Subjects:  1. Europe    2. Europe - General    3. European - General    4. Gay Studies    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History and criticism    8. History: World    9. Love    10. Middle East - Turkey    11. Modern - 16th Century    12. Social aspects    13. Turkey    14. Turkish poetry    15. Family & relationships   

Editorial Review

Pat Califia is well known as a sexual pioneer whose essays and fictions have encouraged lesbians to explore and discuss a wider range of erotic experience. In this book, her first volume of poetry, Califia gives voice--in the form of brief lyrics and more developed dramatic monologues--to the rebels and outlaws she has written about as a theorist. The women in these poems are tough, funny, often working class dykes who howl in anger, rage, and ecstasy about the power of sex, the sex of power, and not a few controversies between. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

very slinky and kind of scary at the same time
This book slinks! I'm a 16 year old baby dyke from Madison, Wisconsin. It's got a lot of S/M stuff, which kind of put me off at first, cos I'm quite vanilla. Still, it's a great book and I read one poem over and overagain. That would "Only You Can Kiss Like This." I shared it withmy lover and she really liked it too. I love Califia's imagery. At firstI"d only heard of her as a sex columnist in a lesbian magazine and Iwas happily surprised to hear she writes poetry as well.

Diesel Fuel is true dyke poetry.
Pat states in "Diesel Fuel," "If I have a vocation, it is to combat sexual shame by speaking as much truth as I know about what really happens in the realm of Eros, and Diesel Fuel is one more record of that calling."Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Fiction    3. Lesbians    4. Poetry    5. Literature of special Lesbian interest    6. Modern fiction    7. Lesbian    8. Sadomasochism   

Reviews (1)

Wow!
Blanco is the real deal. So much poetry today is bland, plain vanilla, like art that people walk by quickly in a museum to get to the gift shop or say they've been there. Blanco is anything but. Directions to the Beach, if anything, is even more fiery than his first volume, the award-winning City of a Hundred Fires. Blanco takes us everywhere--we are on a journey: through the Straits of Messina, to Paris, New York, Miami. We meet lovers (here you will find a series of "for" poems like no others--for M.C., C.S.B., B.L), friends, family members (my favorites: Abuelo and Abuela). Here are the things and stuff of poetry--a world like no other. America: give us a poetry that speaks to our finest sensibilities; that tells the truth about family, love, loss, beauty and joy. Give us the sensuous detail. Give us all of this in language (or rather languages--for what are our languages if not English and Spanish?). The leavened bread; the deep red wine.
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Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Ancient, Classical & Medieval    3. Cuban Americans    4. Gay men    5. Poetry   

Subjects:  1. 1869-1928    2. 19th century    3. 20th Century English Poetry    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    9. General    10. Great Britain    11. Lesbians    12. Literary    13. Mew, Charlotte Mary,    14. Poets, English    15. Women In Literature    16. Mew, Charlotte Mary   

Editorial Review

This book gathers the work of more than 100 female poets, of primarily British and American descent, since the 17th century. Emma Donoghue's astute introductory essay suggests a coherent tradition between the poetry of pre-20th-century romantic friendships and explicit contemporary lesbian poetry. She includes work by well-known writers such as Aphra Behn, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde, and also introduces the work of lesser-known historical writers. The brief biographies of the poets at the end of the book illustrate not only the varied backgrounds of these writers working outside the mainstream, but also the kinds of networks and alliances they formed to sustain one another. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Treasure Trove
this book is fabulous! Emma Donoghue's introduction provides fascinatingcontextual information, guiding the reader through attitudes toward lovebetween women from the late 1660s to the early 1990s. The poems themselvesfairly leap off the page with lives of their own.Donoghue selected poemswhich are quite accessible and widely varied.I did have some troublegetting past the melodrama of some of the earlier work, but once I did, Idiscovered many, many truly delightful poems illuminating the myriadaspects of women's love for one another.At the end of the book is asection of biographical notes about the poets which is intriguing on itsown.This volume would be an asset to anyone's library. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American poetry    2. Anthologies (multiple authors)    3. English poetry    4. Gay & Lesbian    5. Lesbians' writings, American    6. Love poetry, English    7. Poetry    8. Sexuality In Literature    9. Women Authors    10. Literary Criticism & Collections / Gay & Lesbian    11. Poetry & poets   

Reviews (1)

A Summary of Sappho's Lyre
"Sappho's Lyre", written by Diane J. Rayor, is sensationally crafted in chronological order to afford today's modern audience the ability to understand and appreciate the lyrics of ancient Greek poetry.This volume is significant as it includes the works of all the ancient women poets together in one book for the first time ever.Along with the works of the seventeen poets who composed various genres of lyric poetry over 2500 years ago, "Sappho's Lyre" includes an introduction and notes section to explain the characters as well as the history of events taking place during the time each of the poets' lyrics are composed.These poets use their lyrics and musical instruments as a way of communicating the events and feelings of the individuals and their communities during the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods.Diane Rayor does an extraordinary job of explaining in modern day language the growth and development of ancient poetry. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient and Classical    2. General    3. Greece    4. Greek poetry    5. Literary Criticism    6. Poetry    7. Translations into English    8. Women and literature    9. Women authors    10. Ancient (Classical) Greek    11. History / Ancient / General    12. Lesbian studies    13. Literary studies: classical, early & medieval   

Reviews (1)

Pleasantly Surprised
I read this book because I was curious.Sandra McPherson, Alfred Corn, and Marvin Bell (the three judges who chose this book as the Lamont Poetry selection) are all accomplished poets, and I wondered how they had come to choose a book published by a small, feminist press like Firebrand books.I wasn't sure what to expect, but I ended up pleasantly surprised.Read more

Subjects:  1. American    2. American - General    3. General    4. Lesbian Studies    5. Poetry    6. Poetry texts & anthologies   

Reviews (1)

The working class speaks!
Joanna Kadi has written a thoughtful and challenging book that examines her life experiences in a larger social and political context.Kadi's commentary is refreshingly even-keeled as it criticizes a society that, across the political spectrum, marginalizes and misrepresents the cultures and voices of the working class.Mainstream "progressives" may find themselves nodding their heads vigorously at some points but challenged by others.They don't teach this stuff in the diversity seminars at liberal arts colleges (although if Kadi had her way, they just might). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Arab American women    2. Arab Americans    3. Biography    4. Kadi, Joanna    5. Lesbian Studies    6. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    7. Sociology    8. Sociology - Social Theory    9. United States    10. Working class lesbians    11. American English    12. Poetry & poets: from c 1900 -    13. Political Science / General    14. Sociology, Social Studies   

Subjects:  1. 1911-1979    2. 20th century    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Bishop, Elizabeth - Poems & Criticism    8. Bishop, Elizabeth,    9. General    10. Historical - U.S.    11. Literary    12. Poets, American    13. Women    14. Biography: general    15. Bishop, Elizabeth    16. English    17. Lesbian studies    18. Literary Criticism & Collections / General    19. Poetry & poets: from c 1900 -    20. USA   

Subjects:  1. 20th Century English Poetry    2. English poetry    3. Gay men    4. Gay men's writings, American    5. Gay men's writings, English    6. Poetry   

Reviews (1)

YES!
This is a book to be read cover to cover...the poems progress that way, weaving in and out of personal experience to Edgewater, (both lake and metaphor), and back to personal experience again.And what experience!!!That of a sensitivity most deeply in touch with the world and the heart.A sensitivity that accepts life's hard places and embraces its wonderments. An unflinching sensuality. Always brave, always loving, these poems should be taken on a walk, or read in a forest, or on a beach or on a plane.You should readthem and read them again (I have), because they say what you have always wanted to say and couldn't. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. General    3. Lesbian    4. Poetry    5. Poetry / General   

Subjects:  1. English Contemporary Poetry    2. English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Poetry    5. Popular English Fiction    6. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    7. English    8. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Interpersonal Relations    3. Lesbian    4. Poetry    5. Poetry / Single Author / American    6. American    7. Modern fiction    8. Risk-taking (Psychology)   

Editorial Review

This comprehensive and feminine collection of poems gives evidence to what women have always known in their souls--that even though male poets are most often quoted as the heaven-blessed wordsmiths, women have always sung exquisite songs of divine praise, passion, and yearning. Editor and Pulitzer-Prize nominee Aliki Barnstone is a poet in her own right, and because of this she brings a keen literary eye to her selections. Since the volume reads in chronological order, it begins with Enheduanna (ca. 2300 BCE), who calls to the "moon goddess" Innanna. "We sing, mourn, and cry before you/and walk toward you along a path/from the house of enormous sighs." Every poem offers pause for reflection and is bound to stir enormous sighs of appreciation. Moving through centuries and millennia, Barnstone has included famous poets (Hildegarde of Bingen, Denise Levertov, Linda Hogan, Anne Sexton, Louise Erdrich) with the more obscure but equally divine. Read more

Subjects:  1. Inspirational & Religious    2. Poetry    3. Religious life    4. Religious poetry    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Spiritual life    8. Women    9. Women authors    10. Women's Studies - General    11. Lesbian studies    12. Mind, body, spirit: mysticism & self-awareness    13. Poetry / Inspirational & Religious    14. Poetry texts & anthologies   

Reviews (4)

Great Book!
This is a truly touching book about two women overcoming their pasts and loving each other.As a child, Macy has a crazy mother who runs away for a few days with the butcher whenever things get tough around the house.Macy and her first love, Maybelline discover their love for each other.Macy lives through the loss of her first love by living in her house and taking care of her while attending nursing school. Lyrical, suspenseful love story
This lyrical, beautifully wrought love story between two women, Dotty and Macy, kept me involved long after I'd read the last page. They are trying to make a true, meaningful connection for the first time in their lives, after escaping homes tainted by abuse, mental illness, and catastrophe. Macy (who has taken on the role of home nurse and lover, a role fraught with peril) feeds Dotty just a few too many pain pills. As the issues between Dotty and Macy come to a head, they confront their pasts. This was my favorite part of the novel, a lovely suspense fed not by "What comes next" but by "What happened? Who are these people?" To me, it's the difference between eating a homemade chocolate cake, where you savor every bit, and rushing through a Hostess cupcake because you're late for work. Their pasts unfold as unique mosaics combined with the perfect amount of the surreal. As they confront their pasts, they confront their issues in the present through a deep, almost Jungian exploration of their inner selves. The novel asks hard-to-answer questions.Can they possibly break the patterns they've established to form an equal partnership, make a true connection? But that question is the universal question--can we break free from our pasts?--and so I keep coming back to it, months after having finished the book. I strongly recommend this novel.

Electric love
When Dotty falls from a ladder, she is brought into the hospital where Macy works. Macy lives at the house Dotty was painting. Macy becomes Dotty's nurse after she leaves the hospital, and the two embark on a love affair. The past histories of both women creep back into their lives and threaten to destroy what's being born. Schutzer's circular and nonlinear story is full of potent writing and moving descriptions of the past pain and vivid silences both women have endured. And the surprise connection between Dotty and Macy is beautifully crafted. Schutzer's style reminded me a bit of Scott Heim, but not as dark. Any reader who's a fan of such emotionally charged works as Emma Donoghue's "Hood" and Alison Green's "Half-moon Scar" will adore this novel. This is one of my favorite novels of 2000! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accident victims    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. House painters    5. Lesbian    6. Lesbians    7. Nurses    8. Poetry    9. Fiction / General   

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Poetry    3. Poetry / Single Author / American    4. 20th Century American Poetry    5. American    6. American Contemporary Poetry    7. Lesbians    8. Single Author - American (General)   

Reviews (1)

Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis
This edition contains the two best pieces of Wilde's writing.The poem "Ballad" is strong in its sense of poetry and imagery without being sing-songy.De Profundis, while a little difficult to wade throughat certain points, simply captures many of life's truths and sets them downin the written word, to be studied, remembered and savored all at once. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Literature: Classics    4. Literature of special Gay interest    5. Other prose: 19th century    6. Works by individual poets: 19th century   

Subjects:  1. 1953-1987    2. 20th century    3. American - General    4. American Contemporary Poetry    5. Asian American Poetry    6. Biography    7. Essays    8. Feminists    9. Fukaya, Michiyo,    10. Japanese American women    11. Lesbian Studies    12. Literature - Classics / Criticism    13. Poets, American    14. Social Science    15. Sociology    16. Specific Groups - Lesbians    17. United States    18. Biography & Autobiography    19. English    20. Fukaya, Michiyo    21. USA   

Reviews (4)

Absolutely mind-blowing
I had no idea that a simple page of unpunctuated emotion could grind at your heart and make you cry the way this does, easily.It is raw, angry, despairing and loving all at once, you feel as if the poems are Monette's one strand of hope, a lifeline desperately connecting him to existence in the months after Roger's death.These literally take your breath away, they are a rollercoaster of heartbreak and desperation, grabbing some vital organ inside of you and not letting go until the poem's been read.I would give these six, seven, twenty three stars if I could, because this is the purpose of literature, to preserve human emotion and experience.These poems do that exquisitely.

Amazing, unbelievable, intense like only truth can be
This is a book that will make you believe. breathless poems
It is worth buying the book simply for the first poem, "Here".Each of the pieces moves at a fever pitch, leaving the reader unable to pause even for breath, until the poem ends and leaves you holding the book, wanting more, but needing a break, unable to turn the page.They wear you out reading them, but in the best way possible.Monette documents the death of his partner, and the knowledge of his own advancing illness, and he does so in a way that takes you with him : you feel the urgency, pain, sadness, beauty, love, and preciousness of life right along with the poet.Love Alone isn't poems that just tell you things.It puts them in your hands. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. AIDS (Disease)    2. American - General    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Patients    7. Poetry    8. Modern fiction    9. Poetry / General   

Reviews (1)

Three cheers for Dr. J
An ideological exploration of the themes in Auden's later poetry.Best ever.Can you really beat Dr. J? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. (Wystan Hugh),    2. 1907-1973    3. 20th century    4. American influences    5. Auden, W. H    6. Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973    7. Christianity and literature    8. Criticism and interpretation    9. English poetry    10. English-speaking countries    11. General    12. History    13. Homosexuality and literature    14. Literature - Classics / Criticism    15. Poetry    16. England    17. English    18. Poetry & poets: from c 1900 -    19. Poetry texts & anthologies