The first comprehensive biographical, critical, and bibliographical source on lesbian writers, this reference book features essays on 100 contemporary writers of poetry, fiction, and drama in the United States. Many had written as self-identified lesbians at some point during the 1970-1992 period of coverage. Each essay comprises a biography, with personal history often derived from interviews, an analysis of major works and themes, an overview of the critical reception, and bibliographies of primary works and of critical studies and reviews. The volume introduction, by Tucker P. Farley, situates contemporary lesbian literature in its historical and political contexts. Appendices list publishers of lesbian writers and periodicals featuring lesbian writing. An extensive bibliography provides nonfiction resources focusing on lesbian issues, including works in psychology, sexuality, parenting, health, history, and theory, as well as literature.
A companion to Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson (Greenwood Press, 1993), this work will be an important addition to college and university libraries supporting gay and lesbian and women's studies programs and literary curricula incorporating this material. It will also be a valuable resource for public and school libraries and collections and specialists in American literature, providing information and analysis for understanding the expanding literary canon.
About the Author: SANDRA POLLACK is Professor of Humanities and Women's Studies at Tompkins Cortland Community College, Dryden, NY, where her academic specialties include women writers, lesbian literature, and women and work. She is the co-editor of two anthologies: Learning Our Way: Essays in Feminist Education with Charlotte Bunch and Politics of the Heart: A Lesbian Parenting Anthology with Jeanne Vaughn.
DENISE D. KNIGHT is Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies in English at the State University of New York, Cortland. She is the author of several books, including Writers of the American Renaissance: An A-to-Z Guide (Greenwood, 2003), Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction (1997), and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (Greenwood, 1997), and coauthor of Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (Greenwood, 1993).
