Celebrating International Lesbian Day: A Reading List

October 8th marks International Lesbian Day, a time to honor lesbian visibility, history, and culture across generations and geographies. At UNC Press, we’re proud to publish scholarship that uplifts lesbian voices, explores queer histories, and challenges dominant narratives. We’ve pulled together a reading list of must-read titles that offer powerful insights into the lives, loves, and legacies of lesbian communities in the South and beyond.

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The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire before Stonewall by Cookie Woolner

Gender and American Culture Series

“Extraordinary in its scope and inventiveness to focus on their intimate lives . . . . Woolner’s beautiful prose and writing style makes this book a delight to read. Academics and general readers alike will be drawn to it.”—Starred review, Library Journal

“Illuminating . . . . Woolner’s emphasis on pleasure feels both urgent and hopeful at a time when LGBTQIA+ history and Black studies are increasingly targeted.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South by La Shonda Mims

2023 Winner, Outstanding Academic Title, CHOICE

“There is no one lesbian experience, just as there is no one human experience. Mims confronts this challenge head-on in her parallel histories of “women loving women” in Atlanta, GA, and Charlotte, NC . . . . [Mims] incorporates the experiences of wo mmen of color without tokenism . . . . She also skillfully discusses the role of sexism and gay white privilege. This important work sits at the intersection of race, economics, religion, sectionalism, gender, and sexuality . . . . Highly recommended.”—CHOICE

“Mims’s expansive and meticulous research offers up multiple examples of how the printed word, through lesbian and lesbian feminist publications—some long-lasting and others fleeting and irregular—was central to building and sustaining communities and to producing knowledge about nonnormative sexualities and critical feminist philosophical formulations.”—Journal of Southern History

The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon by Jaime Harker

“The Lesbian South asks and answers questions about femininity and passing, dykeness and lesbian visibility, the south and its racial and sexual imaginary, and these images add to the richness of the conversation. It is a vital contribution to literary history forging a bridge between southern literary studies and LGBT literary studies. It is also a pleasurable read.”—Reception

“Harker’s compelling book. . . . Is engaging and thoughtful, and it gives the reader much to ponder. . . . The Lesbian South uncovers a forgotten past wherein lesbians remade southernness as a site of transgressive sexuality, intersectional radicalism, and liberatory space.”—Journal of Southern History

Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History by E. Patrick Johnson

2019 Winner,  Stonewall Honor Book in Nonfiction,  American Library Association Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Round Table

“Johnson lays the foundation for other scholars to engage a younger generation of black queer southern women. For scholars, students, and teachers in southern, African American, gender and sexuality, and oral and folklore studies, Johnson’s oral history will be indispensable for future interventions.”—Journal of Southern History

“Johnson’s book does oral history the right way, addressing potentially sensitive subjects with respect and generosity. Because of this, he makes another commendable contribution to Black feminist studies, oral history, performance studies, queer studies, and Africana studies.”—WSQ

Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers by Anne Balay

“Their stories challenge our convenient stereotypes of what it means to be queer and how that has changed through time.”—Chicago Sun Times

“[A] well-wrought contribution to LGBT studies.”—Library Journal

“An eye-opening read; you won’t forget these interviews.”—Lavender