Sinister Wisdom

Sinister Wisdom is a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal founded in 1976. Publishing four issues a year, the journal's mission is to "create multi-class, multicultural, multi-gender, multi-racial, worldwide intergenerational queer and lesbian spaces." Sinister Wisdom features fiction, essays, poetry, literary criticism, art, and feminist theory. Founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Ellenberger (also known as Harriet Desmoines), it is the longest-running lesbian feminist literary and art journal and one of the few surviving community-based journals from the women's liberation movement.

Sinister Wisdom has its roots in lesbian separatism and the women in print movement, which sought to establish autonomous communications networks of periodicals, publishers, and bookstores created by and for women. As a result, the journal accepts submissions from both novice and experienced writers and has worked with woman-owned and operated presses such as Whole Women Press and Iowa City Women's Press. With over 130 issues, it is one of the longest-running lesbian journals. Sinister Wisdom has published works by Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Maureen Brady, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Alison Bechdel. Sapphic Classics, a partnership between Sinister Wisdom and A Midsummer Night's Press, reprints classic lesbian works for contemporary audiences.