imported>ForsythiaJo: expanded, removed some uncited statements

2025-06-11T16:41:03Z

expanded, removed some uncited statements

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{{short description|American writer}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Original research|date=August 2020}}
{{BLP primary sources|date=August 2020}}
}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Judith Arcana
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| birth_date = 5 February 1943
| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, United States
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| language = English
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| notableworks = ''What if your mother''
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'''Judith Arcana''' is an [[American literature|American writer]] of poems, stories, essays and books. She was a teacher for forty years and her writing has appeared in journals and anthologies since the early 1980s. She has been an activist for [[reproductive justice]] since spending two years in the [[Jane Collective]], Chicago's underground abortion service (1970–72). Arcana is notable for her insistence on the organically political nature of art and literature.

==Personal life==
Born February 5, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=April 2023 |title=Interview with Judith Arcana |url=https://veteranfeministsofamerica.org/interview-with-judith-arcana/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=[[Veteran Feminists of America]]}}</ref> she is the daughter of Anne Solomon and Norman Rosenfield. Following the death of Anne Rosenfield in March 1944, Norman Rosenfield married Ida Epstein in July 1945.

Arcana was raised with [[Communism|communist]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] extended family, which she has credited in part for her activism.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Orlovsky-Schnitzler |first=Justine |date=2023-02-24 |title=More Wisdom from “The Janes” |url=https://lilith.org/2023/02/more-wisdom-from-the-janes/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Lilith Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

Arcana's family moved frequently during her childhood, with stints in [[Milwaukee]]<ref name=":2" /> and [[Gary, Indiana]], where they attended an [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] synagogue, as it was the only synagogue in the area. Arcana did not have a [[Bar and bat mitzvah|bat mitzvah]], as it was not common in her community at the time.<ref name=":3" />

At a young age, Arcana decided to become a teacher, "partly out of interest and partly because, in those days, there were only a few things a girl could be".<ref name=":2" />

==Career==

Judith Arcana's first teaching job was at the high school she graduated from, Niles Township High School (East Division) in [[Illinois]]. She did her [[student teaching]] there in spring of 1964 and returned in the fall as a [[Full-time job|full time]] teacher after graduating from Northwestern University with a BA in English. She taught at Niles until the spring of 1970, when the [[Board of education|school board]] fired her – despite tenure – along with two other teachers (John Palm and Nancy Tripp). Although officially the three were fired due to "not keeping attendance correctly," Arcana has said that both the teachers and students knew they had been fired due to students' political beliefs and actions.<ref name=":2" /> Arcana and Palm pursued a public hearing regarding their firings, which lasted months; the hearing ultimately upheld the firings.<ref name=":2" /> Arcana has credited this public hearing as her political awakening.<ref name=":2" />

After the dissolution of the Jane Collective, where she had worked between 1970 and 1972, Arcana began teaching classes on bodies and sexuality at high schools and colleges. She also taught these classes weekly at Dwight Prison through the Women's Union.<ref name=":2" /> She also undertook an Urban Preceptorship in [[Preventive Medicine]] (University of Illinois [[Medical school|Medical School]] 1973).

Arcana worked at [[Columbia College Chicago]], teaching Bodies classes and women's literature.<ref name=":2" />

She earned an MA in Women's Studies ([[Goddard College]] 1979) and a PhD in Literature ([[Loyola University Chicago|Loyola University of Chicago]] 1989).

Her last teaching job was at the Union Graduate School (which has since morphed into the [[Union Institute & University]]). She began work there as a dean in early 1989 and left, as faculty emerita, in the early 2000s. At Union, Arcana was a dean in the Graduate College, Founding Director of the Center for Women,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kleiman |first=Carol |date=1992-11-17 |title=Task force on sexual harassment seeks a more perfect Union |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYNSAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA29&dq=%22Judith+Arcana%22&article_id=1901,4729579&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFpsGO2-mNAxUKlIkEHTJeEQoQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Judith%20Arcana%22&f=false |work=[[Ocala Star-Banner]] |pages=4B}}</ref> adviser to interdisciplinary doctoral students, and a convener of residential colloquium and seminars.

== Abortion rights activism ==
Arcana was involved in the [[Jane Collective]] from 1970 to 1972,<ref name="cwlu">{{cite interview |last=Arcana |first=Judith |subject-link= |interviewer= |title=Feminist politics and abortion in the USA |url=http://www.cwluherstory.org/feminist-politics-and-abortion-in-the-usa.html |access-date=14 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220131022/http://www.cwluherstory.org/feminist-politics-and-abortion-in-the-usa.html |archive-date=20 December 2016 |url-status=dead |work= |publisher=CWLU Herstory Project: A History of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union |location=London, England |date=1999}}</ref> working primarily in [[Chicago]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Jacobson |first=Rebecca |date=2018-04-24 |title=Meet Judith Arcana, a Pioneer of '70s-Era Underground Abortion Work |url=https://www.pdxmonthly.com/news-and-city-life/2018/04/meet-portlander-judith-arcana-a-pioneer-of-70s-era-underground-abortion-work |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Portland Monthly |language=en-US}}</ref> She became involved after thinking she was pregnant and seeking out an abortion; although she was not actually pregnant, she was invited to join the Jane Collective.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Burbank |first=Megan |title=‘Ask for Jane:’ Who were the pre-Roe underground abortionists? {{!}} Cascade PBS |url=https://www.cascadepbs.org/news/2023/01/ask-jane-who-were-pre-roe-underground-abortionists |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=www.cascadepbs.org |language=en}}</ref> Her first job was as a "callback Jane", taking phone calls from women seeking abortions.<ref name=":1" /> By the end of 1970, Arcana also began counseling the women being helped, and she later also performed medical procedures.<ref name=":2" /> Within the group, the decision was eventually made to pay the Janes $25 a week for each job they did; at one point, Arcana made $75 a week, as she was doing administrative, counseling, and medical work. She primarily put these payments towards food and rent.<ref name=":2" />

Arcana gave birth to a son in October 1971,<ref name=":2" /> and took maternity leave into early 1972, returning to do some office work.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> She was arrested for her work on her first full day back, May 3, 1972, for driving women to their abortion appointments; she was released the following day.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gandy |first=Imani |title=Judith Arcana helped facilitate abortions pre-Roe—here’s what she learned |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/judith-arcana-abortion-roe-underground-jane-dobbs/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}</ref> In September 1972, she and six other Janes arrested on May 3 were indicted on "charges of felony homicide and conspiracy to commit abortion".<ref name=":0" /> The case never came to trial, however, with the charges being dropped with the [[Roe v. Wade]] Supreme Court decision in January 1973.<ref name=":0" /> Arcana was one of the Janes who advocated to continue their services following the decisions, but was swayed with the argument that they would now be practiciing medicine without a license.<ref name=":2" />

Arcana is featured in the feminist history film ''[[She's Beautiful When She's Angry]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Women |url=http://www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com/women/ |website=[[She's Beautiful When She's Angry]] |publisher=}}</ref> She is the consulting producer on the 2018 historical drama film [[Ask For Jane|''Ask for Jane'']], in addition to making a cameo appearance. The film is based on the Jane Collective.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-06-19 |title=Q&A: Cait Johnston and Judith Arcana on Abortion in Media and Making Ask for Jane - Ms. Magazine Blog |url=http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/06/19/qa-cait-johnson-judith-arcana-abortion-media-making-ask-jane/ |access-date=2017-11-11 |work=Ms. Magazine Blog |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=What Will Happen to Abortion if Roe v. Wade is Overturned |url=https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/abortion-under-45-hearkens-back-darker-time |access-date=2017-11-11 |work=Bitch Media |language=en}}</ref>

==Writing==
Arcana became interested in writing at age three, but did not write seriously until she was in her 20s.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1999-01-10 |title=Ex-English teacher practices what she preached |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlFWAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA40&dq=%22Judith+Arcana%22&article_id=2325,2756263&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFpsGO2-mNAxUKlIkEHTJeEQoQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Judith%20Arcana%22&f=false |work=[[Eugene Register-Guard]] |pages=71}}</ref>

Her two prose books about motherhood – ''Our Mothers’ Daughters'' (1979)<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 20, 2008 |title=Judith Arcana: Our Mothers' Daughters |url=http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/our_mothers_daughters |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120003448/http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/our_mothers_daughters |archive-date=2008-11-20 |website=juditharcana.com |via=archive.org}}</ref> and ''Every Mother’s Son'' (1983)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kleiman |first=Carol |date=1983-06-26 |title=Mothers raising sons: Battling stereotypes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzZSAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA22&dq=%22Judith+Arcana%22&article_id=1455,5329404&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFpsGO2-mNAxUKlIkEHTJeEQoQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Judith%20Arcana%22&f=false |work=The Day |pages=D11 |agency=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=White |first=Aidan |date=1983-10-07 |title=How a kiss turns a boy into a chauvinist pig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYZWAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=%22Judith+Arcana%22&article_id=6959,2666407&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFpsGO2-mNAxUKlIkEHTJeEQoQ6AF6BAgFEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Judith%20Arcana%22&f=false |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |pages=9 |agency=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> – are [[Radical feminism|radical feminist]] analysis; both have been read, taught and discussed for many years in the US, Canada and the UK. ''[[Grace Paley]]’s'' ''Life Stories, A Literary Biography'' (1993),<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 25, 2010 |title=Judith Arcana: Grace Paley's Life Stories |url=http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/grace_paleys_life_stories/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225021448/http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/grace_paleys_life_stories/ |archive-date=2010-02-25 |website=juditharcana.com |via=archive.org}}</ref> is Judith's study of the American writer/activist who died in August 2007. The initial interviews, research and draft for that book comprise her [[Thesis|doctoral dissertation]].

Arcana's poetry collection ''What if your mother'' (2005)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/what_if_your_mother|title=Judith Arcana: What if Your Mother|date=November 20, 2008|website=juditharcana.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120001716/http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/what_if_your_mother|archive-date=2008-11-20|via=archive.org}}</ref> offers poems and monologues examining a constellation of motherhood themes including abortion, adoption, miscarriage and the biotechnology of childbirth, as well as the daily experience of mothering.
In her review of the collection in ''Affilia'', [[Merle Hoffman]] describes Arcana's poems as "maps of interior psychological and physiological journeys" that meet the unnamed experience (abortion) "with bold lyricism, passion, and creative imagery.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hoffman|first=Merle|title=What if your mother|journal= [[Affilia]]|volume=21|issue=3|year=2006|pages=351-52}}</ref>

In 2008-2009, Arcana collaborated with Ash Creek Press in [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]], [[Oregon]] to publish The Ash Creek Series: an elegant signed/numbered edition folding broadside of five short poems (''POEMS''), a manuscript in a cartoon envelope – perhaps her most autobiographical work so far (''Family Business''), and ''4th Period English'',<ref name=":0" /> a chapbook of poems about immigration and related themes, spoken primarily in the voices of high school students.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 23, 2010 |title=Judith Arcana: 4th Period English |url=http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/4th_period_english |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223132820/http://juditharcana.com/index.php/writing/book/4th_period_english |archive-date=2010-02-23 |website=juditharcana.com |via=archive.org}}</ref>

In the late 2010s, Arcana hosted a radio show on poetry on [[KBOO]].<ref name=":0" />

== Personal life ==
Arcana has lived in [[Portland, Oregon]] since 1995.<ref name=":0" /> She is Jewish.<ref name=":3" />

She married a lawyer when she was 21; the two later divorced.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />

==Published works==

===Book-length===
* {{Cite book |last=Arcana |first=Judith |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/-t3UxgEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilhNOK2-mNAxVIGFkFHUi0FZkQre8FegQIChAG |title=Hello. This Is Jane |date=September 2019 |publisher=Left Fork |isbn=978-1-945824-27-2 |language=en}}
*''What if your mother, Goshen'': [[Chicory Blue Press]], 2005 {{ISBN|1-887344-11-X}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dunlop|first=Rishma|title=What if your mother|journal=NWSA Journal|volume=19|issue=2|date=Summer 2007|pages=251-53}}</ref>
*''Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography'', Champaign: [[University of Illinois Press]], 1994, 1993 {{ISBN|0-252-06447-X}}
* ''Every Mother's Son'', US and UK: [[The Women's Press]], 1996, 1992; Seattle: Seal Press, 1986; London: The Women's Press, 1983; New York: Doubleday, 1983, {{ISBN|0-931188-39-3}}
* ''Our Mothers' Daughters'', US and UK: The Women's Press, 1996, 1992; Berkeley: Shameless Hussy Press, 1986, 1979; London: The Women's Press, {{ISBN|0-915288-38-9}}

===Other===
*''A Two-Judith Conversation''- ECLECTICA Magazine, Volume 13, #3 - summer 2009<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eclectica.org/v13n3/arcana_barrington.html|title=A Conversation between Judith Arcana and Judith Barrington—by Judith Arcana and Judith Barrington—Eclectica Magazine v13n3|website=www.eclectica.org}}</ref>
* ''4th Period English'' (Ash Creek Series) 2009 {{ISBN|0-615-28183-4}}
* ''Correspondence'' and ''The Man Who Loves Trees + What the birds say'', Writers Dojo (online) end of January 2009
* ''A Matter of Fact'' Feminist studies, Fall 2008
* ''There are no stars'' and ''If I Tell You'' and ''Not in China Thresholds'', Fall/Winter 2008
* ''One rosy brown egg'' Oregonian 10/5/08
* ''You May Have Heard About My Situation'' and guest editor essay Persimmon Tree (online) Fall 2008<ref>{{Cite web |title=23 | Fall 2012 |url=http://persimmontree.org/archive.php |website=Persimmontree Magazine}}</ref>
* ''Crows'', Junctures 2008
* ''POEMS'' - folded broadside, signed/numbered edition (Ash Creek Series) 2008
* ''Family Business'' - chapbook ms in envelope (Ash Creek Series) 2008
* ''Midrash on Falling'', Bridges spring 2008
* ''Facts of Life'' and tiny essay ''Letters to the World'', 2008
* ''Past Lives'' Passager winter 2008
* ''In the cards blossombones'' (online) #1, 2008
* ''Lois, Questions'' blossombones (online) #1, 2008* ''The Woman Sitting Next to Death'' blossombones (online) #1, 2008
* ''Remembering Grace'' off our backs, Vol 37, #2/3 2008
* ''Whenever I Come to It Walking'' Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass, late 2007 + Bridges 12/2-Fall
* ''Eight'' + tiny essay in Umbrella, late 2007 (online)
* ''Laughing and Thinking at the Same Time'' Persimmon Tree (online) 12/15/07
* folio of poems, Young Mothers issue, ARM Journal 9/1, 2007
* ''Celia'' Young Mothers issue of ARM Journal 9/1, late 2007
* ''For All the Mary Catholics'' White Ink, late 2007
* ''Felony Booking'' White Ink, late 2007
* ''National and Public'' Bridges, fall 2007 (12/2)
* ''Anecdotal Evidence of the Effects of Women’s Liberation on Male Children'' 5AM, Summer 2007 (#26)
* ''Maggie Answers Aunt Sylvia’s Question'' Persimmon Tree, June 2007 [http://persimmontree.org/archive.php Persimmontree Magazine | 23 | Fall 2012]
* ''The Elders Repeat Themselves'' Umbrella, Summer 2007<ref name=umb>{{Cite web|url=http://www.umbrellajournal.com/summer2007/poetry/JudithArcana.html|title=Umbrella: Issue 3, Summer 2007 - Judith Arcana|website=www.umbrellajournal.com}}</ref>
* ''Not Like That Umbrella'', Summer 2007<ref name=umb />
* ''Musee des Beaux Arts (further west, later on, for David)'' Studio, 2007 1/1<ref name=studio>{{Cite web|url=http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/studio/v01n01/studio2b.html|title=Studio | Volume 1 Issue 1 : 2007|date=January 8, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108191505/http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/studio/v01n01/studio2b.html|archive-date=2009-01-08}}</ref>
* ''A child said what is the grass'' Studio, 2007 1/1<ref name=studio />
* ''The Man Who Loves Trees'' Studio, 2007 1/1<ref name=studio />
* ''86'' in Diner, 2007 Volume 6
* ''Snow, Fall'' Not What I Expected, 2007
* ''Birth Days'' Passager Winter, 2007 (& on their website spring/summer 2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

*

==External links==
* {{Official website|juditharcana.com}}
*[http://www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com/judith-arcana/ Judith Arcana], ''She's Beautiful When She's Angry'' (website for the film)

== Further reading ==

* Schott, Penelope Scambly. ''Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal'' 11.1 (Spring 2006) 122-24.
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arcana, Judith}}
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American essayists]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century American poets]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:American abortion-rights activists]]
[[Category:American women poets]]
[[Category:American women essayists]]
[[Category:American women short story writers]]
[[Category:American feminists]]
[[Category:Jewish American essayists]]
[[Category:Jewish American feminists]]
[[Category:Jewish American poets]]
[[Category:Jewish American short story writers]]
[[Category:Jewish women writers]]
[[Category:Jews from Ohio]]
[[Category:Goddard College alumni]]
[[Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:Northwestern University alumni]]
[[Category:Second wave feminists]]
[[Category:Writers from Cleveland]]
[[Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon]]

Judith Arcana - Revision history

imported>ForsythiaJo: expanded, removed some uncited statements