Book Library: LGBTQA & Social Justice Center
Abbott, Sidney and Love, Barbara. Sappho was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated
View of Lesbianism. –Stein and Day, c1985.
Keywords: Sociology, Lesbianism, Non-fiction, Feminism
The first book-length statement on the relationship of Lesbianism to Feminism, as
well as the first serious nonfiction account of the Lesbian experience, described
carefully and logically from an authentic, inside perspective rather than the
prejudging eyes of an orthodox psychiatric disapproval and its softer, more insidious
corollary, an alienating “clinical detachment.” It is also, incidentally a unique, closerange history of the new women’s movement as it faced one of its major issues and crises.
Ed. by Adams, Maurianne, Bell, Lee Anne and Griffin, Pat. Teaching for Diversity
and Social Justice. – Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, c2007.
Keywords: Education, Theory, Social Justice
This book provides teachers and facilitators with an accessible pedagogical approach
to issues of oppression in classrooms. Building on the ground swell of interest in
social justice education, this book offers coverage of current issues and
controversies. It presents a well-constructed foundation for engaging the complex
and often daunting problems of discrimination and inequality in American Society.
Ed. by Adams, Maurianne, Blumenfeld, Warren J., Castañeda, Rosie, Hackman,
Heather W., Peters, Madeline L., Zúñiga, Ximena. Readings for Diversity and Social
Justice- An Anthology on Racism, Antisemitism, Sexism, Heterosexism, Ableism,
and Classism. – Routledge, c2000.
Keywords: Oppression, Theory, Social Justice
This book covers the scope of social oppression form a social justice standpoint. By
emphasizing the interactions among racism, sexism, classism, anti-Semitism,
heterosexism, and ableism, the anthology shows the interconnections among oppressions in everyday
life. Each section is divided into Contexts, Personal Voices, and Next Steps and Action. By including both
theoretical essays and personal reflections, the anthology stresses critical thinking while providing vivid
portraits of the meaning of diversity and the realities of oppression. The Next Steps and Action sections
are designed to challenge the reader tot ake action to end oppressive behavior and to affirm diversity
and social justice.
Ed. by Ascher, Carol, DeSalvo, Louise, Ruddick, Sara. Between Women:
Biographers, Novelists, Critics, Teachers and Artists Write about Their Work on
Women. – Beacon Press, c1984
Keywords: Compellation, Short Stories, Women, Non-fiction
Between Women brings together the intimate and movies stories of 25 women
writers, scholars and artists like Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Alice Walker,
composer Elizabeth Wood, and writer Michele Cliff and the women who have
moved them, shaped their work, inspired their creativity, and shared with them a
literary sisterhood. This absorbing and unusual collection reveals the complex emotional ties between
women and their work.
Aldridge, Sarah. Cytherea’s Breath. – The Naiad Press, c1976.
Keywords: Ficiton, Feminism, Lesbianism, Romance, Drama
A many-faceted novel of young passions, of the carefully banked fires of more
mature hears, of women’s struggles to gain control of their own bodies and to
choose the way in which they will live their lives. The first decade of the 20th
century saw the valiant efforts of many women to be free in a patriarchal society,
through the suffrage, social reform, birth control, in the practice of the law, in
medicine. Cytherea’s Breath tells of a handful of such women- Emma Wycliffe, a
young physician dedicated to the real emancipation of women; the group of
Balitmore women who sponsor her medical education at home and abroad; Miss Margaret Bell, whose
protégée she becomes. It speaks especially of two women who seek and find each other’s love in spite
of discouragement and the prohibitions of traditional society.
Aldridge, Sarah. The Latecomer. – The Naiad Press, c1982.
Keywords: Fiction, Lesbianism, Romance, Political
The story of two women of unlike temperaments and differing backgrounds who
come to recognize their love for each other. Coming home from a summer spent in
research in Europe, Philippa unexpectedly shares her stateroom with Kay, a
stranger. Philippa, nearing forty, reserved, inexperienced in close human
relationships and Kay, eight years younger, lively, gregarious, agonizing over a
frustrated love affair, spend five days during their stormy Atlantic crossing learning
the key to each other’s natures. They believe that their arrival in New York harbor will end their brief
friendship, but circumstance intervenes. They meet again in Washington, D.C., where Kay’s lover’s
career has led to possible catastrophe for all involved. It is Philippa who must act as mediator for Kay,
hiding her own feelings to protect Kay’s beset interests. A love story set in the political turmoil of here
and now, yet written with the romantic tone of yesterday.
Arthur, Bonnie Shrewsbury. Night Lights. – Mother Courage Press, c1967.
Keywords: Fiction, Lesbianism, Romance
Jean Valentine is trying to pick up the pieces of her life, after her lover’s death. Her
absent-minded daughter is about to make her a grandmother. Her beach-house
neighbor Lila’s marriage is breaking up. What will Jean do about her growing love
for Lila?
Translations by Barnstone, Willis. Sappho: Lyrics in the Original Greek. – Anchor
Books c1965.
Keywords: Greek, Poetry
Of the classical poets of the first rank, one of the least read today is Sappho. The
popular misapprehensions (and misconceptions) of the details of her personal life,
the elusiveness (for translation) of her charged, compact style, and the difficulty of
establishing intelligible reconstructions of the many available fragments of her
work- all these have contributed to undeserved neglect among modern readers.
Yet Sappho’s reputation as one of the finest poets of classical antiquity remains
unchallenged. This edition introduces Sappho to the modern reader. It provides a vivid, contemporary
translation, which captures the sparseness and the intensity of Sappho’s line. And for the reader with
some familiarity with ancient Greek, the translations are printed opposite the text on which they are
based.
Barron Barrett, Martha. Invisible Lives: The Truth About Millions of WomenLoving Women. – New York: William Morrow and Co., c1989.
Keywords: Non-fiction, Sexuality, Lesbianism
Invisible Lives is the stories of women who early on or late discovered their
capacity to enjoy erotic relations with other woman. Challenging the belief that
sexual lives are static entities to be labeled and filed, these stories reveal a
sexuality more akin to music in its response to variations of theme, to songs in a
different key. The author traveled eight thousand miles across the country and back, and then took
another trip down the east coast from Maine to Maryland. These random odysseys placed her in contact
with a wide range of women. Roughly three-quarters of those interviewed had a four year college
education and more, about ten percent were women of color, and well over half of the women were in
their thirties and forties. Occupations ran the gamut from doctors to lawyers to skilled technical
workers. Those interviewed told about their own days of ambivalence, or alcoholism, or choking anger,
or relationships that hand no name.
Barr, Nevada. Bittersweet. –Spinsters/Aunt Lute, c1984.
Keywords: Fiction, Romance, Drama, Adventure, Lesbianism
Set in late nineteenth-century America, rich in authentic detail drawn from
women’s diaries of the Old West, Bittersweet, tells the love story of two women- a
small town school teacher and a former student who comes to her for sanctuary
from her battering husband. When their illicit relationship is discovered, they are
forced to flee their small Pennsylvania coal town home for the anonymity and
isolation of northern Nevada. Amidst a scarcity of women in this frontier outpost,
Imogene and Sarah’s determination to stay together sparks a whole new set of
challenges. Their daring solutions provide a full-length, old-time adventure story worth staying up late
for.
Bauer, Marion Dane. Am I blue? Coming Out from the Silence. HarperColins
Productions, c1994.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, Short Stories, Young Adult
Each of these stories is original, each is by a noted author for young adults, and
each honestly portrays its subject and theme- growing up gay or lesbian, or with
gay or lesbian parents or friends.
Beam, Joseph. In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology.
Keywords: Gay, Men, Anthology, Race
In the Life, an expression which means being gay, is also the title of this collection
of writings in which more than 25 black authors explore what it means to be
doubly different--both black and gay--in modern America. These stories, verses,
works of art, and theater pieces voice the concerns and aspirations of an often
silent minority. They can be poignant, erotic, resolute or angry, but always reflect
the affirming power of coming together to build a strong black gay community.
Editor Joseph Beam began collecting this material in 1984 after years of frustration
with gay literature that had no message for--and little mention of--black gay men. "The bottom line," he
wrote, "is this: We are Black men who are proudly gay. What we offer is our lives, our love, our visions...
We are coming home with our heads held up high."
Ed. Beck, Evelyn Torton. Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology. - Persephone
Press, c1982.
Keywords: Lesbianism, Jewish, Feminism, Poetry, Fiction, Short Stories
This book consists of recorded Jewish lesbian lives in pictures, poems, fiction and
essays. It makes theories about lesbian lives. This book recognizes that although in
the past Jewish lesbian women have often experience a double or triple
vulnerability and a sense of isolation- as the only lesbian among Jews, the only
Jew among lesbians, the only Jewish lesbian of color among white Jewish lesbians,
the only Sephardic Jew among Ashkenazi- this book shows that no one is alone.
Becker, Carol S., Ph.D. Unbroken Ties: Lesbian Ex-Lovers. -– Alyson Publications,
c1988.
Keywords: Lesbianism, Romance, Relationships, Psychology
Through nearly one hundred stories and interviews, Becker- also a
psychotherapist- has traced the emotional trauma of a couple’s breakup, the
stages of recovery, and the differing ways these former lovers stayed in contact
with each other. She finds the end of a relationship can be a time of positive
personal growth, helping avoid destructive behavior in the future. Former lovers
can also serve as the foundation for alternative family groups, strengthening our
community and our ability to care for one another.
Bedford, Sybille. Jigsaw. - Penguin Books, c1989
Keywords: Biographical, Fiction, Adventure
Bedford’s latest novel haunts the borderlands of autobiography and fiction. It
picks up where her first, A Legacy, left off, leading us out of the Kaiser’s Germany
into the wider Europe of the 1920’s and the limbo between world wars. The
narrator, Billi, tells the story of her scholar-gipsy childhood and of her many
teachers, beginning with her father, a pleasure-loving German baron, and her
brilliant, beautiful, erratic mother. Later, on the Mediterranean coast of France,
she meets the artists and intellectuals who will show her the way to a life’s work
in literature among them the Huxley’s, Aldous and Maria. Germany, Italy, England,
France; mentors, examples, seducers, friends- each place, each person is a bright piece in the puzzle of
Billi’s identity. But bill is more than the sum of all these pieces, just as Jigsaw is more than the sum of
Bedford’s art.
Béguin, ReBecca. In Unlikely Places. - New Victoria Publishers, c1990.
Keywords: Fiction, Romance, Adventure, Lesbianism
Following her dream to explore the African continent, Lily Bascombe sets sail in
1895. The sea captain tells her of another white woman who has disappeared
into the bush and gives Lily letters and tea should she ever find her. Along with
her Faung guides, lily makes her way across the continent as a trader. But she
soon finds herself obsessed with finding Miss Margery Poole. She sloshes
through mosquito-ridden swamps, across raging rivers, through endless
entangled jungle paths. Finally a piece of lace from an English corset leads her to
the elusive Miss Poole, who, it appears has shed more than her corset. Lily’s
obsession turns to romance, and then to conflict as she is torn between the enticement of Africa and
Margery’s love, and her loyalty to her English past.
Béguin, ReBecca. Runway at Eland Springs. –New Victoria Publishers, c1987.
Keywords: Adventure, Lesbianism, Romance, Fiction
At odds with the 1930’s society of white East Africa, Anna, who grew up among
the peoples of the African bush, defies convention to become a pilot, tracking
wild game, and flying long distance. Carrying supplies into the bush, she meets
Jilu, an independent woman running a safari camp at Eland Springs. Jilu provides
the support Anna needs when confronted with her conflict over tracking for the
ivory hunters and the threat to the elephants. Eland Springs becomes a refuge
for Anna, a home to return to where there is the comfort of a loving friendship.
Berube, Alan. Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in
World War Two. - The Free Press, c1990.
Keywords: War, Biography, Non-fiction, Gay, Lesbian, History
Among the many histories of fighting men and women in World War II, little have
been written about the thousands of homosexuals who during those memorable
years found themselves fighting two wars- one for their country, the other for
their own survival as targets of a military policy that sought their discharge as
“undesirables”. Allan Berube spent ten years interviewing gay and lesbian
veterans, unearthed hundreds of wartime letters between gay GI’s, and obtained
thousands of pages of newly declassified government documents. Hidden in these sources were the
dramatic stories of soldiers fighting in Europe and in the jungles of the South Pacific, lesbians serving in
the WAC, draftees coming out to their parents, gay nightlife in the wartime boom cities, GIs entertaining
each other in drag, flare ups of antigay witch hunts, and the desperate struggle to survive incarceration
in the military’s “queer stockades”.
Berson, Betty, Ph.D. Permanent Partners: Building Gay & Lesbian Relationships
That Last. – E.D Dutton, c1988.
Keywords: Self-help, Non-fiction, Gay, Lesbian
What do same-sex couples need to know in order to build partnerships that
work, satisfy, and last? What are the obstacles-internal and external- faced by
two men or two women as they try to create a life together? What do gay men
have to learn from lesbians, and lesbians from gay men? Berson has drawn on
her professional experience and on her own partnership to create a strategy for
overcoming the obstacles faced by gay men and lesbians as they try to build
healthy relationships.
Blake, Nayland, Lawrence Rinder, Amy Scholder. In a Different Light: Visual
Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice. – City Lights, c1995
Keywords: Non-fiction, Photography, Queer
In a Different Light, documents a landmark exhibition at the University Art
Museum, and features curatorial essays, over 100 reproductions of all the
artwork in the exhibition, and a selection of fiction, personal essays, rants, and
image-text projects on the power of visual culture. This book explores the
resonances of gay, lesbian, and queer experience in American culture,
particularly in the past thirty years.
Boykin, Keith, E. Lynn Harris. Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in
Black America. Carroll & Graf Publishers, c2005.
Keywords: Gay, Down Low, Race
A revealing and timely look at the reality behind the down low phenomenon.
This book discusses why black men are afraid to talk about their sexuality, why
black women are caught in the middle, why the media got the story wrong, and
why everybody is talking about the down low.
Brandt, Kate. Happy Endings: Lesbian Writers Talk about Their Lives and Work. –
The Naiad Press, c1993.
Keywords: Compilation, Lesbian, Non-fiction
Intimate portraits of lesbian writers whose books have shaped our lives. Reach into
the soul of National Book Award nominee Dorothy Allison. Look behind the art of
Lambda Award winners Jewelle Gomez, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Joan Nestle, and
Katherine V. Forrest. Meet the chroniclers who powerfully convey our lives and
culture: Carol Seajay, Sarah Schulman, Lee Lynch, France, Leslea Newman, Toni
Armstrong Jr., Willyce Kim, Lisbet. Hear the deeply personal voices of the writers
who have blessed us with the diversity of Lesbian life. Meet your all-time heroes close up. Discover the
struggle and the triumph as these women strove to reach us with the books that nourish our lives.
Brecourt-Villars, Claudine. Petit glossaire raisonne de l’erotisme saphique. JeanJacques Pauvert, 1980.
Keywords: Eroticism, Gay/Lesbian, Queer Glossary, French
A book composed of the different erotic and sexual terms within the gay/lesbian
culture and community. This book is in French.
Brill, Stephanie, Rachel Pepper. Transgender Child, the: A Handbook for Families
and Professionals. Cleis Press Inc., c2008.
Keywords: Transgender, Gender, Non-fiction, Guidebook
What do you do when your son insists on wearing a dress to school? Or when your
toddler daughter’s first sentence is that she is a boy? Offering an extensive
understanding of gender-variant and transgender youth, The Transgender Child
answers these questions and more. Covering developmental, legal, medical, and
school issues, this book is a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind guidebook for the
unique challenges that thousands of families face raising children who step outside
of the pink or blue box.
Brossard, Nicole. Lovhers. Translated by Barbara Godard- Guernica, c1980
Keywords: Poetry
A compilation of poetry by Nicole Brossard. Originally published in French, this
book has been translated to English. Her work is considered to be one of the most
significant in Quebec contemporary literature.
Broumas, Olga & Miller, Jane. Black Holes, Black Stockings. –Wesleyan University
Press, c1985.
Keywords: Poetry
A compilation of poetry by two accomplished poets.
Brown, Judith. Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance
Italy. Oxford University Press, c1986.
Keywords: Religion, Lesbianism, Love, Biography, History, Drama
The discovery of the fascinating and richly documented story of Sister Benedetta
Carlini, Abbess of the Convent of the Mother of God, by Judith Brown was an even
of major historical importance. Not only is the story revealed in Immodest Acts
that of the rise and fall of a powerful woman in a church community and a record
of the life of a religious visionary, it is also one of the earliest documented cases of
lesbianism in the modern Western history. Born of well-to-do parents, Benedetta
Carlini entered the convent at the age of nine. At twenty-three, she began to have visions of both a
religious and erotic nature. Benedetta was elected abbess largely because of these visions, but she later
aroused suspicions by claiming to have had supernatural contacts with Christ. During the course of an
investigation, church authorities not only found that she had faked her stigmata, bu uncovered evidence
of a lesbian affair with another nun.
Brown, Rita Mae. Venus Envy. Bantam Books, c1993.
Keywords: Fiction, Drama, Lesbian
At thirty-five, Mary Frazier Armstrong, called “Frazier” by friends and enemies
alike, is a sophisticated green-eyes blonde with a thriving art gallery, a healthy
blank balance, and an enviable social position. In fact, she has everything to live
for, but she’s lying in a hospital bed with a morphine dirp in her arm and a life
expectancy measured in hours. “Don’t die a strangers,” Mandy Eisenhart, her
assistant at the gallery, says on her last hospital visit. “Tell the people you love who
you are, or write them.” And so, as her last act here on earth, Frazier writes letters to her closest family
and friends, telling them exactly what she thinks of them and, since she will be dead by the time they
receive the letters, the truth about herself: she is gay. The letters are sent. Then the manure hits the fan
in Charlottesville, Virginia, because Frazier Armstrong wakes up the next morning to hear her doctor
explaining that it has all been a mistake. Frazier can look forward to a long, happy life.
Edited By: Burns, Edward. Staying on Alone, Letters of Alice B. Toklas. Liveright
W.W. Norton & Company c1973.
Keywords: Letters, History, Non-fiction
On tissue-thin paper in a tiny, often undecipherable hand, Alice Toklas described
her daily life in Paris in absorbing detail, like a latter-day Madame de Sevigne.
Here are shrewd, witty observations on some of the most interesting artists,
musicians, and writers of the twentieth century: Thornton Wilder, Cal Van
Vechten, Edith Sitwell, Anita Loos, Cecil Beaton, Janet Flanner, Bennett Cerf,
among others. There are stories about Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Juan Gris,
Cocteau, and Sartre- all revealing a sharp eye that was as much a part of Alice as her devotion to
Gertrude and her passion for recipes and gardening.
Califia, Pat. Sapphistry, The Book of Lesbian Sexuality. The Naiad Press inc.
c1980.
Keywords: Sexuality, Lesbian, Non-fiction, Exploration
Pat Califia’s approach to our sexuality is challenging, accepting, caring and
practical. She blends specific information with a deep appreciation of the power
of necessity of our sexual play. Lesbian sexuality is a full, diverse world where
women please each other. Our sexuality shares our life. It changes with illness, it
ages, it is a medium for theoretical as well as physical explorations. Our sexuality
must be fully explored and Sapphistry helps us do this.
Cameron, Anne. The Journey. Spinsters/aunt lute c1986.
Keywords: Adventure, Drama, Romance, Lesbian
It’s the late 1800’s and the Canadian West- vast plains and mountains sprawling
between two oceans. The truth is, it is not easy to move through it. Not if you are
a woman and alone, not even two women who hook up to escape the violence of
their pasts. Anne is fourteen years old and running from the beatings of her
drunkard uncle. Sarah is tarred, feathered and running from the crazed vigilante
sheriff who stung up her lover. This unlikely duo leads us episode by thrilling
episode through the wild Canadian West as it really happened; past the hovels of
the Chinese rail workers, through the surprising halls of Belle’s whorehouse and finally to the Pacific
Ocean where the gruesome past catches up with both women. Their final triumph burns tears in our
hearts.
Clarke, Dorothy. Touch of Music. New Victoria Publishers Inc. c1991.
Keywords: Fiction, Drama, Romance, Lesbian
New in town, Roxanna and her daughter Melissa share a house owned by Becky, a
well-known singer of women’s music, whose fame has gone to her head. In the
beginning Roxanna and Becky are in constant conflict, denying their attraction to
each other. But the life-threatening illness of Roxanna’s daughter breaks down
the barrier between the two women. As they are drawn together, Roxanna and
Becky discover that the differences between them are not important after all.
Clausen, Jan. The Prosperine Papers. The Crossing Press c1988.
Keywords: Fiction, Feminism, Lesbian, Drama, Adventure, Comedy
Dale McNab is having a rough year. A lesbian-feminist academic in her late
thirties, she has just been denied tenure. She and her lover Linda, have been
fighting about everything from non-monogamy to Linda’s teenage daughter. Her
job search is getting nowhere. She is drinking too much. At this vulnerable
moment, her life is indelibly marked by an encounter with two remarkable female
“ancestors.” One, Rose Bright Schlaghoffer, is her ninety-year-old maternal
grandmother, a strong willed Minnesotan from a poor farming background who
followed a conventional path to upward mobility; the other, long-dead Prosperine
Munkers, once Rose’s closest friend, was a lesbian radical and writer who reported on the IWW-led
labor revolt on Minnesota’s Iron Range before the Frist World War. As Dale struggles with Rose for
access to Prosperine’s unpublished papers, the novel’s humorous commentary on the foibles of a
middle-class Protestant family becomes background to a literary detective story.
Clunis D. Merilee & Green G. Dorsey. Lesbian Couples. Seal Press c1988.
Keywords: Non-fiction, Lesbian, Relationships, Self-help
This is the first guide for lesbians that describes the pleasures and challenges of
being part of a couple relationship. Beginning with isues of definition, the book
charts the stages most couples go through: romance, conflict, commitment,
collaboration. Some of the topics covered are common to all couples, such as
working out issues of living arrangements, work, money and time; and others are
specific to lesbian couples, such as coming out to family and friends, monogamy
and non-monogamy, separateness and togetherness.
Córdova, Jeanne. Kicking the Habit: A Lesbian Nun Story. Multiple Dimensions
c1990.
Keywords: Auto-biography, Religion, Lesbian
Cordova takes the reader behind the forbidden convent door for a revealing look
at the joys and sorrows of Sisterhood. This compelling and sometimes shocking
autobiography chronicles Cordova’s early life as a naïve young woman from the
Republican suburbs of Southern California. Sent to the ghettos of Skid Row and
Watts by Mother Superior, Cordova runs headlong into the chaos of inner city life,
the social unrest of the 60’s, disillusionment with religious life and her own
burgeoning sexuality.
Corea, Gena. The Invisible Epidemic: The Story of Woman and Aids . Harper
Collins Publishers c1992.
Keywords: AIDS, Women, Non-fiction
This tells the dramatic, heartbreaking and often inspiring story of women and the
AIDS epidemic, revealing the startling truths behind the statistics and the
experiences of the many women at the forefront of AIDS activism, prevention,
and caretaking. Tracing the chronology of what happened when a number of
women across the country recognized the extent to which HIV/AIDS was
endangering women and attempted to do something about it, Gena Corea
exposes once and for all the “invisible” nature of women’s place in the AIDS crisis and confronts the
inaccuracies behind the many long-held assumptions of the primarily male medical community, the
media, and the often misinformed general public.
Crisp, Quentin. The Naked Civil Servant. Penguin Books c1968.
Keywords: Gay, Public Figure, Autobiography, Non-fiction, Comedy
“As soon as I stepped out of my mother’s womb… I realized that I had made a
mistake,” Quentin Crisp declares, giving a small hint of the witty and wry
approach he takes toward the life he describes with uninhibited exuberance in
this classic autobiography, which is both a comic masterpiece and a unique
testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Crisp not only came out as a
gay man in 1931, when the slightest sign of homosexuality shocked public
sensibilities, but he did so with grand and provocative flamboyance,
determined to spread the message that homosexuality did not exclude him or
anyone else from the human race. His hilarious descriptions of encounters with parents, friends,
employers, soldiers and sailors, and the law reveal the strength and humor of an honest man,
determined to face the world with the uncensored, unapologetic truth about himself.
Edited By: Curb, Rosemary & Manahan, Nancy. Lesbian Nuns: Breaking
Silence. The Naiad Press Inc. c1985.
Keywords: Religion, Lesbian, Non-fiction
In these unique and compelling revelations, both ex-nuns and present nuns
unlock the most secret doors in their closed and mysterious communities.
Under rigidly enforced rules of behavior, where women’s lives are consecrated
and subjugated to the most scared of vows, where “particular friendships” are
ruthlessly eradicated under pain of sin and expulsion, still the power of love
manages to emerge and survive.
Curry, Hayden and Denis Clifford. Legal guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples.
Nolo Press Self-Help Law Books- c1986
Keywords: Political, Law, Guidance
This practical book covers all important legal aspects of living together as a
lesbian or gay couple such as buying property, relating to former spouses and
children of former marriages, having children, adoption, estate planning and
wills, living together contracts concerning income and property, and recent
domestic partnership laws. This edition also has a new chapter concerning steps
you can take to handle medical emergencies. Specifically, this involves preparing a durable power of
attorney which allows you to give your partner authority to make financial and personal decisions if you
should be unable to do so.
DeSimone, Suszanne, Cheryl Kilodavis. My Princess Boy. KD talent,
c2009.
Keywords: Children, Gender, Expression, Acceptance
My Princess Boy is a nonfiction picture book about acceptance. This story
was written to give children and adults a tool to talk about unconditional
friendship. When the author felt her young son was going to be teased
or bullied for wearing a dress to school, she spoke with his preschool
teacher. She shared the fears with others and a plan was put in place to
support him and others who express themselves differently. In light of many unthinkable outcomes of
bullying, discussions about acceptance can help our world back to the basics- compassion.
Dreher, Sarah. Something Shady. New Victoria Publishers c1986.
Keywords: Mystery, Drama
A fog bound village, a strange disappearance, an unexplained death, and an old
house where things go “bump” in the night. It all comes together in a suspicious
“rest home” on the rocky coast of Maine. Stoner McTavish, masquerading as a
mental patient, encounters mystery, terror, and some quirky characters. Will she
discover what they did with Claire before the elegant Dr. Millicent Tunes
uncovers Stoner’s true identity? What will she really find in her search for the
missing nurse? There are those who don’t want to see her lifting the shade on
Shady Acres.
Drummond, Mara. Transitions: A guide to Transitioning for Transsexuals and
their Families. Library of Congress, c2009.
Keywords: Self-Help, Transgender, Gender, Transitioning
Having a gender identity that conflicts with one’s physical gender is a huge
emotional burden. The anxiety, stress and depression that can result from
having such a conflict can push a person to the point where everything in life
that is held clear is risked to undertake one of the hardest challenges a human
being can make transitioning from one gender to the other. If you have an
incongruent gender identity and are considering a gender transition to bring
peace to your life, Transitions will help you understand all of the implications of
the journey you are about to undertake. Transitions will guide you through the transition process from
end to end, teaching you how to come out to friends and family, maintain employment, manage
transition finances, deal with sex and religion, plan your physical changes, pass and fit in as a member of
your new gender and more.
Ebert, Alan. The First Book in Which Homosexuals Speak for and about
Themselves: The Homosexuals: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. c1976.
Keywords: Gay, Biography, Non-fiction
Seventeen homosexual men speak for themselves, freely and without fear of
judgment. In these interviews, taut with drama and self-revelation, Alan Ebert
enables each man to create his own individual self-portrait. What results is not a
picture of “the homosexual” but not a medley of stories filled with humor,
anger, love, tragedy, and pride, which in their cumulative impact explode the
myths our society still holds about homosexuals.
Ehrenreich, Barbara & English, Deirdre. Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A
History of Women Healers. The Feminist Press c1973.
Keywords: Women, Health, History, Non-fiction
Women have always been healers. They were the unlicensed doctors and
anatomists of western history. They were abortionists, nurses and counselors.
They were pharmacists, cultivating healing herbs and exchanging the secrets of
their uses. They were midwives, travelling from home to home and village to
village. For centuries women were doctors without degrees, barred from books
and lectures, learning from each other, and passing on experience from
neighbor to neighbor and mother to daughter. They were called “wise women”
by the people, witches or charlatans by the authorities. Medicine is part of our heritage as women, our
history, our birthright.
Emmerson, Pat. Raging Mother Mountain. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1989.
Keywords: Fiction, Lesbian, Romance, Comedy
Irene Aguilar, wending her way up the California coast, is haunted by the words
of a song, and her yearning for the woman she envisions in that song. Irene
knows the word lesbian, but cannot apply it to herself. In the town of Mobley,
Oregon, Arliss Ellis, unable to face yet another day of knowing she is a lesbian
trapped in the hideous mistake of her marriage, is getting drunk. Mary Margaret
McGinniss, the town librarian, is about to begin another day of work, another
day of remembering her beloved Evelyn. The startling Furosa Firechild has just
breezed into homophobic Mobley. She is about to buy some land up on Raging
Mother Mountain because she has a dream. An unquenchable dream called Wonderland. Brace
yourself, reader, because all of these women are going to meet, and they are going to walk right into
your heart. This is a richly humorous and action-filled story of lesbian love and life that you will forever
cherish.
Ennis, Catherine. To the Lightning. The Naiad Press Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Adventure, Lesbian, Fiction
Chris is a lonely lesbian on a longed for camping trip with that one special
woman. The problem is, she does not know whether Merry returns any felling
beyond simple friendship. Then the two of them are caught in a lightning storm
of such ferocity that Chris loses consciousness, to awaken in a forested,
uninhabited valley far removed from anything she or Merry have ever known
before. They soon realize that they are stranded, cut off from civilization and
rescue. Their survival in this primitive world will depend on the few supplies
they have taken with them, along with whatever they can salvage from their
storm-wrecked VW station wagon, and what they can devise with their won ingenuity.
Faber, Doris. The Life of Lorena Hickok E.R.’s Friend. William Morrow and
Company, Inc. c1980.
Keywords: History, Lesbian, Biography, Non-fiction
This is the story of a little-known figure in history, Lorena Alice Hickok, and her
extraordinary friendship with the most famous woman of the 20th century.
Eleanor Roosevelt. A child of the prairie state, Hick, as she was known to her
friends, was born into an emotionally and economically deprived family. It was
through her own talent and determination that she rose to become one of the
most eminent women journalists of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Hick first
met Eleanor Roosevelt as a reporter. Their professional relationship turned into
an intimate friendship when Mrs. Roosevelt became the First Lady after the 1932 presidential election.
For four years, Hick, unknown to most of the world, lived in the White House.
Faderman, Lillian. Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love
between Women from the Renaissance to the Present. William Morrow and
Company, Inc. c1981.
Keywords: Women, Lesbian, Love, Non-fiction, Feminism
This book is a stimulating, provocative, and often persuasive examination of
women’s emotional, sensual, and sexual relationships with each other. Drawing
on a rich variety of sources, some never before published, Faderman has
constructed a fascinating cultural history of women’s passionate friendships
with each other. Literature, trial records, love letters, pornography, and the
proclamations of “experts” across the centuries vividly illustrate the changing
status and patterns of romantic friendship. She explores the elusive relation between female same-sex
love and the continually shifting theories of female sexuality.
Fields, Elysian. Homosexuality in Literature. c1974.
Keywords: Homosexuality, Literature, Gay, List
A compilation of titles of fiction, short stories, poetry, plays, films, letters,
biographies, essays, memoirs, and studies that touch on homosexuality.
Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes At the Whistle Stop Café. McGraw-Hill
Book Company c1987.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Comedy, Drama, Fiction
It’s first the story of two women in the 1980’s, of grayheaded Mrs.
Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle
age. The tale she tells is also of two women, of the irrepressibly dare devilish
tomboy Idgie in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a southern Café Wobegon offering
good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an
occasional murder.
Forrest, Katherine. Amateur City. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1984.
Keywords: Lesbian, Mystery, Fiction
Ellen O’Neil has antagonized her lover by taking a job in a Los Angeles highrise office building, only to find herself sole witness to events surrounding a
baffling murder. LAPD Detective Kate Delafield, though and demanding leader
of the homicide investigation team, soon discovers strong motives for the
killing of Fergus Parker in an office united in its hatred of the murdered man.
And with her own personal life in crisis, she finds her path increasingly
intersecting with that of Ellen O’Neil.
Forrest, Katherine. Dreams and Swords. The Naiad Press, Inc. C1987.
Keywords: Erotica, Mystery, Lesbian, Fiction
A lesbian couple must decide whether to risk their only child in the most
daring and unprecedented of experiments. When LAPD homicide detective
Kate Delafield visits long-time lesbian friend Jessie Graham, now Sheriff of a
California seaside town, Kate immediately becomes embroiled in an
inexplicable disappearance that Jessie suspects is murder. Joan Bronson
Randall is a lesbian helplessly trapped in a sham marriage, but now Joan’s
father lies dying in a hospital and inexorable events are set into motion. In a
talk of ultimate, chilling horror, a woman awakens in a white room in a place
of endless corridors and soon learns where she is and why she is there.
Edited By: Forrest, Katherine & Grier, Barbara. The Erotic Naiad: Love
Stories by Naiad Press Authors. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1992.
Keywords: Erotica, Lesbian, Short Stories, Romance, Fantasy
Stories you will savor, stories of love and desire, romance and passion, from
the Naiad Press authors. Such as the incomparable Isabel Miller. Enjoy her
intricate tale of women who journey beyond fantasy and illusion to the
essential nature of butch and femme. Meet Wilma, in Penny Hayes’ story of
an older woman whose vengeance on her husband takes an astonishing turn
in the bed of a lesbian, and Shelley, in Jackie Calhoun’s tale of the initiation of
a married woman. And Lee Lynch’s “city Slicker,” who is given a chance to
revise her past, and to change her future.
Foster, Jeannette. Lesbian Literature: Sex Variant Women in
Literature. Independent Women Books c1972.
Keywords: Literature, List, Books
Old, rare and out-of-print fiction, biography, poetry and drama about
Lesbians and other independent women. A list of Lesbian Literature.
Friday, Nancy. My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies. Pocket Books
New York c1973.
Keywords: Erotica, Women, Short Stories
Painfully personal, unabashedly erotic, and a milestone in sex. A plethora of
sexual fantasies from the eyes of many different women. Some fantasies are
romantic, some rough. You will blush, your pulse will race and you will start
feeling guilty. Unquestionably erotic!
Fulghum, Robert. All I Really Need to Know I Learned In
Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things. Ivy Books c1986.
Keywords: Memoir, Gay, Non-fiction, Comdey
Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how
to be I learning in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduateschool mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School. These are the
things I learned: Share Everything. Play Fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back
where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t
yours. Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before
you eat. Flush.
Fulghum, Robert. It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It. Ivy Books c1988.
Keywords: Memoir, Gay, Non-fiction, Comedy
Show-and-tell was the very best part of school for me, both as a student and
as a teacher. As a kid, I put more into getting ready for my turn to present that
I put into the rest of my homework. Show-and-tell was real in a way that much
of what I learned in school was not. It was education that came out of my life
experience. As a teacher, I was always surprised by what I learned from these
amateur hours. As a kid I was unsure I knew well would reach down into a
paper bag he carried and fish out some odd-shaped treasure and attach
meaning to it beyond my most extravagant expectation.
Galford, Ellen. The Fires of Bride. Firebrand Books c1988.
Keywords: Fiction, Lesbian
Set on a remote Scottish island with a rambling castle and a ruined monastery
harking back to more matriarchal times. Maria, a visiting artist from the
mainland, arrives and is quickly seduced by the island’s strange charm. Is it her
affair with Catriona, clan chief, doctor, and witch, that makes it impossible for
her to leave? Or is it the inspiration of a place where women have, since Viking
times, fought off male marauders?
Gelder, Lindsy Van. The Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian American.
Simon & Schuster c 1996.
Keywords: Lesbian, Interview, Non-fiction
In a provocative study of lesbian America, two journalists draw on more than one
hundred interviews with women around the U.S. to examine the manners,
mores, institutions, attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles of lesbians throughout the
country.
Gershick, Zsa Zsa. Gay Old Girls. Alyson Publications Inc.
Keywords: History, Biography, Oral History, Non-fiction, Lesbian
What would it have been like to be a lesbian in 1920s Alabama? 1940s New York?
1950’s Texas? In this lively and fascinating oral history, Gershick introduces us to
nine remarkable women ranging in age from 60 to 85, who open their memoires
and provide unforgettable glimpses of the daring pioneers who paved the way
for gay liberation. The women of Gay Old Girls often lived their lives in secret or
were openly despised as deviants, but all survived and many thrived either then
or later. Black and white portraits and archival photography illuminate many of
these glimpses into hidden lives from long ago, but it is the words of these
women themselves that make Gay Old Girls an important and significant contribution to lesbian
heritage.
Gibson, Andrea. Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. Write Bloody Publishing,
c2008.
Keywords: Poetry, Lesbian
Andrea Gibson’s dynamic and timely new book is an energetic collection of
stirring and introspective poetry. Hauntingly vivid, the poems voyage through
powerful ranges, from a soldier’s lingering psychological wounds, to the curious
questions of school children on the meaning of ‘hate’, to a lover’s witty and
vibrant description of longing. Gibson’s poems deconstruct the current political
climate through stunning imagery and careful crafting. With the same velocity,
the poignant and vacillating love poems within are queally capable of sweeping the air out of the room.
This book has a bold and unforgettable internal voice that is rich with the kind of questioning that
inspires action.
Glass, Julia. Three Junes. Anchor Books c2003.
Keywords: Romance, Family, Love, Fiction
Set in Greece, Scotland, Greenwich Village, and Long Island, Three Junes traces
the members of a Scottish family as they confront the joys and longing,
fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises.
Glassgold, Judith, and Suzanne Iasenza. Lesbians, Feminism, and
Psychoanalysis: The Second Wave. Harrington Park Press c2004.
Keywords: Feminism, Lesbian, Non-fiction
This book examines recent changes in psychoanalysis that have opened the
door for new perspectives on same-sex desire. Authors from a variety of
disciplines and theoretical orientations combine feminism with psychoanalytic
and postmodern theories to celebrate diversity in gender and sexual
experience. This collection of lesbian-affirmative writings addresses
transference and countertransference, gender subjectivities, privilege and
racism, therapist homophobia, and violence in lesbian relationships.
Goreski, Brad. Born to be Brad. ItBooks, 2012.
Keywords: Gay, Style, Memoir, Non-Fiction
Fans know Brad Goreski as the fun-loving bow-tie-wearing celebrity stylist. They
have watched the reality star climb his way through the ranks of the fashion
world, as he transformed himself from an assistant stylist into a full-fledged style
icon. Along the way, they have experienced his near-fashion disaster and redcarpet victories. Brad reveals the moving story of his road to success, and offers a
glimpse into his world today, filled with insider access to the countless red carpets
and awards shows he has worked across the globe.
Grahn, Judy. The Judy Grahn Reader. Aunt Lute Books c2009.
Keywords: Poetry, Non-fiction, Fiction, Compellation, Feminism
This book contains work from every phase of Judy Grahn’s career, including poems
from all of her major poetry collections; a number of her groundbreaking essays; as
well as selected fiction and the full-length play, The Queen of Swords. Gathering
together the varying strands of Grahn’s work together in this book makes visible
the tremendous scope of her contribution as a feminist thinker, activist, and
literary artist.
Grier, Barbara. The Lesbian in Literature. The Naiad Press Inc. c1981.
Keywords: Collection, List, Lesbian
A collection of poems, literature, stories, books that have lesbian themes or
lesbian story lines.
Hall, Radclyffe. Adam’s Breed. Penguin Books c1986.
Keywords: Fiction, Gay, Drama, Conflict
Illegitimate and orphaned, Gian-Luca is brought up by his Italian grandparents in
their prosperous salumeria in Old Compton Street, Soho. Here, surrounded by
plenty- by bottles of Chianti in straw petticoats, by pasta and garlic, strings of
sausages and jars of dark olives- he lacks that more important sustenance, of the
soul. A stranger in the land of his birth, denied religious identity and human love,
Gian-Luca grows to maturity seeking to resolve a terrible conflict between the
needs of his spirit and the demands of the material world.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness: The Classic Novel of Lesbian Love. Corgi
Books c1968.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance
The book tells the story of Stephen Gordon, a sensitive girl whose parents
ardently desired a son in her place. How Stephen developed a natural tendency
towards masculinity, her tortured adolescence and finally the love that the world
condemned, is the theme of this extraordinary novel. This story has been
denounced as immoral and praised as a remarkably perceptive work. It is now
regarded as the classic novel of lesbian love.
Edited By: Hardy Jan. Wanting Women: an Anthology of Erotic Lesbian
Poetry. Sidewalk Revolution Press c1990.
Keywords: Lesbian, Erotic, Poetry
Forty-three lesbian poets explore the erotic, with styles and subjects ranging
from formal structure to free verse, from whimsical fantasies to serious
questions, from delicate suggestions to rowdy, outspoken lust. Loving with all
the pride and courage we can find, we find each other- and what a gift we are.
Hatfield, Lee. Breakfast in Mycenae. Clarke & Way, Inc. c1961.
Keywords: Poetry
“Poets have always delighted as much in platitudes concerning poetry as in those
concerning women. My opening platitude is therefore an inevitable synthesis.
More seriously, the poetic experience- at least as I suffer it- is itself an inevitable
synthesis. I have never made a single poem from a single source.” Lee Hatfield.
Hayes, Penny. Kathleen O’ Donald. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1994.
Keywords: Historical Fiction, Lesbian
Filled with dreams of a golden future, Kathleen has left her native Ireland for the
promise of America. But never has she dreamed of the arduous trip she will make
across the Atlantic, nor of the hazards she will face passing through immigration
on Ellis Island. Nor that she will be forced to befriend Rose Steward, immigrant
from her country’s most hated enemy, England. Never has she dreamed of the
rough and tumble of New York City, nor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company,
where she will find employment. Her path will once again intersect with that of
Rose Stewart, this time to result in much, much more that a forced friendship of
convenience. And this time both women will find themselves engulfed in a drama that will change
history.
Hayes, Penny. Yellowthroat. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Lesbian, Fiction, Drama
The time is the gold rush days in New Mexico Territory. Embittered Margarita
Sanchez has sworn to avenge the racist lynching of her Anglo husband and the
loss of the ranch they had built together. Accompanied by three male
companions, she ruthlessly extracts her revenge in a series of stagecoach
robberies. Then a gang member is critically wounded during a bank holdup, and
Margarita is forced to take Julia Blake hostage, bringing her back to the gang’s
camp. Once more Margarita’s life undergoes drastic changes. Because amid a
growing emotional attachment to Julia Blake, she has discovered the unthinkable: a sexual attraction to
another woman.
Highsmith, Patricia. The Price of Salt. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1999.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction
Nineteen year-old Therese is engaged to be married. Elegant, sophisticated
carol is married and has a child. In a New York City department store, Therese
looks up from her work to meet Carol’s gray eyed gaze. From that moment on,
the lives of the two women veer irrevocable off course. So beings the eloquent,
compellingly beautiful love story of Therese and Carol.
Edited By: Holmes, Sarah. Testimonies: A collection of Lesbian Coming Out
Stories. Alyson Publications, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Lesbian, Short Stories, Non-fiction
A new collection of lesbian coming out stories in which women of different
races and backgrounds describe the excitement, passion, and conflict of their
self-discovery. These stories portray the process of forming a lesbian identity
and relationships, gathering sexual experience, telling families and co-workers,
discovering the lesbian community, and developing a political awareness of
their sexuality.
Hull R., Helen. Last September. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Fiction, Romance, Lesbian
Seven luminous, insightful stories form the crucible in which adolescent Cynthia
Bates, growing up in early 20th century America, learns the fragility of romantic
illusion, the limitations of her life both as a woman and as a woman drawn to
other women, and the potential within her to alter the shape of those barriers.
Jay, Karla. The Amazon and the Page: Natalie Clifford Barney and Renée
Vivien. Indiana University Press c1988.
Keywords: Feminism, Biography, Non-fiction
The Amazon and the Page looks at the lives of two French writers, Natalie
Clifford Barney and Renee Vivien, describes their relationship, and discusses
their major works.
Edited By: Jay, Karla. TWO COPIES OF Dyke Life: From Growing Up to Growing
Old, A Celebration of the Lesbian Experience. BasicBooks c1995.
Keywords: Anthology, Lesbian, Short Essays
A mix of the serious and the irreverent, this wide-ranging book provides a
comprehensive view of the many rites and phases of lesbian life. Karla Jay, one of
the lesbian movement’s best-known writers and activists, has brought together
essays by a fascinating group of lesbian and bisexual women of different ages,
races, and classes. Beyond providing a sweeping view of the lesbian community,
this anthology takes the position that the lives of lesbians are in most ways not like those of gay men or
heterosexual women. Jay has included essays focusing on specific issues and patterns unique to the
lesbian community, such as two women raising children, sexual practices, and the higher incidence of
certain illnesses among lesbians, as well as lesbian attitudes toward work, aging and relationships.
Jay, Karla & Young, Allen. The Gay Report: Lesbians and Gay Men Speak Out
About Sexual Experiences & Lifestyles. Summit Books c1977.
Keywords: Lesbian, Gay, Non-fiction
The Gay Report contains the results of the first comprehensive survey of the
homosexual community. In 1977, Karla Jay and Allen Young distributed several
hundred thousand copies of their survey to lesbians and gay men. There answers
reveal frank details about their childhoods, growth and coming out; their most
pleasing sexual experiences; their relationships with lovers, families, husbands or
wives, and children; their hangups; fantasies and masturbation practices;
oppression, politics, hopes and dreams and more. The testimonies in this book will make readers of
whatever sexuality understand their own lives and experiences and come to know what it feels like to be
considered “different” because of sexual orientation.
Edited By: Jay, Karla & Young, Allen. The Perceptive Voices of Outspoken
Lesbians and Gay Men: Lavender Culture. A Jove/HBJ Book c1978.
Keywords: Anthology, Gay, Lesbian, Culture
This is one of the first books to explore in-depth lesbian and gay creativitylanguage, literature, theater, graphic arts, poetry, dance, music. In contains a wideranging collection of articles about the way gay people live: sex, bars, baths,
clothing, the politics of sado-masochism, the gay male and lesbian movements,
economics, aging and race.
Edited By: Jay, Karla. Lesbian Erotics. New York University Press c1995.
Keywords: Lesbian, Erotica, Short Stories, Fiction
Karla Jay is one of the authentic pioneers of lesbian studies. Here she brings
together 16 essays on the once-taboo, now gloriously ‘speakable’ subject of
lesbian sexuality. Illuminating, often funny, full of thought and emotion and a
continuous speculative intellectual energy, the essays tell a fascinating collective
story about lesbian desires, past and present, and the controversial places of
female homosexuality in modern society. Both spicy and thoughtful, this
indispensable new collection shows just how various and vibrant is lesbian
thinking these days about sexuality.
Edited By: Jay, Karla & Glasgow, Joanne. TWO COPIES OF Lesbian Texts and
Contexts. New York University Press c1990.
Keywords: Lesbian, Literature
Lesbian writers include some of the most innovative and adventurous writers of
this century, but only recently have they been given their due attention in terms
of critical study. This book is the first anthology to discuss the subject of
lesbianism as it relates to the critical interaction among readers, writers, and
literary critics. It explores lesbian texts in terms of identification, meaning, and
interpretation, and examines the complex entanglements of identity, voice, intersubjectivity, textualities, and sexualities.
Edited By: Jay, Karla & Young, Allen. Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay
Liberation. New York University Press c1972, 1977.
Keywords: History, Gay
Filled with Joyous self-affirmation, angry manifestos, and searching personal
reflections, this classic work provides a close look at the individuals and ideologies
of this important social movement. In the tradition of Sisterhood is Powerful, Out
of the Closets presents, in their own words, the views, values attitudes,
aspirations, and circumstances of the early generation of gay and lesbian
liberationists. Highlighting both how much and how little has changed since
Stonewall, this work is essential reading for anyone concerned with the history of sexuality and the legal
and social status of lesbians and gays in contemporary America.
Jay, Karla. Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation. BasicBooks
c1999.
Keywords: Memoir, Lesbian, Activism, Political
Karla Jay's memoir of an age whose tumultuous social and political movements
fundamentally reshaped American culture takes readers from her early days in the
1968 Columbia University student riots to her post-college involvement in New
York radical women's groups and the New York Gay Liberation Front. In Southern
California in the early 70s, she continued in the battle for gay civil rights and
helped to organize the takeover of "The Ladies' Home Journal" and "ogle-in" where women staked out Wall Street and whistled at the men.
Johanna, H.H. Romancing the Dream. Rising Tide Press c1991.
Keywords: Romance, Erotic, Lesbian, Fiction
This imaginative tale begins when Jacqui St. John leaves northern California
looking for a new home, and cruises into the seemingly ordinary town of Kulshan.
Seeing the lilac bushes blooming along the roadside, she suddenly remembers the
recurring dream that has been tantalizing her for months, a dream of a house full
of women, radiating warmth and welcome, and of one special woman dressed in
silk and leather. But why has Jacqui, like so many other women, been drawn to
this town? And what is the secret of the women of Kulshan?
Johnson E., Susan. Staying Power: Long Term Lesbian Couples. The Naiad Press,
Inc. c1990.
Keywords: Lesbian, Couples, Non-fiction, Relationships
A study of long term lesbian couples. The study group is 108 couples who have
been together ten years or more. Seven couples are profiled, from Pat and Anna,
together 52 years, to Deborah and Kathy, together 13 years. In direct quotes from
detailed interviews, all of the women talk about themselves. You will learn the
nature of commitment for these couples. What they have in common and their
differences. Their sexuality: the frequency, the quality and quantity; the question
of monogamy and non-monogamy. The time they spend together and apart. You will learn about the
problems which have most severely tested their relationships. The support systems which have helped
sustain them: children, families, and friendships.
Kallmaker, Karin. Paperback Romance. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1992.
Keywords: Romance, Fiction, Lesbian, Erotica
Literary agent Alison has been in love with her favorite author/client for years.
Not that paperback romance writer Carolyn has ever noticed. She sees Alison as
a close, loyal friend; she has never questioned society’s conventions. When
Alison negotiates a lucrative contract for her, Carolyn seizes the unexpectedly
large advance to fulfill a passion of her own. Beginning in Paris, scene of her
brief, calamitous marriage, she will immerse herself in great music from the
world’s great orchestras. Paris brings a dramatic encounter with Nicolas Frost,
the remote driven young conductor who is creating a reputation for musical
brilliance. When the smitten Carolyn discovers the conductor’s masquerade, she is suddenly faced with
the true nature of her powerful attraction to Nick. Meanwhile, Alison has found her own consolation.
But does sweet, passionate Samantha have any chance of winning Alison’s affections away from
Carolyn? Can there be any future for Nick and Carolyn?
Katz, Jonathan. TWO COPIES OF Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men
in the U.S.A. Avon Books c1976.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, History, Non-fiction,
This work brings together for the first time a large group of historical chronicles
of American Lesbian and Gay life, coupled with the heterosexual attitudes of the
era. Intended for an audience of all sexual persuasions, these selections reflect a
new, historical view of this once-silent, invisible minority and a dramatic
reappraisal of American life, from Alexander Hamilton’s love letters to John
Laurens, to the forgotten autobiography and insane asylum records of a feminist
transvestite of the 19th century, to lesbianism in the life of blues great Bessie
Smith and to present in1976 report of the first Gay liberation organization of American Indians.
Katz Ned, Jonathan. Gay/Lesbian Almanac. Harper & Tow, Publishers c1983.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, History, Sociology, Non-fiction
This volume presents the documents of two sexual worlds, the world of the early
American colonies and that of the early modern United States. Here the colonial
“Age of Sodomitical Sin, 1607-1740” is contrasted with the modern world
witnessing “The Invention of the Homosexual, 1880-1950.” Here the “homosexual”
and “heterosexual” appear as creations of a particular historical society.
Chronologically interweaving personal testimony and news reports, diaries and medical case records,
letters, trial testimony, laws, fiction, songs, cartoons, and reviews of books, movies, and plays, Katz
sketches in the contours of lesbian and gay American history in two formative periods.
Keen, Lisa. Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know about their Legal Rights.
Beacon Press c2007.
Keywords: Coming Out, Law, Rights, Help
Out Law lays out the basics about laws that impact LGBT youth and tells you what
your rights are, how to exercise them, and when and where to seek help. Can a
high school principle make you cover up your “gay pride” T-shirt? What can you do
if school officials say your gay/straight alliance can’t meet on school ground?
Kennedy, Evelyn. Cherished Love. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Erotica, Lesbian, Romance, Fiction
Stunned and grief-stricken over the accidental death of her lover, Dr. Megan McKenzie has
invested her entire emotional life in the practice of medicine. She is not the least interested in
taking telephone calls from a persistent attorney attempting to handle the neglected business
affairs of her dead lover. Attorney Randal Grayson cannot understand how anyone could be so
indifferent to the details of a million-dollar estate. Then she meets Megan, and when she learns of
the warmth and closeness Megan shared with her lesbian lover, Randall has only her own cold,
impersonal marriage to compare. Soon she discovers a new depth of passion within herself, and all the
erotic pleasures to be had in the arms of Megan.
Kennedy, Evelyn. Of Love and Glory. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1989.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Drama, War, Erotica, Fiction
It is 1943 in blitz-torn England. Lieutenant Jennifer Kincade is on her first
assignment as a US Army nurse, newly married to a man-she isn’t sure she loves.
Then she meets sexy, charming Maggie Conover in a London bomb shelter. Maggie,
a journalist-adventurer covering the war for American newspapers, is irresistibly
drawn to the beautiful, dark-haired Jenny. Jenny unable to fathom her attraction to
the free-spirited Maggie, follows the road her curiosity takes her into an eroticism
she has never known before. David, Jenny’s husband, does not want her to be a
nurse, does not want her with him in England and so close to the war. And he does not want her
anywhere near Maggie Conover.
Kennedy, Evelyn. To Love Again. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1991.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction, Erotica
Karen Wainwright, married and the mother of two teenagers, reenters the nursing
profession by taking a job at a women’s clinic. Her first day on the job is unusual,
to say the least. Caught in a cross-fire created by anti-abortion forces, she is
arrested, along with clinic director Dr. Joanna Jordon, and taken to jail. To the
horror of friends and family, Karen’s arrest is recorded b television cameras. Quit
immediately, orders husband Phillip, but Karen refuses. Joanna is undergoing her
own conflicts with long-term partner Vicki, who has lost patience with Joanna’s
pro-choice activism and its perilous presence in their lives. Friendship between Karen and Joanna
becomes passionate attraction.
Kilmer-Purcell, Josh. The Bucolic Plague. Harper Perennial, c2010.
Keywords: Memoir, Comedy, Gay, Non-fiction
A happy series of accidents and a doughnut-laden escape upstate take Josh KilmerPurcell and his partner, Brent Ridge, to the doorstep of the magnificent (and
fabulously for sale) Beekman Mansion. And so begins their transformation from
uptight urbanites into the two-hundred-year-old-mansion-owning Beekman Boys.
Suddenly Josh- a full-time New Yorker with a successful advertising career- and
Brent find themselves weekend farmers, surrounded by nature’s bounty and an
eclectic cast: roosters who double as a wedding cover band; Bubby, the bionic cat; and a herd of goats,
courtesy fo their new caretaker, Farmer John.
Kim, Willyce. Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid. Alyson Publications, Inc.
c1985.
Keywords: Lesbian, Comedy, Adventure, Erotica
Dancer Dawkins views life best form behind a pile of hotcakes. But her lover,
Jessica Riggins, has fallen into the clutches of Fatin Satin Aspen, the insidious
leader of Violia Vincente’s Venerable Brigade. Something has to be done.
Meanwhile, Little Willie Guthrie of Bangor, Maine renames herself The California
Kid, stocks up on Rubbles Dubble bubble gum and her father’s best Havana cigars
and heads west. When this crew collides in San Francisco, what can be expected?
Just about anything.
Klaich, Dolores. Woman Plus Woman. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1989.
Keywords: Lesbian, Non-fiction, Contemporary
Writing with charm, wit, and intelligence, Dolores Klaich discusses the lives and
loves of a representative group of distinguished lesbians including, Sappho,
Colette, Renee Vivien, Natalie Clifford Barney, Romaine Brooks, Radclyffe Hall,
Gertrude Stein. She weaves the lives of dozens of contemporary lesbians into her
narrative by way of in depth interviews and excepts from a comprehensive
questionnaire that was widely distributed in both the public and private lesbian
communities of the early 1970’s.
Klaich, Dolores. Heavy Gilt. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, Mystery, Adventure, Drama, Fiction
Guess who is coming to dinner at Hilary and Dru’s restored Victorian home? A most
attractive mystery writer and her vexatious weekend lover. Their house guest, a
world-famous novelist. Two partners who own a bookstore and quietly publish
lesbian and gay poetry and their startling houseguest, who is well along in the
process of turning himself into herself. Sarah and Farnsworth Lightfood, eccentric
fifty-year old twins. Hilary’s homophobic brother Malcolm and his wife Maggie.
And Dru’s younger sister Bettina, a notorious lesbian-feminist writer infatuated
with the attractive mystery writer, and blithely confident that a little consciousness raising would flush
all of these politically incorrect folk right out of their various and silly closets. But then, during the dinner
party, homophobic Malcolm Vanishes. Enter beauteous private detective Tyler Divine, who has much to
sort through: suspicious goings-on and numerous suspects and her own attraction to the alluring
mystery writer.
Edited By: Kleinberg, Symour. The Other Persuasion: Short Fiction About Gay
Men and Women. Vintage books, c1977.
Keywords: Fiction, Short Stories, Gay, Lesbian
The editor, teacher of English literature at Long Island University and a founding
member of the Gay Academic Union, has chosen 24 stories that treat the
experience of homosexuals in serious ways. The writers are both straight and gay
and the stories range in time from Proust's ""Before Dark"" of 1893 to Janice Rule's
""Middle Children"" of 1975. Neither apologetic nor propaganda, the book is for
the questioning reader determined to explore the full spectrum of the human
condition.
Kouloub, Out El. Ramza. Translated by Nayra Atiya. Syracuse University Press
c1994.
Keywords: Foreign, Women, Oppression, Rebellion, Drama, Feminism
The story of one woman’s rebellion against her life in the harem of a wealthy
Egyptian family at the turn of the century. Although she flourishes in this world,
secure, in the safety it provides, she comes to despise its constraints. In describing
her growing awareness of the life o women in her elite milieu, Ramza paints an
intimate portrait of harem life, including the methods employed by the wives and
concubines to ensure the power they seek for themselves and their children. Ramza is drawn to books,
music, and eventually to the men’s quarter. She dares to express her physical, social, and sexual
repression. A dramatization of a piece of Egyptian feminine and feminist history set at a time when
Egyptian women were struggling to come forward. It was originally published in France in 1958.
Kramarae, Cheris & Treichler A., Paula. A Feminist Dictionary. Pandora Press
c1985.
Keywords: Dictionary, Feminism
This is a dictionary with a difference. It places women at the center of language
and uses definition and quotation to take us on a fascinating journey through the
development and use of the English language from diverse feminist perspectives.
A feminist dictionary illustrates women’s linguistic contributions: the ways in
which women have sought to describe, reflect upon and theorize about women,
language, and the rest of the world. This is a unique source book that will serve
as a valuable work of reference for many years to come.
Lachgar, Lina. Album Colette. Henri Veyrier, 1983.
Keywords: Art, History, French
A compilation of photos and queer art by and featuring Colette. This book is
written in French.
Laing, R.D. The Divided Self: An existential study in sanity and madness.
Penguin books c1960.
Keywords: Psychology, Schizophrenia, Health
Dr. Laing’s first purpose is to make madness and the process of going mad
comprehensible. In this, with case studies of schizophrenic patients, he succeeds
brilliantly, but he does more: through a vision of sanity and madness as ‘degrees
of conjunction and disjunction between two persons where the one is sane by
common consent’ he offers a rich existential analysis of personal alienation. The
outsider, estranged from himself and society, cannot experience either himself
or others as ‘real’. He invents a false self and with it he confronts both the
outside world and his own despair. The disintegration of his real self keeps pace with the growing
unreality of his false self until, in the extremes of schizophrenic breakdown, the whole personality
disintegrates.
Edited By: Laity, Cassandra. H.D. Paint it Today. New York University Press
c1992.
Keywords: Lesbian, Erotica
This novel, a never before published roman a clef by the famous Imagist writer,
H.D., that explores H.D.’s love for women, is a lyrical recreation of the love and
loss of her friend and first love, Frances Gregg, and of her later meeting with
Bryher (Winifred Ellerman) who was to become H.D.’s lifelong companion.
Spanning the years from H.D.’s childhood in Pennsylvania to the brith of her
daughter, Perdita, in 1919, this turbulent love story is set against the backdrop
of World War I, H.D.’s involvement in early twentieth-century London literary
circles, her brief engagement to American poet Ezra Pound, and her shattered marriage to British
novelist Richard Aldington. Paint It Today is H.D.’s most ‘lesbian’ novel, a modern, homoerotic tale of
passage which focuses almost entirely on a young heroine’s search for the “sister love” which would
empower her spiritually, sexually, and creatively.
Lang, Elizabeth. Anna’s Country: A Lesbian Love Story. The Naiad Press, Inc.
c1981.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction
Here is a major novel of lesbian life. Anna’s journey from suburban housewife
to loving lesbian woman is one of the true and important stories of our times.
Anna’s Country is a tender, clear-eyed hopeful book about women’s love and
women’s passion. It reminds us as well of the rewards of courage and personal
growth and the penalties of fear and psychological rigidity.
Lapidus, Jacqueline. TWO COPIES OF Ready to Survive. Hanging Loose Books
c1975.
Keywords: Poetry, Political
Her poetry recreates the experience of the contemporary expatriate- in exile
from her own country, in political exile from her second country, in love with an
exile, in love itself as a kind of alienation. Her poetry is strong, intelligent and
often quite witty, a poetry of a woman becoming always more conscious of
herself, her mind, her life, her body, her politics.
Lapidus, Jacqueline. TWO COPIES OF Starting Over. Out & Out Books c1977.
Keywords: Poetry
In these poems, suffering, anger, and hope are weaved together into a tapestry
of change. Change is not innocent, as we want to believe. Instead, as in these
poems, she is a gnarled woman, old beyond her years- rebellion burns cold
within her, she has lost too much to dance with her feet off the ground, her
anger is dispassionate, and her transforming principles are love without
sentimentality and freedom without romance. Lapidus is the poet who mourns
her bitter defeats, celebrates her resolute victories, paints her marked face on
the bedrock of our age.
Lapidus, Jacqueline. Ultimate Conspiracy. Lynx Publications c1980/1987.
Keywords: Poetry
Complex, savory, specific, these poems render the interpenetration of
quotidian and extraordinary on three continents, and create their own world,
generous, unpredictable, matrifocal, polyglot, resonant with secrets and
silences as the author recounts its infinite variety.
Lynch, Lee. The Amazon Trail. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Lesbian, Non-Fiction
Lee covers the lesbian and gay scene from coast to coast, from inside our
bookstores to inside our bars, from campfire to coven to careers, into and out
fo love. Growing up lesbian and being openly and proudly lesbian for thirty
years and the rich perspective that comes from “the good life”; just one of the
many section of this delightful, sobering, fascinating and enriching collection.
Follow Lee from “The Good Life” through “Gay Lit,” “Portraits,” Gay Rites” and
“The Geography of Gay,” into adventures as diverse as the secret haunts of
famous writers to the food dubbed “Lesbian Stew” recommended for the temporarily bereft, from
exploration of a notorious bar to learning to live soberly.
Martin, Michelle. Pembroke Park. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1986.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Drama, Erotic
When Lady Joanna Sinclair meets Lady Diana March on horseback and clad in male
attire, she is outraged. Such bizarre behavior is simply unacceptable in
Herefordshire. But she is irresistibly drawn to the headstrong Diana, whose
eccentricity cloaks a mysterious darkness in her past. Joana learns that Diana’s
coterie of ‘unusual’ friends has among them her own brother-in-law, who is in
headlong pursuit of the beautiful and elusive Geoffrey. Under Diana’s influence,
falling ever more deeply in love with her, Joanna asserts her independence from her brother, the
arrogant and overbearing Hugo, who vows to subdue both of these defiant women.
Maupin, Armistead. Further Tales of the City. Harper Perennial c1982.
Keywords: Romance, Drama, Gay, Comedy
The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously
dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an
anchorwoman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the national Gay
Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a charismatic psychopath
across Alaska and society columnist Prue Giroux loses her heart to a derelict living
in a San Francisco park.
Maupin, Armistead. More Tales of the City. Harper Perennial c1980.
Keywords: Drama, Comedy, Gay
The divinely human comedy that began with Tales of the City rolls recklessly
along as Michael Tolliver pursues his favorite gynecologist, Mona Ramsey
uncovers her roots in a desert whorehouse, and Mary Ann Singleton finds love at
sea with the amnesiac of her dreams.
Maupin, Armistead. Tales of the City. Harper Perennial c1978.
Keywords: Comedy, Gay
Few works of fiction have captured the carefree chaos of the seventies as
hilariously or as truthfully as Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Originally
published as a daily newspaper serial in 1976, Maupin’s groundbreaking comedy
of manners went on to become six bestselling novels that have beguiled readers
worldwide with their wryly inclusive vision of humankind.
McConnell P., Vicki. Mrs. Porter’s Letter. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1986.
Keywords: Lesbian, Mystery
McConnell P., Vicki. Double Daughter. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Lesbian, Drama, Mystery
Denver- the city of Journalist-Detective Nyla Wade’s past, the city where she
formed her youthful dreams. Nyla has returned to where her heart lies, only to
discover clouds of menace hanging over the lives of gay friends old and new.
Outlaw Lez Teachers and other hate messages become terrible reality when
lesbian teacher Pat Stevens is ruthlessly assaulted. And when another gay
teacher is attacked, when vicious vandalism occurs, Nyla Wade goes after the
hate group responsible with all the resources at her command. On friend lies in
a death-like come; another is marked for certain violence. When Nyla finally
uncovers the truth about the campaign of hate she finds herself in the greatest peril of her life.
Edited By: McEwen, Christian. Naming The Waves: Contemporary Lesbian
Poetry. The Crossing Press c1989.
Keywords: Poetry, Lesbian
Love and desire, childhood and children, the value of sisterhood, self-identity and
racism, day-to-day pleasures and sorrows, the reality of lesbian oppression and
defiance of that oppression: these are some of the themes in this collection of
contemporary lesbian poetry by more than 70 poets from both sides of the
Atlantic.
McNally, Terrence. Love! Valour! Compassion! Penguin Group, c1995.
Keywords: Gay, Drag, Cross-dressing, Dance, Play
Beautifully written, moving, and very funny, Love! Vlaour! Compassion! Gathers
together eight gay men at the upstate New York summer house of a celbrated
dancer-choreography who fears he is losing his creativity and possibly his lover.
Infidelity, flirtations, soul-searching, AIDS, truth-telling, and skinny-dipping mix
monumental questions about life and death with a wacky dress rehearsal for
Swan Lake performed in drag.
McNally, Terrance. A Perfect Ganesh. A Plume Book, c1994.
Keywords: Adventure, Drama
The play follows the life of two very rich, middle-aged women, Margaret Civil and
Katherine Brynne, who struggle with the concept of inner peace. On their
journey for inner peace, Katherine and Margaret travel to India instead of to the
Caribbean Resorts. They travel to India as a way of healing from the deaths of
their sons. While in India, they meet an Indian god by the name of Ganesha
meaning "wisdom." This Ganesha happens to be their tour guide. However,
Ganesha is not just one person, but is able to change form. With Ganesha as their
tour guide, their journey comes to find many twists and turns. In one such twist, Katherine is convinced
that she is to kiss a leper. However, this is not so. She learns a valuable lesson from meeting this leper.
Instead of kissing him like she though she needed to, she gave him money.
Edited by: Melia, Paul. David Hockney. Manchester University Press. c1995.
Keywords: Art, Gay
David Hockney is one of the most widely discussed artists of his generation.
Drawing on recent research, this book advances the critical debates on his work.
By offering a wide range of approaches, in analyses the key themes and moments
in the artist’s career from 1959 to 1994. Topics discussed include- Hockney’s Place
in Swinging London, Images of Southern California, Photo-collages, landscapes,
portraiture, theatrical manipulations of the spectator, recent paintings, and opera designs.
Miller, Isabel. A Dooryard Full of Flowers: and Other Short Pieces. The Naiad
Press, Inc. c1993.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance
The beautiful continuation of Isabel Miller’s acclaimed all-time classic, Patience
and Sarah. Glimpse these two beloved women in their “slow ardent, exalted life
together” as you rejoin them in a segment from the never completed second
novel of their lives. A married women who falls in love with her mother-in-law.
Tildy, who is visited by a young pregnant girl wanting something Tildy is
determined not to give. A woman in the post-world war II Navy, who is certain
that this time she will not fall in love with a new woman bunkmate. Teenager
Robin, who knows so much more than either her lesbian mother or her newly
remarried father dream she knows. A young woman who comes under the scrutiny of a government
security check, with both expected and unexpected results. Lucille, who meets the woman she has
written to for years and finds surprise answers to questions about both of their lives.
Miller, Isabel. Patience & Sarah. Ballantine Books c1969.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Drama
Early in the nineteenth century, in a puritanical New England town, two women
did something unspeakable, something unheard of- they fell in love with each
other. With nothing and no one to guide or support them, Patience and Sarah
tried to follow their hearts. When family pressures separated them, the two
women dreamed of leaving their homes, of being together. Defying society and
history, they bought a farm and discovered they could live together, away from
a world that had put limits on them and their love.
More, Meredith. October Obsession. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, Lesbian
Laura Westmoreland has come to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to assist
Sheriff Bill Tate in his search for her cherished Aunt Josie, who has vanished from
the seaside cottage in which she has lived alone for decades. Seeking out any
clue, Laura sifts thought the contents of Josie’s rustic cottage, and discovers a
diary- an astonishing document unveiling Josie’s rich, secret, and fantastic
lesbian life. Josie has for years loved and been loved by a golden, mythical being
named Selene who, during the fullness of the moon each October, joined Josie
for the passionate consummation of their love, a love which over the decades
has been tested by assaults from hurricanes, illness, and the hostility of the entire exterior world.
Morgan, Claire. The Price of Salt. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1986.
Keywords: Lesbian, Drama, Romance, Fiction
The novel's two main characters are Therese Belivet, a lonely young woman, and
Carol Aird, an elegant stranger Therese encounters one day at her temporary
job in a New York department store. Therese is just starting out her adult life
in Manhattan and looking for her chance to break through into her dream job as
a theater set designer. Therese was semi-abandoned as a small girl by her
widowed mother, who sent Therese to an Episcopalian boarding school. She
is dating a young man, Richard, whom she does not love and does not want to
have sex with. The women are unaware that Carol's husband has hired a private investigator to follow
them and collect any evidence that would incriminate Carol as a homosexual in the upcoming custody
hearings.
Edited By: Morse, Carl & Larkin, Joan. Gay & Lesbian Poetry in Our Time: An
Anthology. St. Martin’s Press c1988.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, Poetry, Anthology
This anthology combines almost 100 great poets and touches on an expansive
range of interesting topics.
Murphy A., Patricia. We Walk the Back of the Tiger. The Naiad Press,
Inc. c1988.
Keywords: Drama, Mystery, Lesbian, Fiction
It is 1974 in the California coastal town of Santa Clarinda. With the women’s
movement beginning to erupt all around her, Cara Doherty becomes the
administrator of the university’s fledgling Women’s center. Neil Norma, 18 years
old, is pumping gas and dealing drugs in Sana Clarinda. A customer gives Neil a
gun for drugs, and Neil exults in his newfound power, an unimagined power that
can make his most cherished fantasies real. Marti McDavid is a new divorcee,
new to the women’s movement, new to her love for Cara. She is not new to
drugs. She is a customer of Neil’s. Young women vanish from the streets of Santa Clarinda and the lives
of Cara, Marti and Neil explode in the evens that transform their lives and galvanize the entire city.
Murphy A., Patricia. Searching For Spring. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1987.
Keywords: Comedy, Drama, Fiction
Annie Malloy does not know that within her lies a hidden core of pure fury. Nor
does she realize the strength she possesses, nor her capacity to act. Annie has
accepted her lesbian identity yet cannot seem to assemble the scattered pieces
of her life. Then, at a fateful reunion with her four sisters, she discovers that
the secret ugliness in her childhood is not confined solely to her. It is in seeking
a therapist for one of her nieces that Annie learns she must first examine her
own life. And so she becomes embroiled in group therapy with five other incest
victims who will not allow her to hide anywhere. As Annie unearths her rage,
she unleashes her strength.
Edited By: Myron, Nancy & Bunch, Charlotte. Lesbianism and the Women’s
Movement. Diana Press c1975.
Keywords: Lesbian, Essay, Feminism, Political
This collection of articles presents part of that history: A segment reflected
through The Furies, a lesbian-feminist collective and newspaper in Washington
DC. Written over a two-year period, the articles were authored by members of
the collective and/or appeared in the newspaper. Each article discusses
different questions raised by lesbian-feminist politics: heterosexual privilege,
lesbian separatism, bisexuality, etc. The importance of these issues in the ongoing debate over lesbianism and feminism makes this book much more than an historical relic. It is grist
for the political mill.
Nestle, Joan. Restricted Country. Firebrand Books c1987.
Keywords: Feminism, Lesbianism, History, Non-fiction
From the fevered interiors of 1950’s butch-femme bars, through the fervor of
the Selma-Montgomery Civil Rights march, to the hotheaded feminist sex wars
of today, the cofounder of Lesbian Herstory Archives presents it like she lives itfully engaged with her mind, her heart, and her body.
Nonas, Elisabeth. TWO COPIES OF For Keeps. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1985.
Keywords: Lesbian, Erotic, Romance
Kate’s lover has left her. The television moive based on her script has been
placed on hold. And now she is on a chaotic path that leads her to the enigmatic
Hilary, to the delicious Nicky, to the dazzling and frightening Lauren.
Nonas, Elisabeth. A Room Full of Women. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1990.
Keywords: Lesbian, Drama, Romance, Fiction
Unlike her friends, advertising designer Blair Wilder revels in her freedom,
disdaining a permanent lesbian relationship. Real estate attorney Natalie
Bazarian, as she approaches forty, envies Blair’s freedom. Yet she herself is the
envy of her friends over her ten-year relationship with film editor Annie Weiss.
However, all is not fun and games in Blair’s bachelor existence. The mother who
repudiated Blair for her lesbian lifestyle continues to haunt her life. Next door
neighbor Ted grows ever weaker in his battle with AIDS. And new love interest
Roxanne awakens to many echoes of a lost relationship. For Natalie, young,
idealistic Maggie has come into her life, and Natalie is seriously questioning everything: her career, the
unremitting pressure of being a role model for her community of friends, and most of all her
relationship with Annie.
N.S.B. Figuring it Out. c2006.
Keywords: Lesbian, Coming Out, Memoir, Diary
A lesbian's personal story of recognizing and accepting her sexual orientation
and coming out as gay - as expressed in her journals and other writing over the
course of 9 years. An attempt to expose the internal struggle a person must go
through - the inner monologue as it progresses from a subconscious knowledge
of a difference, to consciousness and all of the phases that make up the journey
to living the truth.
Nugent, Beth. City of Boys. Alfred A. Knopf c1992.
Keywords: Short Stories, Fiction, Lesbian, Romance, Drama
A collection of short stories. In the title story, “City of Boys,” a small town girl
flees home and domineering mother. She is almost immediately picked up off
the streets of New York City by an older woman with whom she has an
obsessive love affair. During the summer of “Locuasts,” Susan, not quite
sixteen, envies her Cousin Francine’s sex appeal while she herself carefully
maneuvers to avoid the attentions of her middle-aged uncle. And more.
Nutter, Chris. Way out, the: Gay Man’s guide to Freedom no Matter if You’re
in Denial, Closeted, Half In, Half Out, Just Out or Been around the Block.
Health Communications, c2006.
Keywords: Gay, Men, Coming Out, Memoir, Non-fiction
Christopher Lee Nutter came out of the closet in 1994 with a bang in a
brutally honest essay for Details magazine, thrusting him into the spotlight as
an unofficial mentor for gay men across the country. Twelve years later in this
edgy memoir, Nutter chronicles his journey from closeted Southern boy to
gay New York bartender and party boy, sharing everything he has learned
about how gay men are taught to see themselves in a fundamentally
destructive way. Assaulted with programming from the ‘gay’ and ‘straight’
worlds alike, gay men are left to ask themselves, am I the coolest, sexiest, trendiest thing ever, or an
illegitimate cancer on society? Nutter contests that gay men are neither, but rather conscious beings on
the path to realizing that they have the power to create their likes according to their own will rather
than the will of the world, or the illusion of their fears.
Nye, Jr. S., Joseph. Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to
Theory and History. Longman c2003.
Keywords: Political, Conflict, Non-fiction, International
Understanding International Conflicts balances history and theory to give
students of international politics and framework for analyzing the past and
using it to understand the issues confronting use today.
O’Donnell, Mary, Pollock, Kater, Leoffler, Val & Saunders, Ziessel. Lesbian
Health Matters! . Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center c1979.
Keywords: Lesbian, Health, Self-help
This booklet touches upon specific aspects of our society that, for lesbians,
make having healthy bodies and minds an even harder struggle. During the
process of bringing about change in our society lesbians need to keep in mind
that we’ve got to take care of, and bring about change in, ourselves, our sisters
and our families, while at the same time confronting the larger issues that are
making us sick. We need to develop the balance between being strong enough
to fight social injustices and lesbian oppression, and gentle enough to nurture
our bodies, our minds, and each other.
Orend, Brian. Human Rights Concept and Context. Broadview Press c2002.
Keywords: Political, Legal
What are human rights? What justifies us in believing we have them? What are
rights-holders and duty-bearers? Who should bear the costs and responsibilities
for making human rights real? Why have some criticized the human rights
perspective> And how can those supportive of human rights best respond? These
and other conceptual issues are discussed in full in the first part of this book. The
second part offers a detailed account of how the human rights idea came to be
such a powerful force in the contemporary world; it traces the evolution of
human rights from their origins to their present position in our daily lives, in political struggles, and in
both national and international law.
Pass, Gail. Surviving Sisters. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1989.
Keywords: Lesbian, Erotic, Drama, War
Irena Lampros has lost two brothers, one to death in Vietnam, one to sanctuary
and then death in Canada. Constantine, the tyrannical patriarch of her family,
considers one son a hero, the other a disgrace. Alexandra, Irena’s sister, wages
an enraged and lethal war of attrition against Caonstantine, demanding honor
for both her brothers. Young Irena, drawn into the deepening tragedy of this
family battle, is herself soon transformed into a militant and implacable
avenger. Amid this strife, she becomes research assistant to archeologist Maggie
Leland. The formidable, seemingly self-contained Leland is assembling artifacts
traceable to an ancient earth goddess. When Irena confronts her passion for this intimidating woman, a
different emotional war breaks out on a wholly new front.
Edited By: Penelope, Julia and Wolfe J., Susan. The Original Coming Out
Stories. The Crossing Press c1980.
Keywords: Coming Out, Lesbian, Non-fiction
For many lesbians, the process of coming out remains an intensely emotional
and often painful experience, even in the 1980’s. The stories of the first edition
recorded the struggle of contributors to name their lesbian identity, a process
that often preceded by years their decision to act on their love for women.
Piercy, Marge. Circles On The Water. Alfred A. Knopf Inc. c1982.
Keywords: Poetry
Marge Piercy writes about her poetry selected for “Circles on the Water.”
“Usually the voice of the poem is mine. The experiences, however, are not
always mine, and although my major impulse to autobiography has played
itself out in poems rather than novels, I have never made a distinction
between working up my own experience and other people’s. I imagine that I
speak for a constituency, living and dead, and that I give utterance to energy,
insight, words flowing from many lives. I have always desired that my poems
work for others, be useful.”
Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Henry
Holt and Company, Inc. c1986.
Keywords: War, Non-fiction, Gay, Rights, Politics
This is the first comprehensive book to appear in English on the fate of
homosexuals in Nazi Germany. The author, a refugee from Nazi Germany,
examines the climate and conditions that gave rise to the vicious campaign
against Germany’s gays, directed by Himmler and his SS, a war that resulted in
tens of thousands of arrests and thousands of deaths. In this Nazi Crusade,
homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps where, forced to wear
pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy. The
horror of camp life is revealed through diaries, documents never before
translated from the German, and interviews with and letters from survivors.
Edited By: Pollack, Sandra and Knight D., Denise. Contemporary Lesbian
Writers of the United States. Greenwood Press c1993.
Keywords: Lesbian, Non-fiction, Historical, Biographical
The first comprehensive biographical, critical, and bibliographical source on
lesbian writers. This reference book features essays on 100 contemporary
writers of poetry, fiction, and drama in the United States. Many had written as
self-identified lesbians at some point during the 1970-1992 period of coverage.
Each essay comprises a biography, with personal history often derived from
interviews, an analysis of major works and themes, an overview of the critical
reception, and bibliographies of primary works and of critical studies and
reviews. The volume introduction, by Tucker P. Farley, situates contemporary lesbian literature in its
historical and political contexts. Appendices list publishers of lesbian writers and periodicals featuring
lesbian writing. An extensive bibliography provides nonfiction resources focusing on lesbian issues,
including works in psychology, sexuality, parenting, health, history, and theory, as well as literature.
Potter, Clare. The Lesbian Periodicals Index. Naiab Press, c 1986.
Keywords: Lesbian, Literature, Periodicals
An index of Lesbian writing and more.
Pratt Bruce, Minnie. Crime Against Nature. Firebrand Books c1990.
Keywords: Lesbian, Poetry, Drama
In spare and forceful language Minnie Bruce Pratt tells a moving story of loss
and recuperation, discovering linkages between her own disenfranchisement
and the condition of other minorities. She makes it plain, in this masterful
sequence of poems, that the real crime against nature is violence and
oppression.
Pratt Bruce, Minnie. We Say We Love Each Other. Spinsters Ink c1985.
Keywords: Lesbian, Poetry
These poems- sensual, fierce, accurate- touch me in many familiar places. Yet,
they are also feel new and original, a poetry perhaps only possible now, in this
very decade. Her poems about the south, her childhood, the love between
women are wonderfully detailed, precise, evocative and wise. She is a poet of
clear expression. Her voice is powerful. Her song true.
Princeton Review. The Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life. Princeton
Review, c2011.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual, College, Self-help
A comprehensive resource for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
students and their allies.
Ramstetter, Victoria. The Marquise and the Novice: A Lesbian Gothic
Novel. The Naiad Press Inc. c1983.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Erotic
In a sumptuous chateau in nineteenth century provincial France, an innocent
Irish girl, fresh from convent restraints but prepared to return to take religious
vows, meets a beautiful, wealthy, sophisticated older woman, a widow whose
son she is to tutor. What could be more deliciously titillating than the erotic
encounter of young red-haired Kathleen Thorn, aching with repressed
sensuality and the Marquise Anneliese de Rochelle, the dark Lesbian noble
woman whose raven tresses whip wildly in the wind as she gallops off to a
rendezvous in riding attire?
Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. Signet. c1957.
Keywords: Mystery, Fantasy
The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the
world- and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas
Shrugged is unlike any other book you have every read. It is a mystery story,
not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder- and rebirth- of
a man’s spirit.
Read, Kirk. How I Learned to Snap: A Small Town Coming-Out and Comingof-Age Story. Hill Street Press, c2001.
Keywords: Memoir, Gay, Coming Out, Non-fiction
With bold Southern humor, journalist and performer Kirk Read takes readers
on a guided tour of his precocious and courageous adolescence. Recalling his
years as an openly gay high school student, Read describes how he navigated
the hallways with his sense of humor and dignity intact. He fondly recalls his
initiations into sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, as well as his "shy as neon" acts of
rabble rousing during high school. How I Learned to Snap is a refreshingly
victim-free story in which queer teenagers are creative, resilient, and
ultimately heroic.
Edited By: Reti, Irene and Sien, Shoney. Cats (and their Dykes). Herbooks
c1991.
Keywords: Cats, Lesbian
Stories, poems, photographs, essays, political analysis, love stories. There is
something between cats and women that is not based on domination or
condescending adoration. There is something the cat is trying to tell us, if we
would only listen.
Robertson, William. K.D. Lang: Carrying the Torch. ECW Press c1992.
Keywords: Biography, Non-fiction, Lesbian
Canadian born K.D. Lang sent shock waves through the music establishment
by playing country music while dressed something like a punk rocker and
claiming to be the reincarnation of the late country music star Patsy Cline.
Since the release of her first album, A Truly Western Experience, in 1984, Lang
has galvanized listeners and the media alike with her amazing voice while
battling for a place in the music industry and fighting off prejudice against her
unique appearance and attitude.
Rule, Jane. Memory Board. The Naiad Press, Inc. 1987.
Keywords: Drama, Lesbian
For forty years David Crown has kept his twin sister Diana a secret. Until his wife’s
death, not even his children have known about Diana and her lifetime companion
Constance. But now David seeks to bridge over those years and recapture the
closeness of childhood, to become part of Diana’s life, to have her be a major
part of his. For the independent, irascible Diana, the overtures from her brother
are an unwelcome intrusion. Retired from her medical practice, she spends her
days fully occupied with Constance, for whom memory is increasingly a sometime
thing. David, growing ever more fond of the enchanting Constance, struggles to win her trust, and Diana
is inexorably drawn into the event and drama of David’s family life.
Rule, Jane. This is Not For You. The Naiad Press, Inc. 1988.
Keywords: Lesbian, Fiction, Romance
This Is Not For You, perhaps Jane Rule’s most self-consciously literary and
philosophical novel, tells the story of a young woman in the late 1950s and early
1960s as she negotiates her lesbian sexuality. This epistolary lament - an unsent
letter to a lover who was never quite a lover - depicts New York and London and
a group of friends as they search, sometimes in vain, for a sustaining love in a
time of strict societal constraints.
Edited By: Ruitenbeek M., Hendrik. The Problem Of Homosexuality In Modern
Society. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. c1963.
Keywords: Gay, Anthology
It is the consensus of both psychoanalysts and sociologists that homosexuality is
apparently increasing in contemporary society. The reasons why this should be so
are not easily discovered. In an attempt to provide information generally
inaccessible to the lay reader, this splendid anthology of sixteen essays by
outstanding students of the subject probes deeply into this enigma by presenting
a psychoanalytic discussion of the genesis and treatment of homosexuality from
many important and differing points of view, and by including several essays which examine the topic
purely as a sociological phenomenon.
Sands, Regine. Travels with Diana Hunter. Lace Publications c1986.
Keywords: Lesbian, Erotic, Romance, Comedy
When 18 year old Diana Hunter runs away from her hometown of Lubbock,
Texas, she begins an unparalleled odyssey of love, lust, and humor that spans
almost twenty years. The array of women drawn to Diana’s wit and body is only
overshadowed by Diana’s own versatile capacity for meeting their amorous
needs.
Sarton, May. Joanna and Ulysses. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. c1987.
Keywords: Romance, Comedy
For Joanna the month’s holiday was to be an escape, a chance to paint and think
and release the bitter memories of the war in Greece and of her mother’s death.
She had chosen the dazzling island of Santorini, remote and inaccessible as her
own heart. The holiday was to be a solitary experience. But that was before
Joanna met Ulysses, the mistreated little donkey.
Sarton, May. Miss Pickthorn and Mr. Hare. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
c1966.
Keywords: Fable
Miss Jane Pickthorn, known to her neighbors in the small New England village as
the ‘Maiden Porcupine,” is highly annoyed when someone moves into the
tumbledown henhouse across the road. The fact that the new tenant is the quiet
and shy Mr. Hare means nothing to her. He is an intruder and interferes with her
solitary round of daily pleasures. As these enjoyments consist in reading Latin
verse and eating McIntosh apples, the Village Selectmen are less than receptive
to her demand that they abate the nuisance of Mr. Hare. He is, they point out,
unobtrusive. He may, if the henhouse proves winter proof, become a taxpayer and add to the village
revenues.
Scoppettone, Sandra. TWO COPIES OF: Everything You Have is
Mine. Ballantine Books c1991.
Keywords: Fiction, Mystery, Drama, Lesbian
Lauren Laurano is surely not the first gay P.I. in New York City, but she is in a
class by herself. Smart, stylish, and self-determined, she lives with her longtime
lover, Kip, in a Greenwich Village brownstone. Their lives together usually
simmer along nicely- except when Lauren becomes obsessed with a case. Lovely,
shy Lake Huron has been raped and reuses to talk to the police. Her older halfsister, Ursula, brings in Lauren, who seems to win the young woman’s trust.
Before she can tell Lauren everything, Lake is found dead, leaving Lauren to
decipher a 21st century clue and a dysfunctional family tree that a good, stiff
wind could blow to bits. The closer Lauren gets to the truth, the more her own life is endangered- by a
past that cannot stay buried and fragile questions that have no easy answers.
Scopperttone, Sandra. Happy Endings Are All Alike. Alyson Publications, Inc.
c1978.
Keywords: Fiction, Romance, Lesbian, Drama
It was their last summer before college, and Jaret and Peggy were in love. But as
Jaret said “it always seems as if when something great happens, then something
lousy happens soon after.” Soon her worst fears turned into brute reality.
Sewell, Richard H. A House Divided: Sectionalism and Civil War 1848-1865. Johns
Hopkins University Press, c1988.
Keywords: History, Slavery, War, Non-fiction
What caused the Civil War? Perhaps no question in American History has
attracted more interest or sparked more debate. While recognizing the impact of
other political disputes and of such concerns as temperance and nativism,
Richard Sewell refocuses attention on slavery as the root of sectionalism and
ultimately, the war. A House Divided traces the growth of bitter sectional discord
in the years after 1848, when the acquisition of new American territories
rekindled old controversies over the expansion of slavery.
Sexton, Anne. The Complete Poems. Houghton Mifflin Company c1981.
Keywords: Poetry, Lesbian
The stuff of Anne’s life, mercilessly dissected, is here in poems. Of all the
confessional poets, none has had quite Sexton’s courage to make a clean breast
of it. She drew her poems from a great depth in herself, and they continue to stir
us. Her voice remains a distinctive one in American poetry of the past half
century.
Shockley Allen, Ann. Loving Her. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1987.
Keywords: Fiction, Lesbian, Romance, Drama
Terry is a wealthy and successful writer. Renay is a pianist at a supper club. Terry
is white; Renay is black. Forced by pregnancy to marry the irresponsible abusive
Perry lee, Renay is struggling for economic and spiritual survival. When she
finally flees with her young daughter, Terry offers protection and a love beyond
all Renay’s erotic imaginings. Terry’s wealth and her loving arms are fragile
protection against the turbulence of the world that confront their love and
against Perry Lee’s murderous rage that Renay would leave him for a
‘bulldagger”.
Sigal, Pete. Infamous Desire: Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America.
University of Chicago Press, c2003.
Keywords: Essays, History, Latin America, Gay, Homosexuality, Non-Fiction
What did it mean to be a man in colonial Latin America? More specifically what
did indigenous and Iberian groups think of men who had sexual relations with
other men? Providing comprehensive analyses of how male homosexuality’s
were represented in areas under Portuguese and Spanish control, Infamous
Desire is the first book-length attempt to answer such questions. In a study that
will be indispensable for anyone studying sexuality in colonial Latin America,
seven esteemed contributors view sodomy through the lends of desire and power, relating to male
homosexual behavior to broader gender systems that defined masculinity and femininity.
Simon, Linda. The Biography of Alice B. Toklas. Avon Books c1977.
Keywords: Biography, Non-fiction, Lesbian
She was a cook, critic, publisher, lover, and muse to one of the most celebrated
women of letters in this century. This first biography of Gertrude Stein’s
companion, Alice B. Toklas, takes us from her childhood in San Francisco through
her instant attraction and forty year devotion to the woman she believed to be a
genius. Toklas emerges as a formidable personality, choosing and rejecting
Gertrude’s friends from their brilliant coterie: Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald,
Picasso, Matisse, and many more.
Smith, Artemis. Hark The Pterodactyl. Vague Press c1963.
Keywords: Poetry
The poems and pieces in this collection are from her “notes and diary 1960-63,”
Out of which her first surrealist novel emerged. Part of this period was spent
touring fifteen European cities on a bicycle. An ardent disciple of Gertrude Stein
and EE Cummings, her own work is marked by a sharp return to realism within a
framework of ambiguity often recalling works of Rousseau and Dali.
Soble, Alan. The Philosophy of Sex and Love. Paragon House, c1998.
Keywords: Non-fiction, Love, Philosophy, Sexuality
Alan Soble’s book is a wonderfully rich, engaging, humane, witty, literate, but
above all, philosophy rigorous study of love and sex. It offers an impeccably fairminded and comprehensive guide to what is now an extensive and very varied
philosophical literature on these subjects. Soble provides a judicious and
intelligent appraisal of the many claims made about gender, sexual perversion,
marriage, and eternal love by a long and not always distinguished line of
conservatives, liberals, and feminists, without losing either his sense of balance or
of humor.
Stein, Gertrude. Fernhurst, Q.E.D., and Other Early Writings. Liveright c1971.
Keywords: Fiction, Short Stories, Lesbian
Gertrude Stein began the creative work that was to earn her the reputation as one
of the most original writers of this century with the three pieces of this volume.
Fernhurst, a fictional episode based on a Bryn Mawr scandal of the early 1900’s,
explores the labyrinth of love between man and woman and between woman and
woman. Q.E.D finalizes an early Stein romance- an affair complicated by her
frustrated attempt to fathom the soul of the woman she loved, and doomed
finally by the existence of a rival. The third selection is an unpublished early draft
of The Making of Americans, which records Stein’s struggle toward maturity as a person and as an artist.
Stein, Gertrude. Three Lives. New American Library c1985.
Keywords: Fiction, Stories, Romance, Sexuality, Lesbian
Gertrude Stein’s first significant work presents extraordinary psychological
portraits of three women. “The Good Anna” is the story of a kindly but
domineering German serving woman. “The Gentle Lena” tells of a passive
German girl who apathetically endures her miserable life until she dies in
childbirth. These two stark stories contrast sharply with the third, “Melanctha”
the passionate depiction of a young black woman’s sexual searching and tragic
love affair. Gertrude Stein claimed that the book’s style was influenced by the
Cezanne portrait under which she sat while writing. The repetitive sentences,
juxtaposition of sounds, and simple language follow her famous method of composition: “to begin again
and again,” to “use everything,” and to maintain a “continuous present.”
Stevenson, Sylvia. Surplus. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1986.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction
Often the road to heaven on earth, which some call happiness and some mirage,
is a tangled pathway, broadening slowly as it winds along, till at last the haven is
in sight. But now and again, there is no road at all. One step out of the thicket,
and there are the white walls and golden turrets, so near that they dazzle you. So
it was for Sally Wraith. She came out that June morning, expecting simply to give
a message to a friend of Miss Landison’s. And that morning she first met Averil.
Stewart-Park, Angela and Cassidy, Jules. We’re Here: Conversations with
Lesbian Women. Quartet Books Limited c1977.
Keywords: Lesbian, Sociology, Non-fiction, Interviews
Countless volumes have been written about ‘lesbians’ for male sexual
titillation, so it is important that there should be a book which presents
ordinary lesbians to the world in an open and honest way. Here are women of
various ages and backgrounds talking about themselves, their preference for
other women, about the Women’s Movement, the pressures of society, and
about their particular problems and the decisions they have had to make.
Strieber, Whitley. The Hunger. Pocket Books c1981.
Keywords: Mystery, Drama, Lesbian, Fiction
She knows the uses of the dark and the purpose of her own maddening beauty.
She has taken many lovers to share unheard of ecstasies, undreamed of
terrors. She will take another now. No one can resist her ultimate embrace. No
man, no woman, is safe from the Hunger.
Stryker, Susan. Transgender History. Seal Studies, c2008.
Keywords: Transgender, History, Non-fiction
This book covers American transgender history from the mid-twentieth
century to today. From the transsexual and transvestite communities in the
years following World War II to trans radicalism and social change in the ‘60s
and ‘70s to the gender issues witnessed throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s, this
introductory text will give you a foundation for understanding the
developments, changes, strides, and setbacks of trans studies and the trans
community in the United States.
Taylor Ortiz, Sheila. Spring Forward Fall Back. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1985.
Keywords: Lesbian, Fantasy, Romance, Fiction
This story focuses on two women, separated by twenty-six miles of ocean,
whose lives are passing through distinct crises. Elizabeth Rivers, 17, gradually
falls in love with her English teacher, must at summer’s close, sever herself
from her lover, family, and home on Catalina Island to begin the next passage
of her life. On the California mainland, at the same point in time, Marci Tyson,
29 and pregnant, buys her own house, leaves her husband and has a child. Ten
years later, in a bar called the Daily Plant, two women meet and eventually fall
in love, discover that their individual striving has always been a part of the
same cyclic and mythic movement of time.
Taylor, Valerie. A Novel of Lesbian Love: Journey to Fulfillment. A Volute
Book c1982.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction, Series
Erika Frohmann, Jewish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, relocated in the
United States, meets Marilyn- her first serious woman lover. A welcome and
nicely written piece, with an appealing fictional lesbian character. #1 in the
Erika Forhmann series.
Taylor, Valerie. Prism. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1982.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction
Who said “life beings at 40?” For Eldora it began at 60, when she met Ann, a
closeted lesbian who had retired from her job and traded the hustle of big city
life for the solitude of a small town to live out her remaining years. In her
previous novels Valerie Taylor described what it was like in our youth and
middle years. Now she brings us a tender story of two “mature” women who
discover that love and sex and dreams are not just for the young.
Taylor, Valerie. Return to Lesbos. A Naiad Press, c1982.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction, Series
After years of denying her Lesbianism, Frances Ollenfield takes the steps that will
lead her to Erika Frohmann, and the beginnings of their life together. #3 in the
Erika Frohmann series.
Taylor, Valerie. Ripening. Banned Books c1988.
Keywords: Lesbian, Romance, Fiction, Series
In what Valerie Taylor calls ‘the conclusion of the Erika Frohmann series,’ we
follow the lives of Erika and Frances from the late sixties to the eighties. The
tears, the laughter, the setbacks, and the small triumphs, all these combine to
create a feeling of strength and unity as their relationship spans more than two
decades. The novel is written through the eyes of two women who have seen
many changes over the years and have always relied on the one constant in their
lives, each other.
Taylor, Valerie. A World Without Men. The Naiad Press, Inc. c1982.
Keywords: Romance, Lesbian, Fiction, Series
Erika becomes involved with Kate in the second book of her continuing
adventures as a lesbian. #2 in the Erika Frohmann series.
Thompson, Karen and Andrzejewski, Julie. Why Can’t Sharon Kowalski Come
Home? Spinsters/Aunte Lute Book Company c1988.
Keywords: Non-fiction, Homophobia, Biography, Political, Lesbian
In 1983, Sharon Kowalski was seriously injured when her car was struck by a
drunk driver, leaving her unable to move or to communicate in traditional ways.
Karen, her lover of four years, was by Sharon’s side constantly, helping her in the
arduous fight to regain basic life-skills. In 1985, the court awarded Sharon’s father
sole guardianship, and within 24 hours, he denied Karen visitation rights.
Toklas B., Alice. The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. Harper & Row, Publishers c1984.
Keywords: Food, Lesbian, Auto-Biographical, Non-fiction
Alice Babette Toklas was born in San Francisco and moved in 1907 to France,
where she and Gertrude Stein presided over what was perhaps the most famous
salon of the century, frequented by Ernest Hemmingway, Alfred North
Whitehead, F. Scott Fitzgerald and more. Through many rich years, two world
wars, the two led an extraordinary life, and its flavor is fully captured in this very
special cookbook. Filled with marvelous stories and forthright opinion on matters
of gastronomy and art, this book recounts the comings and goings of this brilliant
American pair and the splendid meals they shared.
Torres, Lourdes. Tortilleras: Hispanic and U.S. Latina Lesbian Expression,
Inmaculada Perpetusa-Seva. Temple University Press, c2003.
Keywords: Lesbian, Culture, Hispanic, Latina, Anthology
The first anthology to focus exclusively on queer reading of Spanish, Latin
American, and U.S. Latina lesbian literature and culture, Tortilleras interrogates
issues of gender, national identity, race, ethnicity, and class to show the
impossibility of projecting a singular Hispanic and Latina lesbian. Examining
carefully the works of a range of lesbian writers and performance artists,
including Carmelita Tropicana and Christina Peri Rossi, among others, Tortelleras
creates a picture of the complicated and multi-textured contributions of Latina and Hispanic lesbians to
literature and culture. More than simply describing this sphere of creativity, the contributors also
recover from history the long veiled existence of this world, exposing its roots and its impact on lesbian
culture, and making the power of lesbian performance and literature visible.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-By-Year Record, From
Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt & Company c1994.
Keywords: Women, History/Herstory
These chronicles aim in some small measure to correct a historical oversight
and to provide a compact overview of women in history. Designed as a handy
desk reference, the chronology relates events as they happened, giving precise
dates and details wherever possible, to record landmarks in the rise of women
through the years. It integrates all facets of women’s role, how women have
been treated, the developments that have most affect them, what women have achieved, what some of
them have said and what has been said about them.
Van Buuren, Hanneke. The Last Five Years of Women’s Emancipation in the
Netherlands.
Keywords: Women, Emancipation, Law, Political
In the Netherlands, as in other countries this second emancipation wave came
not altogether unexpectedly. Round about 1840 feminism made a hesitant start
in the circles of protestant women from the “revival” movement, who exhorted
to a strict religious experience based on sentiment. For Dutch men it is not
uncommon to speak depreciatively toward women.
Edited By: Vida, Ginny. Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book. PrenticeHall, Inc. c1978.
Keywords: Women, Lesbian, Feminism, History, Political
Reflecting on growing awareness of the special concerns of lesbians, this
ambitious project embodies the spirit of the basic human rights issues of all
women and presents an explosive, stimulating exploration of the nature and
scope of lesbian life-styles. Our Right to Love succeeds in erasing the myths, the
stereotypes, and misjudgments concerning female homosexuality.
Vivien, Renée. The Woman of the Wolf and other stories. The Gay Press c1980.
Keywords: Poems, Short Stories, Fiction, Lesbian
Written in 1904, this book combines powerful characters and exciting narratives
with the poetic clarity of style and vision so apparent in all of Vivien’s other
books. Part of the glittering set of American expatriate lesbians who gathered
about Natalie Barney, Vivien’s life and work are the stuff legends are made of.
Vivien manages to touch on all the themes and ideas that obsessed her
throughout her short life.
Waters, Sarah. Fingersmith. Riverhead Books, c2002.
Keywords: Adventure, Drama, Fiction
Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby
farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs.
Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a
transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the
heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all
arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing
proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve
gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in
Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad,
and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of
her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and
care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of
thrills and reversals.
Waters, Sarah. Tipping the Velvet. Riverhead Books, c1998.
Keywords: Erotica, Lesbian, Romance, Drama, Gender Queer, Fiction
"Lavishly crammed with the songs, smells, and costumes of late Victorian England"
(The Daily Telegraph), this delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures
of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of
Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a
cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. When Kitty is called up to
London for an engagement on "Grease Paint Avenue, " Nan follows as her dresser
and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart,
and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education—a
sort of Moll Flanders in drag—finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.
Drawing comparison to the work of Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters' novel is a feast for the senses—
an erotic, lushly detailed historical novel that bursts with life and dazzlingly casts the turn of the century
in a different light.
Wickham, Ken N. Other Genders, the: Androgyne, Genderqueer, Non-Binary,
Gender Variant.
Keywords: Gender, Non- Binary, Non-fiction
This book tries to introduce this seldom talked about subject of other genders. It
tries to present some basic information concerning those that identify as nonbinary. Basic analysis is given towards several surveys and polls. Aspects of gender
are shown in different gender varieties, other than male and female. The
challenges that non-binary genders face are revealed. Arguments for those that
oppose non-binary gender are presented.
Witt, Lynn, Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus. Out in All Directions: The Almanac of
Gay and Lesbian America. Wright Creative Associates, c1995.
Keywords: Gay, Lesbian, Almanac
This book takes the mystery out of gay and lesbian history, lifts the lid off pink
politics, and paints the town lavender with hundreds of lively articles and
intriguing facts covering every aspect of gay life, culture, and community. From
debunking myths to creating family, from fighting for rights to battling AIDS, from
showbiz superstars to military heroes, dozens of notable contributors come out
in all directions, providing both a useful guide to issues and resources and an
entertaining and informative mirror of the American lesbian and gay experience.
Winterson, Jeanette. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. The Atlantic Monthly
Press c1985.
Keywords: Memoir, Lesbian, Religion, Non-fiction
Adopted into an evangelical household in the dour industrial Midlands- where
the heathen are everywhere, especially next door- Jeanette cuts her teeth on the
knowledge that she is on of God’s elect. She knows all the verses to “What a
Friend We Have in Jesus,” and very little about the world. Although never exactly
lamblike, Jeanette embroiders grim religious mottoes and shakes her little
tambourine for Jesus like a good missionary-to-be. But a this budding evangelical
comes of age, and comes to terms with her preference for her own sex, the
peculiar balance of her God-fearing household crumbles. Her mother, the pastor, and the flock go to
work on Jeanette’s demons, denouncing her as someone “to whom it is impossible to speak the truth”.
Zanger, Molleen. The Year Seven. The Naiad Press, Inc. 1993.
Keywords: Drama, Adventure, Fiction, Fantasy, Lesbian
It is an ordinary evening in July. Vic sits in front of her television set: “One minute
Connie Chung was smiling her elegant understated smile and promising to be back
in a moment, and then the TV went out…” A power shortage, Vic is sure. But when
she awakens the next morning, the world of human and animal life as she knows it
has come to an end. Stunned, grieving, incredulous, she locates a survivor. Nance
too is dazed by the catastrophe, but stubbornly determined to continue her life by
the strait-laced rules she has always known. Vic discovers a small band of female
survivors. Among them is BJ, resilient and confident that she can provide some order and leadership,
and willing to wait for Vic to deal with her sexual obsession with nancy.
(Organized by color, then alphabetical by author)
RED
Ed. Broe, Mary Lynn. Silence and Power: A Reevaluation of Djuna Barnes.
Southern Illinois University Press. 1991.
Keywords: Women Writers, Literary Criticism
Roughly chronological, these essays explore Barnes’ early work in the New
York newspaper world of the ‘teens, proceed through the 1954 publication of
The Antiphon, and include several approaches to such works as Ryder, Ladies
Almanack, and Nightwood. This judicious mix of essays—many of them
illustrated by photographs and drawings—presents a comprehensive picture
of the creative imagination of Djuna Barnes.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland: A Lost Feminist Utopian Novel. Pantheon.
1979.
Keywords: Gender Roles, Feminism, Utopian Novel
On the eve of World War I, an all-female society is discovered somewhere in
the distant reaches of the earth by three male explorers who are now forced to
re-examine their assumptions about women's roles in society.
Foner, Nancy. From Ellis Island to JFK. Yale University Press. 2002.
Keywords: History, United States, Immigration
Two great waves of immigration -- one at the start of the twentieth century
and another in its final decades -- transformed the history and personality of
New York City. This book, the first in-depth comparison of New York's two
most recent immigration eras, reassesses the myths that surround both sets of
immigrants.
Hart, Linda. Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays of Contemporary Women’s
Theatre. University of Michigan Press. 1989.
Keywords: Feminism, Theory, Women, Women’s Studies, Literature
The first scholarly collection to discuss the intersection of feminism and dramatic
theory.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Harvard University Press.
1987.
Keywords: Biography, Slavery, African American, Black, Women
This autobiographical account by a former slave is one of the few extant
narratives written by a woman. Written and published in 1861, it delivers a
powerful portrayal of the brutality of slave life. Jacobs speaks frankly of her
master's abuse and her eventual escape, in a tale of dauntless spirit and faith.
Madden, David. A Pocketful of Prose: Vintage Short Fiction. Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich College Publishers. 1992.
Keywords: Fiction, Anthology, Women
An inexpensive and concise alternative to traditional fiction anthologies, A
POCKETFUL OF PROSE: VINTAGE SHORT FICTION contains 18 stories that
research reveals to be among the most commonly studied in classes around the
country.
Ng, Vivien. Madness in Late Imperial China: From Illness to Deviance.
University of Oklahoma Press. 1990.
Keywords: China, History, Mental Health
In the eighteenth century Chinese law enforcement officials for the first time
perceived madness as a pressing problem. Laws were enacted to isolate the
insane from the rest of society and to punish their violent acts. Madness had
been recognized as an illness as early as the first century A.D., but in Qing China
after 1731 it was punished as a form of criminal deviance. Families had to
report to local officials the illness of a relative and participate in a mandatory
registration-and-confinement program.
Portes, Alejandro and Rumbaut, Ruben C. Immigrant America: A Portrait.
University of California Press. 2006.
Keywords: Immigration, Economics, Politics
Recognized for its superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the
United States, this book probes the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining
questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers, and explores the
psychological consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation.
The authors look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the
problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, explain how
immigrants incorporate themselves into the American economy, and examine the trajectories of their
children from adolescence to early adulthood. With a vital new chapter on religion—and fresh analyses
of topics ranging from patterns of incarceration to the mobility of the second generation and the
unintended consequences of public policies—this updated edition is indispensable for framing and
informing issues that promise to be even more hotly and urgently contested as the subject moves to the
center of national debate.
Stein, Gertrude. Paris France. Liveright. 1970.
Keywords: Gertrude Stein, France, Memoir
Paris France is a memoir written in a “stream of consciousness” style. It is
interpreted as Gertrude Stein’s personal view of France as a country, and the
French people. She observes the French eating, drinking, crossing the street,
and carrying out their day in no other way that deviates from their "frenchness". The word "French" quickly becomes a state of being or state of existence.
A noun and an adjective. Throughout the novel, the idea of being French in
France is communicated to the reader in a raw, confident, matter of fact way.
Because of this, some critics believe the novel was not meant to be written as a completely accurate
view of the French culture. Stein refers often to fashion, autonomy, logic, tradition and civilization as
crucial parts of the French state of being, any straying of which would be straying from being French,
regardless of actual nationality.
Toklas, Alice B. What is Remembered. North Point Press. 1985.
Keywords: Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein, Memoir
This is Alice B. Toklas’ only account of her life with Gertrude Stein. In an
anecdotal, matter of fact, and witty style, Ms. Toklas vividly portrays a
relationship that spanned two World Wars and included friendships with some
of the most celebrated literary and artistic figures of their time.
Wilson, Harriet. Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. Vintage.
1983.
Keywords: Anthology, Literature
This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who
have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have
known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with
old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare s finesse to Oscar Wilde s
wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as
The Pilgrim s Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to
immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have
addition to any library.
ORANGE
Conley, Ellen Alexander. The Chosen Shore: Stories of Immigrants. University
of California Press. 2004.
Keywords: Immigration, Korea, Vietnam, Ghana, America, Oral History
A Korean street child is adopted into an upper-middle-class suburban home. A
Vietnamese monk dishes up fast food to fund a spiritual center. A woman saves
for a home back in Ghana, where she will never live. All are immigrants to the
United States, known to most of their fellow Americans only as statistics. The
stories that statistics can't tell unfold in this book, in which twenty-three recent
immigrants recall navigating the paradoxes, pitfalls, and triumphs of becoming
Americans. Candid, evocative, and richly detailed, their oral histories comprise a compelling portrait of
the changing face of the American population.
Faderman, Lillian. Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from
the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Penguin Books. 1995.
Keywords: Lesbianism, Lesbian History, Literature, Anthology
This is a literary anthology with each piece set in an historical and literary
context that seeks to redefine four centuries of lesbian writing. From the verse
of Sappho in 600BC to Radclyffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" published in
1928, there is little women's writing that is recognised as "lesbian". A review of
the shifting concept of "lesbian literature" is offered, followed by examples of six
different genres - Romantic Friendship, Sexual Inversion, Exotic Inversion, Exotic
and Evil Lesbians, Lesbian Encoding, Lesbian Feminism and Post-Lesbian Feminism. Works as diverse as
Willa Cather's "My Antonia" and Virginia Woolf's "Orlando", poetry by Gertrude Stein and Amy Lowell,
fiction by Carson McCullers, Helen Hulll and Alice Walker are examined here. In addition, writing by men
who focused on women's relationship is included. This is Faderman's own personal search for a
definition of lesbian literature.
Kolander, Cheryl A., Ballard, Danny J., and Chandler, Cynthia K. Contemporary
Women’s Health: Issues for Today and the Future. McGraw Hill. 1995.
Keywords: Women’s Health, Lifestyle, Relationships
Contemporary Women's Health provides a balanced, comprehensive
understanding of the health issues affecting women. Health information is
presented within the context of the social and political forces affecting women
of all ages, races, and ethnicities. Prevention, health promotion and becoming a
wise health care consumer are emphasized throughout the text, while the impact of lifestyle issues and
relationships throughout the lifespan on women's health are explored.
Warner, Marina. Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism. University of
California Press. 1999.
Keywords: History, Women, Joan of Arc, France
Joan has a unique role in Western imagination--she is one of the few true female
heroes. Marina Warner uses her superb historical and literary skills to move
beyond conventional biography and to capture the essence of Joan of Arc, both
as she lived in her own time and as she has "grown" in the human imagination
over the five centuries since her death. She has examined the court documents
from Joan of Arc's 1431 Inquisition trial for heresy and woven the facts together with an analysis of the
histories, biographies, plays, and paintings and sculptures that have appeared over time to honor this
heroine and symbol of France's nationhood. Warner shows how the few facts that are known about the
woman Joan have been shaped to suit the aims of those who have chosen her as their hero. The book
places Joan in the context of the mythology of the female hero and takes note of her historical
antecedents, both pagan and Christian and the role she has played up to the present as the embodiment
of an ideal, whether as Amazon, saint, child of nature, or personification of virtue.
Zimet, Jaye. Strange Sisters. Studio. 1999.
Keywords: Pulp Fiction, Lesbians
Strange Sisters is a collection of the cover art of these wildly wicked pulp
novels. The women who writhe across the covers of books such as Strange
Lust ("She Wanted a Woman--Then She Met Another Woman Obsessed by the
Same Burning Hunger") and Women's Barracks ("The Frank Autobiography of
a French Girl Soldier") sizzle with sexual energy and freedom--in a high-camp
defiance of the prudish, conservative 1950s. Bold, kitschy-colorful, and fraught
with sexual tension, the covers of Strange Sisters are a siren call to the retro-groovin' man, or woman, in
your life.
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth. Pocket Books. 1938.
Keywords: Fiction, China, Life, Destiny
In The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck presents a graphic view of a China when the last
emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth
century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic
story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must
reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have
occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century. Nobel Prize
winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its
ambitions and rewards. Her brilliant novel -- beloved by millions of readers -- is a universal tale of the
destiny of man.
Ed. Hastie, Amelie, Joyrich, Lynne, Penley, Constance, Torres, Sasha, White,
Patricia and Willis, Sharon. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media
Studies. Duke University Press. 2003.
Keywords: Feminism, Culture, Media Studies, Gender, Race, Class, Sexuality
Camera Obscura provides a forum for scholarship and debate on feminism,
culture, and media studies. The journal encourages contributions in areas
such as the conjunctions of gender, race, class, and sexuality with audiovisual
culture; new histories and theories of film, television, video, and digital media;
and politically engaged approaches to a range of media practices.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan. The Norton Anthology of Literature by
Women. W.W. Norton & Company. 1985.
Keywords: Women, Literature, English, Women Writers
This volume is dedicated to exploring the history of English-speaking women's
involvement in the literary world, the traditions of which women writers have
been a part, and the experiences women share.
Hackett, Robin. Sapphic Primitivism: Productions of Race, Class, and Sexuality
in Key Works of Modern Fiction. Rutgers University. 2004.
Keywords: Race, Class, Sexuality, Women, Lesbian
Sapphic Primitivism exposes the ways that several classes of identification were
intertwined with the development of homosexual identities at the turn of the
century. "Sapphic primitivism" as a concept is not, however, a means of
disguising lesbian content. Rather, it is an aesthetic displacement device that
simultaneously exposes lesbianism and exploits modern, primitivist modes of
self-representation. Hackett provides a major contribution to literary studies
and identity theory with revelations of the mutual interests of those who study early twentieth century
constructions of race and sexuality, and twenty-first-century feminists doing antiracist and queer work.
McKay, Claude. Selected Poems. Dover Publications. 1999.
Keywords: Jamaica, Harlem Renaissance, Poetry
Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay (1889–1948) came to the U.S. in 1912
and became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
Purves, Alan C., Quattrini, Joseph A. and Sullivan, Christine I. Creating the
Writing Portfolio. NTC Publishing Group. 1995.
Keywords: Writing, Education, Professional Development
English students writing guide.
Sapiro, Virginia. Women in American Society: An Introduction to Women’s
Studies. Mayfield Publishing. 1999.
Keywords: Social Sciences, Gender, Sociology, Political Science, Education,
History
This interdisciplinary social science introduction to women's studies textbook
(not a reader) provides a comprehensive investigation of the effects of gender
on women's lives the United States. The text integrates the latest scholarship
and research from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology, psychology,
political science, education, history, economics, law, mass communications, and the health sciences.
Stein, Gertrude. 3 Lives. Vintage. 1936.
Keywords: Women, Stories
Consists of three character studies of women; "The Good Anna"--a kind but
domineering German servingwoman; "Melanctha"--an uneducated but sensitive
black girl; "The Gentle Lena"--a pathetically feebleminded young German maid.
The unforgettable stories of three women, told with poignancy and compassion
by one of the most important writers of our century.
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1956.
Keywords: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
'Orlando' is a historical fantasy in which the eponymous hero remains alive for
over three centuries, but ages physically just 36 years. Over this huge span of
time, Orlando has many strange adventures, chief among them being his sexchange from a man to a woman. Woolf uses this bizarre and intriguing notion to
examine many aspects of human existence: the difference between fact and
imagination; the utility of poetry and art; how humans conform to whatever
civilization of group they find themselves in; and (a central theme of the book) the gender roles which
society imposes so unjustly upon men and women, when - in Woolf's view - the two sexes have in reality
very similar dreams and aspirations.
Wright, Bil. Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy. Simon & Schuster Books. 2012.
Keywords: Fiction, Makeup, Men
Carlos Duarte knows that he’s fabulous. He’s got a better sense of style than half
the fashionistas in New York City, and he can definitely apply makeup like
nobody’s business. He may only be in high school, but when he lands the job of
his dreams—makeup artist at the FeatureFace counter in Macy’s—he's sure that
he’s finally on his way to great things. But the makeup artist world is competitive
and cutthroat, and for Carlos to reach his dreams, he'll have to believe in himself
more than ever.
GREEN
Ed. Donaldson, Abrams, Lewalski, David Smith, Adams, Logan, Lipking, Monk,
Ford, Stillinger, Daiches and Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology of English
Literature (5th and 6th Editions). W.W. Norton and Company. 1986.
Keywords: Anthology, English, Literature
The acclaimed Norton Anthology of English Literature, Major Authors Edition is
now available in two paperbound volumes. Volume B begins with the writings of
William Blake and continues through the Romantic Period, the Victorian Age,
through to the Twentieth Century. This new Major Authors edition is a library
between two covers—an indispensable addition to the family bookshelf.
Arliss, Laurie P. Gender Communication. Prentice Hall. 1991.
Keywords: Gender, Gender Roles, Sex Roles, Relationships, Communication
Although men and women furiously shun rigid social labels in today’s society,
stereotypes and sexual differences endure – a reality Arliss confronts in this
perceptive volume. From sexual metaphors and gender constancy, to
interpersonal relationships and role models, she corners every aspect of gender
and its influence on communication and human relations. Taking into account a
rich body of empirical evidence, Gender Communication invites readers to
evaluate their own behaviors as well as issues such as: cultural influences, gender-specific behaviors,
verbal and non-verbal communication, and the implications for male/female interaction in different
relationships. Friendships, professional relationships, and familial affiliations are thoroughly explored in
a non-blaming voice which promotes equal appeal to male and female readers. With this comprehensive
overview of gender as communication, Arliss manages to broaden the spectrum of an essentially “pink
and blue” world.
Ed. Atwan, Robert and Ozick, Cynthia. The Best American Essays 1998. Mariner
Books. 1998.
Keywords: Writing, Essays, Emotions, Life
The Best American Essays 1998 features a captivating mix of people and prose,
as guest editor Cynthia Ozick shapes a volume around the intricacies of human
memory. The reflections and recollections of Saul Bellow, John Updike, Jamaica
Kincaid, John McPhee, and Andre Dubus join company with many voices new to
the series, as an astonishing variety of writers share their deepest thought on
ecstasy and injury, ambition and failure, privacy and notoriety.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Bantam. 1983.
Keywords: Fiction, Marriage, Relationships, England, Women
Austen’s most celebrated novel tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet, a bright,
lively young woman with four sisters, and a mother determined to marry them
to wealthy men. At a party near the Bennets’ home in the English countryside,
Elizabeth meets the wealthy, proud Fitzwilliam Darcy. Elizabeth initially finds
Darcy haughty and intolerable, but circumstances continue to unite the pair. Mr.
Darcy finds himself captivated by Elizabeth’s wit and candor, while her
reservations about his character slowly vanish. The story is as much a social
critique as it is a love story, and the prose crackles with Austen’s wry wit.
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Dover Publications. 1994.
Keywords: Women, Immigration, Frontier, Fiction
One of Cather's earliest novels — written in 1918 — is the story of Antonia
Shimerda, who arrives on the Nebraska frontier as part of a family of Bohemian
emigrants. In quiet, probing depth, the story commemorates the spirit and
courage of the immigrant pioneers whose persistence and strength helped to
build America
Chiarella, Tom. Writing Dialogue: How to create memorable voices and
fictional conversations that crackle with wit, tension and nuance. Story Press.
1998.
Keywords: Writing Fiction, Writing Dialogue, Writing
Whether you're writing an argument, a love scene, a powwow among sixth
graders or scientists in a lab, this book demonstrates how to write dialogue that
sounds authentic and original. You'll learn ways to find ideas for literary
discussions by tuning in to what you hear every day. You'll learn to use gestures
instead of speech, to insert silences that are as effective as outbursts, to add
shifts in tone, and other strategies for making conversations more compelling. Nuts and bolts are
covered, too - formatting, punctuation, dialogue tags - everything you need to get your characters
talking.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Dover Publications. 1993.
Keywords: Fiction, Marriage, Infidelity, Love
First published in 1899, this novel shocked readers with its open sensuality
and uninhibited treatment of marital infidelity. The poignant, lyrical story of a
New Orleans wife who attempts to find love outside a stifling marriage, critics
have praised it as a forerunner of the modern novel.
Ferguson, Mary Anne. Images of Women in Literature. Cengage Learning.
1990.
Keywords: Women, Literature, Anthology
Images of Women in Literature is an anthology of literature short fiction,
poetry, and drama by a broad range of female and male writers depicting the
roles of women in literature.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook for Writers. Bedford/St. Martin’s
Press. 1994.
Keywords: Writing Handbook
The Bedford Handbook carries on the Hacker tradition by responding to
student writers’ needs and to the way students need their handbook to work.
Still a full-size handbook that doubles as a reference, the Handbook features
clear, straightforward advice, hand-edited sentences, a user-friendly index,
and a handy format. The eighth edition combines classic Hacker usability with
a next-generation focus on academic writing and research and new navigation
that helps students pull together advice and models for each assignment. Developed with the help of
students and teachers at more than 35 colleges and universities, the new edition reflects the ways
students write and revise in their composition course and beyond. What’s more, The Bedford Handbook
remains a portable size; it’s still a comprehensive reference that’s as easy to consult as it is to carry.
Halpern, Daniel. Our Private Lives: Journals, Notebooks, and Diaries. Harper
Collins Publishers. 1998.
Keywords: Journals, Life, Creative Writing, Writing
Journals and diaries are the most intimate form of writing, their power drawn
from the spontaneity of human experience and solitary interpretation But by
definition, these wellsprings of self-reflection are meant for the writer's eye
alone, depriving the reading public of insight into a crucial step in the creative
process. This invaluable anthology, reissued by Ecco, gathers the private
thoughts of many of the most praised writers of our time, and exposes the
write fly sensibility at its purest, freshest, and least constrained. Paul Bowies
observes the daily violence in his quarter of Tangier. Lawrence Durrell muses on the orgasm -- the hearts
pacemaker. Dmitri Nabokov records his vigil at his father's dead. And Edna O'Brien gossips snidely about
the literary gossips of London. Witty, eloquent, sardonic, or pleasantly mundane, these forty selections
pierce the writers' solitude and allow us to enter their very private world.
Horner, Winifred Bryan. Life Writing. Longman. 1996.
Keywords: Writing, Life, Culture, History
In readings that move from personal diaries and personal letters through
autobiography and biography that assumes a public readership, and finally
to the essay, the reader is led through an ever-widening audience. Starting
with pieces that draw entirely on the writer's life to biography requiring
research into another person's life, the reader moves from subjective to
objective experience and finally to the essay that attempts to put that
experience into a larger context. The selections are followed by "Musings"
which suggest features of the writing that the reader might imitate and recommendations for writing.
"Connections" presents ways in which individual pieces might be paired with others to make interesting
comparisons and to generate other writing ideas. A range of familiar and unfamiliar selections are
organized from the subjective to the objective and become increasingly difficult. They present a wide
range of writing styles to allow readers to become comfortable with many styles. In addition, these
selections represent a variety of cultures and historical periods to give readers an appreciation of other
cultures and a sense of history. A valuable book for any reader who wishes to improve their writing skills
by reading a variety of selections by a range of writers.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Harper & Row
Publishers. 1990.
Keywords: Fiction, Women, Black Women, Marriage, Love
First published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God is Zora Neal Hurston’s
most highly acclaimed novel. A classic of black literature, it tells with haunting
sympathy and piercing immediacy the story of Janie Crawford’s evolving
selfhood through trhee marriages. Fair-skinned, long haired, dreamy as a
child, Janie grows up expecting better treatment than she gets until she
meets Tea Cake, a younger man who engages her heart and spirit in equal
measure and gives her the chance to enjoy life without being one man’s mule
or another man’s adornment. It is a tribute to the author’s wisdom that though her story does not end
happily, it does draw to a satisfying conclusion. Janie is one black woman who doesn’t have to live lost in
sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, for Janie and the reader have learned “two things
everybody’s got tuh to do fuh they-selves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about
livin’ fuh themselves.”
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. Dover Publications. 1992.
Keywords: Fiction, Marriage, Drama, Play
One of the best-known, most frequently performed of modern plays,
displaying Ibsen's genius for realistic prose drama. A classic expression of
women's rights, the play builds to a climax in which the central character,
Nora, rejects a smothering marriage and life in "a doll's house."
Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Dover Publications. 1990.
Keywords: Fiction, Play, Marriage, Women, Drama
"Hedda Gabler" is one of Henrik Ibsen's greatest dramas. It is the story of its
title character, Hedda, a self-centered manipulative woman who has grown
tired of her marriage. To escape her boredom she begins to meddle in the lives
of others with truly tragic results. Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" is a monumental
achievement in dramatic tragedy.
Levine, Helane Keating and Levy, Walter. Lives Through Literature: A Thematic
Anthology. Prentice Hall. 1995.
Keywords: Anthology, Gender, Relationships
This culturally diverse, gender-balanced anthology is organized by seven types
of human relationships: Parents and Children, Sisters and Brothers, Women
and Men in Love, Wives and Husbands, Friends and Enemies, Students and
Teachers, and People Alone. Within each category, readings are also grouped
by subthemes and subject clusters—often based on essential mythical or
biblical themes. The text also features four example-filled chapters on reading skills, critical analysis, and
writing about literature. For anyone—regardless of age, culture, or gender—in need of a catalyst to
generate dynamic literary discussion and stimulating writing topics.
Ludwig, Richard M. and Perry, Marvin B. Jr. 9 Short Novels. D. C. Heath & Co.
1965
Keywords: Short Stories, Novels, Fiction
A collection of short novels including The Crazy Hunter, Metamorphosis, Tonio
Kroger, Madam de Mauves, The Mysterious Stranger, The Bear Noon Wine,
Heart of Darkness, and The Red Badge of Courage.
McCarthy, Mary. Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Publishers. 1957.
Keywords: Autobiography, Childhood, Religion, Catholicism
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood is the autobiography of Mary McCarthy that
was published in 1957. The book chronicles McCarthy's childhood including her
being orphaned, having an abusive great uncle, and losing her Catholic faith.
Ruth, Sheila. Issues in Feminism: An Introduction to Women’s Studies.
Mayfield Publishing Company. 2000.
Keywords: Feminism, Women, Women’s Studies
This best-selling text-reader offers 65 interdisciplinary readings drawn from
work in the humanities and the social sciences. Classic and contemporary
selections represent both feminist and anti-feminist viewpoints in an
examination of women’s lives and the ways in which women can effect
alternatives to traditional gender roles. Extensive chapter introductions
place selections in context, define and explain concepts and terminology,
and provide a cohesive framework for the collection.
Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Vintage. 1933.
Keywords: Autobiography, Biography, Lesbians, Writing
Largely to amuse herself, [Gertrude Stein] wrote The Autobiography of Alice
B. Toklas in 1932 using as a sounding board her companion Miss Toklas, who
had been with her for twenty-five years. It has been said that the writing
takes on very much Miss Toklas' conversational style, and while this is true
the style is still a variant of Miss Stein's conversation style. She usually
insisted that writing is an entirely different thing from talking, and it is part of
the miracle of this little scheme of objectification that she could by way of
imitating Miss Toklas put in writing something of her own beautiful conversation.
Yezierska, Anzia. Hungry Hearts. Penguin Classics. 1997.
Keywords: Immigration, Jewish, Russia, United States, Work Life, Women,
Marriage, Wives
Anzia Yezierska (1880-1970) was a novelist born in the Russian Empire and
immigrated to New York City. She ran away to the circus when she was 12
years old. Her family immigrated to America in 1890. After just two years in
an elementary school, Anzia began working in sweatshops, factories, and as a
domestic. Yezierska turned to writing around 1912. She wrote about the
struggles of Jewish and later Puerto Rican immigrants in New York’s Lower
East Side. Turmoil in her personal life prompted her to write stories focused
on problems faced by wives. Yezierska’s early fiction was released as a book titled Hungry Hearts in
1920.
BLUE
Ed. Ballentine, Susan Frank and Inclan, Jessica Barksdale. Diverse Voices of
Women. Mayfield Publishing Company. 1995.
Keywords: Anthology, Women, Writing
Diverse Voices of Women is an anthology featuring works of various
lengths and genres, from the voices of mostly contemporary women of
many races, classes, nationalities, and age groups
Ed. Benstock, Shari. The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women’s
Autobiographical Writings. The University of North Carolina Press. 1988.
Keywords: Essays, Women Writers, Feminism, Post-structuralism, Women,
Race, Class, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Gender
This collection of twelve essays discusses the principles and practices of
women's autobiographical writing in the United States, England, and France
from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Employing feminist and
poststructuralist methodologies, the essays examine a wide range of private
life writings—letters, journals, diaries, memoirs, pedagogical texts, and
fictional and factual autobiographies. The Private Self explores the links
between the historical devaluation of women's writings and the cultural definitions of women that have
constrained their writing practices and excluded them from the canon of traditional autobiographical
texts. Collectively, these essays expose the cultural biases that derive from notions of selfhood defined
by a white, masculine, and Christian experience. In an effort to revise our prevailing concept of
autobiography, these essays deal with differences of race, class, religion, sexual orientation, and gender.
Bryan, Sharon. Where We Stand: Women Poets on Literary Tradition. W. W.
Norton & Company. 1994.
Keywords: Literature, Women, Writing
In this collection of essays, 21 contemporary women poets reflect on their
particular relationship to literary tradition. The approaches taken are as
diverse as the backgrounds of the authors who represent several generations
of contemporary writers. They include Eavan Boland's essay in which she
explores her roots as an Irish poet, Maxine Kumin's consideration of her
generation's shaping context, and Amy Clampitt's account of her decision to
become a poet. Other contributors include Dadeline DeFrees, Alicia Ostriker
and Anne Stevenson. Despite the common threads in the experience of these women, there is no clear
concensus: "Where We Stand" represents a plurality of voices, not a chorus.
Dhalla, Ghalib Shiraz. The Two Krishnas. Magnus Books. 2011.
Keywords: Fiction, Gay Men, Marriage, Religion
In the tradition of A Fine Balance and The Namesake, The Two Krishnas is a
sensual and searing look at infidelity and the nature of desire and faith. At the
center of the novel is Pooja Kapoor, a betrayed wife and mother who is forced
to question her faith and marriage when she discovers her banker husband,
Rahul, has fallen in love with a young, male Muslim illegal immigrant who
happens to be their son's age. Faced with the potential of losing faith in Rahul,
divine intervention, and family, she is forced to confront painful truths about
the past and the duality in God and husband.
Ed. Duberman, Martin, Vicinu, Martha and Chauncey, George Jr. Hidden
From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past. Plume. 1990.
Keywords: History, Gay, Lesbian, Gender, Sexuality
This richly revealing anthology brings together for the first time the vital
new scholarly studies now lifting the veil from the gay and lesbian past.
Such notable researchers as John Boswell, Shari Benstock, Jeffrey Weeks
and John D'Emilio illuminate gay and lesbian life as it evolved in places as
diverse as the Athens of Plato, Renaissance Italy, Victorian London, Jazz Age
Harlem, Revolutionary Russia, Nazi Germany, Casto's Cuba - and peoples as
varied as South African black miners, American Indians, Chinese courtiers,
Japanese samurai, English schoolboys and girls, and urban working women.
Gender and sexuality, repression and resistance, deviance and acceptance, identity and community - all
are given a context in this fascinating work.
Ed. Ruiz, Vicki L. and Dubois, Ellen Carol. Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural
Reader in US Women’s History. Routledge. 1994.
Keywords: History, Women, United States, Feminism
Unequal Sisters has become a beloved and classic reader in American
Women’s History. It provides an unparalleled resource for understanding
women’s history in the United States today. When it was first published in
1990, it revolutionized the field with its broad multicultural approach, and
continued, through its next two editions, to emphasize feminist
perspectives on race, ethnicity, region, and sexuality. This classic work is in
its fourth edition, and has incorporated the feedback of end-users in the
field, to make it the most user-friendly version to date.
Farwell, Marilyn R. Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives. NYU Press.
1996.
Keywords: Lesbians, Literature, Narratives, Queer, Lesbian Writings
What is lesbian literature? Must it contain overtly lesbian characters, and
portray them in a positive light? Must the author be overtly (or covertly)
lesbian? Does there have to be a lesbian theme and must it be politically
acceptable?
Marilyn Farwell here examines the work of such writers as Adrienne Rich,
Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jeanette Winterson, Gloria Naylor, and Marilyn
Hacker to address these questions. Dividing their writings into two genres-the romantic story and the heroic, or quest, story, Farwell addresses some of the most problematic
issues at the intersection of literature, sex, gender, and postmodernism.
Illustrating how the generational conflict between the lesbian- feminists of twenty years ago and the
queer theorists of today stokes the critical fires of contemporary lesbian and literary theory,
Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives concludes by arguing for a broad and generous definition of
lesbian writing.
Flanagan, Connie and Schaum, Melita. Gender Images: Reading for
Composition. Houghton Mifflin. 1992.
Keywords: Essays, Poetry, Fiction, Gender Studies
This book offers 75 selections - from personal and academic essays to
poetry and fiction--that provoke critical thought on the complex field of
contemporary gender studies. In addition, "Contexts" chapter introductions
offer starting points for thinking and discussion. "Making Connections" end
of chapter questions ask students to examine issues raised within a given
chapter in light of larger, cross-chapter concerns. An Instructor's Resource
Manual provides: Thematic Contents, Critical Thinking Paradigms, Teaching
and Discussion Narrative for each selection, Supplemental Bibliography.
Ed. Hussey, Mark and Neverow-Turk, Vara. Virginia Woolf: Themes and
Variations. University Publishing Association. 1993.
Keywords: Virginia Woolf, Women, Literature
Virginia Woolf: modernist, novelist, and critic. Virginia Woolf: diarist,
feminist, sapphist, and socialist. Virginia Woolf: pacifist, incest survivor,
and activist. Virginia Woolf: 'Invalid Lady of Bloomsbury', 'madwoman',
and foremother of women's studies. Impossible to categorize, Virginia
Woolf is one of the major figures of the 20th century. These papers from
the Second Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, held in New Haven in
June 1992, demonstrate the breadth of current scholarship on the
writings, life, and affiliations of Virginia Woolf and reflect her eclectic spirit and wide influence.
Ed. Hussey, Mark and Neverow-Turk, Vara. Virginia Woolf Miscellanies:
Proceedings of the First Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf. University
Publishing Association. 1992.
Keywords: Virginia Woolf, 20th Century Literature
Virginia Woolf Miscellanies comprises the latest research on Virginia Woolf's
life and work by prominent scholars and authors in the field of twentiethcentury literature. Presented as a compilation of papers and abstracts from
the First Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, this collection yields the most
recent opinions and discoveries concerning Woolf, from current analyses of
her most celebrated works to new biographical interpretations. Among the
topics addressed are Woolf and Mourning; Woolf and Pedagogy,
Experimentalist Contemporaries; Lesbian Myth and Ritual; Feminism; Woolf and her Audience; Woolf as
"Landscape Artist" and Cultural Historian. A list of over sixty contributors includes works by Carol
Ascher, Pamela Caughie, Louise DeSalvo, Evelyn Haller, Jane Lazarre, Jane Lilienfield, Roger Poole, Jean
Moorcraft Wilson, Alex Zwerdling and many others.
Jones, D.J.H. Murder at the MLA. University of Georgia Press. 1993.
Keywords: Fiction, Murder Mystery
As a Chicago homicide detective, Boaz Dixon has just about seen it all--or so
he thinks until corpses begin accumulating at the Hotel Fairfax during the
annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. The investigation
takes him into a world unlike any he has ever encountered--the byzantine
milieu of the contemporary academy, with its arcane jargon, endless
posturings, power struggles, and puzzling factionalisms.
To get to the bottom of these murders, Boaz decides to enlist some
assistance. Enter Nancy Cook, a bright and resourceful assistant prof from
Yale, whom Boaz quickly recruits as his guide and translator. With Nancy
inserting her specific slant on things, Boaz and his fellow cops can confront the baffling questions in the
case. Why had the Wellesley department chair, Susan Engleton, collapsed in her hotel suite, her skirt up
and a run in her stocking, never to preside over hiring interviews for her school again? And Michael
Alcott, the University of Arizona's formidable purveyor of the latest trends in critical theory: why had his
body plummeted ten floors to the atrium lobby, there to lie for hours and spoil a pretty patch of
terrazzo? Was this the work of a disgruntled hotel staff member, out to get even with his employer? Or
could the culprit--or culprits--come from the ranks of the assembled academics? And, the most
disturbing question of all: will the mayhem continue?
Kitzinger, Celia and Perkins, Rachel. Changing our Minds: Lesbian Feminism
and Psychology. NYU Press. 1993.
Keywords: Lesbian, Feminism, Lesbian-Feminism, Psychology, Mental Health,
Therapy Alternatives
Women today are being instructed on how they can raise their self-esteem,
love their inner child, survive their toxic families, overcome codependency,
and experience a revolution from within. By holding up the ideal of a pure
and happy inner core, psychotherapists refuse to acknowledge that a certain
degree of unhappiness or dissatisfaction is a routine part of life and not
necessarily a cause for therapy. Lesbians specifically are now guided to
define themselves according to their frailties, inadequacies, and insecurities.
An incisive critique of contemporary feminist psychology and therapy, Changing our Minds argues not
just that the current practice of psychology is flawed, but that the whole idea of psychology runs
counter to many tenets of lesbian feminist politics. Recognizing that many lesbians do feel unhappy and
experience a range of problems that detract from their well-being, Changing Our Minds makes positive,
prescriptive suggestions for non-psychological ways of understanding and dealing with emotional
distress.
Written in a lively and engaging style, Changing our Minds is required reading for anyone who has ever
been in therapy or is close to someone who has, and for lesbians, feminists, psychologists,
psychotherapists, students of psychology and women's studies, and anyone with an interest in the
development of lesbian feminist theory, ethics, and practice.
Kolmar, Wendy, and Bartkowski, Frances. Feminist Theory: A Reader.
Mayfield Publishing Company. 2000.
Keywords: Feminism, Theory
Feminist Theory: A Reader represents the history, intellectual breadth,
and diversity of feminist theory. The selections are organized into six
historical periods from the 18th century to the late 2000s and include key
feminist manifestos to help readers see the link between feminist theory
and application. The collection presents feminist through from its
inception as the province of women of different races, classes,
nationalities, and sexualities in order to demonstrate the continuity in feminist theory discussions. A
lexicon of the debates- clear, concise explanations of twelve key concepts that characterize the
development of feminist thought since its inception- provides a vocabulary of important feminist theory
terms and puts that vocabulary in context.
Shaw, Susan M. and Lee, Janet. Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions.
Mayfield Publishing Company. 2001.
Keywords: Feminism, Women’s Studies
As a leading introductory women’s studies reader, Shaw and Lee’s
Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions offers an excellent balance of classic,
conceptual, and experiential selections including new contemporary
readings. This student-friendly text provides short and accessible
readings reflecting the diversity of women’s experiences. With each new
edition, the authors keep the framework essays and selections of
readings fresh and interesting for students.
Madden, David. A Pocketful of Prose: Vintage Short Fiction Volume II.
Wadsworth Publishing Company. 1995.
Keywords: Anthology, Fiction, Prose, Short Stories
Volume II of A POCKETFUL OF PROSE: VINTAGE SHORT FICTION contains
additional stories that research reveals to be among the most commonly
studied in classes around the country. Like Volume I, this anthology is
aimed at satisfying the need for a concise, quality collection that students
will find inexpensive and that instructors will enjoy teaching.
Newton, Esther and Walton, Shirley. Womenfriends: Our Journal. Friends
Press. 1978.
Keywords: Women, Journal, Friends
Womenfriends: Our Journal is a joint journal between two old friends.
Ochs, Robyn and Rowley, Sarah E. Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around
the World. Bisexual Resource Center. 2009.
Keywords: Bisexuality, Community, Relationships, Politics, Identity,
Anthology
Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition, edited
by Robyn Ochs and Sarah Rowley, is the broadest single collection of
bisexual literature available today. Getting Bi collects 220 essays from
around the world that explore bisexual identity. Topics include coming
out, relationships, politics, community, and more. The book also addresses
the intersection of bisexuality with race, class, ethnicity, gender identity,
disability and national identity. Authors from 42 countries discuss
bisexuality from personal perspectives and their own cultural contexts providing insight into societal
views on bisexuality from countries ranging from Colombia to China.
Schechter, Harold and Semeiks, Jonna Gormely. Discoveries: 50 Stories of
the Quest. Oxford University Press, USA. 1992.
Keywords: Multiculturalism, Writing
Reflecting today's growing emphasis on multiculturalism, the second edition
of this remarkably successful anthology offers twelve additional
contributions from the new generation of writers currently revitalizing the
short story form, including Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, R.K. Narayan,
Stephen Milhauser, Ellen Gilchrist, and Patrick McGrath. Organized around
the successive stages of humanity's most durable myth, the hero's quest
narrative pattern delineated by renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, this
edition offers a summary and explication of Campbell's analysis of the quest
motif, a new biographical introduction to Campbell's life and work, and a
section of concise biographical entries on each of the fifty authors.
Ed. Wynn, Ellen. The Short Story: 25 Masterpieces. St. Martin's Press. 1979.
Keywords: Short Stories, Fiction
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Ivy Books. 1989.
Keywords: Chinese, Women, Immigrants, Stories, Family
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the
four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese
women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum,
play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call
themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to
gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for
something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty
years later the stories and history continue.
With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep
connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the
truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over
daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal
ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity
and mystery.
Richardson, Laurel and Taylor, Verta. Feminist Frontiers III. Mcgraw-Hill
College. 1993.
Keywords: Feminism, Writing, Women
This third edition combines classical and contemporary feminist writings on
a range of women's issues. Special attempts have been made to reflect
women's diversity as well as similarities in a variety of areas, including race,
class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age. It offers feminist analyses of the
sources and consequences of gender inequality and introduces students to
feminist theory and methodology. While its primary use is in courses on
women's studies, sociology of women, sociology of gender/sex roles, and psychology of women, it
should also be suitable for courses on women and feminist issues taught in a wide variety of disciplines
at both the undergraduate and graduate level. It is designed both as a main text and as a supplementary
reader. This third edition includes new sections on feminist research perspectives and methodology, and
the state and international politics. Taylor's article on the future of feminism now traces the women's
movement up to the present and incorporates lesbian feminism and post-feminism debates. Also, the
section on work and families has been split into separate sections.
PURPLE
Van Dyke, Annette. The Search for a Woman-Centered Spirituality. NYU
Press. 1992.
Keywords: Lesbian Activism, Feminist Activism, Spirituality, Goddess Figure,
Women’s Spirituality, Culture
Alongside the boom in feminist and lesbian scholarship and activism of the
last twenty years, there has evolved a distinctive spiritual tradition focused
on and revolving around women. This spirituality finds its roots in a number
of different traditions, including the Native American, African American,
and Euro American traditions. Central to these disparate traditions is the
focus on a goddess figure, the centrality of the female principle, and the
mending of the separation between mind and body.
Ed. Allen, Carolyn and Howard, Judith A. Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society. University of Chicago Press. Autumn 1999.
Keywords: Journal, Women, Lesbian, Feminism
This is the autumn 1999 edition of Signs. Essays include Dying to Tell:
“Sexuality and Suicide in Imperial Japan,” “Simple Pleasures: Lesbian
Community and Go Fish,” “No Experts – Guaranteed!: Do-It-Yourself Sex
Radicalism and the Production of the Lesbian Sex Zine Brat Attack,” “The
Returns of Cleopatra Jones,” “Reading India’s Bandit Queen: A
Trans/national Feminist Perspective on the Discrepanceis of
Representation,” “Death and the Maiden: The Feminine and the National in
Recent New Zealand Films.”
Cohn, Samuel. Gender, Race, and Discrimination at Work: Foundations of
Social Inquiry. Westview Press. 1999.
Keywords: Discrimination, Work, Race, Gender, Workplace Inequalities
In Race and Gender Discrimination at Work Samuel Cohns provides a
fascinating, unorthodox account of the causes of discrimination at work. The
book is packed with statistics, yet witty; rigorous, yet light. Cohn introduces
readers to the fundamental realities of race and gender barriers in the
workplace, and he goes beyond these as well by introducing startling new
reinterpretations. Cohn is tactful enough to appeal to the conservative
student, but honest enough to appeal to the feminist student. In the first
several chapters, Cohn provides a description of the historical and current states of race and gender
inequality and explains how employers persist in seemingly irrational actions, even in the face of more
profitable alternatives. Cohn then turns to an introduction of the five primary social and economic
theories of wages: marginal productivity theory, human capital theory, dual sector theory, union
strength theory, and internal labor market theory. He follows with a review of the implications for pay
differentials between blacks and whites. In subsequent chapters, he explores racial and gendered
theories of wages for employment and unemployment. Finally, Cohn concludes with a review of the
trends and causes of white male exclusionary attitudes towards blacks and women. This book is ideal for
gender courses at all levels. Cohn's compelling, non-standard reformulations of traditional explanations
of workplace inequalities make the book important for all serious scholars of gender studies.
Domitrz, Michael J. May I Kiss You?: A Candid Look at Dating,
Communication, Respect, & Sexual Assault Awareness. Awareness
Publications. 2003.
Keywords: Dating, Communication, Sexual Assault
May I Kiss You? is an in-depth look at the realities of dating and intimacy.
While most people simply "make their move" on a date, Mike Domitrz
reveals why asking first makes all the difference. Domitrz's candid advice,
real-life scenarios, and interactive exercises will revolutionize your
approach to dating while adding romance, building respect, and
heightening your awareness of sexual misconduct and assault. Students,
parents, educators, and professionals are experiencing powerful success
with this innovative, respectful, and fun approach to dating.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. Writers Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of
the Twentieth Century Women Writers. Indiana University Press. 1985.
Keywords: Women, Narrative Strategies, Gender, Women Writers
This book develops a fundamentally new concept for the interpretation and
understanding of twentieth-century women writers. Rachel DuPlessis
believes that these authors have created an array of narrative strategies to
criticize and delegitimate traditional romance plots and other kinds of
mythic narrative. The invention of these strategies, which would sever the
narrative from conventional structures of fiction and consciousness about
women, is what DuPlessis calls “writing beyond the ending.” The critique of
romance and related narrative conventions is a way for women to
delegitimate the sex-gender system manifested in the heterosexual couple, gender polarization, and
separate spheres for men and women.
DeShazer, Mary K. The Longman Anthology of Women’s Literature.
Longman. 2000.
Keywords: Women, Literature, Women Writers, Global Perspectives
Throughout history, women around the world have struggled to have their
voices heard and respected. The Longman Anthology of Women’s Literature
introduces your students to phenomenal women whose words have
spoken volumes. Offering women’s writings from the eighth century to the
present, this global and multicultural anthology includes selections written
in English by women from Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Croatia,
Ghana, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Great Britain, and the
United States using five themes that center around important topics for
women writers – Finding a Voice, Writing the Body, Rethinking the Maternal, Identity and Difference,
and Resistance and Transformation.
Ed. Ensler, Eve and Schrader, Stacey. Central Park: Childhood Sexual
Abuse. Neword Productions, Inc. 1993.
Keywords: Childhood, Sexual Abuse, Aftermath of Abuse
This edition of Central Park is a collection of essays on childhood sexual
abuse.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Anais: The Erotic Life of Anais Nin. Back Bay Books. 1994.
Keywords: Anais Nin, Biography, Paris, Literature
Anais Nin was the ultimate femme fatale, a passionate and mysterious
woman, world famous for her extravagant sexual exploits, most notably her
simultaneous affairs with Henry and June Miller and her bicoastal bigamous
marriages. In the mid-1920s, eager to break the confines of American
Victorianism both as an artist and as a woman, Nin traveled to Paris, where
she fell in with the legendary artistic and literary circles of the Left Bank.
"Nin's Diary", published over the years in numerous volumes, has been
hailed as a breakthrough document by literary critics and feminists alike. Yet
in the published diary, Nin did not lay bare her true self. She instead constructed a carefully stylized
image of the woman the world knew as "Anais" while keeping her inner self hidden. In "Anais",
biographer Noel Riley Fitch presents an honest portrait of Nin's passionate, tumultuous, and sometimes
bitterly painful life. Fitch reveals, among other things that behind Nin's coquetry was the desperate
yearning of an abused and abandoned child. This, the first biography of Nin, complements, corrects, and
demystifies the image that Nin so artfully crafted in her diary.
Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan. The Norton Anthology: Literature
by Women Second Edition. Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. 1996.
Keywords: Anthology, Women, Literature
Long the standard teaching anthology, the landmark Norton Anthology of
Literature by Women has introduced generations of readers to the rich
variety of women’s writing in English.
Glasgow, Joanne. Your John: The Love Letters of Radclyffe Hall. NYU Press.
1999.
Keywords: Lesbians, Relationships, Love, Love Letters
Your John is a selection of Hall's love letters to Evguenia Souline, a White
Russian èmigrè with whom Hall fell completely and passionately in love in
the summer of 1934. Written between this first meeting and the onset of
Hall's last illness in 1942, these letters detail Hall's growing obsession, the
pain to her life partner Una Troubridge of this betrayal, and the poignant
hopelessness of a happy resolution for any of the three women. It was
ultimately this relationship, Glasgow argues, which tragically precipitated the
decline in Hall's creative work and her health. The letters also provide important new information about
her views on lesbianism and take us well beyond the artistic limits she imposed on the characters in The
Well of Loneliness. They shed light on her views on religion, politics, war, and the literary and artistic
scene. Illuminating both the nature of her relationships and her views on the current politics of the time,
Your John will greatly extend the range of our knowledge about Radclyffe Hall.
Lott, Bernice. Women’s Lives: Themes and Variations in Gender Learning.
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. 1993.
Keywords: Gender, Ethnicity, Social Class, American Women, Life Stages,
Parents, Schools, Mass Media, Employers, Religion, Politics
Drawing material from two interrelated perspectives - social psychology and
feminism, this book examines the lives of contemporary American women
from pre-birth through old age, taking into account the influence of parents,
schools, the mass media, employers, religious and political institutions, and
the law. The author presents literature that focuses on the social
construction of gender and within-gender variations associated with ethnicity, social class and other
social categories.
Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. Grove Press. 1999.
Keywords: Immigration, India, America, Women
When Jasmine is suddenly widowed at seventeen, she seems fated to a life of
quiet isolation in the small Indian village where she was born. But the force of
Jasmine's desires propels her explosively into a larger, more dangerous, and
ultimately more life-giving world. In just a few years, Jasmine becomes Jane
Ripplemeyer, happily pregnant by a middle-aged Iowa banker and the
adoptive mother of a Vietnamese refugee. Jasmine's metamorphosis, with its
shocking upheavals and its slow evolutionary steps, illuminates the making of
an American mind; but even more powerfully, her story depicts the shifting
contours of an America being transformed by her and others like her -- our new neighbors, friends, and
lovers. In Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee has created a heroine as exotic and unexpected as the many
worlds in which she lives.
Ed. Rothblum, Esther D. Journal of Lesbian Studies. The Hawthorn Press, Inc.
1999.
Keywords: Lesbian Studies, Lesbian, History, Literature, Social Sciences,
Politics
This book is a collection of essays that are considered classics in Lesbian
Studies.
Ed. Stelboum, Judith P. Journal of Lesbian Studies Edition III. The Hawthorn
Press, Inc. 1997.
Keywords: Polyamory, Open Relationships, Non-Monogamy, Casual Sex,
Lesbian
This issue contains a collection of essays pertaining to open relationships,
non-monogamy, and casual sex in lesbian relationships.
Walker, Alice and Parmar, Pratibha. Warrior Marks: Female Genital
Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women. Harcourt. 1993.
Keywords: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Sex, Women
Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar expose the secret of female genital
mutilation, a practice that affects one hundred million of the world’s
women.
Ed. Perkins Barbara, Warhol, Robyn, and Perkins George. Women’s Work:
An Anthology of American Literature. McGraw-Hill. 1993.
Keywords: Women, Literature, Writing
This exciting anthology offers virtually the entire collection of literature by
American women and is by far the widest ranging and most diverse.
Arranged chronologically, it includes a broad range of selections including
fiction, poetry, essays, diaries, letters, autobiographies, oratory, and
journalism, spanning the colonial days to the present. These writers
represent women's writing at its highest level of accomplishment.
Scott, Bonnie Kime. Joyce and Feminism. Indiana University Press. 1984.
Keywords: James Joyce, Feminism, Literature, Women
This consideration of a male author in feminist terms represents an
important development in both Joyce studies and feminist criticism. Scott
asserts that a new feminist consciousness will facilitate fresh discoveries in
Joyce, Shifting from contexts, to individuals, to texts, she provides the
reader with a re-visitation of women and Joyce. She develops a feminist
framework for approaching Joyce, which allows for the mutual
communication of conventional and feminist critics, In Joyce and Feminism,
Scott demonstrates Joyce’s need for and use of women in the creation and
publication of his work. She evaluates his sensitivity to the problems of real
women in life and fiction and discusses the evolution of his work from early, realistic depictions to late
recreations of the goddess.
Speare, M. Edmund. A Pocket Book of Short Stories. Pocket Books, Inc. 1953.
Keywords: Short Stories
A collection of classic short stories includes works by Hemingway, Maugham,
Mann, Tolstoi, Poe, and Balzac
Tibbetts, Charlene and Tibbetts, Arn. Strategies: A Rhetoric and Reader with
Handbook. Longman. 1997.
Keywords: English, Writing, Rhetoric
Strategies is the only rhetoric/reader/handbook to include a full discussion of
the writer's stance and ethics in writing and reading. Providing practical
solutions to students' writing problems, the text includes dozens of examples
of student writing, as well as many short pieces by professionals. Divided into
three parts, the rhetoric provides writing strategies along with some
suggestions about the ethics of composition; the reader supplies rhetoricallyorganized examples of writers working at their craft; and the handbook gives
standard advice on grammar and usage.
Walker, Lisa. Looking Like What You Are: Sexual Style, Race, and Lesbian
Identity. NYU Press. 2001.
Keywords: Lesbian Feminism, Lesbian, Looks, Bodies, Physical Appearance
Looks can be deceiving, and in a society where one's status and access to
opportunity are largely attendant on physical appearance, the issue of how
difference is constructed and interpreted, embraced or effaced, is of
tremendous import.
Lisa Walker examines this issue with a focus on the questions of what it means
to look like a lesbian, and what it means to be a lesbian but not to look like
one. She analyzes the historical production of the lesbian body as marked, and studies how lesbians
have used the frequent analogy between racial difference and sexual orientation to craft, emphasize, or
deny physical difference. In particular, she explores the implications of a predominantly visible model of
sexual identity for the feminine lesbian, who is both marked and unmarked, desired and disavowed.
Walker's textual analysis cuts across a variety of genres, including modernist fiction such as The Well of
Loneliness and Wide Sargasso Sea, pulp fiction of the Harlem Renaissance, the 1950s and the 1960s,
post-modern literature as Michelle Cliff's Abeng, and queer theory. In the book's final chapter, "How to
Recognize a Lesbian," Walker argues that strategies of visibility are at times deconstructed, at times
reinscribed within contemporary lesbian-feminist theory.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations
Non-Government Liaison Service (UN/NGLS). Putting Gender on the Agenda:
A Guide to Participating in UN World Conferences. United Nations. 1995.
Keywords: Gender, United Nations, Women
United Nations World Conferences: setting a global agenda; The process from
the initial idea to the UN World Conference; NGO activities and strategies to
influence the negotiating process; Working on a Conference at the national
and regional levels.
BLACK
Asexuality Arichive.com. Asexuality: A Brief Introduction. CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform. 2012.
Keywords: Asexuality, Love, Sex, Life
Sometimes called “A Fourth Orientation”, asexuality is a sexual orientation
characterized by a persistent lack of sexual attraction toward any gender. This
book explores love, sex, and life, from the asexual point of view. This book is
for anyone, regardless of orientation. Whether you’re asexual, think you might
be, know someone who is, or just want to learn more about what asexuality is
(and isn’t), there’s something inside for you. This is one of the first books
exclusively dedicated to the subject of asexuality as a sexual orientation.
Written by an asexual, it discusses the topic from the inside.
Barker, Gerard A. Twice Told Tales: An Anthology of Short Fiction. Houghton
Mifflin. 1979.
Keywords: Fiction, Literature, Short Stories
An anthology of similar short stories juxtaposed with each other to provide a
thought provoking framework.
Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Sixth Edition
Volume C. W W Norton & Co Inc. 2002.
Keywords: American Literature, English
The Norton Anthology of American Literature is the classic survey of American
literature from its sixteenth-century origins to its flourishing present. This
volume—Volume C—covers American literature from 1865 to 1914.
Castro, Ginette, Translated by Elizabeth Loverde-Bagwell. American
Feminism: A Contemporary History. New York University Press. 1990.
Keywords: Feminism, History
In this sweeping literary, cultural, and political history, French sociologist
Ginette Castro vividly and dramatically tells the story of the contemporary
women's movement in the United States. From the liberal feminists, like
Betty Friedan, Mary Daly, and the members of NOW, to the radical feminists,
including Kate Millett, Ti-Grace Atkinson, New York Radical Women, and Cell
16, Dr. Castro offers an enlivened yet balanced account of the many different
ideological currents within the movement. Central to her contribution is the
detailed reexamination of the role of the radical feminists, and her efforts to
neutralize the sensationalism which has become attached to this segment of the movement. Captured
here is the diversity of expression and yet the underlying unity, and potential for ideological synthesis in
the American feminist movement. American Feminism makes an invaluable contribution to
understanding the course of feminism in the United States and its radical roots.
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction.
Bedford/St. Martin's. 1987.
Keywords: Fiction, English, Writing
Ann Charters has an acute sense of which stories work most effectively in
the classroom and knows that writers, not editors, have the most interesting
and useful things to say about the making and the meaning of fiction. For
those who want a smaller, less expensive anthology, the compact edition of
The Story and Its Writer is the most comprehensive, diverse — the bestselling — introduction to fiction available, notable for its student appeal as
well as its quality and range. To complement the stories, Charters includes
her lasting innovation: an array of the writers’ own commentaries on the
craft and traditions of fiction. For in-depth, illustrated studies of particular writers, her Casebooks
provide unparalleled opportunities for discussion and writing.
Ensler, Eve. The Vagina Monologues. Villard. 1998.
Keywords: Performance, Play, Women, Vagina
Eve Ensler's hilarious, eye-opening tour into the last frontier, the forbidden
zone at the heart of every woman. Adapted from the award-winning onewoman show that's rocked audiences around the world, this groundbreaking
book gives voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, and thoroughly
human stories, transforming the question mark hovering over the female
anatomy into a permanent victory sign. With laughter and compassion,
Ensler transports her audiences to a world we've never dared to know,
guaranteeing that no one who reads The Vagina Monologues will ever look at
a woman's body the same way again.
Ensler, Eve. The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Edition. Villard. 2001.
Keywords: Performance, Play, Women, Vagina
"I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about
vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them. . . . So I
decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews,
which became vagina monologues. I talked with over two hundred women.
I talked to old women, young women, married women, single women,
lesbians, college professors, actors, corporate professionals, sex workers,
African American women, Hispanic women, Asian American women, Native
American women, Caucasian women, Jewish women. At first women were
reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you
couldn't stop them."
So begins Eve Ensler's hilarious, eye-opening tour into the last frontier, the forbidden zone at the heart
of every woman. Adapted from the award-winning one-woman show that's rocked audiences around
the world, this groundbreaking book gives voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, and
thoroughly human stories, transforming the question mark hovering over the female anatomy into a
permanent victory sign. With laughter and compassion, Ensler transports her audiences to a world we've
never dared to know, guaranteeing that no one who reads The Vagina Monologues will ever look at a
woman's body the same way again.
Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to
RuPaul. Beacon Press. 1997.
Keywords: Transgender History, Gender, History
Leslie Feinberg has been a leader in the transgender rights movement as long
as such a movement has existed. This book is both deeply personal and
widely researched. Feinberg examines perceptions of the body, the status of
clothing, and the structures of societies that welcome or are threatened by
gender variance. The portrait gallery that closes the book contains
photographs and capsule biographies of contemporary transgendered people.
Friedman, Susan Stanford. Psyche Reborn: The Emergence of H.D. Indiana
University Press. 1987.
Keywords: Poetry, Feminism, History
This book is a major study of the work of poet Hilda Doolittle. This is the first
book-length study to approach H.D. from a feminist perspective. Psyche
Reborn is a valuable book not only for H.D. specialists but also for those
interested in twentieth-century intellectual history.
Gutkind, Lee. In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction. W. W. Norton &
Company. 2004.
Keywords: Nonfiction, English, Writing, Creative Nonfiction
Creative nonfiction, also known as narrative nonfiction, liberated journalism
by inviting writers to dramatize, interpret, speculate, and even re-create their
subjects. Lee Gutkind collects twenty-five essays that flourished in this new
turf, all originally published in the groundbreaking journal he
founded, Creative Nonfiction, now in its tenth anniversary year.
Many of the writers here are crossing genres—from poetry to fiction to
nonfiction. Annie Dillard provides the introduction, while Gutkind discusses the creative and ethical
parameters of this new genre. The selections themselves are broad and fascinating. Lauren Slater is a
therapist in the institution where she was once a patient. John Edgar Wideman reacts passionately to
the unjust murder of Emmett Till. Charles Simic contemplates raucous gatherings at his Uncle Boris's
apartment, while John McPhee creates a rare, personal, album quilt of his own life. Terry Tempest
Williams speaks on the decline of the prairie dog, and Madison Smartt Bell invades Haiti.
Hellman, Lillian. Pentimento. Back Bay Books. 2000.
Keywords: Memoir, Friendship, Childhood
In this widely praised follow-up to her National Book Award-winning first
volume of memoirs, An Unfinished Woman, the legendary playwright Lillian
Hellman looks back at some of the people who, wittingly or unwittingly,
exerted profound influence on her development as a woman and a writer. The
portraits include Hellman's recollection of a lifelong friendship that began in
childhood, reminiscences that formed the basis of the Academy Awardwinning film Julia.
Johnson, Colin R. Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America.
Temple University Press. 2013.
Keywords: Lesbian, Gay, History, Rural, Sexuality, Gender
Most studies of lesbian and gay history focus on urban environments. Yet
gender and sexual diversity were anything but rare in nonmetropolitan areas
in the first half of the twentieth century. Just Queer Folks explores the seldomdiscussed history of same-sex intimacy and gender nonconformity in rural and
small-town America during a period when the now familiar concepts of
heterosexuality and homosexuality were only just beginning to take shape.
Eschewing the notion that identity is always the best measure of what can be
known about gender and sexuality, Colin R. Johnson argues instead for a queer historicist approach. In
so doing, he uncovers a startlingly unruly rural past in which small-town eccentrics, "mannish" farm
women, and cross-dressing Civilian Conservation Corps enrolees were often just queer folks so far as
their neighbours were concerned. Written with wit and verve, Just Queer Folks upsets a whole host of
contemporary commonplaces, including the notion that queer history is always urban history. Colin R.
Johnson is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Adjunct Associate Professor of American Studies,
History, and Human Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. Harper Perennial Modern
Classics. 2008.
Keywords: Fiction, Family, Religion
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of
Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission
to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe
they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to
Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a
suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable
reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
Kupperberg, Pual. Kevin. Grosset & Dunlap. 2013.
Keywords: Gay, Self-Discovery, Coming of Age, Comic Book
Kevin Keller is the first openly gay character in the history of Archie Comics
and currently stars in his own best-selling series of comic books. In this special
paper-over-board novel, we focus on Kevin’s early, awkward years and the
struggles and joys of his inspirational road to self-discovery. This sweet and
funny coming-of-age story features a strong anti-bullying message and is a
perfect gift for Archie fans, parents, and anyone who has—or is—struggling to
find their place.
Lin, Ngeo Boon. Gay is Okay!: A Christian Perspective. Gerakbudaya
Enterprise. 2013.
Key Words: Religion, Christianity, Gay, LGBT
Is it right for Christians to condemn homosexuality? Is it possible to be gay
and Christian? Is gay Christian an oxymoron? In this book, Gay is Okay!: A
Christian Perspective, the author as a Christian theologian and a pastor
provides a concise and yet profound analysis, as well as alternative scriptural
interpretations of history criticism of the story of Sodom in Genesis 19,
Leviticus 18:22; 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Timothy
1:9-10. According to the author, these are the biblical verses, which have
been wrongly employed and misused by many Christians to condemn gays and lesbians, and argues
forcefully that gay is okay and that Christian Churches should embrace LGBT people. The major objective
of this book is to look at what the biblical authors were really rejecting by scrutinizing the historical
context in which the biblical texts were written. The author also believes in the separation of religion
and state, he argues for it in the first part of this book and asserts that even if Christianity were to
condemn homosexuality, no one, including Christians, should make any laws to discriminate against gay
people due to religious reasons.
McHugh, Erin. The L Life: Extraordinary Lesbians Making a Difference.
Stewart, Tabori and Chang. 2011.
Keywords: Lesbian, Women, Life
There have been few cultural touchstones to open people’s eyes to
everyday lesbian life—until now. Through fascinating interviews and
stunning portrait photography, The L Life introduces us to the women
who are changing our view of the world. This candid collection is a
celebration of real women, alongside headline-makers such as breast
cancer researcher and bestselling author Dr. Susan Love; groundbreaking authors Alison Bechdel and
Ann Bannon; entertainers such as actress Jane Lynch and comedian Kate Clinton; Congresswoman
Tammy Baldwin and longtime activist Phyllis Lyon; award-winning film producer Christine Vachon; and
many more.
Mohr, Nicholasa. El Bronx Remembered: A Novella and Stories. Harper
Collins. 1975.
Keywords: New York City, South Bronx, Family, Life, Coming of Age,
American Dream, Immigration
In a city called New York, in a neighborhood called El Bronx - The Fernandex
children own a very special pet: A white hen named after their favorite
Hollywood movie star, a new girl comes to school - a gypsy child who can
read palms and foretell the future, and a young boy must face the
humiliation of wearing his uncle's orange roach-killer shoes to his high
school graduation. In the South Bronx - or El Bronx, as it's known to the
people who live there - anything can happen. A migrant "fresh off the boat"
from Puerto Rico can be somebody on the mainland, pursue the American Dream ... and maybe even
make it come true. Here are stories that capture the flavor and beat of El Bronx in its heyday, from 19461956.
White, Antonia. The Lost Traveller. Dial Press. 1950.
Keywords: Coming of Age, World War I, Adolescence, Change
A brilliant portrait of a young girl's coming of age, The Lost Traveller tells of
Clara, the beloved daughter of a devoted though authoritarian father and
an imperious mother. In this devout Catholic family, father and daughter
conduct an intense relationship that seems at odds with their faith and with
the need for Clara to become a woman. Set against the backdrop of the
First World War, Clara experiences the vagaries of adolescence and, faced
with the first tragedy of her adult life, she realizes that neither parents nor
faith can protect her from change.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria: or The Wrongs of Woman. W.W. Norton &
Company. 1975.
Keywords: Fiction, Women, Women’s Rights, Marriage Laws, England,
History
In Maria, Wollstonecraft pursues in fictional form themes set forth in 'A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman.' Her story of a woman incarcerated in
a madhouse by her abusive husband dramatizes the effect of the English
marriage laws, which made women virtually the property of their
husbands.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Granada Publishing. 1977.
Keywords: Fiction, Family Life, Men, Women
The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay,
and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye.
From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse,
Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex
tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and
women.
GRAY
Davey, Frank. aka bpNichol: A Preliminary Biography. ECW Press. 2012.
Keywords: Biography, Poetry, Psychoanalysis
Written by one of his friends and confidants, a close reading of bpNichol’s
poetry aka bpNichol is the biography of the major Canadian poet bpNichol,
who was a practising lay psychoanalyst and vice-president of one of the
largest and longest-lasting communes in North America for more than a
decade. Though he died at the young age of 44, Barrie Nichol was
internationally influential as a visual poet and sound poet. Nichol authored
the multi-volume The Martyrology, one of the most substantial long
poems of the 20th century; four novels; two musical comedies; six
children’s books; hundreds of hand-drawn visual poems; and 10 episodes
of Fraggle Rock. Written by Frank Davey, one of Barrie’s numerous literary collaborators, aka bpNichol
reveals the close connections among Nichol’s various activities, and includes a close reading of Nichol’s
poetry. Davey examines how the autobiographical inquiries and Freudian dream analyses linked with
the young Nichol’s biographical self-awareness, ultimately producing a writer whose main
psychoanalytic client had become his own writing, and who could explore its slips, accidental puns,
“unintended” meanings, and implications for the communal future of the human species both in high
literature and the comic forms of prime-time television.
Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man. Vintage.
1998.
Keywords: Black Men, Writing, Politics, Entertainment, Dance, AIDS,
Religion
James Baldwin, Colin Powell, Harry Belafonte, Bill T. Jones, Louis Farrakhan,
Anatole Broyard, Albert Murray -- all these men came from modest
circumstances and all achieved preeminence. They are people, Gates
writes, "who have shaped the world as much as they were shaped by it,
who gave as good as they got." Three are writers -- James Baldwin, who
was once regarded as the intellectual spokesman for the black community;
Anatole Broyard, who chose to hide his black heritage so as to be seen as a
writer on his own terms; and Albert Murray, who rose to the pinnacle of
literary criticism. There is the general-turned-political-figure Colin Powell, who discusses his interactions
with three United States presidents; there is Harry Belafonte, the entertainer whose career has been
distinct from his fervent activism; there is Bill T. Jones, dancer and choreographer, whose fierce courage
and creativity have continued in the shadow of AIDS; and there is Louis Farrakhan, the controversial
religious leader. These men and others speak of their lives with candor and intimacy, and what emerges
from this portfolio of influential men is a strikingly varied and profound set of ideas about what it means
to be a black man in America today.
Gearhart, Sally Miller. The Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women.
Persephone Press. 1978.
Keywords: Fiction, Women, Feminism
This is the fantastic story of a group of women who have designed a world
of peace and preserved a rich heritage of memory that ultimately changes
the world they live in.
In the futuristic Wanderground, men remain in the cities, while many
women who have been persecuted flee to the hills. There they share their
stories of survival, remembrance, and self-discovery. Years later, expressing
their freedom in unique ways, the hill women have gained telepathic
abilities and flying techniques, while women in the cities still struggle for
enlightenment. Not only are readers led to marvel at these "supernatural" abilities, they are led to
examine their own views on womanhood and how women are similar to and different from men.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Modern
Language Association. 2009.
Keywords: Writing, MLA Handbook
The MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association, the
authority on MLA documentation style. Widely adopted in high schools,
colleges, and publishing houses, the MLA Handbook treats every aspect of
research writing, from selecting a topic to submitting the completed paper.
The expanded, revised, and redesigned sixth edition of the Handbook is a
complete, up-to-date guide to documentation style and online research.
Highsmith, Patricia (writing as Claire Morgan). The Price of Salt. W. W.
Norton & Company. 2004.
Keywords: Lesbian, Love, Adventure, Fiction
The Price of Salt tells the riveting story of Therese Belivet, a stage
designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives
one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the
throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United
States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails
Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness: A 1920s Classic of Lesbian Fiction.
Anchor Books. 1990.
Keywords: Lesbian, Love, Fiction
First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a
classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright
upon publication and almost ruined her literary career.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Dover Publications.
2001.
Keywords: Autobiography, Slavery, Women
This autobiographical account by a former slave is one of the few extant
narratives written by a woman. Written and published in 1861, it delivers a
powerful portrayal of the brutality of slave life. Jacobs speaks frankly of her
master's abuse and her eventual escape, in a tale of dauntless spirit and
faith.
Richie, Eugene. Island Light. Painted Leaf Press. 1998.
Keywords: Poetry, Relationships, Family, Life
A collection of poems that cover a variety of topics ranging from
companionship, family romance, loved objects, rain, the promise of sleep,
rude awakenings, and the machinery of life.
Sagan, Eli. Freud, Women, and Morality: The Psychology of Good and Evil.
Basic Books. 1989.
Keywords: Psychoanalysis, Freud, Morality
A provocative psychoanalytic explanation of moral and immoral behavior
which daringly argues that the Freudian theory of morality is fundamentally
flawed.
Journal of the History of Sexuality. The University of Chicago Press.1993.
Keywords: History, Sexuality, Gender
The Journal of the History of Sexuality spans geographic and temporal
boundaries, providing a much-needed forum for historical, critical, and
theoretical research in its field. Its cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary
character brings together original articles and critical reviews from
historians, social scientists, and humanities scholars worldwide.
Journal of the History of Sexuality. University of Texas Press. 2001.
Keywords: History, Sexuality, Gender
The Journal of the History of Sexuality spans geographic and temporal
boundaries, providing a much-needed forum for historical, critical, and
theoretical research in its field. Its cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary
character brings together original articles and critical reviews from historians,
social scientists, and humanities scholars worldwide.
Angier, Natalie. Woman: An Intimate Geography. Anchor. 2000.
Keywords: Women, Bodies, Biology, Psychology, Womanhood
Angier takes readers on a mesmerizing tour of female anatomy and
physiology that explores everything from organs to orgasm, and delves
into topics such as exercise, menopause, and the mysterious properties of
breast milk. A self-proclaimed "scientific fantasia of
womanhood." Woman ultimately challenges widely accepted Darwinianbased gender stereotypes. Angier shows how cultural biases have
influenced research in evolutionary psychology (the study of the biological
bases of behavior) and consequently lead to dubious conclusions about
"female nature." such as the idea that women are innately monogamous while men are natural
philanderers.
But Angier doesn't just point fingers; she offers optimistic alternatives and transcends feminist polemics
with an enlightened subversiveness that makes for a joyful, fresh vision of womanhood. Woman is a
seminal work that will endure as an essential read for anyone interested in how biology affects who we
are as women, as men, and as human beings.
Frank, Francine and Anshen, Frank. Language and the Sexes. State
University of New York Press. 1985.
Keywords: Language, Sexism, Culture
From the Back Cover: In a highly readable and lively text, the authors
explore the way language mirrors our cultural assumptions, especially
those concerned with gender distinctions. Focusing on contemporary
issues, they draw on their knowledge of sociolinguistics and other
languages to illustrate how sexism may be hidden by habits of language.
In making the reader aware of these, they suggest options for change.
Language And The Sexes synthesizes a wide range of up-to-date
information and research under several topics: naming, stereotypes of
language behavior, the politics of conversation, forms of address,
asymmetry in vocabulary, and possibilities of reform. The book concludes with suggested projects
related to these topics, guidelines for non-discriminatory language use, and an extensive bibliography.
Barrington, Judith. Writing the Memoir. The Eighth Mountain Press.
2002.
Keywords: Memoir, Writing Guide
A Practical guide to the craft, the personal challenges, and ethical
dilemmas of writing your true stories.
Bell-Scott, Patricia. Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black
Women. W. W. Norton & Company. 1995.
Keywords: Black Women, Black Womanhood, Journaling
Life Notes is the first collection devoted exclusively to writings from the
journals, diaries, and personal notebooks of contemporary Black. In this
beautiful collection of intensely personal testimonies, 50 courageous
writers illuminate the complexities of Black women's lives, offering unique
reflections about self, family, intimacy, work, politics, life transitions,
violation, and recovery. Among the contributors are well-known writers as
well as emerging and previously unpublished writers. A diverse group, they
are native daughters from three continents and the Caribbean, the
youngest an eight-year-old Nigerian girl and the oldest a sixty-five-year-old retired African American
telephone operator.
Bloom, Lynn Z. Fact and Writing Nonfiction Artifact. Longman. 1993.
Keywords: Nonfiction Writing, Writing Guide
Focuses on the kinds of nonfiction writing that real writers do: writing
about people, places, performance, how-to, science, humor,
controversy. It treats readers as pre- professional writers who care about
style, who are willing to revise their work, and who intend their work to
reach a wider audience.
DeLauretis, Teresa. The Practice of Love: Lesbian Sexuality and Perverse
Desire. Indiana University Press. 1994.
Keywords: Lesbian, Love, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Sexuality
In an eccentric reading of Freud through Laplanche and the Lacanian and
feminist revisions, Teresa de Lauretis delineates a model of "perverse"
desire and a theory of lesbian sexuality. The Practice of Love discusses
classic psychoanalytic narratives of female homosexuality, contemporary
feminist writings on female sexuality, and the evolution of the original
fantasies into cultural myths or public fantasies.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Bantam. 1981.
Keywords: Fiction, Women, England
Jane Eyre is the story of a small, plain-faced, intelligent, and passionate
English orphan. Jane is abused by her aunt and cousin and then attends a
harsh charity school. Through it all she remains strong and determinedly
refuses to allow a cruel world to crush her independence or her strength
of will. A masterful story of a woman's quest for freedom and love. Jane
Eyre is partly autobiographical, and Charlotte Brontë filled it with social
criticism and sinister Gothic elements. A must read for anyone wishing to
celebrate the indomitable strength of will or encourage it in their growing
children.
Fenelon, Fania. Playing for Time. Syracuse University Press. 1997.
Keywords: Women, Music, Holocaust
One of the few survivors of the women's orchestra in the AuschwitzBirkenau extermination complex recalls her experiences, those of her
fellow musicians, and the ironies and degradations of camp life.
Fetterly, Judith, and Pryse, Marjorie. American Women Regionalists
1850-1910. WW Norton & Co. 1995.
Keywords: Women, Writing, America, Anthology
Sixty-four stories and sketches by fourteen writers are brought together
in this groundbreaking anthology to trace a tradition of women's writing
in America. Crossing boundaries of region and ethnicity, these works are
by writers popular in their time but neglected in the twentieth century. In
American Women Regionalists readers will find writing that charts the
imagination and talent of some of our most compelling voices.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Babylon Revisited and Other Stories. Charles
Scribner’s Sons. 1960.
Keywords: Fiction, Short Stories, Adventure, Loss, Life
Written between 1920 and 1937, when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at the
height of his creative powers, these ten lyric tales represent some of the
author's finest fiction. In them, Fitzgerald creates vivid, timeless
characters -- a dissatisfied southern belle seeking adventure in the north;
the tragic hero of the title story who lost more than money in the stock
market; giddy and dissipated young men and women of the interwar
period. From the lazy town of Tarleton, Georgia, to the glittering
cosmopolitan centers of New York and Paris, Fitzgerald brings the society
of the "Lost Generation" to life in these masterfully crafted gems,
showcasing the many gifts of one of our most popular writers.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1925.
Keywords: Fiction, America, 1920s, Jazz Age, Love
The mysterious Jay Gatsby embodies the American notion that it is
possible to redefine oneself and persuade the world to accept that
definition. Gatsby's youthful neighbor, Nick Carraway, fascinated with
the display of enormous wealth in which Gatsby revels, finds himself
swept up in the lavish lifestyle of Long Island society during the Jazz Age.
Considered Fitzgerald's best work, The Great Gatsby is a mystical,
timeless story of integrity and cruelty, vision and despair.
Gaillard, Dawson and Mosier, John. Women & Men Together: An
Anthology of Short Fiction. Houghton Mifflin. 1978.
Keywords: Fiction, Short Stories, Men, Women
An anthology of short fiction from a variety of disciplines regarding men
and women.
Gaillard, Dawson and Mosier, John. Women & Men Together: An
Anthology of Short Fiction Instructor’s Manual. Houghton Mifflin.
1978.
Keywords: Instructors Manual, Writing, Anthology
Instructors manual to go along with Women & Men Together.
Gordon, Mary. The Shadow Man: A Daughter’s Search for Her Father.
Vintage. 1997.
Keywords: Memoir, Women, Father-Daughter Relationship
In The Shadow Man, the bestselling author of Final Payments and The
Company of Women elevates the memoir into an uncompromising and
unforgettable art form as she seeks to learn the truth about her lost
father. 20 photos.
Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Bedford/St. Martin's. 2011.
Keywords: Writing, Writing Guide
Rules for Writers is a college writer’s companion that covers writing,
grammar, research, and documentation in an extremely affordable and
portable spiral-bound format. From the best-selling family of
handbooks, Rules has consistently been the best value for college
writers. Now it’s even more so. The Seventh Edition
actually teaches students how to make better use of their handbook.
With new material about how to integrate the handbook into lessons
and class activities, Rules for Writers is an even more useful tool for
instructors.
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. Bedford/St. Martin's. 2011.
Keywords: Writing, Writers Guide, Research
Used by nearly a quarter million students each year, A Pocket Style
Manual is a straightforward, inexpensive quick reference, with content
flexible enough to suit the needs of writers in the humanities, social
sciences, sciences, health professions, business, fine arts, education, and
beyond. Its slim format, brief length, and spiral binding make it easy for
students to keep A Pocket Style Manual with them for every writing
assignment, in any class. With its signature Hacker handbook quickreference features—hand-edited sentences, color-coded documentation
coverage, user-friendly index entries, and a clean, uncluttered design—A
Pocket Style Manual has always provided fast, effective answers to
writing and research questions.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s
Window. Vintage. 1995.
Keywords: Black Family Life, City Life, Race, Social Injustice, Theater,
Play
By the time of her death thirty years ago, at the tragically young age of
thirty-four, Lorraine Hansberry had created two electrifying
masterpieces of the American theater. With A Raisin in the Sun,
Hansberry gave this country its most movingly authentic portrayal of
black family life in the inner city. Barely five years later, with The Sign in
Sidney Brustein's Window, Hansberry gave us an unforgettable portrait
of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social
injustice. These two plays remain milestones in the American theater,
remarkable not only for their historical value but for their continued
ability to engage the imagination and the heart.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. Scribner. 1996.
Keywords: Memoir, Ernest Hemingway, Paris, 1920s
A Moveable Feast is a memoir by American author Ernest Hemingway
about his years in Paris as part of the expatriate writers in the 1920s.
Heresies Magazine Issue #6: On Women and Violence. Heresies
Collective. 1978.
Keywords: Feminism, Women, Violence
A magazine created by the Heresies Collective writing on different
women’s issues. This issue focuses on Women and Violence.
Herron, Jerry. Discoveries: 50 Stories of the Quest. Oxford University
Press, USA. 1992.
Keywords: Fiction, English, Anthology
Reflecting today's growing emphasis on multiculturalism, the second
edition of this remarkably successful anthology offers twelve additional
contributions from the new generation of writers currently revitalizing
the short story form, including Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, R.K.
Narayan, Stephen Milhauser, Ellen Gilchrist, and Patrick McGrath.
Organized around the successive stages of humanity's most durable
myth, the hero's quest narrative pattern delineated by renowned
mythologist Joseph Campbell, this edition offers a summary and
explication of Campbell's analysis of the quest motif, a new biographical
introduction to Campbell's life and work, and a section of concise biographical entries on each of the
fifty authors. As in the earlier edition, the quality and quantity of the selections give instructors the
freedom to present the stories in whatever order and structure they choose. For those who wish to take
advantage of the anthology's thematic organization, the editors provide questions for discussion and
possible writing assignments that do not sacrifice the comprehensive diversity of the selections or their
identity as distinctive works of literature open to various interpretations. A highly accessible
introduction to the technical aspects of the close analysis of fiction, this text also offers a number of
special features: two supplementary tables of contents, one organized by alternate themes, and one by
the traditional elements of fiction; an introductory essay defining those technical elements and including
a sample analysis of one the stories in the anthology; and a glossary of critical terms.
Hite, Shere. The Hite Report on the Family: Growing Up Under
Patriarchy. Grove Press. 1996.
Keywords: Family Life, Research, Change, Patriarchy
In this major study, groundbreaking researcher Shere Hite challenges
established views on the family, arguing that it is not collapsing--as
advocates of traditional "family values" would have us believe--but
instead shifting from a rigid, patriarchal formula to increasingly
egalitarian, custom-tailored variations. "Revealing and moving reflections
on family life.”
Hussey, Mark. Masculinities: Interdisciplinary Readings. Pearson. 2002.
Keywords: Masculinity, United States, Gender, Race, Roles
This collection of up-to-date articles and short fiction from a wide range
of sources and disciplines, including sociology, medicine, history,
philosophy, education, cultural studies, and biology, gives the reader
perspective on the meaning of masculinity in the contemporary USA.
The readings are divided into broad categories which include: the social
construction of gender; growing up; playing games; husbands, sons, and
fathers; working lives; sex, love, and power; black masculinities; war and
soldiers; and the future of masculinity in society.
Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in
Colonial New England. W. W. Norton & Company. 1998.
Keywords: Women, Gender, Witchcraft, History
Confessing to "Familiarity with the Devils," Mary Johnson, a servant,
was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow,
Ann Hibbens, was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. In
1662, Ann Cole was "taken with very strange Fits" and fueled an
outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford a generation before the
notorious events in Salem took place. More than three hundred years
later the question still haunts us: Why were these and other women
likely witches? Why were they vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft?
In this work Carol Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in
seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that
society.
Kessleman, Amy, McNair, Lily D. and Schniedewind, Nancy. Women
Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. McGraw-Hill. 2011.
Keywords: Women’s Lives
Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology is a unique
introduction to feminism and women’s studies. This best-selling text
presents a multidisciplinary collection of academic essays and analyses,
personal narratives, and fiction and poetry about women’s lives. The
selections illustrate the variety of women’s experiences, primarily in
the United States, considering both commonalities and differences
among women and appreciating women’s diverse approaches to living
and changing.
Klosko, George and Klosko Margaret. The Struggle for Women’s Rights:
Theoretical and Historical Sources. Pearson. 2009.
Keywords: Women, Suffrage, Feminism, History
This book presents theoretical and historical sources focusing on a single
issue, the struggle for women's suffrage. It explores women's nature and
discusses how different views of women's nature have direct implications
concerning public policies. The book's narrow focus allows one to follow
different lines of argument directed at a single issue, as opposed to a set
of widely different debates, as are common in most other collections.
Selections present clear accounts of different conceptions of women's
nature and their practical implications providing historical, as well as,
theoretical insights. Presents historical and theoretical sources, including
substantial selections from the important theoretical works of J.S. Mill and Mary Wolstonecraft. Includes
sources from both the U.S. and Britain. Includes substantial selections from anti-suffrage sources— he
only book to feature an in-depth debate on one of the most important issue of the Women's
Movement: the right to vote; enables readers to trace the practical implications of widely different
conceptions of women's nature.
Ed. Speare, Morris Edmund. A Pocketbook of Short Stories: A
Distinguished anthology of masterpieces by the greatest
Continental, English and American Writers. Washington Square
Press. 1959.
Keywords: Short Stories, Writing
A collection of 22 short stories by 22 masters of the short story:
Ernest Hemingway; Stephen Vincent Benét; Dorothy Parker; Willa
Cather; Sherwood Anderson; Katherine Mansfield; Thomas Mann;
W. Somerset Maugham; Ring Lardner; Ivan Bunin; Saki (H.H.
Munro); W.W. Jacobs; O. Henry; Anton P. Chekhov; Robert Louis
Stevenson; Guy de Maupassant; Anatole France; Mark Twain; Bret
Harte; Leo N. Tolstoi; Edgar Allan Poe; Honoré de Balzac
Lyons, Robert. Autobiography: A Reader for Writers. Oxford University
Press, USA. 1984.
Keywords: Anthology, Autobiography, Writing
Anthology of autobiographical writings, including letters by Margaret
Mead, and other writings by Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, etc.
Madison, D. Soyini. The Woman That I Am: The Literature and Culture of
Contemporary Women of Color. St. Martin's Griffin. 1997.
Keywords: American Women of Color, Writing, Fiction, Poetry, Drama,
Autobiography, Culture Criticism
Selected to represent a diversity of voices, styles, and genres, The Woman
That I Am gathers 126 works of contemporary fiction, poetry, drama,
autobiography, and culture criticism by American women of color—African
American, Asian American, Latina American, and Native American. This
collection includes writings by new voices, as well as by Alice Walker,
Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, Paule Marshall,
Amy Tan, Toni Morrison, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Leslie Marmon Silko, Maya
Angelou, Rita Dove, June Jordan, Lucille Clifton, Ntozake Shange, Nikki Giovanni, and others.
Rich, Adrienne. On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978. W.
W. Norton & Company. 1995.
Keywords: Prose Writing, Politics, Language, Scholarship, Racism, History,
Motherhood
In this collection of prose writings, one of America's foremost poets and
feminist theorists reflects upon themes that have shaped her life and work.
At issue are the politics of language; the uses of scholarship; and the topics
of racism, history, and motherhood among others called forth by Rich as
"part of the effort to define a female consciousness which is political,
aesthetic, and erotic, and which refuses to be included or contained in the
culture of passivity."
Rossi, Alice S. The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir.
Northeastern University Press. 1988.
Keywords: Feminism, Writing, History
Here are, as Alice Rossi claims in her well-written preface, 'the essential
works of feminism, ' published over a period of 200 years. Her introductions
to each section are informative and written with nonpolemical grace.
Schlessinger, Yaffa A. An Interview with My Grandparent: A Sociological
Examination. McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing. 1997.
Keywords: Students, Essays, Economic Hardship, Family, Love, Human
Diversity, Immigration
A moving collection of student essays about political and economic
hardships, family turmoil, and love. Written by the diverse student
population of Hunter College at the City University of New York with
introductory essays by the author. This book is intended as a supplement to
introductory sociology, marriage and family, human diversity, or
immigration courses.
Schuster, Charles I. and Van Pelt, William V. Speculations: Readings in
Culture, Identity, and Values. Longman. 1996.
Keywords: American Life, Culture, Affirmative Action, Children, Media, LGBT
Rights, Date Rape, Family Values, Writing
Representing the diversity of American intellectual life, this collection of
readings by some of today's most prominent authors focuses on
contemporary issues and grows out of a multiculturalist approach, with
selections that examine, analyze, and question today's culture and cultural
events. Covers topics including affirmative action, children and the media,
gay/lesbian rights, date rape, and family values. For those interested in
composition.
Sexton, Anne. The Complete Poems. Mariner Books. 1999.
Keywords: Poetry, Men, Women, Life
From the joy and anguish of her own experience, Sexton fashioned poems
that told truths about the inner lives of men and women. This book
comprises Sexton's ten volumes of verse, including the Pulitzer Prizewinner Live or Die, as well as seven poems from her last years.
Stein Gertrude. Picasso: The Complete Writings. Beacon Press. 1970.
Keywords: Memoir, Art
Intimate, revealing memoir of Picasso as man and artist by influential
literary figure. Highly readable amalgam of biographical fact, artistic and
aesthetic comments: Picasso as founder of Cubism, associate of Apollinaire,
Braque, Derain, other notables; titanic, creative spirit. One of Stein's most
accessible works.
Signs Journal of Women in Culture and Society The Lesbian Issue.
University of Chicago Press. 1984.
Keywords: Lesbian, Women, Gender
Recognized as the leading international journal in women’s and gender
studies, Signs is at the forefront of new directions in feminist scholarship.
Challenging the boundaries of knowledge concerning women’s and men’s
lives in diverse regions of the globe, Signs publishes scholarship that raises
new questions and develops innovative approaches to our understanding
of the past and present. This issue focuses on lesbian issues.
Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. W.W. Norton Company and Inc.
1990.
Keywords: Fiction, New York City, Women
Wharton's first literary success, set amid fashionable New York society,
reveals the hypocrisy and destructive effects of the city's social circle on
the character of Lily Bart. Impoverished but well-born, Lily must secure
her future by acquiring a wealthy husband; but her downfall — initiated
by a romantic indiscretion — results in gambling debts and social
disasters.
William, Walters L. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American
Indian Culture. Beacon Press. 1992.
Keywords: Two-Spirit, Native American, Sexuality, Gender
An anthropological study of Two-Spirit persons in Native American culture.