The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction: Lambda Literary Award - Paperback

by Naomi Holoch (Author)

A groundbreaking volume from Lamda Award-winning editors Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle, The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction presents a range of literary voices--from twenty-seven countries spanning six continents--and offers glimpses of lesbian life in unfamilar, often exotic climes.

We follow an Irish woman as she travels through time in search of a wronged maiden, and anticipate the harrowing fate of a married Indian woman who pursues pleasure with her female lover under the shadow of her husbands suspicious rage. We meet a teacher in Barcelona who locks herself up in her grandmother's house with her young Columbian student, and witness a Slovenian woman's rendezvous with her long dead lover.

This collection includes the work of familiar writers, as well as a number never before published in English. From the West Indies to Eastern Europe, the Middle East to Southeast Asia, Latin America to South Africa, the distinctive stories found in these pages evoke the diverse political, cultural, emotional, and sexual landscapes of each writer's life. A groundbreaking volume from the Lamda Award-winning editors Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle, who also wrote the introduction, this collections evokes the universal urgency of persistent desire.

Front Jacket

A groundbreaking volume from Lamda Award-winning editors Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle, The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction presents a range of literary voices--from twenty-seven countries spanning six continents--and offers glimpses of lesbian life in unfamilar, often exotic climes.

We follow an Irish woman as she travels through time in search of a wronged maiden, and anticipate the harrowing fate of a married Indian woman who pursues pleasure with her female lover under the shadow of her husbands suspicious rage. We meet a teacher in Barcelona who locks herself up in her grandmother's house with her young Columbian student, and witness a Slovenian woman's rendezvous with her long dead lover.
This collection includes the work of familiar writers, as well as a number never before published in English. From the West Indies to Eastern Europe, the Middle East to Southeast Asia, Latin America to South Africa, the distinctive stories found in these pages evoke the diverse political, cultural, emotional, and sexual landscapes of each writer's life. A groundbreaking volume from the Lamda Award-winning editors Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle, who also wrote the introduction, this collections evokes the universal urgency of persistent desire.

Table of Contents:
Mary Dorcey, "Ireland "from A Noise from the WoodshedMakeda Sivera, "JamaicaCaribbean ChameleonMireille Best, "FranceStephanie's BookChristina Peri Rossi, "UruguayFinal Judgement "and Singing in the DesertShani Mootoo, "India-Trinidad-CanadaLemon ScentMarguerite Yourcenar, "BelgiumSappho or SuicideEmma Donoghue, "IrelandLooking for PetronillaSylvia Molloy, "Argentina"from Certificate of AbsenceDaleGunthorp, "South AfricaGypsophilaKaren Williams, "South AfricaThe Came at DawnCynthia Price, "South AfricaLesbian BedroomsAlifa Rifaat, "EgyptMy World of the UnknownYasmin V. Tambiah, "Sri LankaThe Civil War, Sandalwood, Transl(iter)ation I, "and Transl(iter)ation II (for Aruna and Giti)Dionne Brand, "TrinidadMadame Alaird's BreastsViolette Leduc, "France"from L'AphyxieAnchee Min, "China"fromRed AzaleaGerd Brantenberg, "Norway"from Four WindsEsther Tusquets, "Spain"from The Same Sea as Every SummerKaren-Susan Fessel, "GermanyLost FacesMar$#237; a Eugenia Alegria Nunez, "CubaThe Girl Typist Who Worked for a Provincial Ministry of CultureNgahuia Te Awekatuku, "Aotearoa/New ZealandParetipua, Old Man Tuna, "andWatching the Big GirlsDacia Maraini, "Italy"fromLetters to MarinaRosamaria Roffiel, "MexicoForever Lasts Only a Full MoonAnna Blaman, "Holland"from Lonely AdventureChrista Winsloe, "Germany"from The Child ManuelaAchy Obejas, "CubaWatersNicole Brossard, "Canada"fromMauve DesertGila Svirsky, "IsraelMeeting NataliaMaureen Duffy, "England"fromThe MicrocosmJeanne D'Arc Jutras, "Canada"from GeorgieSuzana Tratnik, "SloveniaUnder the Ironwood TreesElena Georgiou, "CyprusAphrodite's VisionEtel Adnan, "Lebanon"from In the Heart of the Heart of Another CountryGina Schein, "AustraliaMinnie Gets Married

Author Biography

Naomi Holoch is co-editor, with Jon Nestle, of the Women on Women series of anthologies of American lesbian short fiction and the author of short stories and a novel, Offseason. She teaches French language and literature, lesbian and gay fiction, and fiction writing at SUNY-Purchase.

Joan Nestle, author of the award-winning A Restricted Country and A Fragile Union and editor of The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, is also co-founder of the New York-based Lesbian Herstory Archives. Along with Naomi Holoch, she has edited three volumes of Women on Women anthologies. She also had the honor of working with John Preston on Sister and Brother: Lesbians and Gay Men Talk about Their Lives Together. In 1996 she was awarded the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Literature by the Publishing Triangle. For close to thirty years, she taught writing in the SEEK Program at Queens College, CUNY.