Edmonton Lesbian+ Book Club

Many months ago, we read a wonderful book by Paula Gunn Allen, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows . Paula passed away last week at 68. She was a key figure in "Native American literature" - an author and educator who advocated for the inclusion of First Nations voices in the mainstream of literature. Her 1986 book, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions , broke new ground again, countering the stereotypical view of Native American women with provocative essays examining female deities, the honored place of lesbians and the importance of mothers and grandmothers to Native American identity. One of the most anthologized essays -- "Who Is Your Mother? Red Roots of White Feminism" -- asserts that early feminists in the United States owe a debt to women of the female-centered Iroquois, who were their role models. The work, like much of Allen's writing, attracted a significant lesbian readership. Though she once identified as a lesbian, Al

LESBIAN DEBUT FICTION Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking , Aoibheann Sweeney (The Penguin Press) WOMEN'S FICTION The IHOP Papers , Ali Leibegott (Carroll & Graf) WOMEN'S ROMANCE Out of Love , KG MacGregor (Bella Books) WOMEN'S MYSTERY Wall of Silence , Gabrielle Goldsby (Bold Strokes Books) WOMEN'S MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY And Now We Are Going to Have a Party , Nicola Griffith (Payseur & Schmidt)

On Desert of The Heart : The happy ending was appreciated by all and a few people commented on how different the movie is from the book - but most of us had never seen the movie. We'll be having a movie night soon to watch the movie! (on facebook or contact Kim for details) It was fun picking apart characters and lamenting the lack of a substantial sex scene. Especially interesting was that club members seemed to make many different personal connections to this book - almost everyone told a story or two after relating to a line or happening in the story. Please note the changes to the reading list (top left corner on blog page)! Poor Pink , just keeps getting shoved back. We're hopeful it'll be in stock and you know, out there, by the end of June so that we can read it for July. New additions to the reading list: For September, No Margins . It's a collection of lesbian short fiction edited by Nairne Holtz and published by Insomniac Press. Some other suggestions for fut