The LGBT writers who at one time called Chicago their home are too numerous to mention. Starting with the pre-Stonewall era, you have Henry Blake Fuller, Nella Larsen, Willard Motley, Jeannette Foster, Valerie Taylor, Sam Steward, Lorraine Hansberry and the women of The Little Review, among many.
Post-Stonewall there are hundreds if not thousands.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Vernita Gray, Jon-Henri Damski, Robert Ford, Scott McPherson, and other authors, journalists and playwrights thrived in the Windy City.
The American Library Association's Task Force on Gay Liberation ( later known as the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Task Force ) held the first gay book awards ceremony in the United States in 1971, and the event was held in Chicago many times— including 1995 for the 25th anniversary of the awards program, with Quentin Crisp as the keynote speaker.
The Lambda Literary Awards were also presented several times in Chicago, coinciding with American Booksellers Association conventions. Chicagoan Marie J. Kuda was very active in the ALA Task Force, and she did a bibliography of lesbian books that is recognized as a key work in the early documentation of the community.
Barbara Gittings, who dropped out of Northwestern University to find herself as a lesbian, was a frequent return visitor to Chicago because of her involvement in the ALA Task Force awards and other activism.
On the academic side, we have been fortunate to have eminent professors based here working on important projects. Educators including George Chauncey, John D'Emilio, Sarah Hoagland, Cathy Cohen, Beth Ritchie, Dwight McBride, Deirdre McCloskey, and E. Patrick Johnson have contributed key texts.
A brief look at other important writers from Chicago, or with an impact here, must include Langston Hughes, who at one time wrote a column for the Chicago Defender. Studs Terkel, while not gay himself, is among the most important writers of the last century, and his book and radio interviews included stories of gay pioneers, including George Buse, Henry Wiemhoff, Valerie Taylor, and Jim Bradford ( pseudonym of James B. Osgood ).
Prominent national writers with a Chicago connection include Ann Bannon, born Ann Weldy in Joliet, Illinois, in 1932; Judy Grahn, born in Chicago in 1940; Ned Rorem, born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1923, who attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Northwestern University; Lanford Wilson, born in Lebanon, Missouri, in 1937, who attended the University of Chicago; and Bonnie Zimmerman, born in Chicago in 1947.
Kathleen Thompson was an important 1970s feminist activist-turned-author. She was a cofounder of Chicago Women Against Rape and coauthor, with Andra Medea, of the book Against Rape ( Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974 ). More recently, she co-wrote A Shining Thread of Hope ( Broadway Books, 1998 ), the first narrative history of Black women, with Darlene Clark Hine, and co-edited three visual histories with Hilary Mac Austin.
Jean Hardisty, the founder of Political Research Associates, wrote a critical book published by Beacon Press in 1999, Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers.
Self-published chapbooks in the 1970s and 1980s were the only way for some to be heard. There was a strong women-of-color poetry scene, including Vernita Gray, Lola Lai Jong, Donna Weems, Carmen Abrego and Diane Gomez.
The local and national Women in Print movement and the Lesbian Writers' Conferences both contributed to expanding the availability of publishing to more women.
Chicagoans have been well represented in numerous anthologies, from the academic to the erotic. Third Side Press was an important Chicago press for several years. Among others, they published the plays of Claudia Allen.
Gay author E. Lynn Harris once lived in Chicago, and some of his books are about Chicago characters dealing with being Black and gay. Iftikhar "Ifti" Nasim was probably among Chicago's most distinctive gay writers. Openly gay and Pakistani, he wrote books in his native Urdu language and was been widely published on gay and Pakistani issues.
Roger Sutton produced a groundbreaking book for young adults, the nonfiction Hearing Us Out: Voices from the Gay and Lesbian Community ( Little, Brown & Co., 1994 ). He profiled prominent gay and lesbian Chicagoans, with photos by Lisa Howe-Ebright.
Former Chicagoan Michal Brody contributed a book about lesbian media in Chicago: Are We There Yet? A Continuing History of Lavender Woman, a Chicago Lesbian Newspaper, 1971—1976 ( Aunt Lute Book Co., 1985 ).
Camarin Grae is a pseudonym for a former Chicagoan who produced several well-received lesbian fiction books, including The Winged Dancer ( Blazon Books, 1983, and later Naiad Press, 1991 ). Chicagoan Nikki Baker's mystery fiction for Naiad Press includes In the Game, The Lavender House Murder and Long Goodbyes.
Robert Rodi is among the better-known writers of gay fiction in Chicago. His witty books, including Fag Hag ( Dutton Books, 1992 ), have been successful across the United States. David Trinidad's work includes Answer Song ( Serpent's Tail/High Risk Books, 1994 ), a poetry and prose book about life and love as a gay man.
Achy Obejas has been a critical figure in Chicago's activist and literary scenes for three decades, in part because of her political columns for Windy City Times. Her writing is passionate, very openly lesbian, and frequently about her dual identities—Cuban and lesbian. Her books include Days of Awe ( Ballantine Books, 2002 ) and We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? ( Cleis Press, 1994 ).
Chicago native April Sinclair, raised on the South Side, has used the city for several of her novels to date. Coffee Will Make You Black ( Hyperion, 1994 ) is set in the turbulent 1960s, beginning at a time "before black was beautiful." Coffee is a coming-of-age novel in which a teenage woman's sexuality is awakened more by a white nurse than by her Black boyfriend. Despite its many awards, some schools tried to ban the book.
Carol Anshaw came out as a lesbian in her early 30s, and it had a tremendous impact on her writing. She is the author of the much-honored novels Aquamarine ( 1992 ), Seven Moves ( 1996 ), and Lucky in the Corner ( 2002 ), all published by Houghton Mifflin Co. Among Chicago critic Andrew Patner's works is I.F. Stone: A Portrait ( Pantheon Books, 1988 ).
Yvonne Zipter is a poet, columnist and humorist who wrote columns for Chicago's LGBT newspapers ( GayLife, Outlines, and Windy City Times ) for more than 20 years. Zipter's passion is poetry: The Patience of Metal ( Hutchinson House, 1990 ) was a Chicago Book Clinic Honor Book and a finalist for Lambda and Melville Cane ( Poetry Society of America ) awards. She has written two nonfiction books. Diamonds Are a Dyke's Best Friend ( Firebrand Books, 1988 ), which is still in print, examines the love that lesbians have for softball, and Ransacking the Closet ( Spinsters Ink, 1995 ) is a collection of Zipter's newspaper columns.
R.D. Zimmerman is best-known in the Chicago gay community for his award-winning mystery series about Todd Mills, a gay TV journalist.
Mark Richard Zubro is another of Chicago's prolific gay activists and writers. Zubro's legacy is in both quality and quantity: "In Chicago, I am … the most published openly gay author, using openly gay characters, being published by a mainstream house in New York." His books include Why Isn't Becky Twitchell Dead? ( 1990 ) and Everyone's Dead But Us ( 2006 ), both from St. Martin's Press.
There have been important organizations promoting gay, lesbian and feminist work, including the long-running New Town Writers Guild, the Feminist Writers Guild, Tall Grass Writers Guild, and Literary Exchange, an African-American organization that, along with Affinity Community Services, has hosted literary events and conferences.
—Partially excerpted from Out and Proud in Chicago, with contributions by Judith Markowitz.
The bestselling authors of 1985 produced works that were almost like comfort food for their readers. Among the bestselling novels were The Mammoth Hunters, a second-sequel to Clan of the Cave Bear, and Lucky, Jackie Collins' follow-up to Chances.
Lake Wobegon Days made use of material from Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. In Texas, James Michener gave his usual treatment—sprawling histories, told through numerous generations of families—to his adopted home state.
LGBT authors who were published that year included Jeanette Winterson, who debuted with Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, her account of a young lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Ethan Mordden launched his Buddies series of books, story collections about a close-knit group of gay friends, with I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore. Bret Easton Ellis, then age 21, also debuted with Less Than Zero, his tale of debauchery over the course of one-student's holiday break ( Ellis, who would not publicly identify with any one sexuality or another for several years, said he was gay in 2012 ).
One of the hottest books of the year, and one that stirred mainstream and lesbian community controversy, was Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, by Nancy Manahan and Rosemary Curb, published by Naiad Press.
The 10 best-selling novels of 1985, according to Publisher's Weekly, were:
1. The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
2. Texas by James A. Michener
3. Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
4. If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
5. Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
6. Secrets by Danielle Steel
7. Contact by Carl Sagan
8. Lucky by Jackie Collins
9. Family Album by Danielle Steel
10. The Class by Erich Segal
