For a Spell: Sissie Collectivism and Radical Witchery in the Southeast

by Jason Ezell

In the Southeastern United States of the late 1970s, a regional network of radical communal gay households formed in the face of rising New Right terror. Consisting of primarily white, self-described sissies, the Southeast Network, as it came to be known, spanned from the Ozarks, to New Orleans, to Appalachian Tennessee. Though this network was short-lived, its legacy lives on today through Short Mountain Sanctuary, a thriving member of the international Radical Faerie movement. Jason Ezell’s intimate account of the formation and dissolution of these sissie houses reveals a little-known history of Southern gay liberation, nonbinary gender expression, and radical feminism and femininity.

Drawing on journals, letters, oral histories, collective manifestos, and newsletters, Ezell illustrates how these gay households nurtured their community through lesbian feminist practices such as collectivism, consciousness-raising, witchcraft rituals, and rural gatherings. As people and practices traveled from one house to another, these linked houses attempted to conjure underground sanctuaries for queer Southerners. Preserving their moving stories, Ezell details the visions, experiments, and shortfalls of these radical households in their attempts to build solidarity, resist mounting right-wing violence, and sustain their revolutionary dreams for queer movements yet to come.

Genres: Nonfiction

278 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2025

Reviews

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently finished a review for “Choice” for Jason Ezell’s new book “For a Spell: Sissie Collectivism and Radical Witchery in the Southeast.”

The review will come out soon, but this book is so well researched and engaging! Anyone interested in how the gay liberation movement of the immediate post-Stonewall era fits within the larger national context will want to pick up a copy.


#jasonezell #uncpress #gayhistory #gayhistoryisamericanhistory #faerie #radicalfaeries #sissie #faggots #shortmountainsanctuary #collectivism #archives #oralhistory #oralhistories #librarianscholar

[Danny Schiffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

genuinely a book of danny buzzwords one after another. entertaining as educational- helped me feel much more aligned with the faggot faery sissie communist effeminist witch inside of me- my own personal "fanshen".

[Christian M · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 —

Wow. This book is ambitious and absolutely stunning. I feel like I need to read it again. But wow. I really enjoyed this beautifully-woven history.