Judith Arcana

Judith Arcana is an 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, 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 communist and socialist extended family, which she has credited in part for her activism.

Arcana's family moved frequently during her childhood, with stints in Milwaukee 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, working primarily in Chicago. 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. Her first job was as a "callback Jane", taking phone calls from women seeking abortions. In September 1972, she and six other Janes arrested on May 3 were indicted on "charges of felony homicide and conspiracy to commit abortion". She is the consulting producer on the 2018 historical drama film Ask for Jane, in addition to making a cameo appearance. The film is based on the Jane Collective. She is also featured in the award-winning documentary,The Janes, on which her son, Daniel, is a co-producer.

Writing Arcana became interested in writing at age three, but did not write seriously until she was in her 20s.

Her two prose books about motherhood – Our Mothers’ Daughters (1979) and Every Mother’s Son (1983) – are 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), 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 doctoral dissertation.

Arcana's poetry collection What if your mother (2005) 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.

In 2008-2009, Arcana collaborated with Ash Creek Press in 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,

In the late 2010s, Arcana hosted a radio show on poetry on KBOO.

Published works

Book-length

What if your mother, Goshen: Chicory Blue Press, 2005 Grace Paley's Life Stories, A Literary Biography, Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1994, 1993 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, Our Mothers' Daughters, US and UK: The Women's Press, 1996, 1992; Berkeley: Shameless Hussy Press, 1986, 1979; London: The Women's Press,

Other A Two-Judith Conversation- ECLECTICA Magazine, Volume 13, #3 - summer 2009 4th Period English (Ash Creek Series) 2009 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 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 Persimmontree Magazine | 23 | Fall 2012 The Elders Repeat Themselves Umbrella, Summer 2007 Not Like That Umbrella, Summer 2007 A child said what is the grass Studio, 2007 1/1 The Man Who Loves Trees Studio, 2007 1/1 86 in Diner, 2007 Volume 6 Snow, Fall Not What I Expected, 2007 Birth Days Passager Winter, 2007 (& on their website spring/summer 2007)