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Biography & Autobiography / Fiction / Gay & Lesbian Studies

 

Telling Moments
Autobiographical Lesbian Short Stories
Edited by Lynda Hall

Terrace Books


Real truths in the fictional telling of contemporary lesbian lives

Telling Moments collects contemporary short stories by a diverse group of twenty-four lesbian writers. Engaging themes of life and death, aging, motherhood, race, love, work, and travel, the writers offer brief glimpses into lesbian lives.

The stories are by well-known contemporary writers—Gloria Anzaldúa, Mary Cappello, Emma Donoghue, Jewelle Gomez, Karla Jay, Anna Livia, Valerie Miner, Lesléa Newman, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Ruthann Robson, Sarah Schulman, and Jess Wells—and exciting newer voices, such as Donna Allegra and Marion Douglas. There are also stories from performance artists Carmelita Tropicana, Peggy Shaw, and Maya Chowdhry. Anna Livia's protagonist appreciates her mother's artful garden creation. Ruthann Robson tells of a survivor of the health care system. In Marion Douglas's story a teenager dances with an alluring classmate. Donna Allegra's strong construction worker copes with the death of her mother. And Karla Jay sets her character forth to swim with sharks. Most of the stories are accompanied by an author photo, biographical sketch, and—a most significant feature—a commentary from the author on her writing process and the autobiographical nature of her story, illustrating the truth behind the fiction.

"Telling Memories is a wonderfully written collection of lesbian fiction and nonfiction, with a clever 'gimmick' going for it"—Echo, January 2004, Phoenix, AZ

"This feature and a certain freshness throughout lend immediacy and authenticity that are all too rare in short-format autobiographical fiction."
Whitney Scott, booklist, November 1, 2003 Chicago, IL

Lynda Hall teaches in the Department of English at the University of Calgary. She is the editor of Lesbian Self-Writing and editor of and contributor to Converging Terrains: Gender, Environment, Technology, and the Body. Her work has also been published in various journals, including a/b: Auto/Biographical Studies and Journal of Lesbian Studies.


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cover of the Hall is a photo of a mysterious woman and of waves crashing into a beach

October 2003

LC: 2003008905 HQ
272 pp. 6 x 9
24 b/w author photos

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Paper $26.95 t
ISBN 978-0-299-19114-6
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