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Top of the pile
90
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
92/100Critics
88/100Scholars
Author:
Briona Simone Jones, Sangodare Akinwale, M. Jacqui Alexander, Moya Bailey, Lucille Bogan, SDiane Bogus, Dionne Brand, Sharon Bridgforth, Charlene A. Carruthers, Cheryl Clarke, Michelle Cliff, Cathy J. Cohen, Anita Cornwell, Doris Diosa Davenport, Kai Davis, L. Joyce DeLaney, Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson, Demita Frazier, Jewelle Gomez, Angelina Weld Grimké, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, J.P. Howard, Akasha Gloria Hull, Terri Jewell, Janae Johnson, Barbara Jordan, Audre Lorde, Bettina L. Love, Dawn Lundy Martin, Catherine E. McKinley, Lisa C. Moore, Susana Morris, Pauli Murray, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Pat Parker, Michelle Parkerson, Kate Rushin, Savannah Shange, Ann Allen Shockley, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Kaila Story, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Pamela Sneed, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Alexis De Veaux, Alice Walker, Arisa White
Publisher:
The New Press
Date:
February 23, 2021
A collection tracing the history of intellectual thought by Black Lesbian writers.
What The Reviewers Say
A much-needed addition to social science and philosophy shelves everywhere.
This book might have been subtitled An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing. After all, it offers poetry, fiction, and nonfiction—some of it scholarly and historical, and some of it confessional, poetic, personal.
The selections are wide-ranging enough so that every reader can find something of interest, from scholars and students to those just casually exploring the subject. One minor drawback, though, is a lack of publication dates for the older, 'vintage' pieces. While reading them usually makes the era apparent, providing dates at the start might give a more immediate sense of the historical development. Still, the diversity of pieces, from across time and labels, written by 'dykes, queer women, butches, femmes, and lesbians,' as Cheryl Clarke writes in her foreword, impressively shows the richness of Black lesbian intellectual life.
Jones traces 'the long history of love between Black women' in this wide-ranging, celebratory anthology. Documenting 'the purview of the poet, blues woman, essayist, and critic,' Jones collects cultural criticism, theory, personal essay, and poetry from 1909 to 2019.
