The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Interview with Alyssa Cole - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 49

Interview with Alyssa Cole

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 49

A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.

In this episode we talk about:

• Alyssa’s novella “That Could Be Enough” in Hamilton’s Battalion
• How Alyssa, Courtney Milan, and Rose Lerner brainstormed up the anthology
• How the musical Hamilton inspired the collection
• Writing marginalized identities in historical romance
• Researching historic New York City
• The surprising acceptance of some same-sex couples in 18th century America
• The distinction between “historical accuracy” and “historical average” in developing characters
• Alyssa’s favorite historical writers and how Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog sent her inspiration in different directions
• Books mentioned
  • Hamilton’s Battalion by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner, and Alyssa Cole
  • “Be Not Afraid” by Alyssa Cole in For Love & Liberty: Untold love stories of the American Revolution - the story of Andromeda’s grandparents
  • Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey by Graham Russell Gao Hodges
  • Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America by Rechel Hope Cleves
  • A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole - a secondary character in this book is a non-binary woman who is a sapeur, a “dandy”, and who will have a f/f romance in a forthcoming book (updated: Once Ghosted Twice Shy
  • Anne of the Wild Rose Inn by Jennifer Armstrong - an early inspiration for Alyssa’s historical interests

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 Alyssa Cole Online

• Website: Alyssa Cole
• Twitter: @AlyssaColeLit
• Facebook: Alyssa Cole

On the Shelf for April 2018 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 48

On the Shelf for April 2018

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 48 with Heather Rose Jones

Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.

In this episode we talk about:

• Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
  • 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.
  • Epstein, Julia & Kristina Straub (eds). 1991. Body Guards : The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity. Routledge, New York. ISBN 0-415-90388-2
  • Nardizzi, Vin, Stephen Guy-Bray & Will Stockton, eds. 2009. Queer Renaissance Historiography. Ashgate, Burlington VT. ISBN 978-0-7546-7608-9
• Announcing this month’s author guest, Alyssa Cole
• This month’s Book Appreciation will be by Liz Bourke
• New and forthcoming fiction
  • The Covert Captain: Or, A Marriage of Equals by Jeannelle M. Ferreira (self-published)
  • Berlin Hungers by Justine Saracen (Bold Strokes Books)
  • Murder on the Titania and Other Steam Powered Adventures by Alex Acks (Queen of Swords Press)
  • The Archer by K. Aten (Regal Crest)
• Ask Sappho: Ann Terpstra asks about research sources for lesbians and queer women in 1920s Chicago. Some suggested starting points include:
  • Encyclopedia of Chicago: Gays and Lesbians
  • Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall by St. Sukie de la Croix
  • Homosexuality in the City: A Century of Research at the University of Chicago (download link)
• Call for submissions for the 2020 LHMP audio short story series. See here for details.

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)

One Night in Saint-Martin by Catherine Lundoff - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 47

One Night in Saint-Martin by Catherine Lundoff

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 47

The debut story in our 2018 fiction series. Written by Catherine Lundoff and narrated by Tiana Hanson.

A transcript of this podcast may be 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)

Links to Catherine Lundoff Online

• Website: www.catherinelundoff.net
• Twitter: @clundoff
• Queen of Swords Press

Falling in Love with Cross-Dressing Girls - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 46

Falling in Love with Cross-Dressing Girls

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 46

An exploration of the concept of the “portal fantasy” and how it applies to historic literature involving cross-dressing as a context for same-sex desire.

In this episode we talk about

• The context of women cross-dressing in history and literature
• The literary genre of “portal fantasies” and the devices they use to connect author, reader, and story into a unified whole
• Cross-dressing plots as a type of romantic portal fantasy
• A catalog of story structures in which cross-dressing provides a context for same-sex desire

Further information about the texts and topics can be found at the following links:

• Iphis and Ianthe
• Iphis et Ianthe - Isaac de Benserade
• Yde and Olive
• Qamar al-Zaman and the Princess Boudour
• Amadis de Gaule
• Anson, John. 1974. “The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: The Origin and Development of a Motif” in Viator, 5: 1-32.
• Roman de Silence - Heldris de Cornouaille
• Sautman, Francesca Canadé. 2001. “What Can They Possibly Do Together? Queer Epic Performances in Tristan de Nanteuil” in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages (ed. By Francesca Canadé Sautman & Pamela Sheingorn), Palgrave, New York.
• Orlando Furioso - Ludovico Ariosto
• For many of the plays with cross-dressing plots not listed individually, see: Walen, Denise A. 2005. Constructions of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6875-3
• Catherine Vizzani tag & podcast)
• The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu (tag & podcast)

For general discussions of female cross-dressing in literature and real life see the following:

• Bullough, Vern. 1996. “Cross Dressing and Gender Role Change in the Middle Ages” in Handbook of Medieval Sexuality, ed. Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage Garland Publishing, New York. ISBN 0-8153-3662-4
• Dekker, Rudolf M. and van de Pol, Lotte C. 1989. The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe. Macmillan, London. ISBN 0-333-41253-2
• Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4
• Donoghue, Emma. 2010. Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-0-307-27094-8
• Hotchkiss, Valerie R. 1996. Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-8153-3771-x

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)

Book Appreciation with Elizabeth Bear - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 45

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

Interview with Elizabeth Bear - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 44

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
  • Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
  • Stone Mad by Elizabeth Bear
  • Many other books too numerous to mention

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

On the Shelf for March 2018 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 43

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
  • Stone Mad by Elizabeth Bear
  • The Northwoods by Jane Hoppen
  • Free to Love by Ali Spooner and Annette Mori
  • Undiscovered Country: A Novel Inspired by the Lives of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok by Kelly O’Connor McNees
• 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)

Charlotte Cushman - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 42

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:

• Charlotte Cushman

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)

Book Appreciation with Ellen Klages - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 41

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:

• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
• Hild by Nicola Griffith
• Tremontaine by Ellen Kushner et al.

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

Interview with Ellen Klages - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 40

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