The Risks and Rewards of Self Disclosure
“I can’t imagine writing about my intimate life for public consumption,” several of my friends have told me. It is indeed scary to leave...
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Blog
Catch up on Patricia Grahall’s blog, where she writes about feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, and more.
Lesbian Pulp Fiction
Recently, at the urging of my friend, Barb, I listened to Terry Gross of NPR interview Marijane Meaker, a pioneer of lesbian pulp...
My Pen Name Came from my Grandmothers
Both my grandmothers were born in the 1870s. Grandmother Gray had two years of college and was a school teacher in Arizona before she...
Fabulous Launch!!
Third Place Books Lake Forest Park: October 11, National Coming Out Day was my book launch event!
My Writing Buddy, Anu
My writing buddy Anu wrote this sweet piece about my book launch at Third Place Books in Seattle: Oct 11, 2022. Today I attended...
Pride March NYC 1976
In early summer David and I traveled by train to New York for the Gay Pride Parade. It had been seven years since Stonewall. The 1969...
Review of Woman: An American Idea
The starred Kirkus Review of Lillian Faderman’s book Woman: The American History of an Idea very accurately describes her book as an...
Is Feminism Dying?
Barrow and Panovka, young women in their twenties wrote in their literary journal, The Drift, that “we’ve had the sense that feminism is...
Girls Can Kiss Now
Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz contains clever essays by a young woman exploring identity, desire, and self-worth. Pop culture, a...
"Start With a Fairy Tale," my writing teacher said.
Once upon a time there was a young woman who thought she could have everything and anyone she wanted if she tried hard enough. Her mother...
When It's Time to Let Go
I pass by my dog’s bed in the living room and look down at him. He gazes up at me with his soulful brown eyes, the whites showing in a...
In Honor of Women's History Month
Do you ever wonder what your ancestors would be like if they lived today? Both of my great aunts, born in the 1870s, were handsome women...
Two great memoir books by Melissa Febos
I found Abandon Me by Melissa Febos very compelling. For example, she writes: “The next morning the storm had grounded all planes…..We...
Do You Have Interesting Ancestors?
My grandfather was born in the mid-1870s on a farm in Iowa, the eighth child of ten. His mother died (presumably of exhaustion) when he...
Costume Changes
Throughout my adult life, I have been may different people: daughter, sister, college student, medical student, doctor, friend, lover,...
An Unlikely Couple
People enter our lives, perhaps only for a moment, a few months, or a few years. One may need more than the other, but often there is...
Why I Write Using a Pen Name
The desire to review and make sense of my life through memoir writing arose when my partner and I were downsizing. Coming across my old...
Why Should Young People Read about What It Was Like for Women and Gays the 1970s?
Why should you read a memoir about what it was like to be a young lesbian woman in the late sixties and seventies? Everyone knows it was...
Reflections on Last Night at the Telegraph Club
This extensively researched historical novel by Malinda Lo was particularly interesting to me because my first long term love, C., was a...
Why I Write Memoir
I noticed the cardboard box in the back of my closet that hadn't been opened for decades. My spouse, and I were going to be downsizing...
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