Text-heavy with a newspaper layout: large format, columns of text, photographs and cartoons in black and white. Covers and contents one or two-tone, printed on thin paper. Devoted less space to ‘lifestyle/cultural’ content than other feminist publications and the ‘informative’ tone of the newspaper bleeds over into its aesthetic. Almost all of its covers feature photos of women engaged in protests or in active confrontation with authorities.

First published a few years into Thatcher’s premiership, at a time when the Black women’s movement was growing in strength and visibility. International events such as the military dictatorship in Chile (a country with which Outwrite had strong links), the apartheid regime in South Africa, the US invasion of Grenada and the Troubles in Ireland also shaped the content and direction of the publication. The first issue of Outwrite locates itself in the contexts of a resurgent feminist activism, very much catalysed by the so-called ‘Third World’ struggles of the 1960s. For example, the collective point to the renewed celebration of IWD by feminists in the late 1960s. ‘Around the same time, the increased militancy of women in various “Third World” countries ensure that the number of women coming together to celebrate IWD was ever-growing.’ (Outwrite issue 1)

A collective, The Feminist Newspaper Group.

The collective was always made up of at least 50% or majority Black women (NB Black is used here in the 1980s sense of ‘political blackness’, which included people of both African and Asian backgrounds). Founded by five women, four Black and one white, at its height the collective was 15 women strong.

[details derived from Shaila Shah’s contribution to the Liberating Histories Activist Legacies roundtable held at LSE Women’s Library in September 2022]

• Typeset by Dark Moon
• Printed by Rye Press.

Initially the newspaper was funded by donations, including a large anonymous donation of £5000 in its first year, and fundraising. Benefits were held at Lambeth Town Hall. Revenue also came from subscriptions and advertising (usually recruitment adverts from sister projects). In 1983 the newspaper received Greater London Council (GLC) funding for two workers and some equipment, and were able to pay workers for the first time. An increase in GLC funding later allowed them to pay 6 workers for four days a week. This funding came to an end when the GLC was abolished in 1986 and the newspaper went back to relying on subscriptions, fundraising, donations and advertising.

[details derived from Shaila Shah’s contribution to the Liberating Histories Activist Legacies roundtable held at LSE Women’s Library in September 2022]

Outwrite had strong connections with feminist magazines both in the UK and abroad, from Spare Rib to Manushi. One of its founders, Shaila Shah, worked for WIRES prior to Outwrite. The newspaper also had a strong relationship with Isis International, which helped it build its distribution list.

Shaila Shah, ‘Producing a Feminist Magazine’, in In Other Words: Writing as a Feminist, ed. Gail Chester and Ingrid Neilsen (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 93-99.