The books on display are drawn for inclusion on a rotating basis from the 50 books chosen by DAPHNE participants and friends. This brochure catalogues the complete Writers with Pride collection – a representative selection of LGBTQ books that reflect brilliance of mind, that are life affirming, and socio-culturally challenging.
Writers with Pride is an unanticipated but most exciting output of the DAPHNE LGBTQ Empowerment Programme. The UCD Library, in collaboration with our DAPHNE Participants have conceived Writers with Pride as a display showcasing approximately 50 inspirational and influential LGBTQ reads as part of the UCD Library Spotlight initiative.
The DAPHNE participants have nominated books that made them laugh, cry, smile, stand up, shout, rally, and argue. The catalogue includes historical, contemporary, Irish, as well as international LGBTQ books deemed to be of enormous relevance and benefit to individuals and communities within the academy and society.
Gay Life and Culture: A World History, Robert Aldrich This is a book that I got a great feeling of belonging from when I was just coming out. It illustrates very nicely the ways in which relationships that are not heterosexual have always been a part of cultures around the globe. It really is a very enjoyable read. (LJ)
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison "As close to flawless as any reader could ask for and any writer could hope for and aspire to ... The living language Allison has created is as exact and innovative as the language of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye . . . Simply stunning." (New York Times)
1
Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin Set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart. Becoming Drusilla, Richard Beard This is a funny and original story of a friendship between two men and what happens when one of them announces he is becoming a woman. This book holds a mirror to the extraordinary in seemingly ordinary lives, and is full of warmth, humour, friendship and humanity.
Gender Outlaws, Kate Bornstein A collection of essays and narratives addressing cissexism and the lived experiences of people living outside the gender binary.(LJ)
My Gender Workbook, Kate Bornstein Kate has a truly wonderful and playful way of exploring gender, that will immediately make readers feel warm, accepted, and most importantly probably a little bit uncomfortable. This book will challenge the notions you have around gender, and thus can help loosen the tightly defined assumptions we have around this subject. (KT)
The Transgender Child, Brill & Pepper This comprehensive guidebook explores the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising their children. Through extensive research and interviews, the authors cover gender variance from birth through college.
Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, John Boswell This book was an eye-opener in terms of the history of early sexuality. It’s problematic and challenging in terms of use and analysis of evidence but started what proved to be a fertile area of study for others, including myself. (MMcA) Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, David Carter "Riveting..Not only the definitive examination of the riots but an absorbing history of pre-Stonewall America, and how the oppression and pent-up rage of those years finally ignited on a hot New York night." (Boston Globe)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chobsky This is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
2
Homosexuality and Civilisation, Louis Compton This book goes into detail about the situation in law, social order and popular attitude toward homosexual relationships across places and times. I found it particularly interesting with respect to the development of the 'buggery' laws in Britain. (LJ)
Transgender Rights, Currah and Minter The first comprehensive work on the transgender civil rights movement. With analysis from legal and policy experts, activists and advocates, Transgender Rights assesses the movement's achievements, challenges, and opportunities for future action.
Room, Emma Donoghue Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.
Stir-Fry, Emma Donoghue A poignant, funny, and sharply insightful coming-of-age story, Stir-fry is a lesbian novel that explores the conundrum of desire arising in the midst of friendship and probes feminist ideas of sisterhood and nonpossessiveness. Perhaps the Heart is Constant After All, Mary Dorcey Both for her groundbreaking and seductive love poetry and her unflinching testimony to the travails of aging and death, Mary Dorcey has been acclaimed as a poet of remarkable insight and courageous witness. Her subjects are the enduring questions of humanity: love and loss, sexual passion, separation, and death.
Queering the Film Canon, Alexander Doty Semi academic look at some of the most popular films in history with a decidedly queer slant.(AD)
The Velvet Rage, Alan Downs Downs is a psychologist who is gay, and also treats many gay patients in his practice. Drawing from this wealth of real life experience he offers a fantastic insight into the psychological stresses and patterns that develop as a result of a "gay man growing up in a straight mans world".(KT)
Standing Female Nude, Carol Ann Duffy Duffy covers a wide world from her London perch in the 1980's. Her poetry is modern, well-written, easy to click into, and gripping in its realism.
3
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbianism in 20 th Century America, Lillian Faderman In the last 30 years many books on the history of homosexuality have appeared but the concentration is most often on the gay male experience. As with much historical research, women’s histories are overlooked. Lillian Faderman was one of the first to shine a fascinating light directly on the histories of lesbian women. Odd Girls is still a favourite.(MMcA)
Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence.
Becoming a Visible Man, Jamison Green Green combines candid autobiography with informed analysis to offer unique insight into the multiple challenges of the female-to-male transsexual experience, ranging from encounters with prejudice and strained relationships with family to the development of an FTM community and the realities of surgical sex reassignment.
Female Masculinity, Judith Halberstam In Female Masculinity Judith Halberstam takes aim at the protected status of male masculinity and shows that female masculinity has offered a distinct alternative to it for well over two hundred years.
Dress Codes, Noelle Howey The story of Howey's father's coming out as a male-to-female transsexual is only part of a larger narrative of growing up female in America. Howey's writing is neither sensationalistic nor condescendingly cheery; this is a loving portrait of a girl's complicated relationship to her father's femininity and her own. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst This book is about love, rejection, and the obsession with beauty. Hollinghurst impressively manages issues such as homosexuality, pursuit of power, adultery, friendship, AIDS, rejection and love with both realism and a frequent sprinkling of comedy.
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood This is a really heartbreaking glimpse into our past, exploring the complexities of grieving for a partner while having to pretend they didn’t exist. So important. (AD)
The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880–1930, Sheila Jeffreys This book challenged me, made me very angry (it’s the only book I have ever thrown out a window in frustration) and at the same time I have never forgotten it. It’s more a polemic than an historical analysis, but it was a very brave work – it certainly got me thinking.(MMcA)
4
Trumpet, Jackie Kay "Supremely humane.... Kay leaves us with a broad landscape of sweet tolerance and familial love."—(The New York Times Book Review)
Gender: An Ethnomethological Approach, Kessler and McKenna The authors convincingly argue that gender is not a reflection of biological reality but rather a social construct that varies across cultures. Valuable for its insights into gender and its extensive treatment of transsexualism. Gender reviews and critiques data from biology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
Queer Dharma - Voices of Gay Buddhists, Winston Leyland This book is a collection of various short stories, articles and historical descriptions broken up into chapters and themes. It explores the lives of LGBT people (including a few chapters on trans experience) who are also Buddhists or living in Buddhist cultures.(KT)
Arimathea, Frank McGuinness A book of close observation, sharp wit, linguistic dexterity – and of deep sympathy for ordinary, everyday humanity.
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Frank McGuinness This powerful and subtle play...follows the experience of eight men who volunteer to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division at the beginning of the First World War. Redefining Realness, Janet Mock This book describes the journey of how Janet went from being a closeted child in very difficult circumstances in Honolulu Hawaii to the beautiful confident and successful woman she is today. She emphasises the importance of understanding the intersections that between gender, race, and gender identity.(KT)
Cereus Blooms at Night, Shani Mootoo Mootoo explores identity, gender, and violence in a celebration of our capacity to love despite cruelty and despair.
Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People, Viviane Namaste Through combined theoretical and empirical study, Namaste argues that transgendered people are not so much produced by medicine or psychiatry as they are erased , or made invisible, in a variety of institutional and cultural settings.
5
Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism, Suzanne Pharr This book is not limited to the exploration of homophobia, it explores all forms of hate and how these oppressions: violence against women, sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia, are linked. Women on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy I am a devotee of utopian and dystopian literature and this one contains both. It constructs a utopian future where gender and sexuality are fluid and a matter of choice, where reproduction and caring for children are dissociated from femininity and the female body! This was my first literary introduction to the possibility of a non-patriarchal, non-sexist, non-heteronormative culture it does not end on a happy note however! (MMcA) Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, Adrienne Rich The experience is her own—as a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mother—but it is an experience determined by the institution, imposed on all women everywhere. Rich draws on personal materials, history, research, and literature to create a document of universal importance.
Blood, Bread, and Poetry, Adrienne Rich Examining the connections between history and the imagination, ethics and action, Rich explores the possible meanings of being white, female, lesbian, Jewish, and a United States citizen, both at this particular time and through the lens of the past. On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978, Adrienne Rich At issue are the politics of language; the uses of scholarship; and the topics of racism, history, and motherhood among others called forth by Rich as "part of the effort to define a female consciousness which is political, aesthetic, and erotic, and which refuses to be included or contained in the culture of passivity." Desert of the Heart, Jane Rule This book and its heart-warming associated film were my first introduction to lesbian relationships in literature (and film). The fact that neither protagonist died a horrific death before the end was wonderful. Lesbian love could have the possibility happy ending – in the book Evelyn and Ann decide to ‘live together for a while’ – not exactly bells and whistles but something positive at least! (MMcA)
The Celluloid Closet, Vita Russo A really interesting look back into the history of LGBT film, and the importance of representation in the media. All time favourite book, and its been made into a cracking documentary too! (AD)
Transgender History, Susan Stryker Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events.
6
The Transgender Studies Reader, Stryker and Whittle The Transgender Studies Reader puts between two covers fifty influential texts with new introductions by the editors that, taken together, document the evolution of transgender studies in the Englishspeaking world.
Touching the Surface: Trans Voices in Ireland, TENI In a country where trans people are often invisible, Touching the Surface: Trans Voices in Ireland creates a lasting, celebratory space for trans identities.
The Blackwater Lightship, Colm Tóibín It is in his emotional choreography that Tóibín shows himself to be an exceptional writer. Helen is estranged from both her mother and grandmother . . . Tóibín helps them make peace – and he does it beautifully’ (Sunday Telegraph)
Affinity, Sarah Waters Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870's, Affinity is an eerie and utterly compelling ghost story, a complex and intriguing literary mystery and a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale.
Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters Erotic and absorbing…Written with starling power.” (The New York Times Book Review)
Genderqueer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary, Wilchins, Howell & Nestle Another fine collection of essays and narratives addressing cissexism and the lived experiences of people living outside the gender binary. (LJ) Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson Jeanette, the books main protagonist, confronts "unnatural" issues: her adopted mam thinks she's the Chosen one from God; she's beginning to fancy girls; and an orange demon keeps popping into her psyche. However Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel is not your typical coming-of-age tale. Whipping Girl, Julia Serano Serano, a trans woman with a diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist, shares her experiences to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole.
7
DAPHNE P2P LGBTQ EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME Funded by the European Commission's DG Justice DAPHNE Initiative The DAPHNE research intervention project adopts an innovative approach, focused on empowerment and Peer to Peer (P2P) education, as a way of confronting the harassment, bullying and discrimination experienced by young LGT (lesbian, gay and transgender) people and heterosexual youth not conforming to stereotypical gender expressions.
Programme P1: Empowering Realities This first programme sought to develop and deliver a P2P empowerment programme with a group of young people aimed at challenging homophobic and transphobic violence through personal, peer and group empowerment and resilience knowledge and strategies.
Programme P2: Power to Promote This second programme was designed to provide an opportunity in a safe, supportive environment for nonLGBT frontline staff across the University who would like to become more informed and effective in delivering an inclusive service to all students and colleagues. All staff opted in on a voluntary basis following the agreement of their unit manager.
Programme P3: Waves of Change The third programme under this DAPHNE funded initiative was called ‘Waves of Change’ and targeted interested participants from P1. It was envisioned that this third step in the programme would act as a multiplier in raising resilience vis-à-vis homophobic and transphobic violence through encouraging some of the Programme 1 participants to become future facilitators of similar initiatives.
Dr Aideen Quilty Principal Investigator, European DAPHNE Project Maggie Feeley Aoife Mallon Paula McGarry School of Social Justice UCD, Dublin, Ireland www.ucd.ie/socialjustice/womensstudies/
8