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Writer's pictureaubreecalvin

Violet Valley Bookstore and Finding Lesbians in Southern Writing






I'm going to try to contain myself, but basically this episode is all about books, bookstores, and writing! And yes, I sought out Prof. Jaime Harker to talk to because I basically want her life. I enjoyed talking to Jaime because she is sweet, and genuinely a warm person to talk to. I don't remember which came first, me reading her book or finding her bookstore. I loved reading The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon, because, honestly, we don't hear too much about queer writers that have southern perspective. Outside of Alice Walker and Rita Mae Brown, the most well known southerly writers are gay men. And I love Tennesee Williams and Truman Capote as much as the next person, bought there are so many more perspectives to consider. And I had never heard of the Women in Print Movement at all, so this was a great conversation. Give it a listen, read Prof. Harker's books, and if you're in Mississippi, check out Violet Valley Books, the ONLY queer and feminist bookstore in Mississippi. FYI, because Jaime and her wife Dixie are so busy, the store is only open on Saturdays for now, but she is looking for volunteers to help expand the hours.


Follow Jaime Harker:

Dixie Grimes restaurant https://www.btcgrocery.com/



And as promised, here's a list of the book titles and authors mentioned in this episode. If you want to support the show, you can purchase them on our new Bookshop page. We get a tiny affiliate commission from anything you purchase there, but it does not affect the price you pay. https://bookshop.org/shop/southernqueeries.

The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon

Jaime Harker


In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Alice Walker


Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989

Pat Parker and Audre Lorde


The Complete Works of Pat Parker

Pat Parker


Loving Her

Ann Allen Shockley


Walking Back Up Depot Street: Poems

Minnie Bruce Pratt


The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems

Minnie Bruce Pratt


Name Poems

Jewelle Gomez


The Gilda Stories

Jewelle Gomez


Trash

Dorothy Allison


Middlebrow Queer: Christopher Isherwood in America

Jaime Harker


This Book Is an Action: Feminist Print Culture and Activist Aesthetics


America the Middlebrow: Women's Novels, Progressivism, and Middlebrow Authorship Between the Wars

Jaime Harker


And here's the cover of the lesbian Civil War romance novel Jaime showed us. It's called South of the Line.








Thanks Everyone,

Aubree


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