Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme

(Paperback)

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Description

In the 21st century, the definitions of 'butch' and 'femme' have evolved and expanded along with other LGBT identities. Over 15 years after the publication of Joan Nestle's groundbreaking The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (Alyson, 1995), Persistence features leading queer authors and thinkers reflecting on what butch and femme mean to them today. Contributors such as S. Bear Bergman, author of Butch is a Noun (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010, available from Turnaround), provide a raucous, insightful, sexy and sometimes dangerous look at today's ever-shifting gender landscape.

Reviews

Reading Persistence is like attending a dinner party with people you never got the chance to talk to before--fascinating, brave, insightful people--some of whom are very well known and others are simply the people you want to get to know. All of them talk frankly and with genuine courage about what it means to live outside the norms of society. --Dorothy Allison

The rowdy, queer contributors to Persistence address the immediate, often loaded, topic of butch-femme from every angle, confirming once again just how central this label-and-experience is to queer history. Persistence excels in the extreme sport of queer truth-telling, thanks to its ambitious editors Ivan E. Coyote and Zena Sharman. The book feels fresh and radical throughout. --Lambda Literary

A new collection of essays exploring the funny, messy, confusing, contradictory, liberating, confining, wet wild ride of gender from a powerhouse cross-section of the queer world's smartest and sexiest writers, poets, musicians, activists and scholars. --Autostraddle

Touching on a wide range of colors in the prism of butch and femme sexuality and identity, this compilation is indispensable to the lesbian community as an emblem of how far the female gay community has come, and in what direction their mighty assembly is headed. --Bay Area Reporter

A collection of pieces that refutes the idea that butch and femme identities are outdated, and asserts the timelessness and importance of their vibrancy and complexity. --Bitch

Reading Persistence is like attending a dinner party with people you never got the chance to talk to before--fascinating, brave, insightful people--some of whom are very well known and others are simply the people you want to get to know. All of them talk frankly and with genuine courage about what it means to live outside the norms of society. --Dorothy Allison

The rowdy, queer contributors to Persistence address the immediate, often loaded, topic of butch-femme from every angle, confirming once again just how central this label-and-experience is to queer history. Persistence excels in the extreme sport of queer truth-telling, thanks to its ambitious editors Ivan E. Coyote and Zena Sharman. The book feels fresh and radical throughout. --Lambda Literary

A new collection of essays exploring the funny, messy, confusing, contradictory, liberating, confining, wet wild ride of gender from a powerhouse cross-section of the queer world's smartest and sexiest writers, poets, musicians, activists and scholars. --Autostraddle

Touching on a wide range of colors in the prism of butch and femme sexuality and identity, this compilation is indispensable to the lesbian community as an emblem of how far the female gay community has come, and in what direction their mighty assembly is headed. --Bay Area Reporter

A collection of pieces that refutes the idea that butch and femme identities are outdated, and asserts the timelessness and importance of their vibrancy and complexity. --Bitch

Author Bio

Ivan E. Coyote: Ivan E. Coyote is the author of six books, including the award-winning novel Bow Grip and the story collections The Slow Fix and Missed Her; Ivan has also released two spoken-word CDs and four short films. A renowned storyteller, Ivan frequently performs live across Canada and the US.

Zena Sharman: Zena Sharman is a queer femme who works in gender and health research and is in the midst of completing her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies.