Maureen Seaton, the lesbian poet and memoirist whose books include the Lambda Literary Award winners Furious Cooking and Sex Talks to Girls, died on August 26, 2023. Born on October 20, 1947, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Seaton earned an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College in 1996. In Chicago she taught poetry as artist-in-residence … Read more
Minnie Bruce Pratt, the American poet, essayist and activist best known for the poetry collection Crime Against Nature, died on July 2, 2023. Born on September 12, 1946, in Selma, Alabama, Pratt grew up in nearby Centreville. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama in 1968 and a Ph.D. in English from … Read more
Anita Cornwell, the Philadelphia journalist and essayist who published the first collection of essays by an out Black lesbian, Black Lesbian in White America, died on May 27, 2023. Born September 23, 1923, in Greenwood, South Carolina, Cornwell moved to Philadelphia and studied journalism at Temple University, graduating in 1948. She worked as a journalist … Read more
Dolores Klaich, the American journalist and author best known for the 1974 social history Woman Plus Woman: Attitudes Toward Lesbianism, died on March 8, 2023. Born on August 9, 1936, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jacob Klaich, an organizer for the Socialist Labor Party, she graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 1958. She worked as … Read more
Marijanne Meaker, author of the very popular 1952 Lesbian pulp novel Spring Fire, died on November 21, 2022. Marijane wrote under multiple names, including M.E. Kerr, Vin Packer and under the lesbian persona, Ann Aldrich. As M.E. Kerr she wrote YA fictional novels and was considered as a trailblazer in true-to-life fiction. Marijane was presented … Read more
Poet and author Ellen Wittlinger, whose YA novels have been praised for their depiction of memorable and realistic protagonists. The characters navigated the experiences of first love and other provocative issues of adolescence. Wittlinger died November 17, 2022 following her battle with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. She was 74 years old. Wittlinger was born October 21, 1948, … Read more
Author and activist Barbara Joan Love, co-author of the originative work Sappho Was A Right-on Woman, has died. Love was a lesbian activist, writer and editor. With the National Organization for Women, Love organized and participated in demonstrations and marches. She also worked within the organization to improve the acceptance of lesbian feminists within the … Read more
Doris Grumbach wrote novels, essays, and literary criticism in the second half of the 20th century that explored how women were trapped within repressive families and disintegrating marriages. Grumbach also wrote about lesbian characters and themes in a way that was unusual at the time in mainstream literature. She died on November 4, 2022, at … Read more
Kathleen Joan DeBold, the longtime D.C. LGBTQ activist and editor of Out for Office: Campaigning in the Gay Nineties, died suddenly on October 9, 2022, in Ocean City, Maryland. Born Kathleen Joan DeBold on November 16, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York, to Francis Charles and Joan Marie DeBold, she moved with her family to Maryland … Read more
Influential Jewish Lesbian author Elana Dykewomon passed away on August 7, 2022. She was 72 years old. Her brother Daniel Nachman said the cause was complications of esophageal cancer. Dykewomon’s published works, listed below, spanned more than 40 years. The Lambda Literary Award winner was born Elana Nachman in New York City in 1949. After … Read more