{{short description|American writer}} '''Elly Bulkin''' (born December 17, 1944) is an American writer. A founding editor of two nationally distributed periodicals: ''Conditions'' and ''Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends.'' ''Bridges'' mission statement explains that the journal sought to integrate "analysis of class and race into Jewish-feminist thought" and to be "a specifically Jewish participant in the multi-ethnic feminist movement."[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bridges-journal-for-jewish-feminists-and-our-friends]
She is an important figure in the history of lesbian writing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Griffin|first=Gabriele|title=Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=9781134722099|pages=38–39}}</ref>
== Personal life == Bulkin grew up in the Bronx, New York, after her father and maternal grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe.
She worked for five years at the Women's Center at Brooklyn College.<ref name=":0" />
An activist since the 1970s, Elly has been part of DARE/Dykes Against Racism Everywhere (NYC), Women Free Women in Prison (NYC), Feminist Action Network (Albany, NY), Women in Black (Boston), and other local political groups, in addition to being a member of the National Feminist Task Force of New Jewish Agenda. More recently, she was a steering committee member of Communities In Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (CISKGIA). She co-founded Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism with Donna Nevel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Us: Co-founders & Advisors – Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism |url=https://jaamr.com/about/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=jaamr.com}}</ref> A founding member of Jews Say No! (NYC) and Jews Against Islamophobia (JAI/NYC), she helped launch the Network Against Islamophobia (NAI), a project of Jewish Voice for Peace.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Elly Bulkin: Author's Biography · Elly Bulkin: Jews, Blacks, and Lesbian Teens in the 1940s: Jo Sinclair's The Changelings and "The Long Moment" · OutHistory: It's About Time|url=http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/bulkin/bulkinbio|access-date=2020-10-28|website=outhistory.org}}</ref>
Now retired, she provides grant writing technical assistance to grantee partners of Astraea, the Lesbian Fund for Justice.<ref name=":1" />
== Career == Bulkin emerged in the literary scene during the 1970s as a proud, Jewish lesbian. She regularly reviews women's poetry, but is most well-known for editing and co-editing many lesbian anthologies. She co-edited two anthologies with Joan Larkin, the first of which came out in 1975, titled ''Amazon Poetry: An Anthology of Lesbian Poetry.'' The second was from 1981 with Persephone Press, titled ''Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology.'' <ref>{{Cite web |title=Lesbian Poetry {{!}} Lesbian Poetry Archive |url=http://www.lesbianpoetryarchive.org/node/63 |access-date=2023-03-12 |website=www.lesbianpoetryarchive.org}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Also in 1981, Bulkin edited ''Lesbian Fiction: An Anthology.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elly Bulkin: Author's Biography · Jews, Blacks, and Lesbian Teens in the 1940s: Jo Sinclair's "The Changelings" and "The Long Moment," by Elly Bulkin · OutHistory |url=https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/bulkin/bulkinbio |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=outhistory.org}}</ref>
Bulkin was a founding editor of two nationally distributed periodicals: ''Conditions, a magazine of writing by women with an emphasis on writing by lesbians'', and ''Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends''.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bridges-journal-for-jewish-feminists-and-our-friends|access-date=2020-10-28|website=Jewish Women's Archive|language=en}}</ref> Bulkin co-founded ''Conditions'' with three fellow feminist writers in Brooklyn in 1976: Rima Shore, Irena Klepfisz, and Jan Clausen.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Enszer |first=Julie R. |date=2012-08-20 |title=Twenty-One Boxes of Back Issues: A Summer of Preserving Literary History |url=https://lambdaliteraryreview.org/2012/08/twenty-one-boxes-of-back-issues-a-summer-of-preserving-literary-history/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=Lambda Literary Review |language=en-US}}</ref>
She has published articles on racism and writing; heterosexism and women’s studies; lesbian poetry; and other topics. Bulkin's articles on lesbian poetry cover both historical context and analysis<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jo Sinclair's 1940s Lesbians: 'We All Did Know Exactly Who and What We Were' {{!}} Wellesley Centers for Women|url=https://www.wcwonline.org/Women-=-Books-Blog/josinclair|access-date=2021-03-07|website=www.wcwonline.org|language=en-gb|archive-date=2021-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928193225/https://www.wcwonline.org/Women-=-Books-Blog/josinclair|url-status=dead}}</ref> as well as pedagogical approaches.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bulkin|first=Elly|date=1979|title="A Whole New Poetry Beginning Here": Teaching Lesbian Poetry|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/376524|journal=College English|volume=40|issue=8|pages=874–888|doi=10.2307/376524|jstor=376524 |issn=0010-0994|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bulkin|first=Elly|date=1980-04-01|title=Teaching Lesbian Poetry|url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/wsq/446|journal=Women's Studies Quarterly}}</ref> She is co-author, with Minnie Bruce Pratt and Barbara Smith, of ''Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism'' (1984) and, with Donna Nevel, of ''[https://search.worldcat.org/title/islamophobia-israel/oclc/1089956785 Islamophobia & Israel]'' (2013).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Elly Bulkin|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/bulkin-elly|access-date=2020-10-28|website=Jewish Women's Archive|language=en}}</ref>
==Works== * (ed. with Joan Larkin) ''Amazon Poetry: An anthology of Lesbian Poetry'', 1975 * (ed.) ''Lesbian Fiction: An Anthology'', 1981 * (ed. with Joan Larkin) ''Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology'', 1981 * (ed. with Minnie Bruce Pratt and Barbara Smith) ''Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Antisemitism and Racism'', 1984<ref name=":2" /> *''Enter password, recovery : re-enter password'', 1990<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bulkin|first=Elly|title=Enter password, recovery : re-enter password|date=1990|publisher=Turtle Books|isbn=0-9625469-0-9|location=Albany, N.Y.|oclc=22773524}}</ref> *(with Donna Nevel) ''Islamophobia & Israel'' (2014)<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bulkin |first1=Elly |title=Islamophobia & Israel |last2=Nevel |first2=Donna |publisher=Route Books |year=2014 |isbn=9780615985732 |publication-date=April 4, 2014}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulkin, Elly}} Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:American lesbian writers Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:Brooklyn College faculty Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers