A Woman Like That: Lesbian And Bisexual Writers Tell Their

Joan Larkin

Harper Collins, Oct 13, 2009 - Social Science - 352 pages

The act of "coming out" has the power to transform every aspect of a woman's life: family, friendships, career, sexuality, spirituality. An essential element of self-realization, it is the unabashed acceptance of one's "outlaw" standing in a predominantly heterosexual world.

These accounts -- sometimes heart-wrenching, often exhilarating -- encompass a wide breadth of backgrounds and experiences. From a teenager institutionalized for her passion for women to the mother who must come out to her young sons at the risk of losing them -- from the cautious academic to the raucous liberated femme -- each woman represented here tells of forging a unique path toward the difficult but emancipating recognition of herself. Extending from the 1940s to the present day, these intensely personal stories in turn reflect a unique history of the changing social mores that affected each woman's ability to determine the shape of her own life. Together they form an ornate tapestry of lesbian and bisexual experience in the United States over the past half-century.

What people are saying

A WOMAN LIKE THAT: Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories

User Review  - Jane Doe - Kirkus

A diverse and lively anthology of popular lesbian and bisexual authors writing about the multifaceted phenomenon of coming out. The paradoxical central beauty and flaw of this anthology is the ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - thanemal - LibraryThing

'A Woman Like That' is a series of collected personal essays and reflections by various queer females from across the country. Many of the stories are very endearing and heart wrenching as women of ...

About the author

Joan Larkin is a Lambda Award-winning poet and co-editor of three previous anthologies, including the groundbraking Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time. Her most recent books are Cold River and Glad Day: Daily Meditations for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Woman Like That: Lesbian And Bisexual Writers Tell Their
• Author: Joan Larkin
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2009
• ISBN: 0061758671, 9780061758676
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / LGBT Studies / Gay Studies