Women on Women 2: An Anthology of American Lesbian Short Fiction

Women on Women #2

by Naomi Holoch (Editor), Joan Nestle (Editor)

Twenty-eight short works address a range of issues relevant to the lesbian community, such as love and sex, relationships, sexual abuse, and AIDS

Genres: Anthologies, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Lesbian Fiction, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1993

Reviews

[Sucre · Rating 3 out of 5]

a decent collection with a few standouts and a few i skimmed over. unfortunately there is an inclusion by a cop writing about being a cop which i always hate to see in these anthologies. there seems to have been a real effort to include many writers of color which was nice to see in a collection published in 1993.

my faves were 'The Cat and the King' by Jennette Lee (written in 1919, about a college freshman in love with a sports-playing senior and the lengths she'll go to to have an excuse to talk to her), 'One More Time, Marie' by Madelyn Arnold (about an older lesbian who was beaten in a mugging along with her partner, and her dealing with the fallout while her partner is in a coma), 'What Has Been Done to Me' by Jacqueline Woodson (about a young black lesbian reconnecting with her mother on an impromptu vacation, trying to reckon with her past and decide if reconciliation is really the answer for her), 'Commercial Breaks' by Cass Nevada (a bit of an odder story, this one focused on a TV-obsessed lesbian and the various relationships she has and how TV plays into it), and 'A Good Man' by Rebecca Brown (this one is a bit longer than most of the others and it did make me cry. it's about a lesbian taking care of her friend who is dying of AIDs in the early 80s).

[Sophia Barsuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night Life by Naomi Holoch is one of my favorite stories in this anthology. Excellent writing, characters that felt real, an ending that made me a little weepy. But that's not to take away from the other stories in this anthology, all of which are great.

[Allison Thurman]

library