Deborah Alicen, a volunteer with Sinister Wisdom from the early days with Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Desmoines, shared an anecdote explaining the story behind the cover of Sinister Wisdom 9, which featured a photo of her then lover, Barbara, as the Bull Dyke. She writes:

"A tiny story about that cover: the printer had screwed up and faded the colors of the picture so that "Sinister Wisdom," in black, would show well, but they were supposed to superimpose the title in white. That threw everyone except me, as I was out of town at the time, into a tizzy. Eventually, one bright dyke came up with the idea of carving Bull Dyke stamps out of rubber erasers, and stamping all the covers with it in red. Laborious undertaking, but many willing hands to do it. When I got back to town, I went into a tizzy over the printer's error, but Catherine let me know they had all already been through their tizzy and didn't want to go there again, so I should just get over it. Besides which, the Bull Dyke stamp really made the cover pop. And it did. So I got over it."

Sinister Wisdom 9 as it circulated: