Anthologies
Lives of Lesbian Elders : Looking back, Looking forward. Clunis, D., & Mack, K. (2013). Routledge.
This co-authored volume was based on 62 interviews. Authors note, however, that despite racial/ethnic diversity on the six-person project team “only 5 percent of those interviewed were lesbians of color” (Clunis, 2). Given this absence of women of color, the book is most useful in its frequent quotations from interviewees about their lives, but the broader observations must be taken with a critical grain of salt.
Long Time Passing: Lives of Older Lesbians. Edited by Marcy Adelman, 1986.
With some great chapter titles, such as – “Born-Again Lesbian,” “Flowersong,” “Lesbian Grandmother” and “Tapioca Tapestry” – this is a truly community-based anthology. Includes a piece by Paula Gunn Allen, where she shares about her own experience (in her forties), and observes that “In the Native American world, middle age frees a woman for making choices,” leading to involvement in tribal leadership, shamanism, and basically every other life path. She also critiques the “white lesbian community,” for difficulty as “younger women target institutions founded by…and run by women over forty.” (188-89, Adleman).
Adleman followed up this anthology with another one in 1996, Lesbian Passages: True stories told by women over 40. Alyson Publications.
Additional References
Bogle, D. K. (2012). Through the lavender keyhole: Older lesbians share their stories. Lexington, KY.
Claassen, C. (2005). Whistling women: a study of the lives of older lesbians. New York: The Haworth Press.
Crumbles, C., Gresham, R., & Frazier, M., (2011). A Gay and Gray Anthology. New Town Writers.
Eversmeyer, A., & Purcell, M. (2012). Without apology: The second collection of life stories based on interview transcripts in the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project. Houston, TX: Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project OLOHP.
Kehoe, Monika. Lesbians over 60 Speak for Themselves . New York: Harrington Park Press, 1990. Print.
