Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women

by E. Patrick Johnson

E. Patrick Johnson's Honeypot opens with the fictional trickster character Miss B. barging into the home of Dr. EPJ, informing him that he has been chosen to collect and share the stories of her people. With little explanation, she whisks the reluctant Dr. EPJ away to the women-only world of Hymen, where she serves as his tour guide as he bears witness to the real-life stories of queer Black women throughout the American South. The women he meets come from all walks of life and recount their experiences on topics ranging from coming out and falling in love to mother/daughter relationships, religion, and political activism. As Dr. EPJ hears these stories, he must grapple with his privilege as a man and as an academic, and in the process he gains insights into patriarchy, class, sex, gender, and the challenges these women face. Combining oral history with magical realism and poetry, Honeypot is an engaging and moving book that reveals the complexity of identity while offering a creative method for scholarship to represent the lives of other people in a rich and dynamic way.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Race, Lesbian, Theory, Activism

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

E. Patrick Johnson (Ph.D.) is an African-American performance artist, ethnographer, and scholar.

Reviews

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

started this as a book club book w my friend

I remember thinking Dr. EPJ, the author, was a woman as well bc of the subject matter and when we found out he wasn’t we were kind of like ohhh brother.

Even tho he’s a gay black man there were so many times he seemed tone deaf or tactless when it came to the other characters where it was annoying, and the way way he described the women, especially Miss B.’s bodies was grating at times as well.

I’m not sure if it was just him writing himself that way as a character or if he’s actually like this but even tho it was frustrating, it added to the story and made Miss B. look better.

I appreciated the introduction and the index, glossary, as well as the direct listing of all of the women’s names and birth places.


While good for faithfulness to the speaker’s words, transcribing the interviews directly was very hard to follow sometimes, bc the way people talk is not how people should write if you want to be best understood. We use so many filler words and go off track, etc. Like me rn. I’m just regurgitating my thoughts but if I took time to edit this review it would be way more coherent and organized by subject.
It was interesting to see the difference in speech patterns from those with different backgrounds tho.

Also why did he redact those rapist’s names, EXPOSE THEM? The interviewee gave them to you for a reason!


overall very unique and creative concept for a fictionified nonfiction. certainly one of the more respectful books written by a man about black lesbians so I give credit to him for trying his best to be respectful.

Honestly, looking back, as an author he was extremely respectful, it was only his character that was a whiny ass sometimes “I realized I don’t fit in here” YOURE NOT A BLACK LESBIAN?? Not MEANT TO you’re just here to listen.


Yes very respectful and well done.

[Yasmeen Jaaber · Rating 3 out of 5]

alright i loved reading the interviews but i feel like this book was poorly put together. why not put the location, year & ages of the interviewees with the interviews instead of in the footnotes? why is there a fictional sequence between every interview? IDK, i believe in speculative fiction but this felt forced and did detract from the interviews, which were most compelling to me. i think this work and research is really important, im glad this book exists, still i wish for a bit more when it comes to black southern wlw... i havent read the other reviews but i am curious also if the author did a similar thing for his book about gay men? and if so, did that feel more or less authentic than the fictional elements of this book?

[Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

An awesome work blending oral histories and creative nonfiction in a way that I find refreshing and necessary. Dr. EPJ truly had me by my mind as I traversed Hymen with him and Miss B. Again, another recommendation for people interested in the stories of the queer South we often fear get lost in the archive.

[theperksofbeingmarissa ;) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated Miss B's presence and how she interacted with the storytelling, but it confused me at times. All in all, this is a lovely book about Black Lesbians in the South. 💗✨️❤️

[Martina Kernosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book filled with incredible stories!

At first I found the structure of the book a little confusing; I didn’t really understand the Miss B situation. However, as I got further in the book and began to better understand Miss B’s role as a guide throughout the story, it became much clearer for me. I really liked this narrative structure, and I felt it brought a lot of creativity and further depth to the already rich and powerful stories shared by those interviewed throughout.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this to be creative nonfiction - at first the narrative device of the bee analogies, and the narrator traveling/bickering with a queen bee/"Miss B," was really distracting and with little direct information from interviews in the beginning i almost gave up, BUT the style grew on me, and there's a lot more firsthand information further along. Really beautiful, wonderful reflections and traumatic realities from the folks interviewed.

[C.L. Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly, so gorgeous, so moving. Dr. EPJ employs a plethora of literary and cultural tricks to deliver the oral histories of black southern queer woman, collected to compile this written project. Dr. EPJ is intimately familiar with bearing witness to truth, with the struggles placed on the marginalized even in projecting their own stories about their own experiences. Dr. EPJ's role within this creative text highlights issues of power, voice, and respect--showcases and combats habits and thinking patterns that actually work to exacerbate the power of Power and ultimately the ease of Othering.... but, most importantly, this text showcases the simplicity of understanding/community.

[Kassandra S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I was picking up a fiction book but this was a quite unique almost magical realism framing with oral history woven in.

I wish the oral history had a bit more editing or formatting? There were some big blocks of text that were hard to follow from time to time. But overall an entertaining and eye opening book.

[Caila · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a qualitative researcher this was a fascinating read. While the fictional elements surrounding the stories was cheesy, I appreciated the playfulness and ultimately the fact that the book served as a readable vehicle for the stories of the research participants.

[iz · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books i've read for a class - so creative and beautiful and well-crafted

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely and creative telling of Black queer women's experiences in the South.

[Marisha Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting read. The topics can get heavy, however it takes you through a plethora of feelings. Loved it. ❤️

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was giving qualitative research fr 😂👏🏾 very cool though

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. I'm a huge fan of stories about lived experiences and this was an amazing book for that. It took me a second to get used to the creative format of presenting these stories but I found myself appreciating it because it helped make the stories more digestible and easy to reflect on. That being said I still plan to read Black. Queer. Southern. Women which is the academically formatted companion to this.

[Kyara Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story telling through me off a bit but once I understood what was happening I enjoyed hearing everyone’s stories