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The Lesbian Reader: An Amazon Quarterly Anthology
Amazon Quarterly was the first national literary magazine with a lesbian perspective, begun back in 1972. The Lesbian Reader collects short stories, essays, and poetry from Amazon Quarterly's three-year lifespan.
Contributors: Carol Adams, Peggy Allegro, Sandy Boucher, Gina Covina, Linnea Due, Miriam Dyak, Karen Feinberg, Laurel Galana, Judy Grahn, Susan Griffin, Maud Haimson, Kathy Hruby, Jacqueline Lapidus, Joan Larkin, Donna Martin, Honor Moore, Ina Ann Ormond, Jennie Orvino, Frances Rooney, Martha Shelley, Barbara Starrett, Fran Winant, Irene Yarrow.
Contributors: Carol Adams, Peggy Allegro, Sandy Boucher, Gina Covina, Linnea Due, Miriam Dyak, Karen Feinberg, Laurel Galana, Judy Grahn, Susan Griffin, Maud Haimson, Kathy Hruby, Jacqueline Lapidus, Joan Larkin, Donna Martin, Honor Moore, Ina Ann Ormond, Jennie Orvino, Frances Rooney, Martha Shelley, Barbara Starrett, Fran Winant, Irene Yarrow.
248 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1975
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148 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 11, 2022
this is a tough book to rate! i loved the history and culture within it and i’m so grateful to have it on my shelf. that said, some essays were just too clinical or disconnected to truly feel beneficial.
December 30, 2018
4.5
This is a book about lesbian culture.
Its full of fiction and non-fiction from a lesbian-feminist perspective. As the name of the book says, collect the most famous/influential/popular articles and poems published by the magazine Amazon Quarterly, the first (or one of the first) magazines completely devoted to lesbian cultural/artistic works--although in the same way published essays and political manifestos. I specially enjoy the essays by Laurel Galana.
The best essays of the anthology (from my point of view) are: "Rosey Rightbrain's Exorcism/Invocation" by Gina Covina, "I Dream in Female: The Metaphors of Evolution" by Barbara Starrett" and "Radical Reproduction: X without Y"& "Toward a Womanvision" by Laurel Galana
The essay "The Universe in You: Suggestions for Sexual Syncopation" is simple A-mazing!
In the fiction/narrative side I really enjoy "Woman Becoming" by Irene Yarrow and "Love and Dr. Kinsey" by Linnea Due.
Definitely a must read for every 7o's radical-feminism/lesbian feminism lover!
This is a book about lesbian culture.
Its full of fiction and non-fiction from a lesbian-feminist perspective. As the name of the book says, collect the most famous/influential/popular articles and poems published by the magazine Amazon Quarterly, the first (or one of the first) magazines completely devoted to lesbian cultural/artistic works--although in the same way published essays and political manifestos. I specially enjoy the essays by Laurel Galana.
The best essays of the anthology (from my point of view) are: "Rosey Rightbrain's Exorcism/Invocation" by Gina Covina, "I Dream in Female: The Metaphors of Evolution" by Barbara Starrett" and "Radical Reproduction: X without Y"& "Toward a Womanvision" by Laurel Galana
The essay "The Universe in You: Suggestions for Sexual Syncopation" is simple A-mazing!
In the fiction/narrative side I really enjoy "Woman Becoming" by Irene Yarrow and "Love and Dr. Kinsey" by Linnea Due.
Definitely a must read for every 7o's radical-feminism/lesbian feminism lover!
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January 2, 2026This honestly should not have taken me almost three months to read. I can’t tell if it was a slog or if I was just in a slump. I tried to read one of the essays (can’t remember which) while on mushrooms for the first time and found it annoying, but I liked reading the poem Eat Rice and Have Faith In Women by Fran Winant while tripping.
Favorites:
How to Make Love to a Woman If You’re a Woman by Jennie Orvino
The Lesbian Love Ethic by Donna Martin
The Sender of Dreams by Karen Feinberg
Asterisk by Laurel Galana
Polemic #1 by Honor Moore
Radical Reproduction: X Without Y by Laurel Galana
The Strange and the Familiar: the Evolutionary Potential of Lesbianism by Peggy Allegro
Toward a Womanvision by Laurel Galana
The Universe in You: Suggestions for Sexual Syncopation by Ouija*
*I thought this was the name of a lesbian woman when I saw it in the index, but check out this claim from Laurel Galana and Gina Covina:
“Last November, after reading about Elizabeth Gould Davis’s use of a Ouija board as a source of inspiration and information for her yet-to-be-published book, THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE, we began our own experiments with the Ouija. At first we asked questions about issues in our lives, the meanings of our dreams, and such — we found the responses not only imaginative and very helpful, but imbued with an insight and authority we seldom give our conscious (or unconscious) minds credit for. Next we explored the process involved in the Ouija’s translating our pre-conscious thought-forms into tangible letters, words and sentences. After we had satisfied most of our curiosity about our own ongoing concerns, and understood a little about how the answers came to us, we decided to ask the Ouija to dictate a message for this issue on the interconnection of sexuality and spirituality. What you will read here was received in many one to three-hour sessions during January and February 1975. Each of the 2,000 words came through one at a time with no conscious control or editing on our part. We are pleased and amazed with the results, utterly different as they are from anything we would have written in our usual ways.”
Favorites:
How to Make Love to a Woman If You’re a Woman by Jennie Orvino
The Lesbian Love Ethic by Donna Martin
The Sender of Dreams by Karen Feinberg
Asterisk by Laurel Galana
Polemic #1 by Honor Moore
Radical Reproduction: X Without Y by Laurel Galana
The Strange and the Familiar: the Evolutionary Potential of Lesbianism by Peggy Allegro
Toward a Womanvision by Laurel Galana
The Universe in You: Suggestions for Sexual Syncopation by Ouija*
*I thought this was the name of a lesbian woman when I saw it in the index, but check out this claim from Laurel Galana and Gina Covina:
“Last November, after reading about Elizabeth Gould Davis’s use of a Ouija board as a source of inspiration and information for her yet-to-be-published book, THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE, we began our own experiments with the Ouija. At first we asked questions about issues in our lives, the meanings of our dreams, and such — we found the responses not only imaginative and very helpful, but imbued with an insight and authority we seldom give our conscious (or unconscious) minds credit for. Next we explored the process involved in the Ouija’s translating our pre-conscious thought-forms into tangible letters, words and sentences. After we had satisfied most of our curiosity about our own ongoing concerns, and understood a little about how the answers came to us, we decided to ask the Ouija to dictate a message for this issue on the interconnection of sexuality and spirituality. What you will read here was received in many one to three-hour sessions during January and February 1975. Each of the 2,000 words came through one at a time with no conscious control or editing on our part. We are pleased and amazed with the results, utterly different as they are from anything we would have written in our usual ways.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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August 15, 2023I think this collection fundamentally altered my brain chemistry. A great mix of fiction, poetry and essays. Some of the non-fiction, especially the theory-heavy ones, felt rather outdated, but forming opinions about why it felt outdated pushed me to clarify my own opinions on lesbian culture and community. I'm completely obsessed.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews