Frustrated by a lack of bisexual representation on your bookshelf? LOTL is here to bump up your reading pile
1. Rita Mae Brown
Brown was made famous with Rubyfruit Jungle, her first novel. She then went on to gain further notoriety when she briefly dated tennis star Martina Navratilova. Like many bisexuals, she oftenis mislabelled as a lesbian; she told Time Magazine in 2008: “The funny thing is, I don’t believe in straight or gay. I don’t. I think we’re all degrees of bisexual.”
2. Jennifer Baumgardner?
A writer and filmmaker whose work extensively explores bisexuality, Baumgardner is also the director of The Feminist Press. She has previously had a relationship with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. Her key bisexuality-related text is Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics.
3. June Jordan
The late June Jordan died in 2002 and was an acclaimed Caribbean-American poet and author. Her critical works in her prolific 27-book career include Directed By Desire: Collected Poems, published posthumously and going on to win the Lambda Literary Awards “Lesbian Poetry” category. This sparked off a (successful) year-long campaign by BiNetUSA to add a “Bisexual Literature” category at the awards.
4. Anne Herendeen?
Anne Herendeen’s first book, Phillida and the Brotherhood of Philander, was initially due to be published with the subtitle A Bisexual Regency Romance, but this was later scrapped. The novel centres around a polyamorous marriage and employs a metafictional structure, operating as a novel-within-a-novel to look at this main story and a broader analysis of sexual freedom in the era.
5. Kate Millett?
Kate Millett, who died last year aged 82, was a crucial figure in second-wave feminism and the first American woman to gain a first-class degree at Oxford University’s St Hilda’s College. Her best-known book is Sexual Politics. Her bisexuality features heavily in all her works.
6. Collette
Collette was a French author born in 1873. Her husband locked her in a room, forced her to write and then published her most famous novels – the four “Claudine” novels – under his name. In 1906 she left him, although he continued to receive royalties from her work, and she was forced to find a job as a music hall performer. She met and fell in love with lesbian drag performer the Marquise de Brebeuf during this time. She wrote La Vagabonde (1910; The Vagabond) and L’Envers du music-hall (1913; Music-Hall Sidelights) inspired b,y this period.
7. Jane Bowles
Jane Bowles (1917-1973) was a writer and playwright most famous for her book Two Serious Ladies and her play In The Summerhouse. Both she and her husband were bisexual, and they had a polyamorous marriage, which allowed her several passionate affairs with other women.
8. Robyn Ochs?
Prominent activist Ochs edited the groundbreaking Bisexual Resource Guide published between 1990 and 2002. She then went on to co-edit Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around The World. She works closely with BiNet USA and the Bisexual Resource Center.
9. Rachel Kramer Bussel?
Mainly a writer of erotica, Kramer Bussel edited three volumes of Women’s Erotica of the Year and The Big Book of Orgasms.
10. Marjorie Garber
Garber is a Harvard University professor who specialises in gender politics. Her works include Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life.
