Headmistress Press was started in 2013 by founding editor Mary Meriam, founding editor Risa Denenberg, and Jessica Lowell Mason (formerly Jessica Mason McFadden), who gave the press its name.[2] In 2015, Rita Mae Reese joined Meriam and Denenberg as "Mistress of Marketing." The advisory board includes Ellen Bass, R. Nemo Hill, JP Howard, Joy Ladin, and Hannah Barrett.[1][3][4]
Several of its publications have won awards: The Body's Alphabet by Ann Tweedy (2016) won a Bisexual Book Award for Poetry,[5] and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction[6] and for the Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Poetry.[7]I Carry My Mother by Lesléa Newman was named a 2016 "Must Read" title by the Massachusetts Center for the Book[8] and received the 2016 Golden Crown Literary Society Poetry Award.[9]Conjuring My Leafy Muse by Mary Meriam was nominated for the 2015 Poets' Prize, and Girlie Calendar by Mary Meriam was selected for the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow List in 2016.[10]