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Persephassa Phersephatta Persephonia Phersephone Persephone Soteira Persephone Despoena Proserpine Proserpina Persephoneia Periphone Kore.
MAILING LIST
persephassa.com
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ROXANNE CARTER.
I was born in a California port town bordering the Pacific Ocean. I grew up in a valley near the sea, scrambling through the chaparrall after lizards and bounding between rocks in the barranca. I was a voracious reader, staying up late reading by the cerulean light of the public access channel. Curently I am pursuing an MFA in Fiction at Brown University.
ABOUT PERSEPHASSA.
Kore -- Greek for maiden or young girl. According to legend, after her abduction by Hades, Kore was transformed into Persephone, queen of the underworld, mistress of the labyrinth, dazzling brilliance, she who destroys the light. Her name was not safe to speak aloud. Persephassa is an older, archaic form of the name, which suggests pre-Hellenic origins. In Rome she was called Proserpina. Additionally, a kore is a classical Grecian statue characterized by an androgynous image and an enigmatically alluring smile.
Persephassa.com was registered in December, 2003. Previously, this site existed in various manifestations on kore.lhabia.com[2000-2003], mesmerized.org/kore [1999-2000] and kore.prettie.com [1998-1999].
Persephassa.com is a space which serves as my portfolio as well as the home of a small press, of which I am the sole editor, designer and book-binder. I started making zines in the winter of 2000, photocopying a short novella surreptitiously at UCSB. Working in special collections and rare books libraries introduced me to the fine press books of artists like Maureen Cummins (Innana Press) and Gloria Stuart (Imprenta Glorias). I also became fascinated, through my study of women's biographies and diaries, by women who had self published their works - Anaïs Nin with her Gemor Press, Nancy Cunard and the Hours Press, Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press, and Alta's Shameless Hussy Press. I developed an enthusiasm for the possibilities for self-representation that bookmaking offered, and an interest in the notion of bringing works which had previously only existed on the web into a more direct observation field where they could be seen by different audiences. I decided to produce my notebooks and other writings as handmade volumes under the imprint of Persephassa. I have since printed 15 separate titles, including a novella by Mariam Firunts with an introduction by Canadian film-maker Guy Maddin; a chapbook of poems by Ryan and Hilarie Hildebrand; two issues of hothouse, a journal of collaborations which I edit; and my own photobooks, notebooks, and novellas. The press’s focus is to print work by emerging artists/writers who hold a significant online presence, whether on personal websites, blogs, or other web spaces, and who produce work primarily intended for the Internet.
I am primarily interested in early 20th century and modernist women authors who either wrote diaries or otherwise incorporated biography/autobiography in their work. My literary influences include Anaïs Nin, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Violette Leduc. Contemporary writers I admire include Gertrude Stein, Opal Whitely, Caroline Blackwood, Carole Maso, Jane Bowles, Edna O’Brien, Dorothy Parker, Diane Wakoski, Elaine Kraf, Anna Kavan, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Marguerite Young, Nancy Mitford and Sylvia Plath. I am also interested in the photography of Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, Diane Arbus, Ruth Bernhard, Elinor Carucci as well as artists Beatrice Wood, Dame Darcy and Anne Truitt. I am drawn toward artists who use femininity and the body as source material for dialogues on intimacy, relationships and gender. As photojournalist Eve Arnold said of Marilyn Monroe, "She was kind of wonderful with the camera. She used the camera." Personally, I am not familiar with traditional photography methods. As a child, I received a Polaroid for my 10th birthday, and after that I exclusively shot with disposable cameras up until the summer of 1998 when I received my first digital camera, the square, clunky Sony Mavica FD-7. I purchased a Nikon Coolpix 4300, in the fall of 2002, and replaced it with a Canon PowerShot S3 IS in the spring of 2007.
