Amy Scholder is an American literary editor and documentary filmmaker known for amplifying the stories of marginalized writers, artists, musicians, and activists.

Biography

Early years

Born in San Francisco, Scholder grew up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. She attended Tufts University for two years, then graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from University of California, Berkeley.

Career
Scholder began her career as an editor at City Lights Books in San Francisco in 1985. She added to its list by publishing books by Karen Finley, Gil Cuadros, Rebecca Brown, Leslie Dick, Carla Harryman, Marguerite Duras, George Bataille, and Laure (Colette Peignot). While at City Lights, she also created an imprint of books for the nonprofit ArtSpace in San Francisco. Authors/artists include David Wojnarowicz , Dennis Cooper, and Nayland Blake.

In 1991 she edited with Ira Silverberg the anthology High Risk: Writing on Sex, Death, and Subversion (Dutton and Plume). Another volume followed in 1994. Among the writers included in High Risk are Karen Finley, Essex Hemphill, Kathy Acker, David Wojnarowicz, Mary Gaitskill, William S. Burroughs, Dorothy Allison, Dennis Cooper, Ana Maria Simo, Darryl Pinckney, Akilah Nayo Oliver, Darius James, Lynne Tillman, Craig G. Harris, Rikki Ducornet, John Giorno, John Preston, Diamanda Galas, Cookie Mueller, Gil Cuadros, Kate Bornstein, Wanda Coleman, and Manuel Ramos Otero.

Scholder moved to New York City in 1995 when Serpent’s Tail, an independent literary imprint in the UK, offered Scholder and Silverberg a US imprint. They published a list of mostly paperback originals designed by Rex Ray. Authors include Sapphire, Cookie Mueller, Gary Indiana, John Giorno, Heather Lewis, Lynne Tillman, Kate Bornstein, Diamanda Galas, Hervé Guibert, Ann Rower, Mary Woronov, and June Jordan. Scholder edited books for High Risk and Serpent’s Tail until 2004

As an independent editor, she also edited the diaries (In the Shadow of the American Dream) and short fiction (The Waterfront Journals) of David Wojnarowicz for Grove Press; selected writings (Essential Acker) and short fiction (Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective) by Kathy Acker for Grove Press; and a book of poetry by Joni Mitchell for Crown.

Scholder began editing books for Verso in 1999, and became their US publisher in 2005, where she acquired books by Laura Flanders, Judith Butler, Kate Millett, and Valerie Solanas, whose SCUM Manifesto was reprinted with an essay by Avital Ronell. She left to join Seven Stories Press as editor-in-chief in 2006, and acquired books by Coco Fusco, Ulrike Meinhof, Elfriede Jelinek, Annie Ernaux, Savannah Knoop, Douglas Martin, and hattie gossett.

In 2008, Scholder left Seven Stories to become the executive editor of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York. There she rebranded the organization to address contemporary feminist issues and sensibility, such as Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom, "a collection of letters, songs, poems, courtroom statements, and tributes" pertaining to the jailed members of Russian performance art group, Pussy Riot. During Scholder's tenure at Feminist Press, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto’s Hiroshima in the Morning was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Virginie Despentes′ King Kong Theory, Justin Vivian Bond′s Tango: My Life Backwards and in High Heels, Barbara Hammer′s Hammer: Making Movies Out of Sex and Love, and Ana Castillo′s Give It to Me all won Lambda Literary Awards. Other authors published include Paul B. Preciado, June Jordan, Karen Finley, Muriel Rukeyser, and Laurie Weeks.

In 2015, Scholder left the Feminist Press and returned to Los Angeles. She produced with Sam Feder the documentary feature film Disclosure, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance FilmFestival and was released as a Netflix Original in June 2020. Disclosure was nominated for a Peabody Award and earned a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary; Pink News award; a Global Mental Health Programs/Columbia University award; and a Women’s ENews award for Groundbreaking Film of the Year.

After she co-edited Last Days at Hot Slit: The Radical Feminism of Andrea Dworkin (Semiotexte, 2019) with Johanna Fatemen, Scholder was approached by director Pratibha Parmar and producer Shaheen Haq to help them finish their hybrid documentary feature film My Name Is Andrea, about Dworkin. She became an executive producer of the film, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

After rejoining City Lights Publisher as an editor-at-large in 2016, Scholder edited Pamela Sneed’s Funeral Diva, Steven Reigns′ A Quilt for David, Kate Braverman’s A Good Day for Seppuku, Jewelle Gomez′s The Gilda Stories, and the 25th anniversary edition of Karen Finley′s Shock Treatment.

She joined the Board of Directors of the City Lights Foundation in 2020 and served on the Board of Directors of Lambda Literary (2014-2020).

Selected bibliography as editor 
 Story of the Eye by George Bataille (1987) 
 Duras by Duras by Marguerite Duras (1987) 
 Shock Treatment by Karen Finley (1990, 2015) 
 High Risk (anthology) Edited by Amy Scholder & Ira Silverberg (1991) 
 The Terrible Girls by Rebecca Brown (1992) 
 To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life by Herve Guibert (1994) 
 You Got to Burn to Shine by John Giorno (1994) 
 Rent Boy by Gary Indiana (1994) 
 Haruko/Love Poems by June Jordan (1994) 
 American Dreams by Sapphire (1994) 
 Ghost of Chance by William S. Burroughs (1995) 
 The Shit of God by Diamanda Galas (1996) 
 Break It Down by Lydia Davis (1996) 
 Bodies of Work by Kathy Acker (1997) 
 Joni Mitchell The Complete Poems and Lyrics (1997) 
 Haunted Houses by Lynne Tillman (1995) 
 Flaming Creature: The Life and Time of Jack Smith, Artist, Performer, Exotic Consultant (1997) 
 In the Shadow of the American Dream by David Wojnarowicz (1999) 
 House Rules by Heather Lewis (2005) 
 Swimming Underground by Mary Woronov (2000) 
 Mother Millett by Kate Millett (2001) 
 Imagining Her Erotics by Carolee Schneemann (2002) 
 David Bowie Live in New York (2003) 
 Precarious Life by Judith Butler (2004) 
 Bushwomen by Laura Flanders (2004) 
 Street Wars by Tom Hayden (2004) 
 Scum Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, with Avital Ronell (2004) 
 Greed by Elfriede Jelinek (2007) 
 Flying Close to the Sun by Cathy Wilkerson (2007) 
 Everybody Talks About the Weather by Ulrike Meinhof (2008) 
 A Field Guide for Female Interrogators by Coco Fusco (2008) 
 Hammer by Barbara Hammer(2010) 
 Witches Midwives & Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English (2010) 
 King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes (2010) 
 Tango by Justin Vivian Bond (2011) 
 Testo Junkie by Paul B. Preciado (2013) 
 The Riot Grrrl Collection by Lisa Darms and Johanna Fateman (2013) 
 Pussy Riot! By Pussy Riot (2013) 
 Savage Coast by Muriel Rukeyser (2013)  
 Give It to Me by Ana Castillo (2014) 
 What the Flowers Say by George Sand (2014)  
 The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman (2015) 
 The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez (1991, 2016) 
 After Silence by Avram Finkelstein (2018) 
 A Good Day for Seppuku by Kate Braverman (2018) 
 Funeral Diva by Pamela Sneed (2020) Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry 
 A Quilt for David by Steven Reigns (2021) 
 Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller, edited by Hedi El Kholti, Chris Kraus, Amy Scholder (2022)

External links 

 Official website

References 

1963 births
Living people