Lesbian Love Story

A Memoir in Archives

By: Amelia Possanza

Narrated by: Amelia Possanza

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

For readers of Saidiya Hartman and Jeanette Winterson, Lesbian Love Story is an intimate journey into the archives—uncovering the romances and role models written out of history and what their stories can teach us all about how to love

When Amelia Possanza moved to Brooklyn to build a life of her own, she found herself surrounded by queer stories: she read them on landmark placards, overheard them on the pool deck when she joined the world’s largest LGBTQ swim team, and even watched them on TV in her cockroach-infested apartment. These stories inspired her to seek out lesbians throughout history who could become her role models, in romance and in life.

Centered around seven love stories for the ages, this is Possanza’s journey into the archives to recover the personal histories of lesbians in the twentieth century: who they were, how they loved, why their stories were destroyed, and where their memories echo and live on. Possanza’s hunt takes readers from a drag king show in Bushwick to the home of activists in Harlem and then across the ocean to Hadrian’s Library, where she searches for traces of Sappho in the ruins. Along the way, she discovers her own love—for swimming, for community, for New York City—and adds her record to the archive.

At the heart of this riveting, inventive history, Possanza asks: How could lesbian love help us reimagine care and community? What would our world look like if we replaced its foundation of misogyny with something new, with something distinctly lesbian?

©2023 Amelia Possanza (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Author Amelia Possanza's conversational tone welcomes listeners to a topic that ranges from ancient Greece to modern times. She delves into archival records in search of lesbian history while also reflecting on her own. The connections Possanza develops with the complex women she researches are audible, by turns thoughtful, awed, and eager.… Audio recordings from archived interviews with Mabel Hampton, a dancer and founding member of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and drag king Rusty Brown are invaluable additions to this listening experience. This absorbing production is a meaningful entry into ongoing conversations about sapphic history, identity, community, and the power of visibility.”—AudioFile Magazine

“Narrating her own work with precision, Possanza conveys her meticulous research, presenting little-known stories of lives lived secretly. Showcasing her subjects’ strength, determination, and resilience, Possanza warmly describes how these women crafted full lives and loves outside of expected gender norms.”—Library Journal

"In her impressive debut, Possanza stitches together personal memoir, painstaking research, and fictional imaginings with a fluid style and a sure hand . . . This is an outstanding work of literary scholarship that also delivers a vulnerable, intimate portrait of its author."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Exactly what I was looking for

This book is a beautiful combination of historical and sapphic romance. I absolutely loved it!