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The “Non Bib,” Beta .2

A Non-heterosexual, Non-male-identified, Creative Nonfiction Pathfinder, Beta .2 (Work in progress, November 2005, K.G. Schneider, kgs at bluehighways dot com)

(N.b. I began this pathfinder last week, when I realized that I could not list any contemporary lesbian creative nonfiction writers. I ran a search in ProQuest, then approached a mailing list for GLBT librarians, and this is what I have so far. This will always be a work in progress, but I’d like to have something credible before the spring semester begins in late January.)

This bibliography is an attempt to identify contemporary female-identified lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/queer writers who have contributed to the creative nonfiction genre. Representative titles will be linked to websites or library holdings where available. As of this version, very few of the names have been closely evaluated.

The definition of “contemporary” includes writers born after 1928. (That’s only because Adrienne Rich, a personal favorite of the bibliographer, was born in 1929.) The definition of “creative nonfiction” embraces all subgenres of the prose of fact–essays, travel writing, opinion pieces, reflections, portraits, reportage, food writing, and more examples than can possibly be listed here–provided that the writing exemplifies what Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard call “factual prose that is also *literary*–infused with the stylistic devices, tropes, and rhetorical flourishes of the best fiction and the most lyrical of narrative poetry.”

Input, additional names, representative titles, and suggested annotations all welcome and encouraged.

K.G. Schneider

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Allen, Paula Gunn (1939-)
Allison, Dorothy E. (1949-)
Skin : talking about sex, class & literature
http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1563410451
Anzaldua, Gloria
Bond, Edward (1934-)
Boyd, Blanche McCrary
Bright, Susie
Brown, Rita Mae (1944-)
Brownworth, Victoria
“The Spirit of the Holidays,” Curve, 14:8
http://www.curvemag.com/Detailed/609.html
Bunch, Charlotte
“Lesbians in Revolt: Male Supremacy Quakes and Quivers,” The Furies: Lesbian/Feminist Monthly, vol.1 (January 1972), pp.8-9
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/furies/
Butler, Judith
Clarke, Cheryl
Cliff, Michelle
http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=3704
de Beauvoire, Simone (1908-1986)
Clinton, Kate
Duffy, Maureen (1933-)
Faderman, Lillian
Naked in the Promised Land, 2003
http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0618128751
Flagg, Fannie (1944-)
Frye, Marilyn
Gomez, Jewelle
Grahn, Judy
Hacker, Marilyn (1942-)
Halberstam, Judith
Herring, Phillip F. (1936-)
Johnston, Jill
Jordan, June
Klepfisz, Irena
Kovick, Kris
Lorde, Audre (Geraldine) (1934-1992)
Lynch, Lee
The Amazon Trail, Naiad Press, 1988
Millett, Kate (1934-)
Moraga, Cherrie (1952-)
Murdoch, Iris (1919-1999)
The sovereignty of good (1970)
Myles, Eileen (1949-)
Nestle, Joan
A restricted country
http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0932379370
Newton, Esther
Obejas, Achy [has she written in the genre?]
Paglia, Camille
Portillo Trambley, Estela (1936-)
Pratt, Minnie Bruce
Rich, Adrienne (1929-)
Rich, B. Ruby
Schulman, Sarah
Smith, Barbara
Winterson, Jeanette (1959-)
Wittig, Monique

Also See

Solanas, Valerie (?-1988)
“The S.C.U.M. Manifesto” (1968)
http://gos.sbc.edu/s/solanas.html
She’s a wee too crazy to include on the main list, but Solanas’ manifesto has flashes of literary brilliance, and is much better, in terms of craft, than many saner documents of the same era.

Posted on this day, other years:

This was written by K.G. Schneider. Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005, at 9:34 am. Filed under Writing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.