Cirrus@Austlit

'In this book you will find well-crafted love poems (no mean achievement, as anyone else who's tried writing them will agree); poems which attest to Helen Lee's love of the bush and nature; ones which deal with the struggle to maintain mental health; and poems depicting Helen's fierce grassroots community activism.

'Helen's personal as expressed through these poems also attest to her lesbian feminist commitment to help make the world a safer and more loving place for womyn to live.'

(Publication Summary)

'The late 1960s and early 1970s were times of great societal and political change in Western Europe, but in particular in progressive Holland (The Netherlands). 

'In this book, Jo takes you into her personal experiences of those times while the sexual, political and religious revolutions were raging around her. Her journey into her sexual identity was not an easy one; lesbianism was invisible, homo- and lesbo-phobia was everywhere, and religious Roman Catholic repression was rigid and fearsome.

'Courageously Jo describes her journey into sexual taboos, from the inside out, and about being a girl, compulsory heterosexuality, and the lesbian sexual experience. She describes her internalised fear, implanted by her Catholic upbringing, and the devastating effects of being judged and exiled. Jo also writes about joy and liberation and of her love for women in general.

'Claiming her lesbian identity was a peak experience in more ways than one.' (Publication Summary)

'Esther’s Nine Lives is the auto-biography of Esther Olivares, a Chilean lesbian who survived being shot and traumatised by the Chilean military under the Pinochet regime and who escaped to Australia in 1977.

'In this book Esther carries us along through her eventful life in Chile and Australia. A life that would have left most people a quivering mess. Yet she emerges, despite her justifiable anger at the many insults and bullets fired at her, as a joyous survivor. She keeps relishing life and nature and sharing that enjoyment with us.

'If you are interested in lesbianism, feminism, South America, surviving persecution, indigenous cultures, migration, travel or the spiritual regeneration offered by nature, you will treasure this book.' (Publication Summary)