There were no truly out lesbian writers published during the mid-twentieth century. Then a slew of writers came along for an audience radicalized by the civil-rights and feminist movements. To accommodate this outpouring of gay words, the lesbian presses were born.
Those were exciting times through the 1980s and early 1990s. I have shelves of books published in those years from Diana, Firebrand, Naiad,
Daughters, New Victoria and so many others. The quality of the books was, as with any literary movement, uneven, and some of those hailed as classics were released by straight presses, not our own, but whether that reflected better publicity machines or reality only time will tell.
Today I received the last issue of "The Lesbian Review of Books," the distinguished brainchild of teacher and reviewer Loralee MacPike. This is one more sign that the era of the first great lesbian literary flowering is endangered. So few of the old publishers are represented in this issue, yet lesbians haven't been silenced! Many of the books are from university presses...an increasing indication that we and our work are being taken seriously. Others are being published by gay male-founded presses like Alyson Publications which has always promoted lesbian authors.
Our presses old and new struggle to publish books and magazines that lesbians need to read. The owner devote their time, personal incomes and energy to giving us voice. Too many have fallen by the wayside, victims of a need to survive emotionally, physically or economically. Every time a women's bookstore closes we all suffer. Losing plucky "Feminist Bookstore News" was a terrible blow. Goodness knows how an important publication like "Lambda Book Report" manages to stay afloat.
It's a struggle for anyone in the word professions to survive economically, but especially for gay people who have a smaller readership than heterosexuals. I think a lot about Isabel Miller who sold Patience and Sarah ( at that time called A Place For Us ) out of a shopping bag in the bars. That kind of chutzpah in the face of the locked doors of the publishing world helped create our alternative literary establishment. E-publishing on a personal web site may be the equivalent 30 years later. Where there's a queer will, there's a queer way.
Yet I worry about where the economics of the publishing "industry" are taking us. So many of the books on our bestseller lists are about sex, violence or both. Maybe it's a sign of the times, but I wonder if we'll read any lesbian-related erotica or sensationalistic genre fiction we can find or if we're writing for straight men. Current books take me back to the early '60s, when seductive covers on newspaper shop racks were all I could find about myself. The publishers were very up front then...low-wage lesbians were not their target audience. The covers have been updated and the content has escalated in graphic detailing, but there they are, defining us by our sexuality again.
Call me an old-fashioned prude, but when I see anthology after anthology of so-called erotica, I fear receipts have become more important than creating a body of work that can sustain a marginal people. Do we really think we're out of danger and can afford, like the grasshopper in the fable, to spend our days fiddling? Once it took courage and imagination to write an erotic scene. I hate to see some of our most intimate moments transformed into loveless demonstrations that seem to serve little purpose beyond answering the age-old question, "But what do they do?" Economic realities do not favor minority publishing and perhaps income from such magazines and books will keep our presses alive so that they can publish work that will positively impact lesbian lives and leave a literary legacy to nurture future generations.
If that's the motive behind this avalanche of questionable fiction, perhaps it's a legitimate purpose. Perhaps this is another stage in becoming all we can be as a culture. There is certainly a place in every literature for sheer escapist fiction. That some of this is awkward and lacking craft is understandable; that some is hurried and barely edited is a terrible mistake. The problem comes when limited resources elbow more serious work off the few printed pages available. This discourages writers from growing and denies readers what we deserve. Is this phenomenon another manifestation of internalized homophobia? I fear we are allowing heterosexist society to steal our feisty lavender souls again, through the marketplace.
Loralee MacPike will continue her work in some other form, I am sure. Newer Presses like Odd Girls and Haworth are keeping lesbian literature visible. As are web-savvy lesbians who create sites such as . I am filled with pride at all we've accomplished and humbled to be among our ranks. Despite the right wing, the fundamentalist terrorists and our slow-to-heal tendencies to self-destruct...with a book list like the one at queerreads, I know nothing can stop us now.
Copyright Lee Lynch 2001
