Lesbian fiction

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Lesbian fiction is a subgenre of fiction that involves one or more primary female homosexual character(s) and lesbian themes. Novels that fall into this category may be of any genres, such as, but not limited to, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance.

1 History
2 Young adult
3 Publishers
4 Notable works (chronologically)
5 Notable authors (alphabetically)
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] History

The first novel in the English language recognised as having a lesbian theme is Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928), which a British court found obscene because it defended "unnatural practices between women".^[1] The book was banned in Britain for decades; this is in the context of the similar censorship of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which also had a theme of transgressive female sexuality, albeit heterosexual. In the United States The Well of Loneliness survived legal challenges in New York and the Customs Court.

Lesbian fiction saw a huge explosion in interest with the advent of the dime-store or pulp fiction novel. Lesbian pulp fiction became its own category of fiction, although a significant number of authors of this genre were men using either a male or female pen name. The feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a more accepted entry of lesbian-themed literature.

[edit] Young adult

Main article: Lesbian teen fiction

Publication of lesbian fiction for teenagers and young adults started in the 1970s. Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind was one of the first young adult novels featuring love between two girls. More recent authors who write about lesbian and bisexual teenagers include Sara Ryan, Julie Anne Peters, and Judy MacLean. This genre showed a notable increase in the 1990s, with the publication of novels by authors including Nancy Garden, M.E. Kerr, and Ellen Wittlinger.

[edit] Publishers

An early publisher devoted to publishing lesbian and feminist books was Naiad Press, now Bella Books. Bold Strokes Books^[2] is a proliferous publisher of lesbian mystery, thrillers, sci-fi, adventure and other LGBT genre books. One of their most recent release is Blind Curves by Diane Anderson-Minshall. Bywater Books is another publisher of lesbian fiction. Virago Press, a publisher of women's literature, has also published lesbian-related novels.