we were—two sistas—two feminists with a vision. And so, the Press was named Sister Vision” (2022, 327). The founding of Sister Vision was a radical intervention in Canadian publishing. Writings by and about Black women, Indigenous women and women of colour were significantly underrepresented and there existed numerous institutional roadblocks to publishing these works. Sister Vision would also become an important space for publishing lesbian and queer writing. It offered a nexus for works articulating intersectional social concerns. 

The books published by Sister vision were memorable not just for their important content; they also engaged rich and radical experimentations in style. In 1985, Sister Vision published their first volume, a book of poetry which used Jamaican vernacular language, experimented with spelling and sound and was firmly in the dub poetry tradition. This was the first of many examples of the varied kinds of work that Sister Vision would publish. As Silvera puts it, the aim was to “produce provocative, challenging, and risk-taking books by and for Black women, Indigenous women, Asian women and women of mixed heritage” (327). In addition to publishing important book-length works by authors, Sister Vision also published several pathbreaking anthologies some of which are still taught on university courses. Piece of My Heart(published in 1991, reprinted 1993), for example, was the first lesbian of colour anthology in North America. 

Sister Vision Press folded in 2001, however its legacy is enduring. While they were located in Canada, the reach and influence of the Press was transnational. They published writers and writing from the Caribbean, the US, South America and the Pacific. This symposium will mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of Sister Vision Press. We will bring together writers and scholars to reflect on the books, conversations and interventions that Sister Vision made possible as well as commemorate the trailblazing work of Canada’s first Black women and women of color Press. 

Please note that all papers presented at the symposium will be reviewed for potential inclusion in an upcoming journal issue of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.

Possible topics for symposium presentations include:  

Community and collectivity

Black feminist theories and publishing

Women of colour and publishing in Canada

Legacies and afterlives of Sister Vision 

The Use of the anthology as genre

Sister Vision – Children’s Lit and YA 

Sister Vision Press – Drama 

Sister Vision Press and queer studies

Radical queer publishing

The poetics of women’s writing

Black, feminist, and/or queer activism in Toronto

Intersectionality / intersectional organizing

Style in writing as a form of protest 

Queer collectives 

Racial solidarities 

The economics and politics of publishing

Literary traditions / literary inventions (then and now)

The deadline for submissions is August 1, 2025. Please submit abstracts and panel proposals to sistervisionpressat40@gmail.com.We welcome abstracts (no more than 500 words) and panel proposals (no more than 500 words). Please also include a brief biographical note (80-100 words).

You can also contact us at sistervisionpressat40@gmail.com if you have any questions about submissions or about the symposium.