First, thanks to everyone who responded to my last newsletter with suggestions for dishy lesbian-feminist texts from the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. I can’t believe I forgot about Kate Millett’s Flying, especially because it was one of the books I wrote my undergraduate dissertation about. (I long ago lost said dissertation—I was at a tennis tournament in Eastbourne when I should have been picking up my copy in Nottingham—but given how unfamiliar Flying seemed when I started to re-read it, I’m pretty sure 20-year-old me failed to comprehend the pain Millett was expressing in the book—and it’s a big book, stuffed with suffering.) But check out the Amazon description: “In the heady atmosphere of instant fame, while she is constantly moving between New York and London, Cape Cod and her farm in Poughkeepsie, Millett's days and nights are filled with flashes of anger, moments of intimacy, appointments, funerals, divorces, parties, and meetings. Her response is to write it all down.” Yep, sounds like just what I was looking for!
Speaking of things people are looking for … may I introduce the cover of my book!
Doesn’t it look fabulous? The photograph is by the incomparable JEB, whose work also appears inside the book. It’s such a perfect image, encapsulating the way the places I write about—the lesbian bar, the feminist bookstore, the softball diamond, lesbian land, feminist sex-toy emporia, and queer vacation destinations—drew women together to hang and interact, flirt and conspire. I wish I could join those women on the steps of Lammas Women’s Shop right now. (Someone asked me how I feel about the pink, and despite the undeniable baggage, I have to say I love it. Best of all, it stands out across a crowded bookstore.)
Yes, the name changed from the original working title. I loved the goofiness of Where Are All the Lesbians? but should I be fortunate enough to do any podcast/radio interviews about the book, I’m glad to be spared the inevitable first question about the location of my sisters in sapphistry that would have accompanied that original title. By a shocking act of synergy, this newsletter is called Where Are All the Newsletters? I could change it to A Newsletter of Our Own, but surely we’re above such petty concerns about branding? Surely!
Here’s where I mention that though it won’t be out until May 2024, you can pre-order your copy of the book right now. You’ll find links to various stores, including Amazon, on Hachette’s page for A PLACE OF OUR OWN. If you do pre-order, a) sincere thanks; b) please hold on to your receipts, because I’ll be making some cool treats for early supporters.
RECOMMENDATIONS: As part of my (incredibly informal) Scottish studies, I read an amazing book about the nation’s disastrous colonialist efforts, which led to bankruptcy and, it’s really not too much of a stretch to say, the 1707 Act of Union, but unfortunately The Darien Disaster, by John Prebble, is out of print and almost impossible to find outside of Scottish used-book stores. Instead, I’ll recommend Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy mysteries, a series set in Northern Ireland during the early 1980s (at least the first three of the seven that I’ve read—well, listened to—so far). He incorporates historical elements—the hunger strikes, the DeLorean factory, the Maze prison break—very effectively, and he does a superb job of expressing the trauma of the Troubles.
LISTEN TO ME: I subbed in for Julia Turner (to the extent that such a thing is possible) on the Culture Gabfest for a conversation about A Haunting in Venice, Jann Wenner’s delusions of genius, and Naomi Klein’s doppelganger problem. On Working Overtime, Nate Chinen and I talked about creating with childlike freedom.
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