This is a reappraisal of the lesbian landowner, Anne Lister (1791-1840), who was a scholar, heiress, traveller and diarist. Her challenge to conventional behaviour is well documented in her diaries, showing here the opportunities that could be won in those days for independent women.

Spanning the 1890s through the 1990s, this unique, daring, and vital collection explores the many psychological and emotional tensions in women's relationships to--and perceptions of--their physical selves. Addressing the peculiarities, the delights, and the shames of body politics that reside in the flesh, these stories of bodies that refuse to be contained deftly and astutely comment on popular notions of acceptable body types and behaviors. Often witty, sometimes painful, and always revelatory, the stories in this anthology offer a measured assessment of the rules, unspoken and otherwise, that govern women's bodies.

American writer and world traveler Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) was author of more than fifty short stories, four novels, a novella, and numerous poems and travel essays. During her lifetime, she achieved both popular and critical success, but much of her work is no longer available. This volume, as the first anthology to collect representative samples of her stories, travel sketches, poems, and correspondence, represents a major advance toward re-establishing her place in nineteenth-century literature and letters.

Set against the backdrop of America's industrial landscape, this anthology delves into the lives of working-class heroes, their struggles, and their enduring spirit. From the poignant tale of "The Non-Combatant" to the riveting drama of "The Scab," Thanet's masterful storytelling captures the essence of an era marked by labor strikes, economic hardship, and the quest for justice.

A collection that shows Freeman's many modes - romantic, gothic, and psychologically symbolic - as well as her use of pathos and sentimentality, humour, satire and irony. These stories centre on questions of women's integrity, courage and privation; explore the idea of masculinity; and dramatise the relationship between rural New England and modern culture and commerce.

'She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.' Kate Chopin was one of the most individual and adventurous of nineteenth-century american writers, whose fiction explored new and often startling territory. When her most famous story, The Awakening, was first published in 1899, it stunned readers with its frank portrayal of the inner word of Edna Pontellier, and its daring criticisms of the limits of marriage and motherhood.

The Country of the Pointed Firs combines Jewett's classic novella and its four short sequels with nine of her best stories, including five unavailable in any other paperback edition. They illustrate the range of her literary style and exemplify her interest in the position of women in nineteenth-century America. Terry Heller's introduction examines the work within the mainstream of American literature, and detailed annotation, as well as a list of the plant and herb lore to which Jewett makes reference, further illuminate these tales.

Experience the temptation, pleasure, punishment, and redemption of Christina Rossetti's brilliant poetic masterpiece. First published in 1862, this tale about two maidens seduced by lewd goblin men was considered to be Rossetti's finest work. A lush and startling glimpse into the depths of the Victorian psyche, and complete with decorations by William Morris, this exquisite volume will be coveted by art and poetry lovers everywhere.

The novel begins with a drawing teacher's eerie late-night encounter with a mysterious woman in white, and then follows his love for Laura Fairlie, a young woman who is falsely incarcerated in an asylum by her husband, Sir Percival Glyde, and his sinister accomplice, Count Fosco. The appendices include contemporary reviews, along with essays on lunacy, asylums, mesmerism, and the rights of women.

Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economic struggles, "Shirley" is an unsentimental yet passionate depiction of conflict among classes, sexes, and generations. Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore considers marriage to the wealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar, yet his heart lies with his cousin Caroline. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Robertas brother, an impoverished tutor. As industrial unrest builds to a potentially fatal pitch, can the four be reconciled?

With her final novel,Villette, Charlotte Bronte reached the height of her artistic power.  First published in 1853,Villetteis Bronte's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing evenJane Eyrein critical acclaim.  Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. 

In partnership with the New York Public Library, Doubleday is proud to introduce a very special collector's series of literary masterpieces. Lavishly illustrated with rare archival material from the library's extensive resources, including the renowned Berg collection, these editions will bring the classics to life for a new generation of readers. In addition to original artwork, each volume contains a fascinating selection of unique materials such as handwritten diaries, letters, manuscripts, and notebooks.

Gives sage advice on getting, defining, keeping, enjoying, and maybe, leaving a loving relationship

Breaking decisively with all previous literary traditions and grammatical norms, Gertrude Stein forged a unique idiom—abstract and down-to-earth, playful and subversive, philosophical and erotic by turns—which influenced writers as varied as Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, Thornton Wilder, and John Ashbery.

Originally published in 1936, "Nightwood" is a haunting tale of sexual obsession. Robin Vote -- the woman at the heart of this strange and richly atmospheric novel -- is a woman whose passions are strong enough to destroy. The novel circles and spirals as, first, Nora's husband, and then, Nora and Jenny, her lovers, are consumed by her insatiable hunger for human contact.

Comprising eighteen poems inspired largely her tempestuous relationship with fellow lesbian poet Natalie Barney, as well as her unrequited passion for her childhood friend, Violet Shillito, who would remain a fixture in her work until her premature death at the age of 32. Founded by Barbara Grier, Naiad’s focus was preserving out-of-print lesbian classics and publishing the work of iconic lesbian feminist writers.

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.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost.

Aristocrat, novelist, essayist, traveler, and lover of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West lived a fascinating and daring life on the periphery of the Bloomsbury circle. She wrote in an astounding variety of genres, including travel narrative, historical and literary studies, poetry, fiction, and essays, and is probably best known or her novels, The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, and incomparable writings about English country houses and gardens. Here, for the first time, is an anthology that represents the full expanse of her interests and styles.

A cigar-smoking proponent of free-verse modernism in open rebellion against her distinguished Boston lineage, Amy Lowell cut an indelible public figure. But in the words of editor Honor Moore, "what strikes the modern reader is not the sophistication of Lowell's feminist or anti-war stances, but the bald audacity of her eroticism." Lowell was at the center of a group of pioneering modernists who, in an era convulsed by change, rejected musty Victorian standards and wrote poems of bracing immediacy.

Eccentric, adventurous Christina Goering meets the anxious but equally enterprising Mrs. Copperfield at a party. Two serious ladies who want to live outside of themselves, they go in search of salvation: Mrs. Copperfield visits Panama with her husband, where she finds solace among the women who live and work in its brothels; while Miss Goering becomes involved with various men. At the end the two women meet again, each changed by her experience. Mysterious, profound, anarchic and very funny, 'Two Serious Ladies' is a daring, original work that defies analysis.

A “prequel” to the preceding tales. Although it was written last in the series, this story brings Beebo from the hayfields of Wisconsin to New York’s Greenwich Village. She arrives a very young and uncertain girl, but by the end of the story, we see the emergence of the dashing young butch she will become. Along the way there are beautiful girls to explore and a sparkling dalliance with an international movie star.

Based on a true story plucked from Highsmith's own life, The Price of Salt (or Carol) tells the riveting drama of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose routine is forever shattered by a gorgeous epiphany--the appearance of Carol Aird, a customer who comes in to buy her daughter a Christmas toy. The Price of Salt is a brilliantly written story that may surprise Highsmith fans and will delight those discovering her work.

Violette Leduc was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe. In Valenciennes, the young Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from an ugly self-image and from her mother's hostility and overprotectiveness. Leduc's best-known book, the memoir La Bâtarde, was published in 1964. It nearly won the Prix Goncourt and quickly became a bestseller. She went on to write eight more books, including La Folie en tête (Mad in Pursuit), the second part of her literary autobiography.

Set in the late fifties in Reno, Nevada, this classic of lesbian eroticism is Jane Rule's first novel.

May Sarton's ninth novel explores a woman's struggle to reconcile the claims of life and art, to transmute passion and pain into poetry. As it opens, Hilary Stevens, a renowned poet in her seventies, is talking with Mar, an intense young man who has sought her out and whose passionate despair reminds her of herself when young. Mar has had an unhappy love affair with a man. Bewildered by both his sexuality and his writing talent, he flings his anguish against Hilary's brusque, sympathetic intelligence.

The main characters are all women and The Microcosm deals with their relationships, as they grow and as they disintegrate. The pressures of society force them to live in an enclosed world. Steve, the gym teacher under the strain of her marriage; Sadie's factory environment brings its own financial and social problems; and Matt is unable to solve his difficulties with Rae until he breaks out of the microcosm.

Modern classic novel about growing up as a Black lesbian in America--and living happily ever after. Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor Southern couple who want something better for their daughter. Molly plays doctor with the boys, beats up Leroy the tub and loses her virginity to her girlfriend in sixth grade. As she grows to realize she's different, Molly decides not to apologize for that. In no time she mesmerizes the head cheerleader of Ft. Lauderdale High and captivates a gorgeous bourbon-guzzling heiress. But the world is not tolerant.

A collection of essays published by feminist writer Jill Johnston in the early 1970's in the Village Voice -- an important early manifesto of lesbian feminist and separatist politics.

Audre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School.

Here editors Garber and Gomez have tapped the richest vein of young writers writing today in this remarkable collection of fantasy, sword and sorcery, and science fiction tales on gay and lesbian themes. A bold and exciting original collection of gay and lesbian fantasy and science fiction adventures.

This pioneering work, first published in 1986, documents the continuing vitality of American Indian traditions and the crucial role of women in those traditions.

Poems, stories, and essays describe the political and personal implications of being a gay chicana in modern America

Second edition of Gloria Anzaldúa's major work, with a new critical introduction by Chicano Studies scholar and new reflections by Anzaldúa.

The groundbreaking story centers on Renay, a talented black musician who is forced by pregnancy to marry the abusive, alcoholic Jerome Lee. When Jerome sells Renay's piano to finance his drinking, she leaves her destructive marriage, and flees with her young daughter to Terry, a wealthy white writer whom she met at a supper club. Terry awakens in Renay a love and sexual desire beyond her erotic imaginings. Despite the sexist, racist, and homophobic prejudices they must confront, the mutually supportive couple finds physical and emotional joy.

It's influenced William Gibson and been listed as one of the ten essential works of science fiction. Most importantly, Joanna Russ's THE FEMALE MAN is a suspenseful, surprising and darkly witty chronicle of what happens when Jeannine, Janet, Joanna, and Jael--four alternate selves from drastically different realities--meet.

In these astonishing new poems, Adrienne Rich dares to look and to extend her poetic language as witness to the treasures-the midnight salvage-we rescue from fear and violence. Adrienne Rich's work has long challenged social plausibilities built on violence and demoralizing power.

Examines the life styles of gay men and women and discusses the role of gay culture in mainstream society.

Set in the 19th century, Isabel Miller's classic lesbian novel traces the relationship between Patience White - an educated painter - and Sarah Dowling, a cross-dressing farmer. Their romantic bond does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in which they live and ultimately they are forced to make life-changing decisions that depend on their courage and commitment to one another.

Anita Cornwell's writings in this book are the first collection of essays by an African-American lesbian. It also includes her interview with Audre Lorde, also a black lesbian. The foreword by Becky Birtha points out that the book offers an acute political analysis of both racial and sexual oppressions.

Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972), a paradigmatic writer of Hispanic American literature, was characterized by her luminous surrealist imagination. This book brings together a careful selection of her texts, both published and unpublished, as well as some fragments of the diaries she kept during her stays in Paris and Buenos Aires.

Sex and power are dominant themes in this innovative novel by a major femisnist writer, an exile from Uruguay now living in Spain.

Sometimes called the feminist equivalent to Mao's "little red book," Shedding narrates the transformation of a young woman's consciousness against the background of the rising women's movement of the early 1970s. Shedding and Literally Dreaming, a collection of eight stories written a decade later, portrays women living together in rural settings, independent of men.

While attending a traditional tea ceremony in the aftermath of his parents' deaths, Kikuji encounters his father's former mistress, Mrs. Ota. At first Kikuji is appalled by her indelicate nature, but it is not long before he succumbs to passion--a passion with tragic and unforeseen consequences, not just for the two lovers, but also for Mrs. Ota's daughter, to whom Kikuji's attachments soon extend. Death, jealousy, and attraction convene around the delicate art of the tea ceremony, where every gesture is imbued with profound meaning.

Sexy, surprising, and subversively wise, Babyji is the story of Anamika Sharma, a spirited student growing up in Delhi. At school she is an ace at quantum physics. At home she sneaks off to her parents' scooter garage to read the Kamasutra. Before long she has seduced an elegant older divorcee and the family servant, and has caught the eye of a classmate coveted by all the boys. With the world of adulthood dancing before her, Anamika confronts questions that would test someone twice her age. Ebullient, unfettered, and introducing one of the most charming heroines in contemporary fiction, Babyji is irresistible.

Grange Copeland, a deeply conflicted and struggling tenant farmer in the Deep South of the 1930s, leaves his family and everything he's ever known to find happiness and respect in the cold cities of the North. This misadventure, his "second life," proves a dismal failure that sends him back where he came from to confront his now grown-up son's disastrous relationships with his own family, including Grange's granddaughter, Ruth Copeland, a child that Grange grows to love. Love becomes the substance of his third and final life. He spends it in devotion to Ruth, teaching and protecting her--though the cost of doing so is almost more than he can bear.

Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s.

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.

This memoir is a tough-minded search for belonging, for love, an identity, a home, and a mother by the author of "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit"--winner of the Whitbread First Novel award and the inspiration behind the award-winning BBC television adaptation "Oranges."

A father for ten years, a mother for eight, and for a time in between, neither, or both ("the parental version of the schnoodle, or the cockapoo"), Jennifer Finney Boylan has seen parenthood from both sides of the gender divide. When her two children were young, Boylan came out as transgender, and as Jenny transitioned from a man to a woman and from a father to a mother, her family faced unique challenges and questions. In this thoughtful, tear-jerking, hilarious memoir, Jenny asks what it means to be a father, or a mother, and to what extent gender shades our experiences as parents.

Gender isn't just about "male" or "female" anymore - if you have any doubts, just turn on your television. RuPaul is as familiar as tomato ketchup with national radio and television shows, and transgendered folk are as common to talk-shows as screaming and yelling. But if the popularization of gender bending is revealing that "male" and "female" aren't enough, where are we supposed to go from here?

With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population. Though undoubtedly an account of one woman's quest for self at all costs, Redefining Realness is a powerful vision of possibility and self-realization, pushing us all toward greater acceptance of one another--and of ourselves--showing as never before how to be unapologetic and real.

A landmark of trans and feminist nonfiction, Whipping Girl is Julia Serano's indispensable account of what it means to be a transgender woman in a world that consistently derides and belittles anything feminine. In a series of incisive essays, Serano draws on gender theory, her training as a biologist, her career in queer activism, and her own experiences before and after her gender transition to examine the deep connections between sexism and transphobia.

This is a reappraisal of the lesbian landowner, Anne Lister (1791-1840), who was a scholar, heiress, traveller and diarist. Her challenge to conventional behaviour is well documented in her diaries, showing here the opportunities that could be won in those days for independent women.

Spanning the 1890s through the 1990s, this unique, daring, and vital collection explores the many psychological and emotional tensions in women's relationships to--and perceptions of--their physical selves. Addressing the peculiarities, the delights, and the shames of body politics that reside in the flesh, these stories of bodies that refuse to be contained deftly and astutely comment on popular notions of acceptable body types and behaviors. Often witty, sometimes painful, and always revelatory, the stories in this anthology offer a measured assessment of the rules, unspoken and otherwise, that govern women's bodies.

American writer and world traveler Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) was author of more than fifty short stories, four novels, a novella, and numerous poems and travel essays. During her lifetime, she achieved both popular and critical success, but much of her work is no longer available. This volume, as the first anthology to collect representative samples of her stories, travel sketches, poems, and correspondence, represents a major advance toward re-establishing her place in nineteenth-century literature and letters.

Set against the backdrop of America's industrial landscape, this anthology delves into the lives of working-class heroes, their struggles, and their enduring spirit. From the poignant tale of "The Non-Combatant" to the riveting drama of "The Scab," Thanet's masterful storytelling captures the essence of an era marked by labor strikes, economic hardship, and the quest for justice.

A collection that shows Freeman's many modes - romantic, gothic, and psychologically symbolic - as well as her use of pathos and sentimentality, humour, satire and irony. These stories centre on questions of women's integrity, courage and privation; explore the idea of masculinity; and dramatise the relationship between rural New England and modern culture and commerce.

'She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.' Kate Chopin was one of the most individual and adventurous of nineteenth-century american writers, whose fiction explored new and often startling territory. When her most famous story, The Awakening, was first published in 1899, it stunned readers with its frank portrayal of the inner word of Edna Pontellier, and its daring criticisms of the limits of marriage and motherhood.

The Country of the Pointed Firs combines Jewett's classic novella and its four short sequels with nine of her best stories, including five unavailable in any other paperback edition. They illustrate the range of her literary style and exemplify her interest in the position of women in nineteenth-century America. Terry Heller's introduction examines the work within the mainstream of American literature, and detailed annotation, as well as a list of the plant and herb lore to which Jewett makes reference, further illuminate these tales.

Experience the temptation, pleasure, punishment, and redemption of Christina Rossetti's brilliant poetic masterpiece. First published in 1862, this tale about two maidens seduced by lewd goblin men was considered to be Rossetti's finest work. A lush and startling glimpse into the depths of the Victorian psyche, and complete with decorations by William Morris, this exquisite volume will be coveted by art and poetry lovers everywhere.

The novel begins with a drawing teacher's eerie late-night encounter with a mysterious woman in white, and then follows his love for Laura Fairlie, a young woman who is falsely incarcerated in an asylum by her husband, Sir Percival Glyde, and his sinister accomplice, Count Fosco. The appendices include contemporary reviews, along with essays on lunacy, asylums, mesmerism, and the rights of women.

Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economic struggles, "Shirley" is an unsentimental yet passionate depiction of conflict among classes, sexes, and generations. Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore considers marriage to the wealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar, yet his heart lies with his cousin Caroline. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Robertas brother, an impoverished tutor. As industrial unrest builds to a potentially fatal pitch, can the four be reconciled?

With her final novel,Villette, Charlotte Bronte reached the height of her artistic power.  First published in 1853,Villetteis Bronte's most accomplished and deeply felt work, eclipsing evenJane Eyrein critical acclaim.  Her narrator, the autobiographical Lucy Snowe, flees England and a tragic past to become an instructor in a French boarding school in the town of Villette. 

In partnership with the New York Public Library, Doubleday is proud to introduce a very special collector's series of literary masterpieces. Lavishly illustrated with rare archival material from the library's extensive resources, including the renowned Berg collection, these editions will bring the classics to life for a new generation of readers. In addition to original artwork, each volume contains a fascinating selection of unique materials such as handwritten diaries, letters, manuscripts, and notebooks.

Gives sage advice on getting, defining, keeping, enjoying, and maybe, leaving a loving relationship

Breaking decisively with all previous literary traditions and grammatical norms, Gertrude Stein forged a unique idiom—abstract and down-to-earth, playful and subversive, philosophical and erotic by turns—which influenced writers as varied as Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, Thornton Wilder, and John Ashbery.

Originally published in 1936, "Nightwood" is a haunting tale of sexual obsession. Robin Vote -- the woman at the heart of this strange and richly atmospheric novel -- is a woman whose passions are strong enough to destroy. The novel circles and spirals as, first, Nora's husband, and then, Nora and Jenny, her lovers, are consumed by her insatiable hunger for human contact.

Comprising eighteen poems inspired largely her tempestuous relationship with fellow lesbian poet Natalie Barney, as well as her unrequited passion for her childhood friend, Violet Shillito, who would remain a fixture in her work until her premature death at the age of 32. Founded by Barbara Grier, Naiad’s focus was preserving out-of-print lesbian classics and publishing the work of iconic lesbian feminist writers.

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.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost.

Aristocrat, novelist, essayist, traveler, and lover of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West lived a fascinating and daring life on the periphery of the Bloomsbury circle. She wrote in an astounding variety of genres, including travel narrative, historical and literary studies, poetry, fiction, and essays, and is probably best known or her novels, The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, and incomparable writings about English country houses and gardens. Here, for the first time, is an anthology that represents the full expanse of her interests and styles.

A cigar-smoking proponent of free-verse modernism in open rebellion against her distinguished Boston lineage, Amy Lowell cut an indelible public figure. But in the words of editor Honor Moore, "what strikes the modern reader is not the sophistication of Lowell's feminist or anti-war stances, but the bald audacity of her eroticism." Lowell was at the center of a group of pioneering modernists who, in an era convulsed by change, rejected musty Victorian standards and wrote poems of bracing immediacy.

Eccentric, adventurous Christina Goering meets the anxious but equally enterprising Mrs. Copperfield at a party. Two serious ladies who want to live outside of themselves, they go in search of salvation: Mrs. Copperfield visits Panama with her husband, where she finds solace among the women who live and work in its brothels; while Miss Goering becomes involved with various men. At the end the two women meet again, each changed by her experience. Mysterious, profound, anarchic and very funny, 'Two Serious Ladies' is a daring, original work that defies analysis.

A “prequel” to the preceding tales. Although it was written last in the series, this story brings Beebo from the hayfields of Wisconsin to New York’s Greenwich Village. She arrives a very young and uncertain girl, but by the end of the story, we see the emergence of the dashing young butch she will become. Along the way there are beautiful girls to explore and a sparkling dalliance with an international movie star.

Based on a true story plucked from Highsmith's own life, The Price of Salt (or Carol) tells the riveting drama of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose routine is forever shattered by a gorgeous epiphany--the appearance of Carol Aird, a customer who comes in to buy her daughter a Christmas toy. The Price of Salt is a brilliantly written story that may surprise Highsmith fans and will delight those discovering her work.

Violette Leduc was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe. In Valenciennes, the young Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from an ugly self-image and from her mother's hostility and overprotectiveness. Leduc's best-known book, the memoir La Bâtarde, was published in 1964. It nearly won the Prix Goncourt and quickly became a bestseller. She went on to write eight more books, including La Folie en tête (Mad in Pursuit), the second part of her literary autobiography.

Set in the late fifties in Reno, Nevada, this classic of lesbian eroticism is Jane Rule's first novel.

May Sarton's ninth novel explores a woman's struggle to reconcile the claims of life and art, to transmute passion and pain into poetry. As it opens, Hilary Stevens, a renowned poet in her seventies, is talking with Mar, an intense young man who has sought her out and whose passionate despair reminds her of herself when young. Mar has had an unhappy love affair with a man. Bewildered by both his sexuality and his writing talent, he flings his anguish against Hilary's brusque, sympathetic intelligence.

The main characters are all women and The Microcosm deals with their relationships, as they grow and as they disintegrate. The pressures of society force them to live in an enclosed world. Steve, the gym teacher under the strain of her marriage; Sadie's factory environment brings its own financial and social problems; and Matt is unable to solve his difficulties with Rae until he breaks out of the microcosm.

Modern classic novel about growing up as a Black lesbian in America--and living happily ever after. Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor Southern couple who want something better for their daughter. Molly plays doctor with the boys, beats up Leroy the tub and loses her virginity to her girlfriend in sixth grade. As she grows to realize she's different, Molly decides not to apologize for that. In no time she mesmerizes the head cheerleader of Ft. Lauderdale High and captivates a gorgeous bourbon-guzzling heiress. But the world is not tolerant.

A collection of essays published by feminist writer Jill Johnston in the early 1970's in the Village Voice -- an important early manifesto of lesbian feminist and separatist politics.

Audre Lorde was a revolutionary Black feminist. Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School.

Here editors Garber and Gomez have tapped the richest vein of young writers writing today in this remarkable collection of fantasy, sword and sorcery, and science fiction tales on gay and lesbian themes. A bold and exciting original collection of gay and lesbian fantasy and science fiction adventures.

This pioneering work, first published in 1986, documents the continuing vitality of American Indian traditions and the crucial role of women in those traditions.

Poems, stories, and essays describe the political and personal implications of being a gay chicana in modern America

Second edition of Gloria Anzaldúa's major work, with a new critical introduction by Chicano Studies scholar and new reflections by Anzaldúa.

The groundbreaking story centers on Renay, a talented black musician who is forced by pregnancy to marry the abusive, alcoholic Jerome Lee. When Jerome sells Renay's piano to finance his drinking, she leaves her destructive marriage, and flees with her young daughter to Terry, a wealthy white writer whom she met at a supper club. Terry awakens in Renay a love and sexual desire beyond her erotic imaginings. Despite the sexist, racist, and homophobic prejudices they must confront, the mutually supportive couple finds physical and emotional joy.

It's influenced William Gibson and been listed as one of the ten essential works of science fiction. Most importantly, Joanna Russ's THE FEMALE MAN is a suspenseful, surprising and darkly witty chronicle of what happens when Jeannine, Janet, Joanna, and Jael--four alternate selves from drastically different realities--meet.

In these astonishing new poems, Adrienne Rich dares to look and to extend her poetic language as witness to the treasures-the midnight salvage-we rescue from fear and violence. Adrienne Rich's work has long challenged social plausibilities built on violence and demoralizing power.

Examines the life styles of gay men and women and discusses the role of gay culture in mainstream society.

Set in the 19th century, Isabel Miller's classic lesbian novel traces the relationship between Patience White - an educated painter - and Sarah Dowling, a cross-dressing farmer. Their romantic bond does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in which they live and ultimately they are forced to make life-changing decisions that depend on their courage and commitment to one another.

Anita Cornwell's writings in this book are the first collection of essays by an African-American lesbian. It also includes her interview with Audre Lorde, also a black lesbian. The foreword by Becky Birtha points out that the book offers an acute political analysis of both racial and sexual oppressions.

Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972), a paradigmatic writer of Hispanic American literature, was characterized by her luminous surrealist imagination. This book brings together a careful selection of her texts, both published and unpublished, as well as some fragments of the diaries she kept during her stays in Paris and Buenos Aires.

Sex and power are dominant themes in this innovative novel by a major femisnist writer, an exile from Uruguay now living in Spain.

Sometimes called the feminist equivalent to Mao's "little red book," Shedding narrates the transformation of a young woman's consciousness against the background of the rising women's movement of the early 1970s. Shedding and Literally Dreaming, a collection of eight stories written a decade later, portrays women living together in rural settings, independent of men.

While attending a traditional tea ceremony in the aftermath of his parents' deaths, Kikuji encounters his father's former mistress, Mrs. Ota. At first Kikuji is appalled by her indelicate nature, but it is not long before he succumbs to passion--a passion with tragic and unforeseen consequences, not just for the two lovers, but also for Mrs. Ota's daughter, to whom Kikuji's attachments soon extend. Death, jealousy, and attraction convene around the delicate art of the tea ceremony, where every gesture is imbued with profound meaning.

Sexy, surprising, and subversively wise, Babyji is the story of Anamika Sharma, a spirited student growing up in Delhi. At school she is an ace at quantum physics. At home she sneaks off to her parents' scooter garage to read the Kamasutra. Before long she has seduced an elegant older divorcee and the family servant, and has caught the eye of a classmate coveted by all the boys. With the world of adulthood dancing before her, Anamika confronts questions that would test someone twice her age. Ebullient, unfettered, and introducing one of the most charming heroines in contemporary fiction, Babyji is irresistible.

Grange Copeland, a deeply conflicted and struggling tenant farmer in the Deep South of the 1930s, leaves his family and everything he's ever known to find happiness and respect in the cold cities of the North. This misadventure, his "second life," proves a dismal failure that sends him back where he came from to confront his now grown-up son's disastrous relationships with his own family, including Grange's granddaughter, Ruth Copeland, a child that Grange grows to love. Love becomes the substance of his third and final life. He spends it in devotion to Ruth, teaching and protecting her--though the cost of doing so is almost more than he can bear.

Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s.

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.

This memoir is a tough-minded search for belonging, for love, an identity, a home, and a mother by the author of "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit"--winner of the Whitbread First Novel award and the inspiration behind the award-winning BBC television adaptation "Oranges."

A father for ten years, a mother for eight, and for a time in between, neither, or both ("the parental version of the schnoodle, or the cockapoo"), Jennifer Finney Boylan has seen parenthood from both sides of the gender divide. When her two children were young, Boylan came out as transgender, and as Jenny transitioned from a man to a woman and from a father to a mother, her family faced unique challenges and questions. In this thoughtful, tear-jerking, hilarious memoir, Jenny asks what it means to be a father, or a mother, and to what extent gender shades our experiences as parents.

Gender isn't just about "male" or "female" anymore - if you have any doubts, just turn on your television. RuPaul is as familiar as tomato ketchup with national radio and television shows, and transgendered folk are as common to talk-shows as screaming and yelling. But if the popularization of gender bending is revealing that "male" and "female" aren't enough, where are we supposed to go from here?

With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population. Though undoubtedly an account of one woman's quest for self at all costs, Redefining Realness is a powerful vision of possibility and self-realization, pushing us all toward greater acceptance of one another--and of ourselves--showing as never before how to be unapologetic and real.

A landmark of trans and feminist nonfiction, Whipping Girl is Julia Serano's indispensable account of what it means to be a transgender woman in a world that consistently derides and belittles anything feminine. In a series of incisive essays, Serano draws on gender theory, her training as a biologist, her career in queer activism, and her own experiences before and after her gender transition to examine the deep connections between sexism and transphobia.