Diana Rivers

• Interviewed May 24, 2012
• From Atheist to Pagan, by Debra L. Gish

Diana Rivers, writer, artist, and political activist from New York and New Jersey, moved to Arkansas in 1972 to become part of Sassafras, a community on the land (women and men) near Fayetteville, Arkansas. Over time, Sassafras became a lesbian land group. The residents later gave some of the land to women of color for another land group, which is now known as Santuario Arco Iris. While at Sassafras, Diana joined a short-lived, women’s craft collective called Wild Magnolia. In that collective, she and Cedar Heartwood made greeting cards, t-shirts, and other craft items.

By autumn of 1979, all the women had left the Sassafras land. Later on Diana Rivers helped to start a new women’s land group, Ozark Land Holding Association (OLHA), near Elkins, Arkansas, where she lives.

Diana Rivers authored the Hadra series of novels, all of which are now available through Bella Books: Journey to Zelindar, 1987; The Hadra, Alyson Books, 1995; Daughters of the Great Star, Elder Mountain Press, 2002; Clouds of War, Bella Books, 2002; The Red Line of Yarmald, Bella Books, 2003; Her Sister’s Keeper, Bella Books, 2008; and The Smuggler, the Spy, and the Spider, Bella Books, 2012. Diana Rivers also wrote Dancer for the Goddess (Goddess Ink, 2016), and Snake Memories and Other Stories (2015).

Diana Rivers is a cultural activist, creating venues for women and women artists. She co-organized the annual Women’s Conference and Festival at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, from 1990 to 1999. She produced WomanVision, a women’s art show in Kansas City, Arkansas, from 1991 to 1993. She cofounded an annual, week-long Goddess Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2009, which is still being held as of 2022.

See also:

Audio Interview online at Duke

Allyn Lord and Anna M. Zajicek. The History of the Contemporary Grassroots Women’s Movement in Northwest Arkansas, 1970–2000 (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2000).

Debra L. Gish, “Diana Rivers: From Atheist to Pagan,” Sinister Wisdom 124 (Spring 2022): 41-45. For this story, Debra L. Gish interviewed Diana Rivers at Diana’s home at OLHA on October 17, 2019.

Diana Rivers, “Sisters, Let Us Remember, Sinister Wisdom 124 (Spring 2022):5-18.

“Diana Rivers,” Wikipedia.

Merril Mushroom, “Arkansas Lands and the Legacy of Sassafras,” Sinister Wisdom 98 (Fall 2015): 36-42. Merril Mushroom wrote this story using notes from Rose Norman’s interview with Diana Rivers at Indian Springs State Park, GA, on May 12, 2012, and notes from Rose Norman’s unrecorded interviews with Brae Hodgkin.