Lesbian love story A memoir in archives

In her impressive debut, Possanza stitches together personal memoir, painstaking research, and fictional imaginings with a fluid style and a sure hand. Lesbians, Possanza asserts, "invent their own systems of love"--romantic, family, friend--"even when they are at risk of losing everything," yet remain largely ignored by history. So Possanza, determined to restore her own curdling concept of love, became a "collector of lesbians," exhuming hidden histories to see what she and other cynics might learn from their lesbian forebears. She tracked down Mary Casal's 1930 lesbian memoir, The Stone Wall, and learned it was written by Ruth White Fuller, who shielded her identity with a pen name. Subsequent chapters highlight Mabel Hampton, cofounder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, ancient Greek singer Sappho ("the patron saint of today's lesbians"), male impersonator Rusty Brown, Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, and writer Amy Hoffman. Possanza's sensuous prose also introduces fictive elements: in Hampton's first encounter with her lover Lillian, Possanza imagines the two meeting "on a downtown sidewalk thatched with leaves turned gold by the alchemy of the season." Throughout, she weaves the threads beautifully. This is an outstanding work of literary scholarship that also delivers a vulnerable, intimate portrait of its author. Agent: Sarah Levitt, Aevitas Creative Management. (May)

An archive of queer love and community by a talented storyteller. "Mostly grown and living in New York City, I still rarely spotted other lesbians," writes book publicist Possanza in her debut. "I joined a queer swim team, but it was full of gay men who didn't recognize me." As such, she "resolved to become a collector of lesbians." Part personal memoir, part archival research, the book expertly weaves together stories of lesbians across time with a historian's precision and a novelist's pacing. Bringing together seven epic love stories across eras, ranging from the classical Greek poet Sappho and her lover Anactoria to lesbian caretakers in the AIDS crisis extending beyond romantic boundaries, Possanza cultivates a worthy collection of lesbian love stories. "I chose them because their stories are singular," writes the author, "each a match struck against the grain of their eras until their lives burned bright, and yet they also represent the broader history of lesbians at each moment in time." The author's meticulous research reveals an exciting historical tapestry, encompassing Coney Island drag kings of the mid-20th century, Black lesbians in Harlem during the Great Depression, and one of the earliest female Olympians. Showing us a pantheon of role models, community organizers, and champions of progressive causes, Possanza effectively shows how lesbians are united by more than just a shared sexual identity; "they are also bound together by their ability to create safe havens in even the most hostile circumstances, buried projects that were a direct response to the systems that tried to trap and trade women." These women filled gaps and imagined radical ways of living outside of a heteronormative system, and the author highlights their stories in full, sensual detail. In addition to chronicling the past and present, Possanza seeks a future that goes beyond "simple stereotypes" into "private intimacy and public recognition." Throughout, the prose is warm, personal, and accessible. Detailed and immensely readable, this is a generous history of lesbian love. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.