A celebration of lesbian lives; original short fiction by talented writers.

Dykeversions: Lesbian Short Fiction

Literature & Fiction

United States

Women's Press (UK)

Asha, an African-Canadian girl whose lesbian mums become an issue for the teacher and the curiosity of classmates, responds with clarity and assuredness that having two mums is no big deal--they are a family.

Asha's Mums

Children's Books

Elwin, Rosamund

Paulse, Michele

A daring debut collection of fiction and poetry by lesbians about the men who share their lives. These women strip back the myths that lesbians have always been involved with women, that lesbians hate men, that lesbians do not consider sleeping with men, that lesbians have only women as significant forces in their lives. They write with honesty, caution, anger, sadness and love about brothers, lovers, fathers, grandfathers, sons, friends -- even about parts of themselves. And they share tales of trust honoured and abused, loves lost and loves found, sorrow and joy.

Countering the Myths

A clear and moving record of one woman's healing from cult and ritual abuse, Spirit Alive shares the process of healing through understanding and integration, demystifies the meaning of classical Multiple Personality Disorder and counteracts mainstream sensationalizing of cult and ritual abuse.Releasing the pain and fear locked inside for years and learning to trust her ability to heal, Jadelinn remembers, copes, accepts, denies, rages, learns, feels, challenges, mourns. Through courage, honesty and trust, she finds joy and compassion, and she declares her spirit alive.

Spirit Alive: A Woman's Healing from Cult Ritual Abuse

Biographies & Memoirs

Jadelinn

Community & Culture

Dr. Handa uses her own narrative and that of South Asian teenage girls to explore the ways identity is imagined and constructed by second generation immigrant youth in Toronto. Using feedback from interviews, the author examines how South Asian women are constructed and represented through discourses of race, nation, culture, and community. Handa suggests that young South Asian women find themselves caught between fragmented aspects of the self. She draws on a poignant memory from her own experience to describe such states of being: I do not remember when the marvel of being part of something larger began to fade. I don't remember when it began, me getting smaller than my body, the darkness of my steps, the shallowness of my voice or the fear. This is where I am caught--not between two cultures, but between omissions, between fragments of myself. Dr. Handa discusses the community's struggle with the threat of the erosion of their "authentic" cultural practice. Her critical theoretical perspective illuminates how young women move within the boundaries of cultural preservation at the same time that they embrace aspects of the communities in which they live. She examines conflicts with parents, fashion, "bhangra" music and dance in her discussion of Canadian, South Asian, and diasporic fusion. Handa explores whether these young women both desire inclusion in and are excluded from Canadian cultural begemony. She also examines the theoretical implications of exclusion and, conversely, the problematic of "cultural preservation."

Of Silk Saris & Mini-Skirts South Asian

History

Handa, Amita

Americas

Full Circle is the story of a life transformed by long exposure to the people and culture of China and East Asia. In 1967, at the age of twenty-one, Ruth Hayhoe left Toronto and moved to Hong Kong, where she started her career as a teacher in an Anglo-Chinese secondary school for girls. Intending to stay six months, Hayhoe spent eleven years there, teaching, studying, assisting a number of veteran China missionaries, and ultimately falling in love with Chinese people and Chinese culture. The stories of numerous individuals in Hong Kong, China and Japan are interwoven into this narrative account, as Hayhoe shares what it was like to live through a series of major transitions--from the Cultural Revolution of 1967 to HongKong's return to China in 1997. In 1980, Hayhoe went to teach in Shanghai's Fudan University for two years, then completed a Ph.D. at the University of London before returning to Canada in 1984. Five years later, following the Tiananmen tragedy of 1989, she was drawn back to China as Cultural Attache in the Canadian Embassy. Subsequently, she continued to visit China for research and development work, and in 1997--the year Hong Kong was re-unified with China--she was invited to become Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, a newly established tertiary institute. With this appointment, Hayhoe's life came full circle, as she settled into the city where she had begun her teaching career thirty years earlier. Her return to Hong Kong brought back a storm of memories, prompting her to write this book in celebration of many wonderful mentors, and of the rich rewards of risk-taking and openness to the other.

Full Circle a Life with Hong Kong & Chi

Hayhoe, Ruth

What ideas are overlooked in contemporary feminist politics? How do particular issues become part of the feminist agenda? Why do we need to think about how feminists imagine and actualize their political objectives?This book explores these questions through the notion of oversight-a concept used both to consider what has been overlooked and to examine how particular objects of feminist politics become visible in the first place. Through chapters that focus on realities lived by trans women, Viviane Namaste explores diverse case studies and facets of political life: women's labour, the archiving of everyday life, the history of HIV, urban development and displacement, bisexualities, and the culture of feminist activists themselves.Oversight suggests that feminists need to engage in careful, deep reflection on how feminist knowledge comes into being. This book will be of interest to scholars in women's and gender studies, community development, sociology, social work, geography, history, and sexuality studies. Its accessible tone, pedagogical questions, and suggested readings make it well suited to classroom use. Its exploration of activist culture will be of particular interest to advocates of social justice both inside and outside of the university.All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Emergency Relief Fund of PASAN-Prisoners' HIV/AIDS Support Action Network. This fund helps support individuals who are newly released from jail and who need financial resources for housing, food, medications, and the replacement of identity documents.

Oversight

Politics & Social Sciences

Namaste, Viviane

Women's Studies

Now in its second edition, this groundbreaking work of literary and cultural criticism analyzes representations of Indigenous women in Canadian literature. By deconstructing stereotypical images of the "Indian princess" and "easy squaw," Janice Acoose calls attention to the racist and sexist depictions of Indigenous women in popular literature. Blending personal narrative and literary criticism, this revised edition draws a strong connection between the persistent negative cultural attitudes fostered by those stereotypical representations and the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Acoose decolonizes written English by interweaving her own story with reflections on the self-determination of her female ancestors and by highlighting influential Indigenous female writers who have resisted cultural stereotypes and reclaimed the literary field as their own. This important text urges both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to move beyond words to challenge the harmful attitudes that condone violence against Indigenous women. Thoroughly updated and featuring new photographs, questions for critical thought, and a discussion of Indigenous women's literary voices that have emerged in the past twenty years, the second edition of Iskwewak is an invaluable resource for students and teachers of Indigenous studies, women's studies, and literature.

Iskwewak Kah' Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomakanak, 2nd Edition

Acoose, Janice

History & Criticism

Over 15 years ago, Kim Anderson set out to explore how Indigenous womanhood had been constructed and reconstructed in Canada, weaving her own journey as a Cree/Métis woman with the insights, knowledge, and stories of the forty Indigenous women she interviewed. The result was A Recognition of Being, a powerful work that identified both the painful legacy of colonialism and the vital potential of self-definition.In this second edition, Anderson revisits her groundbreaking text to include recent literature on Indigenous feminism and two-spirited theory and to document the efforts of Indigenous women to resist heteropatriarchy. Beginning with a look at the positions of women in traditional Indigenous societies and their status after colonization, this text shows how Indigenous women have since resisted imposed roles, reclaimed their traditions, and reconstructed a powerful Native womanhood.Featuring a new foreword by Maria Campbell and an updated closing dialogue with Bonita Lawrence, this revised edition will be a vital text for courses in women and gender studies and Indigenous studies as well as an important resource for anyone committed to the process of decolonization.

A Recognition of Being, 2nd Edition

Anderson PH D, Dr Kim

Social Sciences

Illuminating the unique experiences of women both during and after genocide, JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz and Donna Gosbee's edited collection is a vital addition to genocide scholarship. The contributors revisit genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from Armenia in 1915 to Gujarat in 2002, examining the roles of women as victims, witnesses, survivors, and rescuers. The text underscores women's experiences as a central yet often overlooked component to the understanding of genocide. Drawing from narratives, memoirs, testimonies, and literature, this ground-breaking volume brings together women's stories of victimization, trauma, and survival. Each chapter is framed by a consistent methodology to allow for a comparative analysis, revealing the ways in which women's experiences across genocides are similar and yet profoundly different. By looking at genocide from a gendered perspective, Women and Genocide constitutes an important contribution to feminist research on war and political violence. Featuring critical thinking questions and concise histories of each genocidal period discussed, this highly accessible text is an ideal resource for both students and instructors in this field and for anyone interested in the study of women's lives in times of violence and conflict.

Women and Genocide

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