How Lesbians Saved Poetry
Will be published approx. on 1. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
979-8-8558-1035-6 (ISBN)
Description
A conversational, nerdy, funny, and sexy contribution to the history of feminist and lesbian movements and the practice and criticism of poetry.
Conversational, nerdy, funny, and sexy, How Lesbians Saved Poetry asks: "Why are so many of our great feminist and queer studies icons poets?" Incorporating personal narrative, literary analysis, craft essays, poems, graphics, and interviews, Lisa L. Moore describes the significance of lesbian poets in the formation of contemporary poetry as well as feminist and queer studies and activism. In a multimethod style that is conversational, wry, and candid, the book explores notable debates such as the feminist sex wars, the politics of the sonnet, and poetic traditons of critiquing racist violence. The book also includes priceless interviews with poets Samiya Bashir, Chrystos, Cheryl Clarke, Judy Grahn, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Eileen Myles. How Lesbians Saved Poetry is a timeless and necessary contribution to the history of feminist and lesbian movements and the practice and criticism of poetry.
Conversational, nerdy, funny, and sexy, How Lesbians Saved Poetry asks: "Why are so many of our great feminist and queer studies icons poets?" Incorporating personal narrative, literary analysis, craft essays, poems, graphics, and interviews, Lisa L. Moore describes the significance of lesbian poets in the formation of contemporary poetry as well as feminist and queer studies and activism. In a multimethod style that is conversational, wry, and candid, the book explores notable debates such as the feminist sex wars, the politics of the sonnet, and poetic traditons of critiquing racist violence. The book also includes priceless interviews with poets Samiya Bashir, Chrystos, Cheryl Clarke, Judy Grahn, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Eileen Myles. How Lesbians Saved Poetry is a timeless and necessary contribution to the history of feminist and lesbian movements and the practice and criticism of poetry.
Reviews / Votes
"Incorporating interviews, poetry, and literary analysis, How Lesbians Saved Poetry reveals the centrality of lesbian poetry and lesbian poets to the history of queer activism. Although its title claims that lesbians saved poetry, the book also suggests that poetry saved lesbians-or maybe even women!-by serving as an occasion to gather and speak across differences, as a mode of social analysis and as a tool for producing mantras, rallying cries, and songs of pleasure." - Sarah Dowling, author of Entering SapphoMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
2 Figures; 2 Halftones, black and white; 3 Halftones, color; 7 Illustrations, color
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
979-8-8558-1035-6 (9798855810356)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lisa L. Moore is Archibald A. Hill Professor of American and English Literature and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Sister Arts: The Erotics of Lesbian Landscapes, which won the Lambda Literary Award, and the poetry chapbook 24 Hours of Men.
Content
Acknowledgments
Preface: How Lesbians Saved Poetry
1. How Poetry Saved a Lesbian
- Do You Have To Be Gay to Take This Class?
2. An Almost Unheard Low Note: An Interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt
3. The Dream of a Common Bookstore
4. Made Love to a Woman, Wrote a Poem
5. A Woman-Only Reading is a Drug I Still Long For: An Interview with Chrystos
- For Anita Onang
6. Lesbians Behaving Badly: Marilyn Hacker's Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons
- Origin of the Sonnet
7. A Lesbian History of the Sonnet
- Separately-Occurring Rhymes in Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
- Rhyme Scheme of Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets, as a Whole Poem
8. The Sonnet is Not a Luxury: Audre Lorde's First Poem
- Love Exceeds
9. Give Up Fucking Sonnets!? An Interview with Cheryl Clarke
10. The Heroic Sonnet Crown vs. Anti-Black Violence
- Heroic Sonnet Crowns: A Visualization
- A Church in Bronzeville
11. It is an Apple: An Interview with Judy Grahn
12. A Twenty-One Kind of Love: Adrienne Rich's "Twenty-One Love Poems"
- A Poem of This Bridge
13. The Poems of This Bridge Called My Back
14. The Poems of the Austin Project
- The Body Remembers
15. Is It Rockin' You Out? An Interview with Samiya Bashir
- Myles on Antone
16. Every Kind of Girl: An Interview with Eileen Myles
- Begin Again
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface: How Lesbians Saved Poetry
1. How Poetry Saved a Lesbian
- Do You Have To Be Gay to Take This Class?
2. An Almost Unheard Low Note: An Interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt
3. The Dream of a Common Bookstore
4. Made Love to a Woman, Wrote a Poem
5. A Woman-Only Reading is a Drug I Still Long For: An Interview with Chrystos
- For Anita Onang
6. Lesbians Behaving Badly: Marilyn Hacker's Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons
- Origin of the Sonnet
7. A Lesbian History of the Sonnet
- Separately-Occurring Rhymes in Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
- Rhyme Scheme of Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets, as a Whole Poem
8. The Sonnet is Not a Luxury: Audre Lorde's First Poem
- Love Exceeds
9. Give Up Fucking Sonnets!? An Interview with Cheryl Clarke
10. The Heroic Sonnet Crown vs. Anti-Black Violence
- Heroic Sonnet Crowns: A Visualization
- A Church in Bronzeville
11. It is an Apple: An Interview with Judy Grahn
12. A Twenty-One Kind of Love: Adrienne Rich's "Twenty-One Love Poems"
- A Poem of This Bridge
13. The Poems of This Bridge Called My Back
14. The Poems of the Austin Project
- The Body Remembers
15. Is It Rockin' You Out? An Interview with Samiya Bashir
- Myles on Antone
16. Every Kind of Girl: An Interview with Eileen Myles
- Begin Again
Notes
Bibliography
Index