Joan LarkinCritiques

Although these stories were incredibly personal, I found myself unable to relate to several of them and even lost interest in a few as I wondered where the author was going with their story. However, it was an overall good read. The proof, I suppose, is evident from my markings throughout the book and my interest in the authors works beyond their contribution to this literary work.

This was an ok book. I don't know if I classify them as coming out stories. They were more of first experiences with a woman. Still very important a persons life and worth telling. However most of these stories were vague and lackluster.

This is a beautifully diverse selection of poetry by gays and lesbians. Published in 1988, this book stands out for its inclusion of works by both men and women. A short biography precedes each poet's work, illuminating relationships amongst many of the poets. Also of note is the fact that many of the biographies mention the poet's children. I'm always pleased by visibility for queer parents.

My only complaints are the total invisibility of bisexuality and transsexuality (even though I suspect such designations may have been accurate for several of the poets included), but this is pretty standard for gay and lesbian publications even today, never mind in the eighties.

My favorites of the poets anthologized include: Carl Morse, Peter Orlovsky, Adrienne Rich, Charles Ortleb, Harold Norse, Larry Mitchell, June Jordan, Essex Hemphill, Dorothy Allison, and Susan Griffin.

As the title implies, this book is a collection of "coming out stories" by lesbian and bisexual writers. Very few of the stories are what we today would canonically think of as "coming out" stories of the sort, "this is what happened when my parents/friends/coworkers/etc. found out I'm not straight." As Joan Larkin explains in the introduction, much of coming out begins with self-realization, so many of these stories are self-realization stories.

There were two big things I noticed with this book. First, even though it was only published in 2000, it is rather dated: even the younger storytellers in the book have their identities wrapped up in Second Wave feminism, making their stories less relevant to young women today. Many of the writers are even older; these are all interesting stories, yes, but they all without fail come across as sorely dated. Secondly, these are coming out stories written by writers: few are told with a simple straightforward "so this is what happened and this is how I felt" manner. Furthermore, for many of these women, the process of self-realization and coming out—understandably—is wrapped up with her development as a writer and development in a community of women writers. So with these caveats in mind, I mostly only recommend this book to people specifically interested in the history (of feminism, gay life, and writing) involved.½