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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.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Book Appreciation with Elizabeth Bear
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 45
In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting.
In this episode Elizabeth Bear recommends a favorite queer historical novel:
- Everfair by Nisi Shawl - Everfair is a alternate steampunk history of colonial Congo, with a lovely wealth of queer characters rooted in the historic understandings of sexuality of the times.
A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Elizabeth Bear Online
- Website: Eliizabeth Bear
- Blog: Matociquala
- Twitter: @matociquala
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Interview with Elizabeth Bear
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 44
A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.
In this episode we talk about:
- Elizabeth’s upcoming steampunk novel Stone Mad, an independent sequel to Karen Memory. Set in an alternate late 19th century Pacific Northwest, Karen navigates her way past murderers, corrupt politicians, and arcane conspiracies the help of a steam-powered armored sewing machine, the other denizens of the disreputable Hôtel Mon Cherie, and her girlfriend Priya.
- How Karen Memory started out as a YA novel and what happened next
- The importance of voice in how the stories developed
- The roots of the world in Verne, Wells, and actual history
- Future stories involving Karen Memory
- The difference between writing grim versus hopeful worlds, even when bad things happen to your characters
- The social, historical, and political context of the Pacific Northwest that made it a perfect story setting
- Basing stories on cultural patterns as opposed to events, and why Elizabeth doesn’t write actual historical fiction
- Elizabeth’s early experiences discovering SFF with queer characters and the importance of representation in fiction
- Books mentioned
A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Elizabeth Bear Online
- Website: Eliizabeth Bear
- Blog: Matociquala
- Twitter: @matociquala
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
On the Shelf for March 2018
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 43 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.
In this episode we talk about:
- The stories chosen for the new audio fiction episodes
- "Peaceweaver" by Jennifer Nestojko
- "At the Mouth" by Gurmika Mann
- "Inscribed" by V.M. Agab
- "One Night in Saint Martin" by Catherine Lundoff
- Publications on the Blog
- Conner, Randy P. 1997. “Les Molles et les chausses: Mapping the Isle of Hermaphrodites in Premodern France” in Queerly Phrased: Language Gender, and Sexuality, ed. Anna Livia & Kira Hall. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510471-4
- Bonnet, Marie-Jo. 1997. “Sappho, or the Importance of Culture in the Language of Love” in Queerly Phrased: Language Gender, and Sexuality, ed. Anna Livia & Kira Hall. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510471-4
- Watt, Diane. 1997. “Read My Lips: Clipping and Kyssyng in the Early Sixteenth Century” in Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, ed. Anna Livia and Kira Hall. New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510471-4
- Merrill, Lisa. 2000. When Romeo was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and her Circle of Female Spectators. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. ISBN 978-0-472-08749-5
- Leach, Joseph. 1970. Bright Particular Star: The Life and Times of Charlotte Cushman. Yale University Press, New Haven.
- Summerscale, Kate. 1997. The Queen of Whale Cay. Viking, New York. ISBN 0-670-88018-3
- Gonda, Caroline. 2006. “Lesbian Narrative in the Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu” in British Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies 29, no. 2: 191-200.
- Straub, Kristina. 1991. “The Guilty Pleasures of Female Theatrical Cross-Dressing and the Autobiography of Charlotte Charke.” in Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity, ed. Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub. New York: Routledge. pp. 142-66
- Putter, Ad. 1997. “Transvestite Knights in Medieval Life and History” in Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome & Bonnie Wheeler (eds), Becoming Male in the Middle Ages. Garland, New York. pp. 279-302
- New and Forthcoming Books
- A special interview with composer and artist Phoebe Legere about her new one-woman musical about lesbian celebrity and speedboat racer Marion “Joe” Carstairs
- Speed Queen: The Joe Carstairs Story - A musical by Phoebe Legere, playing March 7-24 at the Dixon Place Theater in New York City
- Special discount code for our podcast listeners, get $5 off with the code “Speedqueen” when you order tickets
- Phoebe Legere’s YouTube video with a brief into to Joe Carstairs (language NSFW)
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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Charlotte Cushman
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 42
Charlotte Cushman was the greatest American actress of the 19th century. So why isn’t she a household name?
In this episode we talk about:
- Cushman’s professional career arc
- The ways in which 19th century attitudes toward romance and sex affected reception of Cushman’s performances
- The phenomenon of Romantic Friendship between women, and how it wasn’t necessarily as sexless or as respectable as we’re sometimes led to believe
- A chronology of Cushman’s many female romantic partners
- Cushman’s social circle of women intellectuals and artists at her “retirement” home in Rome
- A discussion of how Cushman’s careful management and curation of her public image, particularly with respect to her lovers, calls into question some of the popular assumptions about Romantic Friendship and Boston Marriages
- Why the world desperately needs a TV mini-series about Cushman’s life and social circle
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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Book Appreciation with Ellen Klages
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 41
In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured author will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting.
In this episode Ellen Klages recommends some favorite queer historical novels:
Ellen also talks about The Tiptree Award [note: now the Otherwise Award] for genre fiction that expands or explores gender roles, which has long lists of recommended books going back 27 years.
A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Ellen Klages Online
- Website: Ellen Klages
- Twitter: @eklages
- Facebook: Ellen Klages
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Interview with Ellen Klages
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 40
A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.
In this episode we talk about:
- The long incubation for the ideas that became Passing Strange
- Lesbian culture in mid-century San Francisco and the San Francisco World’s Fair on Treasure Island
- The hidden interconnectedness of Ellen’s novels
- The love of historic objects and texts
- Historical fiction as “time travel” for the reader
- Books mentioned
- Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
- “Caligo Lane” by Ellen Klages (originally published in Subterranean Online, Winter 2014, available in the collection Wicked Wonders Tachyon Publications, 2017)
- “Hey Presto” by Ellen Klages (originally published in the anthology Fearsome Magics ed. by Jonathan Strahan, 2014, available in the collection Wicked Wonders Tachyon Publicaitons, 2017)
- The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
- “Time Gypsy” by Ellen Klages (originally published in Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction, edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel (Overlook Press, 1999), also available in the collection Portable Childhoods (Tachyon Publications, 2007))
A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Ellen Klages Online
- Website: Ellen Klages
- Twitter: @eklages
- Facebook: Ellen Klages
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
On the Shelf for February 2018
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 39 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.
In this episode we talk about:
- The fiction submission window is over
- Send us your upcoming release notices about lesbian historical fiction
- Lesbian Book Bingo
- https://jae-fiction.com/lesbian-book-bingo/
- My Lesbian Book Bingo stories http://alpennia.com/tags/lesbian-book-bingo
- A new queer history podcast: History is Gay podcast
- Email: historyisgaypodcast@gmail.com
- Twitter: @HistoryisGayPod
- Tumblr: historyisgaypodcast.tumblr.com
- Website: https://www.historyisgaypodcast.com
- Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
- Articles focused on linguistics
- Books on Charlotte Cushman
- Announcing this month’s author guest, Ellen Klages
- New and forthcoming fiction
- All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Through the Ages ed by Saundra Mitchell
- The Comfortable Courtesan: Being Memoirs by Clorinda Cathcart (that has been a Lady of the Town these several years) Vol 1 by L. A. Hall (See also the author’s website https://www.clorinda.org)
- Tremontaine - Season 3
- SHIELDMAIDEN BOOK 2: JEWEL OF FIRE by GL Roberts (Bella Books), Feb 2018
- Ask Sappho: Amy Herman-Pall asks, “I believe that your area of study and expertise is mostly European in nature, but I wonder if you know of any historical accounts of lesbians in other cultures, especially in Asia, or the Indian sub-continent?”
- Rupp, Leila J. 2009. Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-8147-7726-8
- Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3
- Amer, Sahar. 2008. Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures.University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-8122-4087-0
- Vanita, Ruth. 2008. Same - Sex Love in India - A Literary history. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 978-0143102069
- Vanita, Ruth and Saleem Kidwai, editors. 2001. Same-Sex Love in India: Readings in Indian Literature. Palgrave, New York. ISBN 978-0312293246
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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
(Un)Conventional Women
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 38
A discussion of the long and tangled history of the historic fact and literary motif of lesbians in convents.
In this episode we talk about:
- A brief history of Christian attitudes toward sex and Western beliefs about women’s sexuality
- Convent regulations that address women’s romantic and sexual bonds
- Case histories of sexual activity between nuns
- How the Reformation changed the attitude toward convents in Protestant societies
- The lesbian nun in pornography
- The lesbian nun as religious polemic
- The lesbian nun in modern society
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
- monastic communities
- Casa della Zitelle
- Benedetta Carlini
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Tegernsee Manuscript
- Julie d’Aubigny
- The girl with no interest in marriage (Erasmus)
- Venus dans le Cloitre
- Upon Appleton House
- La Religieuse (Denis Diderot)
- Mademoiselle Giraud, My Wife (Adolphe Belot)
Other References mentioned
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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
Book Appreciation with Kathleen Knowles
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 37
In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors talks about her favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting.
In this episode Kathleen recommends some favorite queer historical novels:
- The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (gay male fiction)
- The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault (contemporary to when Renault write it in the ‘40s)
- The Locket and the Flintlock by Rebecca S. Buck
- Truths by Rebecca S. Buck
- Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright by Justine Saracen
- The Witch of Stalingrad by Justine Saracen
A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Kathleen Knowles Online
- Website: Kathleen Knowles at Bold Strokes Books
- Twitter: @knowleskathy
- Facebook: Kathy Knowles
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
Interview with Kathleen Knowles
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 36
A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.
In this episode we talk about:
- Kathy’s interest in reading about the LGBT history of San Francisco
- Her favorite historians, including Lillian Faderman, Martin Duberman
- What inspired her three connected novels set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, culminating with the Great Earthquake
- Historic eras Kathy would like to tackle in future books, including the US Suffragist movement, post-World War II San Francisco, and the Paris salon culture of the 1920s
- Books mentioned
A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (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
- Twitter: @heatherosejones
- Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
Links to Kathleen Knowles Online
- Website: Kathleen Knowles at Bold Strokes Books
- Twitter: @knowleskathy
- Facebook: Kathy Knowles