Nancy Blood

  • Interviewed July 13, 2015
Nancy Blood in red coat

Nancy Blood was born in 1948, and raised in Massachusetts. She earned an undergraduate degree in art history in 1970 from Wilson College and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Michigan in 1972. She has lived in the Research Triangle area [Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina] since the early 1970s when she moved there after graduate school.

Nancy Blood came out as a lesbian in 1976. She was part of the collective that published The Feminist Newsletter in 1973 which became known as Feminary (1974-82 and turned into a journal in 1977). With another group of women, both straight and lesbian, Nancy published a North Carolina resource guide called The Whole Women Carologue [Diana Press, 1974].

With her friend, Leslie Kahn, she started Whole Women Press (1976-81), which published several early issues of Sinister Wisdom and the journal Feminary. They also published Break de Chains of Legalized U$ Slavery (1976), a collection of writings and art by women incarcerated in the women’s prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. They also published collections of poetry by lesbians, including Sleeping Beauty: A Lesbian Fairy Tale, by Vickie Gabriner; Sign Language by Monica Raymond; and Crazy Quilt by Susan Wood Thompson.

Nancy Blood was part of the group, which was not a collective, that started a new, lesbian-feminist newsletter for the Triangle area [North Carolina] called The Newsletter, published from 1981 to 2001. She worked on that newsletter until November 1990.

In 1986, Nancy and Joanne Abel created a display about gay and lesbian history at the Durham County Library in North Carolina. This led to public controversy associated with a recall vote when the mayor proclaimed Gay Pride week. The public discussion of these issues made 1986 a watershed year for Durham’s move toward becoming a tolerant community. In 2003, Nancy led a group that successfully lobbied the Durham County commissioners for domestic partner benefits for county employees.

See also:

Nancy Blood, “Whole Women Press,” Sinister Wisdom 116 (Spring 2020): 76-78.