One woman's journey into the heart's landscape is mirrored by a haunting desert odyssey in this novel told in three voices—Stella, Estella, and Estelle. The narration follows Stella from birth to age 29 as she confronts epilepsy, death, and lesbianism; Estella as she confronts the Australian desert and the metaphoric edge of her consciousness with her lover Olga; and Estelle, the timeless, mythical voice of women in different cultures and times sharing their stories that range from the mundane to the frightening. The final chapter draws all three voices together through an analogy of comets, snakes, and stars, in which Stella becomes Estella and Estelle and they move into a literal cosmic realm as one.

The Falling Woman

Literature & Fiction

Hawthorne, Susan

Contemporary

Spinifex Press

Earth's Breath

Poetry

Spinifex Pr

In a dawn raid, Kate is arrested. She is imprisoned, beaten, kept awake and tortured. She has no idea what has happened to her partner, Mercedes. The uncertainty plagues her. It is as if she has no history. Trying to retain her sense of self in a swirling psychic state, she invents stories. And she remembers stories of her mother, her grandmothers and aunts, the rich mythic traditions of Greece. She rearranges them and writes poems in her head.  After Kate’s death, her niece, Desi, is going through boxes of papers, trying to make sense of her aunt’s life. Desi travels to South America and unlocks the history of Mercedes' family: a history of political torture, disappearance and escape. Susan Hawthorne’s dark story uncovers the hidden histories of organized violence against lesbians. She traces fear and uncertainty, and finds a narrative of resilience created through the writing of poems. The author asks: how do we pass on stories hidden by both shame and resistance to shame? A novel that is poetic and terrifying

Dark Matters: A Novel

<p>Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne' s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women' s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men.She begins with a recollection of a rape in her pre-feminist days, followed by a critique of the institution of heterosexuality and the role of lesbian feminism as a strategy. She is soon asking questions about lesbian existence. The essays span reflections on lesbian literature and the development of lesbian culture, including the politics of physical expression in circus.Susan Hawthorne writes about cultural appropriation, depoliticization and the erasure of lesbian inventiveness. She researches violence against lesbians including rape, torture and murder and the way in which this violence is ignored and often distorted by the media.Her investigations include lesbian refugees, lesbian economics, violation of lesbian human rights and the impact of the transgender industrial complex on the existence of lesbians as a political force.</p>

Lesbian: Politics, Culture, Existence

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

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