The Lesbian South : Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon

In this book, Jaime Harker uncovers a largely forgotten literary Renaissance in Southern letters. Anchored by a constellation of southern women, the Women in Print movement grew from the queer union of women's liberation, civil rights activism, gay liberation, and print culture. Broadly influential from the 1970s through the 1990s, the Women in Print movement created a network of writers, publishers, bookstores, and readers that fostered a remarkable array of literature. With the freedom that the Women in Print movement inspired, southern lesbian feminists remade Southernness as a site of intersectional radicalism, transgressive sexuality, and liberatory space. Including in her study well-known authors—including Dorothy Allison and Alice Walker—as well as overlooked writers, publishers, and editors, Harker reconfigures the Southern literary canon and the feminist canon, challenging histories of feminism and queer studies to include the South in a formative role. Much Of The Scholarship Published On Gay Writers In The American South Has Focused On Men, Eliding The Vibrant History Of Lesbian Authorship And Print Culture. In The Lesbian South, Jamie Harker Explores The Literature Of Lesbian-feminist Writers, Feminist Print Culture, Presses, And Bookstores In The Post-1960s American South. Harker Argues That Lesbian Presses And Bookstores Enabled The Development Of Feminist Reading And Writing Communities. These Communities Both Challenged And Nurtured Lesbian Writers, While Also Encouraging A Feminist-inspired Racial Activism And Individual Autonomy-- Southern, Feminist, Queer: The Archive Of Southern Lesbian Feminism -- Creating A Southern Lesbian Feminist Culture: The Women In Print Movement And The Battle Of The Literary -- The Radical South: Politics And The Lesbian Feminist Imaginary -- Queer Sexuality And The Lesbian Feminist South -- Women's Space, Queer Space: Communes, Landykes, And Queer Contact Zones In The Lesbian Feminist South -- Lesfic: Alternative Publishing, Activism, And Queer Women Writers. Jaime Harker. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In this book, Jaime Harker uncovers a largely forgotten literary renaissance in southern letters. Anchored by a constellation of southern women, the Women in Print movement grew from the queer union of women's liberation, civil rights activism, gay liberation, and print culture. Broadly influential from the 1970s through the 1990s, the Women in Print movement created a network of writers, publishers, bookstores, and readers that fostered a remarkable array of literature. With the freedom that the Women in Print movement inspired, southern lesbian feminists remade southernness as a site of intersectional radicalism, transgressive sexuality, and liberatory space. Including in her study well-known authors—like Dorothy Allison and Alice Walker—as well as overlooked writers, publishers, and editors, Harker reconfigures the southern literary canon and the feminist canon, challenging histories of feminism and queer studies to include the south in a formative role.