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Honey Mine: Collected Stories
Honey Mine unfolds as both excavation and romp, an adventure story that ushers readers into a lesbian writer’s coming of age through disorienting, unsparing, and exhilarating encounters with sex, gender, and distinctly American realities of race and class. From childhood in Chicago’s South Side to youth in the lesbian underground, Roy’s politics find joyful and transgressive expression in the liberatory potential of subculture. Find here, in these new, uncollected, and out-of-print fictions by a master of New Narrative, a record of survival and thriving under conditions of danger.
352 pages, Paperback
Published June 29, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
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January 22, 2022read this just Bc I saw a hot librarian reading it on the train
June 17, 2021
I am not sure how I have gone without encountering Camille Roy's classic, lesbian writings, but I am glad I finally did via Honey Mine.
Honey Mine is a collection of stories about growing up lesbian, exploring gender, and navigating class. These stories blend memoir with fiction creating something stranger than fiction but also deeply interesting and entertaining. Tales of first sexual encounters, working in an erotic massage parlor, and being a female scientist force conversations about sexuality, gender, and their disruptions and discontents. All-in-all, Roy offers a glimpse of herself but also hides much of herself.
It's hard to describe just exactly why I liked Honey Mine so much: it could be the sense of nostalgia it gave me, the experimental yet beautiful writing, or the centering of working class queer stories. Either way, this collection is unique, and important, and you should read it.
Honey Mine is a collection of stories about growing up lesbian, exploring gender, and navigating class. These stories blend memoir with fiction creating something stranger than fiction but also deeply interesting and entertaining. Tales of first sexual encounters, working in an erotic massage parlor, and being a female scientist force conversations about sexuality, gender, and their disruptions and discontents. All-in-all, Roy offers a glimpse of herself but also hides much of herself.
It's hard to describe just exactly why I liked Honey Mine so much: it could be the sense of nostalgia it gave me, the experimental yet beautiful writing, or the centering of working class queer stories. Either way, this collection is unique, and important, and you should read it.
May 25, 2021
This is a collection of writings by a woman as legendary and as unpublished in her circles as Herbert Huncke, Laurie Weeks and other apparitional queer voices. Part of the New Narrative San Francisco tradition, influenced by Robert Gluck, Dodie Bellamy, Kevin Killian and NY School traditions (Frank O'Hara and Eileen Myles) - "Camille Roy"'s (even the name is a shield) fine new collection from Nightboat (and what a great publishing house they are right now! Sort of the people's Greywolf) recreates the elusive "I" of pre-gentrification lesbian life- in which a romantic somewhat innocent young woman becomes cast as transgressive just because of homophobia. Ahh, so transparent when looking back. And this now strange social rejection opens the door to a wonderful life. From sex work to computer industry stock shares, negotiating the sexual life of lesbian utopia San Francisco with all its options.
August 20, 2024
io ve lo dico entrerà nel canone dei libri lesbici, non so neanche se dargli un rating basato sulle stelle sia appropriato ma ci penserò su
September 15, 2021
Two short passages from Honey Mine:
*
But what could my case possibly be, given that the prospect of verifying any of these family stories is unbearable, as well as irritating? I’ve given up. That’s my “case.” I don’t care what the truth is – not enough to pursue it, anyway. I’m registering something more vague – a sort of cloud at the center of my story, which is where I’ve spent most of my life.
*
One observation emerges from this which seems worth pointing out. Silence is one way of negotiating the unacceptable. Transgressive romantic fantasy is another. They’re tools for managing the survival of self – the first maintaining it, the second an act of invention. But you can’t separate the tools from their context, in personal necessity, social power, and class.
*
But what could my case possibly be, given that the prospect of verifying any of these family stories is unbearable, as well as irritating? I’ve given up. That’s my “case.” I don’t care what the truth is – not enough to pursue it, anyway. I’m registering something more vague – a sort of cloud at the center of my story, which is where I’ve spent most of my life.
*
One observation emerges from this which seems worth pointing out. Silence is one way of negotiating the unacceptable. Transgressive romantic fantasy is another. They’re tools for managing the survival of self – the first maintaining it, the second an act of invention. But you can’t separate the tools from their context, in personal necessity, social power, and class.
January 5, 2024
wow. WOW. hard to even know what to say about this. it ended on a note of obscurity, the engraving of the outer world inside the secret sealed container of ourselves and our communities and i know camille roy is now engraved inside of me. i was gonna write i want her to be my best friend but i feel like she already is my best friend. i am about to go read everything by her. thank god i am at the library right now. and what's crazy is that i didn't even like all the stories in this book i found some of them to be a bore but camille is just a genius. the way she writes about lesbianism so brazenly and truely. the constant evolution and relentless yet easy experimentation of her writing. her sentences read like lazing around like sneaking around but in the most rigorous way. the way she dissects literary experimentalism and new narrative. how she engages race & politics alongside lesbianism and everything else they are all just intertwined. i had to put this book down a few times while reading, i needed some space because it was just too good. and then i cried at the end when she was talking about angie her longtime partner, and her butchness.
my favorites were the faggot, sex lives, friends, undergrid, and experimentalism. i need to return to all of them. i think the faggot was my favorite - her evocation of the setting, the attic trysts with isabelle, the blunt discovering voice of the narrator. the absurdity of the landlady named pussy and her lesbian house. and undergrid - SO amazing. resonates with the "un" and the anti recognition politics of anarchoblackness.
i feel like im not even evoking enough how much i love this book and yeah ok i will just include some quotes i like.
"obscurity marks an interstice where social relations slip from public to private and understanding becomes tacit (and tactile). it is a space of social darkness which functions opposite to a black hole: it throws out slang, ideas, reconfigured relations, new possibilities for dissent and disorder"
"i find this thrilling because it connects my lived experience of subcultures and undergrounds to a model of lyricism that is faithful to darkness and confusion. the monadic expression of a poetic community has a secret harmony with the criminal and the suppressed. lyric obscurity communicates these secrets without revealing them" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"we were gender shoplifters"
"for me, writing grinds itself into what's familiar yet unbearable. add mobility to that and, voila, narrative"
"i believe it is possible to have one identity in your thumb and another in your neck. i think identities can travel between persons who have an unusual mutual sympathy"
and these quotes are only from the more essayistic parts!!! i was going through the fiction without thinking of documenting it which i now regret
my favorites were the faggot, sex lives, friends, undergrid, and experimentalism. i need to return to all of them. i think the faggot was my favorite - her evocation of the setting, the attic trysts with isabelle, the blunt discovering voice of the narrator. the absurdity of the landlady named pussy and her lesbian house. and undergrid - SO amazing. resonates with the "un" and the anti recognition politics of anarchoblackness.
i feel like im not even evoking enough how much i love this book and yeah ok i will just include some quotes i like.
"obscurity marks an interstice where social relations slip from public to private and understanding becomes tacit (and tactile). it is a space of social darkness which functions opposite to a black hole: it throws out slang, ideas, reconfigured relations, new possibilities for dissent and disorder"
"i find this thrilling because it connects my lived experience of subcultures and undergrounds to a model of lyricism that is faithful to darkness and confusion. the monadic expression of a poetic community has a secret harmony with the criminal and the suppressed. lyric obscurity communicates these secrets without revealing them" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"we were gender shoplifters"
"for me, writing grinds itself into what's familiar yet unbearable. add mobility to that and, voila, narrative"
"i believe it is possible to have one identity in your thumb and another in your neck. i think identities can travel between persons who have an unusual mutual sympathy"
and these quotes are only from the more essayistic parts!!! i was going through the fiction without thinking of documenting it which i now regret
December 26, 2024
interesting
November 22, 2025
like eileen myles's "chelsea girls" if it was good
September 20, 2023
A collection of memoir stories and fiction about growing up as a lesbian and how presenting gender affected them. Very experimental and poetic. Reminded me a lot of the writings from the 90s third wave of feminism - gender outlaw, bitch manifesto, red stockings manifesto, and eve ensler’s vagina monologues.
February 10, 2022
This book is a body. A queer body made of light and all kinds of sparkly stains. Loved it.
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September 28, 2023Reading this whilst suffering with covid was a beautiful feverish experience. Recommend to anyone who loves experimental writing and lesbian & queer identities pulled apart through the exploration of the author’s coming of age narratives, and what she chooses to bestow (or withhold) onto the reader.
May 2, 2022
Mind altering lesbian and linguistic lit-ness
November 29, 2021
camille roy (a pseudonym) has assembled numerous pieces that are combined in this book, representing a kaleidoscope of styles but the focus here is on lesbian love and how experimental prose can reflect/represent gender fluidity. that's quite a task, but roy presents an expanse of fiction and non-fiction as each episode (essay?) informs what is coming or what has already appeared. i was excited to find some parallels between the way she explores gender and the dialectics of improvisation and composition.
it's kind of incredible, really, because i think this work was maybe not intended as a book, but the way the pieces fit together is the stuff of magic. like all great writers, roy is able to articulate things you didn't think possible, and when you read them, when you comprehend them, you realize just how important these ideas/themes/stories are as the reader is clued into a better understanding of consciousness - sexuality - identity - and writing itself. highly recommended.
it's kind of incredible, really, because i think this work was maybe not intended as a book, but the way the pieces fit together is the stuff of magic. like all great writers, roy is able to articulate things you didn't think possible, and when you read them, when you comprehend them, you realize just how important these ideas/themes/stories are as the reader is clued into a better understanding of consciousness - sexuality - identity - and writing itself. highly recommended.
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May 22, 2023“Being a dyke. It helps you get over being a girl…”
“Ellie’s femininity is permanent (I’m tempted to say eternal).… when I try to tell the same story as someone like her, I can feel myself falling apart. Parts slide off, chunks of hair and skin—the ones I’ve rummaged, acquired on the sky. I’ve assembled a sexual identity that’s like another body—my personal Frankenstein. Bony and full of nerves and suffering. It includes me but is detached, like the mirror’s alienating resemblance to myself.”
“As a character, I want Camille to just be a little hole through which events stream. But she’s never little enough. It’s so awkward.”
“An elastic grin surfaced under my feet. If we could just shut up when we get close to one another—then I’d be action NO PLOT, while X marks the beginning of the story.”
“Ellie’s femininity is permanent (I’m tempted to say eternal).… when I try to tell the same story as someone like her, I can feel myself falling apart. Parts slide off, chunks of hair and skin—the ones I’ve rummaged, acquired on the sky. I’ve assembled a sexual identity that’s like another body—my personal Frankenstein. Bony and full of nerves and suffering. It includes me but is detached, like the mirror’s alienating resemblance to myself.”
“As a character, I want Camille to just be a little hole through which events stream. But she’s never little enough. It’s so awkward.”
“An elastic grin surfaced under my feet. If we could just shut up when we get close to one another—then I’d be action NO PLOT, while X marks the beginning of the story.”
May 18, 2022
Camille Roy is known as a pinnacle in lesbian authorship for a reason. Her writing seriously made me question my own talents and then want to match her skill. It's beautiful, it dances in your imagination, a combination of prose, memoir, and poetry, she makes it work and it's wonderful.
December 18, 2023
cute girl working the nightboat table at the small press and publishing fair handed me this when i asked her what i should read. thank god i spend money to fill silence and impress people… i really liked it😇🎯
February 29, 2024
Such a lovely collection of experimental writings about what it means to be a lesbian. These stories mix the genres of fiction and memoir and each were so interesting and poignant. Definitely a queer must read
May 17, 2025
Some of this book I didn’t understand on first read…maybe I’ll go back. But the writing was beautiful and there were parts (about sexuality! about writing! about desire!) that I really connected to. Very experimental which is new to me.
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December 28, 2025“Dusty was the whiplash who connected Camille’s pieces. Camille was Dusty’s little hole through which events streamed” (9)
“I think of chunks of my past as pieces of brain chemistry. It accounts for how alien they feel , while still being tender. They have moved entirely out of language into something else—the folds and fissures of this thing I carry around. Luggage between the ears. This story is coming from brain tissue, and that makes it alien and intimate, even to me…writing doesn’t feel like an act of the imagination. It’s more like the sedimentary traces of that act, a kind of cleaning up after the fact” (11)
“My love was so selfish and perfect that I could handle anything. Dusty’s grief streamed into it…she got thinner. I remained serene” (21)
"We looked at each other and the air seemed to twist up" (61)
“I nodded, too disappointed to speak. It felt weirdly like being abandoned by the past” (82)
“Around Ethel I turned into a sloppy version of nice, which was obviously fake, and in any case, Ethel didn’t appreciate sloppy. I assumed the guise of stupidity, which was protective, even if inaccurate. Dumbness can be sweeter…the stupidity was feigned, but my cluelessness was deep and pure” (136)
“Lately I’ve been thinking that I am a wave, and all the stories in the world are the water…personally, this means I can’t fall apart without changing into something else, other stories, different ones. This finds a solution in dissolution. Somehow it relaxes me” (150)
“Anything in life, is life. Anything at all. Gradually I absorbed this uncanny fact” (200)
“But sex without fantasy— is nothing. When I read Max’s porn, I like to think of that particular nothing and what falls into it. That reminds me of my life” (230)
“I think of chunks of my past as pieces of brain chemistry. It accounts for how alien they feel , while still being tender. They have moved entirely out of language into something else—the folds and fissures of this thing I carry around. Luggage between the ears. This story is coming from brain tissue, and that makes it alien and intimate, even to me…writing doesn’t feel like an act of the imagination. It’s more like the sedimentary traces of that act, a kind of cleaning up after the fact” (11)
“My love was so selfish and perfect that I could handle anything. Dusty’s grief streamed into it…she got thinner. I remained serene” (21)
"We looked at each other and the air seemed to twist up" (61)
“I nodded, too disappointed to speak. It felt weirdly like being abandoned by the past” (82)
“Around Ethel I turned into a sloppy version of nice, which was obviously fake, and in any case, Ethel didn’t appreciate sloppy. I assumed the guise of stupidity, which was protective, even if inaccurate. Dumbness can be sweeter…the stupidity was feigned, but my cluelessness was deep and pure” (136)
“Lately I’ve been thinking that I am a wave, and all the stories in the world are the water…personally, this means I can’t fall apart without changing into something else, other stories, different ones. This finds a solution in dissolution. Somehow it relaxes me” (150)
“Anything in life, is life. Anything at all. Gradually I absorbed this uncanny fact” (200)
“But sex without fantasy— is nothing. When I read Max’s porn, I like to think of that particular nothing and what falls into it. That reminds me of my life” (230)
May 3, 2023
pretty good. now i have to compare it with a jesus book.
August 4, 2023
Loved it- weird and wordy- filled with a perfect mixture of linear story and disorienting bloobidy bloop. Just a cool cat
January 20, 2024
I didn’t NOT enjoy myself reading this, but not sure this one is for us dummies. I think I need things spelled out a lil more; the beautiful afterword was my favorite part.
July 13, 2024
The last few short texts come too close to post-structuralist jargon but everything else here is gold.
August 22, 2024
Worth reading for UNDER GRID and the afterword alone.
January 3, 2025
The afterword was the best part otherwise way too much happening idek what was going on half the time
July 2, 2024
🥵 woof. excellent, gay. raced through, emerged.
January 1, 2025
Excellent book for people who like experimental writing styles. Easy to pick up when you have time to read.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews