Apples & Oranges: My Journey Through Sexual Identity

(Paperback)

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Born into a stifling family where neither sex talk nor the slightest profanity was tolerated, Jan Clausen underwent an intellectual and sexual awakening, first at Reed College, and later on the streets of New York City, where she discovered a passion for other women. Fast-forward a number of years, Clausen moved herself to Nicaragua, where she discovered a newfound freedom - including the freedom to fall in love with a man. Here she muses on sexual fluidity and identity, coming to the conclusion that human intimacy is beyond labels.

Reviews

"Jan Clausen's memoir is more relevant now than ever.Apples & Orangesis at once a riveting personal narrative about the sacrifices we make for love, and an intellectual examination of the ways that intimacy, identity, and community entangle in our lives and selves. It is a book that shows us with grace and stirring honesty how severing an attachmentto our lovers, to our self-conceptionscan collapse everything we thought permanent, and reveal what truly is."Melissa Febos, author ofWhip SmartandAbandon Me

Author Bio

JAN CLAUSEN is the author of a dozen books in a range of genres, most recently the hybrid poetic text Veiled Spill- A Sequence and the poetry collection If You Like Difficulty. Prose titles include a volume of stories (Mother, Sister, Daughter, Lover) and two novels- Sinking, Stealing and The Prosperine Papers. Clausen's poetry and fiction appear widely in journals and anthologies; she has contributed book reviews and literary journalism to Boston Review, Ms., The Nation, Poets & Writers, and The Women's Review of Books. A proud Brooklyn resident since 1974, she teaches in the Goddard College MFA in Writing Program and at New York University.