Susan Bright Writer's Memorial Fund

This fund will be used to help writers and poets who need publishing assistance and to support the continuation of the press.

I want to contribute to the memorial fund.

Contribution Amount

Option 1 $10.00 Option 2 $20.00 Option 3 $30.00 Option 4 $40.00 Option 5 $50.00 Option 6 $75.00 Option 7 $100.00 Option 8 $200.00 Option 9 $500.00 Option 10 $1,000.00 Option 11 $5,000.00

TRIBUTE TO SUSAN BRIGHT

Established as a cooperative and the first feminist press in the Southwest--and making a name for itself--when I first submitted a novel to Plain View Press in the spring of 1990 Plain View was already fifteen years old  and publishing a half dozen books or so a year by regional authors. It now publishes 35 to 40 books a year by authors all over the country and the world.

Plain View's quality, stability and growth is not only a result of Susan Bright's remarkable vision, but also of her perseverance, passion and guidance. I was stunned when I heard the news of her passing and "saddened" hardly covers the emotions that I felt.

What can we now say?
There was no one like her.

Poet. Publisher. Passionate Activist. Champion of women, of the environment, of peace and justice--of the PLANET. Texas and the world are a better place because of her, and those of us lucky enough to have work published by her are especially blessed. I marveled at her energy, commitment, accomplishment and want so much to be a part of seeing to it that the press she so passionately founded and maintained for more than thirty five years goes on.

Susan began Plain View as a cooperative, a linking organization in which writers  help in keeping each other¹s work and the press that produced it alive. Instead of the often back biting hierarchy of traditional publishing houses, she envisioned a chain made up of strong supporting pieces that held the whole together and in place. Never have Plain View writers needed each other more than now. I vow to help in any way I can and trust that others will also do so. I have already heard from a colleague, Linda Overman, whose prize winning novel, Letters Between Us, Plain View recently published, who tells me she is also willing. And I feel sure others will soon also be eager to commit.

Susan published six of my books, five novels, including my 2010 Texas trilogy, and a book of multi cultural stories I edited, all but one of which are still in print--something that would not be the case if I had begun with a commercial publisher. I will forever be grateful to her--and to John and Daryl who she loved so dearly and who were also instrumental in keeping Plain View Press alive. I am also grateful for Pam Knight and Sheri Pilsko --Pam who worked with Susan for the past three years--for their commitment to the press. Pam will be in charge of the Plain View table at the Associated Writing Programs annual conference, the biggest conference for literary publishing in the country, in Washington D.C. in February.

I have faith that Susan's energy and spirit goes on and also lives in all of us who knew and loved her and who cheered her on.

ONWARD.

That was her slogan--the way her e-mails always ended--often followed by the words of Meridel LeSeur--which in closing I can only repeat here:

"Hard times ain't quit, and we ain't quit."

Onward, Susan.
Onward.
We will go on.

Tribute written by Eve La Salle Caram