Too often older women’s artistic work is ignored or disregarded, and only those few who are already established receive the attention they deserve. Yet many women are at the height of their creative abilities in their later decades and have a great deal to contribute. Persimmon Tree is committed to bringing this wealth of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art to a broader audience, for the benefit
of all. Kitty Cunningham retired in 2000 from her position as Head Librarian from the same independent girls’ school at which Sue worked. She is the author of Conversations with a Dancer with Michael Ballard (St. Martin’s Press, 1981). Marcia Freedman is a member of the founding Editorial Board of Persimmon Tree. She has published a political memoir, Exile in the Promised Land, an account of the establishment of second-wave feminism in Israel and her experience as a Member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament). Nan Gefen founded Persimmon Tree in 2007 and is its Publisher/Editor Emerita. She has published three nonfiction books, most recently It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-aged Daughters. Her novel, Clear Lake, won the gold medal in general fiction in the IndieFab contest. Cynthia Hogue has published fourteen books, including nine poetry collections, most recently Revenance (2014) and In June the Labyrinth (2017), both with Red Hen Press. Her co-translation, from the French of Nathalie Quintane, is Joan Darc (La Presse, 2018). Among her honors are a Fulbright and two NEA Fellowships. Hogue directed the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University from 1995-2003, after which she assumed the inaugural Marshall Chair in Poetry at Arizona State University. She is Emerita Professor of English and lives in Tucson. For 45 years, Sue Leonard taught every variety of history except American mostly at independent high schools for girls – with a brief stint in a poverty program school for pregnant teens in Bedford Stuyvesant. In the mid-nineties she and her late husband John Leonard were co-editors of the Books and Arts section of the Nation Magazine. Since retiring, Sue has filled up her days with reading, needlework, family, and friends. Gena Raps is a concert pianist whose new recording of the late piano works of Brahms was released last year to stunning reviews in Audiophile and in Fanfare. She is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan. A competition for composers in her name has been established at the Juilliard School. Every year two composers are chosen to write a string quartet and a trio; the works are premiered in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Elizabeth Zimmer writes, mostly about the arts; teaches writing, wherever she is invited; and edits manuscripts of all sorts, including those on this site. She practices the Feldenkrais Method, and works as a standardized patient in hospitals and medical schools. Her ambition is to flourish as a stand-up comic. Jean Zorn has recently become publisher, with responsibility for Persimmon Tree‘s administrative, legal and financial matters. She is a lawyer, and retired in March 2018 from the City University of New York School of Law, where she had worked for more than 30 years, primarily as a Professor of Law, and, most recently, as Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Finance. In addition to her publishing duties, Jean edits Short Takes.
