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A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.
A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.
Episodes

4 days ago
4 days ago
Women and Same-Sex Marriage in Western History (Reprise)
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 346 with Heather Rose Jones
In this episode we talk about strategies for getting your historical protagonists hitched across the centuries.
- How the concepts of “women”, “same-sex”, and “marriage” are being defined for the purpose of this discussion
- Cultures that may have supported marriage between women as an equal option
- Cases of same-sex marriage enabled by presenting as an opposite sex couple
- The permeability of the “opposite sex” requirement in actual practice
- Using the forms and rituals of marriage, even when the legal status was not available
- This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday Jun 20, 2026
Saturday Jun 20, 2026
So You’re Writing a Sapphic Historical Romance: Questions to Consider (Reprise)
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 345 with Heather Rose Jones
In this episode we talk about the questions to ask about sapphic relationships and how they are perceived in your story’s setting:
- How easy is it to live outside of the heterosexual marriage paradigm?
- What are the economic, legal, and religious constraints on your characters?
- What is the ordinary “background noise” of non-sexual displays of affection?
- How does the culture of the setting understand privacy and how does that affect your characters’ behavior?
- What are the realities and perceptions around sex between women in this setting?
- How does the culture of the setting understand gender and sexuality?
- How are female couples depicted in popular culture of the time?
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday Jun 06, 2026
Saturday Jun 06, 2026
When Did We Become Lesbians? (Reprise)
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 344 with Heather Rose Jones
In this episode we talk about:
- The history of words for women who loved women throughout recorded European history.
- What words were used?
- Where did they come from?
- What shades of meaning did they have?
- How did those meanings change over time?
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday May 30, 2026
Saturday May 30, 2026
Salt for the Unmarried by Khayelihle Benghu
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 343 with Heather Rose Jones
This quarter’s fiction episode presents Salt for the Unmarried by Khayelihle Benghu, narrated by Heather Rose Jones.
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday May 16, 2026
A Guide to the Sapphic Regency - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 342
Saturday May 16, 2026
Saturday May 16, 2026
A Guide to the Sapphic Regency
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 342 with Heather Rose Jones
In this episode we talk about:
- Demographics and economics affecting f/f couples
- Legal and religious considerations
- Friendship and romance
- Affection and sex
- The language of lesbianism
- Models of gender and sexuality
- Bibliography
- 18th Century Precursors
- Bennett, Judith M. & Amy M. Froide eds. 1999. Singlewomen in the European Past 1250-1800. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-1668-7
- Bennett, Betty T. 1991. Mary Diana Dods: A Gentleman and a Scholar. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-4984-5
- Beynon, John C. & Caroline Gonda eds. 2010. Lesbian Dames: Sapphism in the Long Eighteenth Century. Ashgate, Farnham. ISBN 978-0-7546-7335-4
- Bodek, Evelyn Gordon. 1976. "Salonières and Bluestockings: Educated Obsolescence and Germinating Feminism" in Feminist Studies vol 3 no. 3/4 185-199.
- Clark, Anna. 1996. "Anne Lister's construction of lesbian identity", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 7(1), pp. 23-50.
- Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4
- Dugaw, Dianne. 1989. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry 1650-1850. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-16916-2
- Merrick, Jeffrey & Bryant T. Ragan, Jr. 2001. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-510257-6
- Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/. (Accessed 2014/09/13)
- Hitchcock, Tim. 1997. English Sexualities, 1700-1800. St. Martin’s Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-16573-0
- Rizzo, Betty. 1994. Companions without Vows: Relationships among Eighteenth-Century British Women. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-3218-5
- 19th Century Sources
- Binhammer, Katherine. 1996. “The Sex Panic of the 1790s” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 6, no. 3: 409-34.
- Jennings, Rebecca. 2007. A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500. Greenwood World Publishing, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-84645-007-5
- Lanser, Susan S. 2014. The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-18773-0
- Lasser, Carol. 1988. "'Let Us Be Sisters Forever': The Sororal Model of Nineteenth-Century Female Friendship" in Signs vol. 14, no. 1 158-181.
- Moore, Lisa. 1992. "'Something More Tender Still than Friendship': Romantic Friendship in Early-Nineteenth-Century England" in Feminist Studies vol. 18, no. 3 499-520.
- Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/nineteen.htm (Accessed 2014/09/13)
- Vicinus, Martha. 2004. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-85564-3
- Whitbread, Helena ed. 1992. I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791-1840. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 0-8147-9249-9
- Whitbread, Helena ed. 1992. No Priest But Love. NY Univ Press, New York. ISBN 0-8147-5077-X
- 18th Century Precursors
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday May 02, 2026
On the Shelf for May 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 341
Saturday May 02, 2026
Saturday May 02, 2026
On the Shelf for May 2026
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 341 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction.
In this episode we talk about:
- Say hi at GCLS
- Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
- Traub, Valerie. 1996. “The Perversion of ‘Lesbian’ Desire” in History Workshop Journal 41:19-49.
- Goode, Dawn M. 2008. “Dueling Discourses: The Erotics of Female Friendship in Mary Pix’s ‘Queen Catharine.’” in Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 37–60.
- McClain, Molly. 2008. “Love, Friendship, and Power: Queen Mary II's Letters to Frances Apsley” in Journal of British Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3: 505-527
- Hitchcock, Tim. 1996. “Redefining Sex in Eighteenth-Century England” in History Workshop Journal, No. 41: 72-90
- Roulston, Christine. 1998. “Separating the Inseparables: Female Friendship and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century France.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 215–31.
- Book Shopping
- Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney
- Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction
- The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann
- Consider This My Witness by Madeline Klein
- Beneath the Quiet Valley (Quiet Valley #1) by Eleanor Foster
- Beneath the Quiet Valley: Two Lives (Quiet Valley #2) by Eleanor Foster
- The Water That Remembers (The Woman at the Well #1) by Jade Remintgon
- The Weight of Staying (The Woman at the Well #2) by Jade Remintgon
- The Courage to Remain (The Woman at the Well #3) by Jade Remintgon
- The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan
- Bone of my Bone by Johanna van Veen
- Miss Woodhouse & Miss Fairfax by Maisie Jardelle
- The Wives of Herrick Hall by Julie Lew
- Her Runaway Lady by B.J. Sikes
- For the Love of the Quest by Alexandra Ammon Parthun
- The Summer I Met June by Mozie S
- What I’ve been consuming
- Word by Word by Kory Stamper
- True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color--from Azure to Zinc Pink by Kory Stamper
- Murder at Sissingham Hall by Clara Benson
- The Mystery at Underwood House by Clara Benson
- This month we interview Cecilia Tan and talk about:
- The fun of genre mash-ups
- Representing diaspora
- The relationship of historic stories and time-travel stories
- Founding SFF erotica publisher Circlet Press
- Future projects and the joy of pantsing
A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.)
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Cecilia Tan Online
- Website: https://www.ceciliatan.com
- Instagram: @ctan_writer
- Bluesky: @ceciliatan.com

Saturday Apr 18, 2026
Saturday Apr 18, 2026
Mary/Charles Hamilton: The Original Female Husband
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 340 with Heather Rose Jones
In this episode we talk about:
- The factual story of Mary/Charles Hamilton
- Henry Fielding’s fictional version in The Female Husband
- The larger historic and literary context
- Sources mentioned
- Baker, S. 1959. “Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband: Fact and Fiction” in PMLA, 74 pp.213-24.
- Castle, T. 1983-4. “Eros and Liberty at the English Masquerade, 1710-90” in Eighteenth-Century Studies, XVII, 2: 156-76.
- Derry, Caroline. 2020. Lesbianism and the Criminal Law: Three Centuries of Legal Regulation in England and Wales. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-35299-8
- Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4
- Friedli, Lynne. 1987. “Passing Women: A Study of Gender Boundaries in the Eighteenth Century” in Rousseau, G. S. and Roy Porter (eds). Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 0-8078-1782-1
- Fielding, Henry. 1746. The Female Husband: or, the Surprising History of Mrs Mary, Alias Mr George Hamilton. Liverpool, M. Cooper. (https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-female-husband-or-_fielding-henry_1746)
- Lanser, Susan. 2001. “Sapphic Picaresque: Sexual Difference and the Challenges of Homoadventuring” in Textual Practice 15:2 (November 2001): 1-18.
- Lyons, Clare A. 2007. “Mapping an Atlantic Sexual Culture: Homoeroticism in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia” in: Foster, Thomas A. (ed). Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality in Early America. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 13-978-0-8147-2749-2
- Manion, Jen. “The Queer History of Passing as a Man in Early Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Legacies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 6–11.
- Manion, Jen. 2020. Female Husbands: A Trans History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-108-48380-3
- The full text of The Female Husband by Henry Fielding can be found at archive.org
- This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: Charles/Mary Hamilton, The Female Husband (Henry Fielding)
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday Apr 04, 2026
On the Shelf for April 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 339
Saturday Apr 04, 2026
Saturday Apr 04, 2026
On the Shelf for April 2026
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 339 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction.
In this episode we talk about:
- Exciting news about the next season of Bridgerton.
- The upcoming 10th anniversary
- Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
- Fielding, Henry. 1746. The Female Husband: or, the Surprising History of Mrs Mary, Alias Mr George Hamilton. Liverpool, M. Cooper.
- Baker, S. 1959. “Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband: Fact and Fiction” in PMLA, 74 pp.213-24.
- Book Shopping
- Kehoe, M. (ed). 1986. Historical, Literary and Erotic Aspects of Lesbianism. New York. ISBN 0-918393-21-3
- Gilbert, Oscar Paul (trans. by J. Lewis May). 1932. Women in Men's Guise. The Bodley Head, London.
- Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction
- Stand and Deliver by Ivy Warren
- Romeo & Her Sister by Jillian Blevins
- To Love a Boleyn by Joey Evangelista
- Arguments Against the Cultivation of Female Curiosity (Curiosity #2) by Suzanne Moss
- The Countess and the Cartographer by Lyra Ashwood
- The Egyptologist's Curse by Georgina Kenyon
- Love's Joy and Sorrow Between Women by Emilie Knopf
- Counterpoint by Barbara Bergmann
- Forever Yours, Nell by Andrea Ead
- The Witch and the Huntress by Luna McNamara
- A Whisper of Bells and Prayers by C.C. González
- Scallywag! by K.L. Mitchell
- The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy by Erin Edwards
- She Tamed the Lady by Judith Lynne
- Flirting with Disaster by Kerrigan Byrne
- As a Lover by Hilary McCollum
- At Last It's You by Marianne Marston
- Other Titles of Interest
- What I’ve been consuming
- Queen Demon by Martha Wells
- Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh/em> by Rachael Lippincott
- Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien
- Lady Eve's Last Con/em> by Rebecca Fraimow
- The Rushworth Family Plot/em> by Claudia Gray
- Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner by Katrine Marcal
A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.)
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Saturday Mar 21, 2026
Saturday Mar 21, 2026
Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and the Invention of Lesbian Pirates
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 338 with Heather Rose Jones
In this episode we talk about:
- Female pirates
- Anne Bonny and Mary Read in the General History of the Pyrates
- The motif of “lesbian Bonny & Read”
- Bonny and Read in lesbian historical fiction
- Sources mentioned
- This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
- Works mentioned by Helen Rodriguez:
- The History and Lives of Notorious Pirates (1735)
- The Extraordinary Adventures and Daring Exploits of Captain Henry Morgan (1813)
- The Naval History of the United States by Willis J. Abbott (1896)
- The Buccaneers and their Reign of Terror by C.M. Stevens (1899)
- The Homosexuality of Men and Women by Magnus Hirschfield (1920)
- ”Anne Bonny & Mary Read: They Killed Pricks” by Susan Baker in The Furies: Lesbian/Feminist Monthly Vol. 1, issue 6 (August 1972)
- Mistress of the Seas (novel) by John Carlova (1964)
- Forgotten Women ed. By Nancy M[???] (couldn’t identify this book)
- The Women Pirates (play) by Steve Gooch (
- Mary Read, Buccaneer (novel) by Philip Rush (1945)
- Beneath the Black Flag by David Cordingly
- Kingston by Starlight (novel) by Christopher John Farley
- Black Sails (tv series)
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (video game)
- The Pirates of Neverland (video game)
- Our Flag Means Death (tv series)
- Hellcats (podcast fiction)
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Helen Rodriguez Online
- Email: Helenrodriguez1720@gmail.com
- Bluesky: @ladytyler.bsky.social

Saturday Mar 07, 2026
On the Shelf for March 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 337
Saturday Mar 07, 2026
Saturday Mar 07, 2026
On the Shelf for March 2026
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 337 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction.
In this episode we talk about:
- Gentleman Jack (ballet) by the Northern Ballet Company
- Northern Ballet Company You Tube channel
- Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
-
- Mourão, Manuela. 1999. “The representation of female desire in early modern pornographic texts, 1660-1745” in Signs, 24: 589-94.
- Toulalan, Sarah. 2003. “Extraordinary Satisfactions: Lesbian Visibility in Seventeenth-Century Pornography in England” in Gender and History 15: 50-68
- Johnson, Charles (pseudonym). 1724. A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the Island of Providence, to the present time. With the remarkable actions and adventures of the two female pyrates Mary Read and Anne Bonny ... To which is added. A short abstract of the statute and civil law, in relation to pyracy. London: T. Warner.
- Book Shopping
-
- Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality by Anne Fausto Sterling
- Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction
-
- Rattlesridge by Mina Rose
- The Ink Between Us by Chiara Bellini
- Love and Gunpowder by Valeska Delsol
- Daughter of the Hunt by K. Arsenault Rivera
- Sweetbitter Song by Rosie Hewlett
- The Alchemist's Secret by Clare Marchant
- Salt and Surrender (The Aramanthine Sea #1) by E.S. Brandon
- A Change of Pace by J.A. Stevens
- A Comfortable Misery by Kassandra Hart
- The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White
- Wayward Souls (Harker & Moriarty #2) by Susan J. Morris
- Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
- The Nightshade (Hattie James #4) by Stacy Lynn Miller
- What I’ve been consuming
-
- Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner
A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.)
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
- Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
- RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
- Twitter: @LesbianMotif
- Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
- The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
- Website: http://alpennia.com
- Email: Heather Rose Jones
- Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop
- Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
