Creampuff Would Like Some Recommendations

So I hosted the Queer Youth Cabaret at Buddies the other night and going in, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had not had a chance to attend QueerCab before hosting it and I heard from a reliable source (Padu) that the event had been known to occasionally go like this:

Host: Cracks a funny while introducing queer youth.

Audience: Crickets.

Queer Youth: Whatever. My poem's about DEATH.

Turns out that when you go in expecting the queer youth to diss you and then slit their wrists on stage, they end up being really sweet and fun. My favourite thing was that apparently some of the queer youth had taken part in a drag workshop at Buddies a week before and got up to strut their gender-bending biznass Wednesday night. That's right - a DRAG WORKSHOP. For QUEER YOUTH. Jealous?

I have to hand it to the queer youth. I was not that cool when I was their age. In fact, I'm still not that cool. Also, despite the fact that I spent most of my teens nursing my life-threatening crush on "Buliana Bivato" (I know, Chezza, I know - she was so out of my league), I'm not sure that it had occurred to me that I WAS queer at their age. I don't know about you guys, but I was 20 and it took a big butch whose name rhymes with "Bhristine" hitting on me repeatedly (and, eventually, successfully) before I fully embraced the inevitable lesbosity. And embrace it I did. Like a long-lost lover. Who'd brought a pie over. Good times.

Anyway - I picked "Slash Fiction" as the theme for QueerCab (a theme assiduously avoided by all the queer youth) because I've been thinking alot lately about queer stories and the lack thereof and how that's frustrating. Sure, Anne of Green Gables probably turned me gay, but can you imagine how much GAYER I could have been if there had been a queer equivalent in my childhood? Say Rebecca of Beaver Mountain? I recently went through a period of having "nothing to read" because I couldn't bring myself to crack the spine on yet another story about (god bless you all) straight people.

Don't get me wrong. I love straight people. My parents are straight. But Sweet Lavendar Lord, I am in need of some LESBIAN BOOKS. And so I appeal to you, gentle readers. Help me. Help me to find some good, clean lesbonic reading before I am FORCED to write my OWN book called The Three Pussketeers about a trio of swashbuckling dykes who save damsels in undress with the help of their fine fencing skills and many clever cats.

Here's a short list of the books I've read already.

• The oeuvre of Sarah Waters 
• Selected works of Emma Donoghue (Just so you know, lesbians, there are no dykes in Slammerkin. I kept waiting for the main character to get it on with her prostitute roommate - then her lady boss - then the maid she shared a bed with. I was foiled.) 
• Beyond the Pale (which I thought was well-written, but can never read again because *spoiler alert* AWFUL THINGS HAPPEN IN IT). 
• Selected works of Jeannette Winterson 
• Occasional Rita Mae Brown 
• Some weird western where these two babes open an inn in the Nevada Desert and one of them ends up living as a man and getting all leathery.

So please - leave suggestions in the comments, or send me an e-mail or post your own "favourite lesbo books" list on your own blog. Because (straight) literary detective Thursday Next will only placate me for so long, people.

Speaking of placating, pictures of hat and sock knitting coming soon. Because I know you're all waiting with bated breath.

UPDATE: Thanks for all your suggestions - seriously, I'm all excited. Here's a bonus comment from SassyFemme that for some reason I can't post in the actual comments. Too many links - or does TypePad have it in for lesbian fiction??? History will decide.

From SassyFemme:

Lesbian fiction is one of my very favorite topics! Seriously, I usually go through a couple of books a week, more if we have a lazy weekend.

Okay, do you know about Radclyffe?  She's my very favorite author. Other favorites are Frankie J. Jones, Peggy Herring, Karin Kallmaker, Gunn Brooke, and JLee Meyer.  You should look at Bold Stroke Books and Bella Books to see authors/books, and to purchase them.  BTW, Radclyffee is the owner of Bold Stroke Books.  She quit her job as a surgeon to be a full time book publisher!

If you want to read online fiction, including some chapters or online versions of published stories check out Royal Academy of Bards (started as Xena fanfic, branched out to everything) and The Sandbox 101.  If you want to see some of the "brainer side" of lesbian writing, then look at Golden Crown Literary Society.

There's more lesbian fiction out there than most of us have time or money to read, so happy reading!  Let me know what you end up reading/liking!

Comments

[june]

Anything by Carol Anshaw

Anything by Lillian Faderman, but especially "Naked in the Promised Land."

And, of course, "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf.

[jodi]

There's not really any steamy sex and it doesn't end very well for the lesbians at the centre of the story, but what about "Fall on Your Knees"?

Oh, wait. You probably left that behind in the old apartment.

[azarnes]

Ok, couldn't resist. I love your blog and follow it faithfully. I split my time between Toronto and Buffalo, and I write lesbian novels, with lots of sex, paganism drag and such. First two are in print- I'd be delighted to send them your way. Just email.

best,
Smitty

[ers]

Bose, check it out - a well-timed article in the Guardian this morning:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2010509,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

[Drew]

I totally know that of which you speak. I went through a time relatively recently where I bought ANYTHING that looked remotely interesting and gay on Amazon. Thankfully I was able to find some decent books and not just the beach reading trash. Of course, the "serious" writers had beach reading trash sex in them so it was totally win-win. Sorry I can't help you with the chick on chick stuff.

[greeneyeddiva]

Elizabeth Ruth is a fabulous Toronto lesbian author and her second novel "Smoke" is outstanding. She also edited a great anthology of mainly queer women's writing called "Bent on Writing: Contemporary Queer Tales." Karen X. Tulchinsky, a dyke writer from Vancouver, does her best when not writing about dykes (in my humble opinion), so "The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky" is much more awesome than "Love Ruins Everything." But, then again, she also edited three of the Hot & Bothered anthologies (sexy lesbians!) and the two Queer View Mirror ones, so what do I know? John Miller's "The Featherbed" is a great women's novel written by a gay guy. Larissa Lai's "When Fox is a Thousand" was pleasant surprise: so was the graphic novel "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel. And if you're for some great woman-lovin' poetry, start with Daphne Marlatt's fantastic long poem "Touch to My Tongue."
Thanks for making me think of these, Creampuff! I'm going back to reread them myself!

[wenders]

THANK YOU. Thank you for this post, and yay. More for me to read. You know, other than that fiction book "Knitting Under the Influence". And yes, I agree about Slammerkin. Total (unfair) fake-out.

[Chezza]

Ah, Buliana. All I remember from my childhood is that Buliana's brother Banni was the primary cause in my sister Bo requiring some stitches. Either a game of cops n' robbers on bikes in the back alley gone awry, or maybe there was a chain link fence involved. All I know is, Banni was banned.

And the only thing else I have to say is, no diss to Buliana (who grew up to be a gorgeous talented megastar of that weird dude's plays) but YOU were always out of HER league.

[roro]

June - Excellent. Thank you!

Jodi - Hahahahahaaa! Yes, the stager took her copy home with her. But those ARE some steamy scenes. Must read those again . . .

Smitty - Sex, paganism and drag? Oh my godn, bring'em on!!

Ers - HOT! Excellent tip!

Drew - Thanks for the support. I look forward to recommendation lots of lesbo lit to you in the near future.

greeneyeddiva - Fantastic - I actually have Bent on Writing but none of Ruth's other work and the rest are all new to me. Awesome!!

Wenders - so glad I'm not the only disappointed lesbian perv out there.

chezza - Oh, those crazy Bivatos!! As for her being out of my league, you flatter me. This is why I love you.

[witchtrivets]

oh boy, now I have some new authors to add to my list.

Not sure if you have these on your list yet.

Dorothy Allison is old school and has a lot of serious stuff. But good. American southern lesbian writing.

I am currently obsessed with Nicola Griffith. Sci-Fi, mystery, good stuff.

Also, I was recently cured of an addiction to bad lesbian mystery novels. I have a huge list, some of them so awful and badly written I am ashamed. Some good ones I am happy to recommend are Katherine V Forrest, Val McDermid and Elizabeth Sims.

[zuhn]

How 'bout another Canadian lesbo author - Marnie Woodrow. I've only read her short story collection "In The Spice House", which I quite enjoyed.

[Scarybez]

Great post - thank you - I've hardly heard of any of these authors - will have to add them to my reading list.

[roro]

witchtrivets - I DON'T have those on my list yet, so thank you!! I too have read some bad lesbian novels in my time - we shall not speak of them, but shall keep the pages folded down at the hot parts.

zuhn - how could I forget Marnie Woodrow. Thanks for reminding me. I too enjoyed In The Spice House and her novel, Spelling Mississippi was pretty good too.

ScaryBez - Excellent! Seriously, I think this post was my best idea ever. So many new commenters AND so many new books!! Score!!

[sioux]

Mabel Maney wrote some excellent lesbian Nancy Drew parodies: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, The Case of the Good-For-Nothing Girlfriend, and the Ghost in the Closet. They are super funny.

[dawn]

oh and if you're into the lesbian sci-fi stuff, melissa scott wrote a great one called 'trouble and her friends' -- cool, futuristic setting where we all have jacks implanted in our heads so we can plug ourselves directly into the internet (of course, they'd be wi-fi jacks at this point, but whatever) -- and, of course, great lesbian drama thrown in. but kinda cheesey b/c, you know, it's genre fiction.

[Ron Hudson]

If you are into twisted well-written, riveting tales, then you should check out fellow-Canadian writer Anne Marie MacDonald's books. I found "The Way the Crow Flies" to be a very good read.

[roro]

sioux - I loves me some Nancy Drew - those sound hilarious. Thank you!

dawn - Sweet. I do enjoy a little sci-fi action and the cheesiness of genre fiction is so often its own reward. Thanks!

Ron - I am ashmed to admit that I haven't read "The Way the Crow Flies". Bad Canadian lesbian . . .