The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories

I bought this book for two authors I can not get enough of - Jane Rule and Joan Nestle. Stories range from coming out , cross dressing, vampires, sci-fi, comic and of course romance. 32 stories from a tremendously diverse collection of authors dating from 1897 to 1993, including the terrific - Emma Donoghue Virgina Woolf Jeanette Winterson Anais Nin Ann Bannon Radclyffe Hall Dorothy Allison, Colette Pat Califia Isak Dinesen Sarah Orne Jewett Renee Vivien Djuana Barnes Rebecca Brown Jewelle Gomez Margaret Atwood Anna Livia Gertrude Stein Dorothy Strachey Also includes short-short author biographies and a comprehensive 22 page introduction. This is a Keeper!

Outstanding anthology for any book collection I bought this book for two authors I can not get enough of - Jane Rule and Joan Nestle. Stories range from coming out , cross dressing, vampires, sci-fi, comic and of course romance. 32 stories from a tremendously diverse collection of authors dating from 1897 to 1993, including the terrific - Emma Donoghue Virgina Woolf Jeanette Winterson Anais Nin Ann Bannon Radclyffe Hall Dorothy Allison, Colette Pat Califia Isak Dinesen Sarah Orne Jewett Renee Vivien Djuana Barnes Rebecca Brown Jewelle Gomez Margaret Atwood Anna Livia Gertrude Stein Dorothy Strachey Also includes short-short author biographies and a comprehensive 22 page introduction. This is a Keeper!

Whatever you're looking for, it's probably in here. I have returned to this book both when looking for a good read and when writing essays (for example on lesbian modernists): as well as having some wonderful stories spanning a broad range of styles, the introduction is damn good critical stuff and contains some very useful references. Thank goodness they've changed the cover; the previous edition featuring two half-naked women (whom you wouldn't want to run into on a dark evening) was somewhat embarrassing to be seen with at the university library.As well as enjoying the stories in their own right, I also found they led me to writers I hadn't encountered before. Some of my favourites include the extract from "A Room of One's Own", "Lullaby for my Dyke and her Cat" and "The Secret of Sorrerby Rise" (as well as the introduction to the book, funnily enough); and for all those Alison Bechdel fans out there, rest assured she's in there too.

Its the one compilation that has truely touched the humour, the enticing void of what it is to fall in love and what it is like to be ironically a normal lesbian, the pictures are pretty good as well :)

I loved this book . The stories in it are varied , but they are all wonderful . I have used stories in here for several proses for acting contests and have always gotten an excellent response. I recommend this book for anyone , man women gay or straight