Pride Library
Encyclopedia
The Pride Library is a collection of books, periodicals, and audio-visual resources by and about gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, and other queer
folk. Located in the D.B. Weldon Library at The University of Western Ontario
, the Pride Library is the first official queer resource center at a Canadian university. Since its founding in the Faculty of Arts in the late 1990s, The Pride Library has grown rapidly with the support of donors, volunteers, faculty, and administrators at The University of Western Ontario.
The Pride Library collection consists of over 6000 catalogued items: scholarly books; popular novels; videocassettes and DVDs of queer documentaries and feature films; slides of paintings and posters by queer artists; academic periodicals; and community magazines. Over 15 languages are represented in the collection. Subjects include the Gay Liberation Movement, gay and lesbian literary history, coming out, women's health and safety, homophobia, bisexuality, trans life, pornography, censorship, and same-sex marriage. Also included in the collection are early sexology works, homophobic classics, and queer pulps
from the 1950s and 1960s.
Special collections include the Hudler Archives and the Burroughs Collection. The Hudler Archives is named after Richard Hudler, a local activist who served as president of the Homophile Association of London Ontario (HALO) from 1981 to 1995. The archival fonds include the HALO community records, Hudler's personal papers, literary manuscripts, newspaper clippings, legal files, photographs documenting queer social history in London, and the catalogues of the Visual AIDS poster exhibition from 1988 through 1995. Exhibits of archival materials (Body Politic covers, HALO files, and Visual AIDS posters) can be viewed online at the library website. William S. Burroughs
, celebrated for being both subversive and surreal, is the author of Naked Lunch
(1959) and Queer
(1985). The William S. Burroughs Collection includes fictional works as well as autobiographies, essays, and interviews.
The Pride Library was founded by Professor James Miller in his office in the Tower of University College in 1997. In the summer of 2005 it was relocated on the main floor of the Weldon Library at the heart of the campus and officially reopened on February 14, 2006. Every aspect of the library was carefully designed and chosen to reflect its unique mandate and to welcome visitors into a distinctively queer space.
Much of the Library's success is due to generous support from volunteers and donors. Volunteers offer reference services to visitors and assist in maintaining and organizing the collection. Businesses, organizations, and individuals have all helped the collection grow through donations. Notable donors include:
The University of Western Ontario has been supportive in a variety of ways. A donation of $50,000 from the university administration in the spring of 2006 covered the renovation of the new space and the conversion of the catalogued books into a circulating collection. The University has also donated the space where the library is located, and included Pride materials in its online public access catalogue. In this way, resources are made accessible to students and non-students alike.
's Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario
is decorated with a beautiful stained-glass window. The window, designed and constructed by London, Ontario
artist Lynette Richards, consists of the Pride Library logo amid a list of some of history's most influential homo-, bi-, and trans-sexual authors. The Pride Library logo contains a series of shelved books, coloured with the spectrum of the rainbow, supported by the logo of the now disbanded HALO (Homophile Association of London Ontario), which has made significant contributions to the Pride Library.
Listed in chronological order, the names include:
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
folk. Located in the D.B. Weldon Library at The University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
, the Pride Library is the first official queer resource center at a Canadian university. Since its founding in the Faculty of Arts in the late 1990s, The Pride Library has grown rapidly with the support of donors, volunteers, faculty, and administrators at The University of Western Ontario.
The Pride Library collection consists of over 6000 catalogued items: scholarly books; popular novels; videocassettes and DVDs of queer documentaries and feature films; slides of paintings and posters by queer artists; academic periodicals; and community magazines. Over 15 languages are represented in the collection. Subjects include the Gay Liberation Movement, gay and lesbian literary history, coming out, women's health and safety, homophobia, bisexuality, trans life, pornography, censorship, and same-sex marriage. Also included in the collection are early sexology works, homophobic classics, and queer pulps
Gay pulp fiction
Gay pulp fiction, or gay pulps, refers to printed works, primarily fiction, that include references to male homosexuality, specifically male gay sex, and that are cheaply produced, typically in paperback books made of wood pulp paper; lesbian pulp fiction is similar work about women...
from the 1950s and 1960s.
Special collections include the Hudler Archives and the Burroughs Collection. The Hudler Archives is named after Richard Hudler, a local activist who served as president of the Homophile Association of London Ontario (HALO) from 1981 to 1995. The archival fonds include the HALO community records, Hudler's personal papers, literary manuscripts, newspaper clippings, legal files, photographs documenting queer social history in London, and the catalogues of the Visual AIDS poster exhibition from 1988 through 1995. Exhibits of archival materials (Body Politic covers, HALO files, and Visual AIDS posters) can be viewed online at the library website. William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, celebrated for being both subversive and surreal, is the author of Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
(1959) and Queer
Queer (novel)
Queer is the title of an early short novel by William S. Burroughs. It is partially a sequel to his earlier novel, Junkie. That novel ends with the stated ambition of finding the ultimate ‘high’- a drug called Yage...
(1985). The William S. Burroughs Collection includes fictional works as well as autobiographies, essays, and interviews.
The Pride Library was founded by Professor James Miller in his office in the Tower of University College in 1997. In the summer of 2005 it was relocated on the main floor of the Weldon Library at the heart of the campus and officially reopened on February 14, 2006. Every aspect of the library was carefully designed and chosen to reflect its unique mandate and to welcome visitors into a distinctively queer space.
- The walls are painted ‘Orchid Bouquet,’ a queer shade of The University of Western Ontario's official purple *Artistic depictions of historic figures (Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
) highlight the importance of queer contributions to cultural history - A giant Q serving as a window frame was originally a table-top on the set of the first queer television show in Ontario, The Q Files hosted by the out lesbian broadcastor and author Irshad ManjiIrshad ManjiIrshad Manji is a Canadian author, journalist and an advocate of "reform and progressive" interpretation of Islam. Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at the Robert F...
- The Pride Library stained glass window in the entrance displays the Pride Library logo (a set of vertically standing books, each in a different colour of the rainbow) supported by the HALO logo in the form of a bookend. London artist Lynette Richards designed and constructed the window.
Much of the Library's success is due to generous support from volunteers and donors. Volunteers offer reference services to visitors and assist in maintaining and organizing the collection. Businesses, organizations, and individuals have all helped the collection grow through donations. Notable donors include:
- Glad Day BookshopGlad Day BookshopGlad Day Bookshop is an independent bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, specializing in LGBT literature. The store is located at 598A Yonge Street near the city's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood.-History:...
(Toronto) - Canadian Lesbian Fiction Addicts, an online community of fiction readers, writers, and publishers
- Martin Padgett and Ken Heard, who donated queer materials from their 90 shelf metres of books
- Nairne Holtz, a fiction writer and creator of an annotated bibliography of Canadian literature with lesbian content
- The University Students’ Council of The University of Western Ontario
- Mike Niederman, local collector of works by William S. Burroughs
The University of Western Ontario has been supportive in a variety of ways. A donation of $50,000 from the university administration in the spring of 2006 covered the renovation of the new space and the conversion of the catalogued books into a circulating collection. The University has also donated the space where the library is located, and included Pride materials in its online public access catalogue. In this way, resources are made accessible to students and non-students alike.
Stained Glass
The front of the D.B. Weldon LibraryThe D. B. Weldon Library
The D. B. Weldon Library is the largest academic library on the University of Western Ontario campus in London, Ontario, Canada, and one of the largest academic libraries in the country.-Colonel D. B...
's Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
is decorated with a beautiful stained-glass window. The window, designed and constructed by London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
artist Lynette Richards, consists of the Pride Library logo amid a list of some of history's most influential homo-, bi-, and trans-sexual authors. The Pride Library logo contains a series of shelved books, coloured with the spectrum of the rainbow, supported by the logo of the now disbanded HALO (Homophile Association of London Ontario), which has made significant contributions to the Pride Library.
Names
The Pride Library stained-glass window celebrates and commemorates 135 influential gay and lesbian authors.Listed in chronological order, the names include:
- Sin-Leqi-Unninni * SapphoSapphoSappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
* Alcaeus * SophoclesSophoclesSophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
* AgathonAgathonAgathon was an Athenian tragic poet whose works, up to the present moment, have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in . He is also a prominent character in...
* PlatoPlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the... - VirgilVirgilPublius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
* HoraceHoraceQuintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
* Ruan JiRuan JiRuǎn Jí is one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. He is associated with the guqin melody, Jiu Kuang which was believed to be composed by him.- Historical background :...
* Xi KangXi KangJi Kang was a Chinese author, poet, Taoist philosopher, musician and alchemist. He was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.-Biography:As a thinker, Ji Kang Ji Kang(223–262) was a Chinese author, poet, Taoist philosopher, musician and alchemist. He was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo...
* Abu NuwasAbu NuwasAbu-Nuwas al-Hasan ben Hani Al-Hakami ,a known as Abū-Nuwās , was one of the greatest of classical Arabic poets, who also composed in Persian on occasion. Born in the city of Ahvaz in Persia, of an Arab father and a Persian mother, he became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry...
* Al Ramadi * Ibn QuzmanIbn QuzmanMuhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Quzman was the single most famous poet in the history of al-Andalus and he is also considered to be one of its most original. He was born and died in Cordoba and has earned his fame by his zajals... - Rumi * Brunetto LatiniBrunetto LatiniBrunetto Latini was an Italian philosopher, scholar and statesman.-Life:...
* Dante AlighieriDante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
* Michelangelo Buonarroti - Christopher MarloweChristopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
* William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"... - Richard BarnfieldRichard BarnfieldRichard Barnfield , English poet, was born at Norbury, Staffordshire, and brought up in Newport, Shropshire.He was baptized on 13 June 1574, the son of Richard Barnfield, gentleman. His obscure though close relationship with Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars...
* Ihara SaikakuIhara Saikakuwas a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose .-Biography:Born the son of the wealthy merchant Hirayama Tōgo in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku, and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin School of poetry, which emphasized...
* Marquis de SadeMarquis de SadeDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
* Thomas GrayThomas GrayThomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:... - Horace Walpole * Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
* Lord Byron - Nikolai GogolNikolai GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
* Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
* Herman MelvilleHerman MelvilleHerman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
* Michael FieldMichael Field (author)Michael Field was a pseudonym used for the poetry and verse drama of Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece and ward Edith Emma Cooper . As Field they wrote around 40 works together, and a long journal Works and Days... - Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
* Henry JamesHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
* Sophia Parnok * Mikhail KuzminMikhail KuzminMikhail Alekseevich Kuzmin was a Russian poet, musician and novelist, a prominent contributor to the Silver Age of Russian Poetry.Born into a noble family in Yaroslavl, Kuzmin grew up in St. Petersburg and studied music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov...
* Marina TsvetaevaMarina TsvetaevaMarina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian and Soviet poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russian literature. She lived through and wrote of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Moscow famine that followed it. In an attempt to save her daughter Irina from... - Constantine P. CavafyConstantine P. CavafyConstantine P. Cavafy, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes was a renowned Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant...
* Marcel ProustMarcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
* Willa CatherWilla CatherWilla Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
- Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
* ColetteColetteColette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
* E. M. ForsterE. M. ForsterEdward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
* Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
* Federico Garcia LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads... - Fernando PessoaFernando PessoaFernando Pessoa, born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa , was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.-Early years in Durban:On 13 July...
* Radclyffe HallRadclyffe HallRadclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
* Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.... - Vita Sackville-WestVita Sackville-WestThe Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
* Lytton StracheyLytton StracheyGiles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
* Ronald FirbankRonald FirbankArthur Annesley Ronald Firbank was a British novelist.-Biography:Ronald Firbank was born in London, the son of society lady Harriet Jane Garrett and MP Sir Thomas Firbank. He went to Uppingham School, and then on to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He converted to Catholicism in 1907...
* Djuna BarnesDjuna BarnesDjuna Barnes was an American writer who played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and '30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens... - André GideAndré GideAndré Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
* Jean CocteauJean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
* Jean GenetJean GenetJean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
* Violette LeducViolette LeducViolette Leduc was a French author.She was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe. In Valenciennes, the young Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from poor self-esteem, exacerbated by her mother's hostility and overprotectiveness...
* Magnus HirschfeldMagnus HirschfeldMagnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which Dustin Goltz called "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights."-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a... - Christa WinsloeChrista WinsloeChrista Winsloe was a 20th century German-Hungarian novelist, playwright and sculptor, best known for her play Gestern und heute, filmed in 1931 as Mädchen in Uniform and the 1958 remake.- Biography :...
* Anna Elisabet WeirauchAnna Elisabet WeirauchAnna Elisabet Weirauch was a German author.-Biography:Anna Elisabet Weirauch lived in Romania with her German mother, who was a writer, and her father, the founder and director of the Bank of Romania until he died. She moved to Thuringia with her mother, and by 1893 they moved again to Berlin...
* Christopher IsherwoodChristopher IsherwoodChristopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed... - W. H. AudenW. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
* Allen GinsbergAllen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
* Jack KerouacJack KerouacJean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
* William S. BurroughsWilliam S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th... - Marguerite YourcenarMarguerite YourcenarMarguerite Yourcenar was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie française, in 1980, and the seventeenth person to occupy Seat 3.-Biography:Yourcenar was born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie...
* Anaïs NinAnaïs NinAnaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
* Yukio MishimaYukio Mishimawas the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état... - James BaldwinJames Baldwin (writer)James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
* Lanford WilsonLanford WilsonLanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
* Michel FoucaultMichel FoucaultMichel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
* Monique WittigMonique WittigMonique Wittig was a French author and feminist theorist who wrote about overcoming socially enforced gender roles and who coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". She published her first novel, L'Opoponax, in 1964... - Hélène CixousHélène CixousHélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
* Susan SontagSusan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
* Gore VidalGore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
* Tennessee WilliamsTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs... - Elizabeth BishopElizabeth BishopElizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
* Ann BannonAnn BannonAnn Bannon is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction"...
* Mary RenaultMary RenaultMary Renault born Eileen Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece...
* Rita Mae BrownRita Mae BrownRita Mae Brown is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel Rubyfruit Jungle. Published in 1973, it dealt with lesbian themes in an explicit manner unusual for the time... - Audre LordeAudre LordeAudre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:...
* Samuel R. DelanySamuel R. DelanySamuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
* Alice WalkerAlice WalkerAlice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
* May SartonMay SartonMay Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton , an American poet, novelist, and memoirist.-Biography:...
* Edmund WhiteEdmund WhiteEdmund Valentine White III is an American author and literary critic. He is a member of the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing.- Life and work :... - Andrew HolleranAndrew HolleranAndrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber , a novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is a prominent novelist of post-Stonewall gay literature. He was a member of The Violet Quill, a gay writer's group that met briefly from 1980-81. The Violet Quill included other prolific gay writers...
* Adrienne RichAdrienne RichAdrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...
* Mary OliverMary OliverMary Oliver is an American poet who has won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times described her as "far and away, this country's [America's] best-selling poet".-Early life:...
* Armistead MaupinArmistead MaupinArmistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:... - Tony KushnerTony KushnerAnthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
* David LeavittDavid LeavittDavid Leavitt is an American novelist.-Biography:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Leavitt is a graduate of Yale University. and a professor at the University of Florida...
* Leslie FeinbergLeslie FeinbergLeslie Feinberg is a transgender queer and communist activist, speaker, and author. Feinberg's first novel Stone Butch Blues is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender.- Career :...
* Jan MorrisJan MorrisJan Morris CBE is a Welsh nationalist, historian, author and travel writer. She is known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy, a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, notably Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong, and New York City.With an English mother and Welsh father,... - Derek JarmanDerek JarmanMichael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
* Joe OrtonJoe OrtonJohn Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
* Bruce ChatwinBruce ChatwinCharles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill...
* Jeanette WintersonJeanette WintersonJeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson... - Alan HollinghurstAlan HollinghurstAlan Hollinghurst is a British novelist, and winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.-Biography:Hollinghurst was born on 26 May 1954 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the only child of James Hollinghurst, a bank manager, and his wife, Elizabeth...
* Timothy FindleyTimothy FindleyTimothy Irving Frederick Findley, OC, O.Ont was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.-Biography:...
* Michel TremblayMichel TremblayMichel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...
* Nicole BrossardNicole BrossardNicole Brossard, O.C. is a leading French Canadian formalist poet and novelist.She lives in Outremont, a former city in Montreal, Quebec. She wrote her first collection in 1965, Aube à la maison. The collection L'Echo bouge beau marks a break in the evolution of her poetry... - Marie-Claire BlaisMarie-Claire BlaisMarie-Claire Blais, is a Canadian author and playwright.- Life :Born in Quebec City, Quebec, she was educated at a convent school and at Université Laval. It was at Laval that she met Jeanne Lapointe and Father Georges Lévesque, who encouraged her to write and, in 1959, to publish her first...
* Mary MeigsMary MeigsMary Meigs was an American-born painter and writer.-Early life:Meigs was born in Philadelphia and raised in Washington, DC. She studied at Bryn Mawr College, and subsequently taught English literature and creative writing at that school...
* Jane RuleJane RuleJane Vance Rule, CM, OBC was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction.-Biography:Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Jane Vance Rule was the oldest daughter of Carlotta Jane and Arthur Richards Rule. She claimed she was a tomboy growing up and felt like an outsider for reaching six...
* David WatmoughDavid WatmoughDavid Arthur Watmough is a Canadian playwright, short story writer and novelist.Watmaugh was born in London, England, and attended King's College London. He has worked as a reporter David Arthur Watmough (born 17 August 1926) is a Canadian playwright, short story writer and novelist.Watmaugh was... - Stan PerskyStan PerskyStan Persky is a Canadian writer, media commentator and philosophy instructor.- Early life :Persky was born in Chicago, Illinois. As a teenager, he made contact with and received encouragement from Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and other writers of the Beat Generation...
* Douglas CouplandDouglas CouplandDouglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
* Bill RichardsonBill Richardson (radio)Bill Richardson is a Canadian radio broadcaster and author.Richardson received his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg in 1976...
* Tomson HighwayTomson HighwayTomson Highway, CM is a celebrated Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is the author of the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S... - Ian YoungIan YoungIan Campbell Young is a Scottish athlete who competed in the 1934 British Empire Games.At the 1934 Empire Games he won the bronze medal in the 100 yards event. He was also a member of the Scottish relay team which won the bronze medal in the 4X110 yards competition. In the 220 yards contest he...
* John GreysonJohn GreysonJohn Greyson is a Canadian filmmaker, whose work frequently deals with gay themes. Greyson is also a video artist, writer and activist; he is currently a professor at York University, where he teaches film and video theory and film production and editing.-Background:Greyson was born the son of...
* Dionne BrandDionne BrandDionne Brand is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was named Toronto's third Poet Laureate in September 2009.-Biography:...
* Brad FraserBrad FraserBrad Fraser is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator. He is one of the most widely produced Canadian playwrights both in Canada and internationally. Fraser's plays typically feature a harsh yet comical view of contemporary life in Canada, including frank depictions of...
* Sky GilbertSky GilbertSchuyler Lee Gilbert, Jr. is a Canadian writer, actor, academic and drag performer. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, he studied theatre in Toronto, Ontario at York University and the University of Toronto, before becoming co-founder and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times, a Toronto theatre... - Ann-Marie MacDonaldAnn-Marie MacDonaldAnn-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany....
* Irshad ManjiIrshad ManjiIrshad Manji is a Canadian author, journalist and an advocate of "reform and progressive" interpretation of Islam. Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at the Robert F...
* Emma DonoghueEmma DonoghueEmma Donoghue is an Irish-born playwright, literary historian and novelist now living in Canada. Her 2010 novel Room was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and an international bestseller. Donoghue's 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award and Slammerkin won the Ferro-Grumley Award for...
* Anne CameronAnne CameronAnne Cameron , August 20, 1938 in Nanaimo, British Columbia) is a Canadian novelist, poet, screenwriter and short story writer. Much of her work is inspired by Northwest Coast First Nations mythology and culture.... - Edward O. PhillipsEdward O. Phillips-Biography:Phillips is a Canadian who has lived most of his life in Westmount, Quebec. He earned a law degree from the Université de Montréal in 1956, but decided against legal practice. He subsequently graduated from Harvard University with a Master's Degree in Teaching, and later earned a...
* Michel Marc BouchardMichel Marc BouchardMichel Marc Bouchard is a gay Canadian playwright.Born in Saint-Cœur-de-Marie, Quebec, he studied theatre at the University of Ottawa. Bouchard made his professional playwriting debut in 1983 and since then has written some 25 plays...
* Wayson ChoyWayson ChoyWayson Choy, CM is a Canadian writer.-Early life:Choy was born in Vancouver in 1939. A Chinese Canadian, he spent his childhood in the city's Chinatown... - Shani MootooShani MootooShani Mootoo is a writer who was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1958 to Trinidadian parents. She was raised in Trinidad, where she initially began to explore the artistic and literary world. She began writing and creating visual that drew on her ideas regarding sexual relations between members of the...
* Shyam SelvaduraiShyam SelvaduraiShyam Selvadurai is a Sri Lankan Canadian novelist who wrote Funny Boy , which won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and Cinnamon Gardens...
* Shawna Dempsey * Lorri Millan - Daphne MarlattDaphne MarlattDaphne Marlatt, née Buckle, CM , is a Canadian poet who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia....
* Makeda SilveraMakeda SilveraMakeda Silvera is a Caribbean Canadian novelist and short story writer.Silvera emigrated to Canada at the age of 12 with her family, and currently lives in Toronto. She published two volumes of short stories in the 1990s before releasing her first novel, "The Revenge of Maria" in 1998, followed by...
* Reinaldo ArenasReinaldo ArenasReinaldo Arenas was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who despite his early sympathy for the 1959 revolution, grew critical of and then rebelled against the Cuban government.- Life :...
* Juan GoytisoloJuan GoytisoloJuan Goytisolo is a Spanish poet, essayist, and novelist. He currently lives in a voluntary self-exile in Marrakech.-Background:Juan Goytisolo was born to an aristocratic family... - Manuel PuigManuel PuigManuel Puig was an Argentine author...
* Esther TusquetsEsther TusquetsEsther Tusquets is a Spanish publisher, writer and essayist.Tusquets was was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and studied philosophy, literature and history at the University of Barcelona. She spent several years teaching literature and history at the Carillo Academy...
* Pier Paolo PasoliniPier Paolo PasoliniPier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
* Umberto SabaUmberto SabaUmberto Poli was an Italian poet and novelist, born in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Trieste when it was the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Poli assumed the nom de plume "Saba" in 1910, and his name was officially changed to Umberto Saba in 1928. From 1919 he was the... - Aldo BusiAldo BusiAldo Busi is an Italian writer and translator mostly active in the last twenty years.He was born in Montichiari in Lombardy. He is the author of Seminar on Youth and Vita standard di un venditore provvisorio di collant...
* Patrick WhitePatrick WhitePatrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
* Peter Wells * Witi IhimaeraWiti IhimaeraWiti Tame Ihimaera-Smiler, DCNZM, QSM , generally known as Witi Ihimaera , is a New Zealand author, and is often regarded as one of the most prominent Māori writers alive.-Biography:... - Yulisa Amadu Maddy