Judy Grahn is an American poet and author.
Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts,attentions,relationships,and activities towards their fellow women rather than men,and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s,primarily in North America and Western Europe,but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left,the Campaign for Homosexual Equality,sexism within the gay liberation movement,and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.
Dorothy Allison is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle,sexual abuse,child abuse,feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of awards for her writing,including several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014,Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Cherríe Moraga is a Chicana feminist,writer,activist,poet,essayist,and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California,Santa Barbara in the Department of English. Moraga is also a founding member of the social justice activist group La Red Chicana Indígena,which is an organization of Chicanas fighting for education,culture rights,and Indigenous Rights.
Barbara Smith is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in Black feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s,she has been active as a scholar,activist,critic,lecturer,author,and publisher of Black feminist thought. She has also taught at numerous colleges and universities for 25 years. Smith's essays,reviews,articles,short stories and literary criticism have appeared in a range of publications,including The New York Times Book Review,The Black Scholar,Ms.,Gay Community News,The Guardian,The Village Voice,Conditions and The Nation. She has a twin sister,Beverly Smith,who is also a lesbian feminist activist and writer.
Naiad Press (1973–2003) was an American publishing company,one of the first dedicated to lesbian literature. At its closing it was the oldest and largest lesbian/feminist publisher in the world.
Lillian Faderman is an American historian whose books on lesbian history and LGBT history have earned critical praise and awards. The New York Times named three of her books on its "Notable Books of the Year" list. In addition,The Guardian named her book,Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, one of the Top 10 Books of Radical History. She was a professor of English at California State University,Fresno,which bestowed her emeritus status,and a visiting professor at University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA). She retired from academe in 2007. Faderman has been referred to as "the mother of lesbian history" for her groundbreaking research and writings on lesbian culture,literature,and history.
Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry,plays,fiction addressing lesbian characters,and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics.
Joan Nestle is a Lambda Award winning writer and editor and a founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives,which holds,among other things,everything she has ever written. She is openly lesbian and sees her work of archiving history as critical to her identity as "a woman,as a lesbian,and as a Jew."
Anna Livia was a lesbian feminist author and linguist,well known for her fiction and non-fiction regarding sexuality. From 1999 until shortly before the time of her death she was a member of staff at University of California,Berkeley.
Sarah Dreher was an American lesbian novelist and playwright,and best known for her award-winning lesbian mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Stoner McTavish.
Margaret Louise Cruikshank is an American lesbian feminist writer and academic. She was one of the first American academics to be out during a time when gay rights were an unfamiliar concept. Cruikshank played a central role in establishing the importance of lesbian studies within both women's studies and the academy through the publication of her edited anthologies.
Jeanne Córdova was an American trailblazer of the lesbian and gay rights movement,founder of The Lesbian Tide,and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and proud butch.
Julia Penelope was an American linguist,author,and philosopher. She was part of an international movement of critical thinkers on lesbian and feminist issues. A self-described "white,working-class,fat butch dyke who never passed," she started what she called "rabble rousing" when she was a young woman.
Becky Birtha is an American poet and children's author who lives in the greater Philadelphia area. She is best known for her poetry and short stories depicting African-American and lesbian relationships,often focusing on topics such as interracial relationships,emotional recovery from a breakup,single parenthood and adoption. Her poetry was featured in the acclaimed 1983 anthology of African-American feminist writing Home Girls:A Black Feminist Anthology,edited by Barbara Smith and published by Kitchen Table:Women of Color Press. She has won a Lambda Literary award for her poetry. She has been awarded grants from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts,the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to further her literary works. In recent years she has written three children's historical fiction picture books about the African-American experience.
Jill Posener is a British photographer and playwright,known for her exploration of lesbian identity and erotica.
Emma Pérez is an American author and professor,known for her work in queer Chicana feminist studies.
Bonnie J. Morris is an American scholar of women's studies. She completed a PhD in women's history at Binghamton University in 1989 and has taught at various universities including Georgetown University,George Washington University,and University of California,Berkeley.
Elizabeth Meese was an American academic who specialized in feminist theory. She was a professor at the University of Alabama,in the English Department,which named an award for her,the "Elizabeth Meese Memorial Award in Feminist Theory".
Kathryn Bond Stockton is an American writer and academic. She works at the University of Utah,where she serves as the inaugural Dean of the School for Cultural and Social Transformation and a Distinguished Professor of English. Her primary research areas are "queer theory,theories of race and racialized gender,and twentieth-century literature and film."
