Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Audre Lorde
Considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of our time,
Audre Lorde is credited with creating an entirely new subgenre
within literature with her novel Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.
That genre is biomythology. Blending memory, biography and fiction,
Zami follows Audre's journey from her childhood in Jim Crowe ruled
Harlem through the civil rights and women's liberation movement of
the 1970s, exploring her sexual awakening as a lesbian and as an
African American woman in America.
A page turner from start to finish, Lorde recreates the pain of
love and loss, and gives an invaluable insight into what it means
to be black and lesbian, especially within the context of a white
man's world.
Buy Zami at amazon.co.uk
Bliss
Fiona Zedde
Jamaican-born writer Fiona Zedde burst onto the lesbian literature
scene back in 2005 when her debut novel Bliss was named as a
finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards for Lesbian Fiction.
Bliss tells the story of hi-flier Bliss Sinclair - with her high
profile job, fashionista parties and eye-candy boyfriends, she
seems to have life made, but the emptiness of her shallow lifestyle
leads her to through the underbelly of desire in her search for
excitement and experience. When that world is blown apart, she
returns to Jamaica for the summer in an attempt to reconnect with
her estranged father and reconstruct her own image of herself. As
the summer progresses, her journey takes her into a new unknown;
'it's a journey that will awaken every one of her senses and take
her to the edge of known pleasure… to a love that is as sexy as it
gets, and more surprising than even she can imagine.'
Buy Bliss at amazon
Does Your Mama Know?
Ed. Lisa C. Moore
An anthology of coming out stories, interviews, poems and essays
by over four dozen black lesbians, Does Your Mama Know? is a
pivotal volume in the black lesbian canon. Through the use of
carefully selected texts, the anthology represents the spectrum of
experiences of queer women of colour on their journeys, from the
sad to the outrageous, compassionate to the tender. Though
difficult to obtain, the anthology creates an overarching narrative
of empathy and inclusiveness that positively challenges negative
social attitudes to black lesbianism, instead offering a sense of
solidarity and pride for women of colour who love women.
Buy Does Your Mama
Know
Trumpet
Jackie Kay
For a long time Scottish writer, poet and playwright Jackie Kay
was better known for being (now Poet Laureate) Carol Anne Duffy's
other half. Now Kay is arguably as recognisable a figure on the
British literary scene and her debut novel Trumpet (released in
1998) was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. Trumpet is loosely
based on the real life story of Billy Tipton, a famous 1950s
American jazz musician born as a woman, who lived as a man for over
50 years, keeping his biological gender secret from the
public.
Trumpet begins with the death of Joss Moody, as his adoptive son
Colman discovers his father's secret. Reeling with anger and
confusion, Colman sells his father's secret to an ambitious young
journalist and together, the pair of them embark on a journey of
discovery that opens up questions about love and gender identity.
Her recent books include her brilliant memoir, Red Dust Road and a
slim volume of poetry, Fiere.
Buy Trumpet
Abeng
Michelle Cliff
Abeng tells the story of a young mixed-race Jamaican girl growing
up during the 1950s. At twelve years old, Clare Savage is trying to
find her place in the world, but finds herself falling between to
identities. She must reconcile the warring elements of her personal
heritage - her Maroon ancestors who waged war against her English
relatives and her white English great-grandfather who burned alive
his African slaves on the eve of their emancipation - and deal with
the psychological and historical impact of colonialism on her own
identity. A powerful revisionist tale that attempts to counteract
the consequences of British Colonialism in Jamaica, in Savage Cliff
creates a quasi-autobiographical character whose search for
personal identity will strike a chord with readers across the
sexual divide.
Buy Abeng
Poetry
Angelina Welde Grimke
A historical hottie, Angelina Welde Grimke is one of the Harlem
Renaissance's overlooked figures. The daughter of Archibald Grimke
- the son of a white man and a black slave - and Sarah Stanley -
born from a prominent white middle class family, Angelina was born
in 1880, and was an active writer and activist during the Harlem
Renaissance, publishing essays, short stories and poems in The New
Negro, Negro Poets and their Poems and Opportunity.
Grimke's body of poetry hasn't been released in its entirety yet,
those that have reveal more than just a hint of her Sapphic
longings, as well as a tantalising glimpse her artistic talents.
For a taster, read her poems Butterflies, Give Me Your Eyes and
Grass Fingers. "Touch me, touch me /
Little cool grass fingers
/
Elusive, delicate grass fingers / With your shy brushings."
*Sigh*.
Amazon
The Colour Purple
Alice Walker
As so much of Afro American / British history is tied up with
slavery and the legacy of colonialism, it's not hard to understand
why so many of the books on this list cover these topics. Yet none
do it quite so well as Alice Walker in her 1982 novel, The Colour
Purple. Set in Georgia at the beginning of the twentieth century,
the novel tells the story of Celie - raped and beaten firstly by
her father and then by her husband, Celie comes to experience
happiness, love and sexual awakening through her relationships with
the women around her.
Though brutally written and loaded with difficult subjects,
including domestic violence, rape and incest, this novel broke
ground upon publication, and continues to enlighten a generation of
readers.
Buy The Colour Purple
An Expanded Love
Jacqueline Applebee
Bisexual black British author Jacqueline Applebee (and DIVA
regular) is one of the most prolific writers of contemporary
erotica. Her stories can venture into the paranormal, slash, queer
and straight, emphasising the eroticism of sexuality and all its
flexibility. In An Expanded Love, the idea of monogamy is held up
to interrogation as Nadia is forced - through new girlfriend
Christine - to let go of her conservative sexual ideas and embrace
polyamory - throwing her ex boyfriend into the mix, a pagan
synchronised swimmer and her homebody boyfriend, this book is a
sexual melting pot where labels fall away. Not for the faint
hearted, it contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts, but if
you're feeling particularly naughty, you can download it to Kindle
for a sneaky read on the tube. Just make sure no one's watching
over your shoulder.
Buy it here!
Gilda
Jewelle Gomez
Back in 1991 when Jewelle Gomez published her first Gilda novel,
lesbians weren't cool or sexy. Buffy hadn't been conceived of,
Twilight was merely another time of the day and it would be three
more years before Brad Pitt would don a wig to play Louis de Pointe
du Lac in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (what do you mean
Brad Pitt's not a lesbian?) But back in 1991, Jewelle Gomez
published her first collection of vampire heroine Gilda's
adventures, winning herself two Lambda Literary Awards in the
process. Escaping from slavery in the 1850s, Gilda's longing for
companionship draws her towards a family of vampires who take her
'on a dangerous journey fill of loud laughter and subtle
terror'.
Gilda Stories at amazon.co.uk
Parable of the Sower
Octavia Butler
The only science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur
Foundation "genius" grant, Octavia Butler was one of most respected
writers within science fiction genre, a traditionally male sphere.
The fact she was also dyslexic, black and lesbian meant that she
could have been further marginalised - instead, she's one of the
most influential sci-fi writers to have ever lived, having won
dozens of literary awards across the course of her career and
produced a fierce catalogue of work. Her novel Parable of the Sower
is perhaps her best piece, set in a futuristic Los Angeles where
anarchy is rife, the government has collapsed and people have lost
their connection with each other. The novel follows the journey of
protagonist Lauren Olamina as she leaves her destroyed home on the
edge of the city to travel north and establish a new religion of
empathy called Earthseed.
Available here
