Lady Sisyphus: Room magazine and the survival of feminist literary magazines in Canadian publishing

Canadian literary magazines play a key role in writers' and editors' careers and in maintaining a healthy literary ecosystem. From the 1970s to the present day, feminist literary magazines have been on the forefront of diversifying this role and challenging the legacies of oppression in the publishing industry. However, a thorough examination of the financial history of Room, Canada's oldest feminist literary magazine, and its contemporaries shows that this critical work has been thwarted at every turn by financial pressures and the threat of closure. Lack of funds and a historic over-reliance on volunteer labour has also contributed to systemic inequality even within feminist publishing spaces, posing a challenge to publications with intersectional feminist mandates. Room remains an important force for change in Canadian publishing, and the future of organizations like it lies in strategies at the intersection of ensuring financial survival and executing intersectional feminist mandates.