My Sisters Hand In Mine An Expanded Edition Of The Collected Works

Lesbian married to homosexual author, Paul Bowles.

A lively and accessible guide to lesbian and gay literary culture. Featuring authors of works with lesbian or gay content as well as known lesbian and gay writers, it offers an invaluable guide to a rich and varied literary culture.

From the acclaimed, award-winning author comes a sparkling, surprising collection of the writing she loves best—and without which she would not have become a writer. The Book Lover is a treasure trove of what Ali Smith has loved over the course of her reading life, in her twenties, as a teenager, as a child. Full of pieces from amazing writers like Sylvia Plath, Muriel Spark, Grace Paley, and Margaret Atwood, it also has a wonderful selection of lesser-known authors like Joseph Roth, only just gaining proper status now, and Clarice Lispector, a Brazilian genius who's far too underpublished. From surprising figures like Beryl the Peril, Billie Holliday, and Lee Miller to unusual selections from the most prominent writers in history, The Book Lover is an intimate, personal anthology that gives readers a glimpse of how writers develop their craft—by reading other writers.

"Filled with insights into an enigma" ("USA Today"), "An Invisible Spectator" chronicles Paul Bowles's life and work--interwoven with vivid depictions of the writer's intimates, including Truman Capote, Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs.

"Allen's book will... provide the categories that will deepen our understanding of lesbian relationships and of lesbian fiction." -- Lesbian Review of Books "Barnes scholars will... want to pick up Carolyn Allen's new book, for it not only offers perceptive readings of Nightwood and the "Little Girl" stories..., but traces the example of Barnes's exploration of lesbian power and loss in the fiction of Jeanette Winterson, Rebecca Brown, and the underrated Bertha Harris." -- Review of Contemporary Fiction "... fascinating... [a] fine volume... " -- Choice "Following Djuna is a fascinating analysis of the textual erotics and lyrical seductions of the work of Djuna Barnes and the writers she influences. This scintillating genealogy of lesbian intertextuality... expands the field of lesbian and feminist literary inquiry and concepts of lesbian literary production." -- Judith Roof "As lesbian literary history, here is an instant classic." -- Jane Marcus "This is an important and necessary book; even further, speaking as an admirer of the writers and literary works it discusses and as a personal expert on lost love, I find Following Djuna irrestible." -- Karen Helfrich, Lambda Book Report Carolyn Allen argues for the importance of women's fiction in understanding women's erotics -- emotional and sexual exchanges between women.

Since the Renaissance, countless writers have been magnetized by the notion of love between women. This anthology registers that fact in as encompassing and enlightening a way as possible. Castle explores the emergence and transformation of the "idea of lesbianism."