Forward and Backward: Jewish Lesbian Writers

© 2011 bridges association ELANA: I’ve been a lesbian writer and activist for the last forty-some years. I’ve published seven books (novels, poetry, short stories), edited the journal Sinister Wisdom, taught, and worked for all kinds of lesbian, feminist, antiwar and anti-racist organizations. I’ve always been engaged with what lesbians are writing. I read Jyl’s book of stories, Hot Chicken Wings, when it came out, and reread her memoir, Cravings, last month. I’m pleased to be in conversation here. I published a number of poems in Bridges during the early ’90s, many of them while I was working on Beyond the Pale (a Jewish lesbian novel, set in Russia & NY, between 1860– 1912). One of the reasons I wrote Beyond the Pale was because I looked around and saw that so many of my generation’s activists were Jewish dykes, and I felt like we couldn’t have sprung full-grown from our moment in time—we must have had some kind of origin. Doing research, I found that Jewish women (who were often clearly what we would now call lesbians) have been activists for as long as any women have been able to move into public spheres. They made the way for us even when we couldn’t see whose tracks we were following in.