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Amber L. Hollibaugh is a lesbian sex radical, ex-hooker, incest survivor, gypsy child, poor-white-trash, high femme dyke. She is also an award-winning filmmaker, feminist, Left political organizer, public speaker, and journalist. My Dangerous Desires presents over twenty years of Hollibaugh’s writing, an introduction written especially for this book, and five new essays including “A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home,” “My Dangerous Desires,” and “Sexuality, Labor, and the New Trade Unionism.”

In looking at themes such as the relationship between activism and desire or how sexuality can be intimately tied to one’s class identity, Hollibaugh fiercely and fearlessly analyzes her own political development as a response to her unique personal history. She explores the concept of labeling and the associated issues of categories such as butch or femme, transgender, bisexual, top or bottom, drag queen, b-girl, or drag king. The volume includes conversations with other writers, such as Deirdre English, Gayle Rubin, Jewelle Gomez, and Cherríe Moraga. From the groundbreaking article “What We’re Rollin’ Around in Bed With” to the radical “Sex Work Notes: Some Tensions of a Former Whore and a Practicing Feminist,” Hollibaugh charges ahead to describe her reality, never flinching from the truth. Dorothy Allison’s moving foreword pays tribute to a life lived in struggle by a working-class lesbian who, like herself, refuses to suppress her dangerous desires.

Having informed many of the debates that have become central to gay and lesbian activism, Hollibaugh’s work challenges her readers to speak, write, and record their desires—especially, perhaps, the most dangerous of them—“in order for us all to survive.”Amazon.com Review
Sex radical Amber L. Hollibaugh may be best known for the classic "What We're Rollin' Around in Bed With," the edited transcript of a taped 1979 conversation on butch/femme desire between Hollibaugh and Cherrie Moraga. This influential article, steeped in the lesbian feminist lingo of the 1970s, still reads almost as a confession, in which socially and economically disadvantaged women--both ardent feminists and one of them an ex-hooker--nervously admit to each other the polarity of their sexual needs. This article showcases the great strengths of Hollibaugh's work: courage and insistence on the truth. The most moving essay in My Dangerous Desires, which covers work of the past two decades, is a memoir and meditation on aging called "Femme Fables" (a collection of three shorter pieces from Hollibaugh's column in the New York Native in the early 1980s), in which she recalls returning to her working-class home after a year away at an upper-class boarding school. She had brought back a suitcase of books, to which her parents responded with awe and respect. One day she came home to find her mother sitting on her bed, crying, surrounded by these open books, unable to understand them. Years later, Hollibaugh admits:

This is a pain I cannot avoid each time I sit at my typewriter or assemble my office. The ghost of her narrowed options and all the dreams she had to defer to me, the confusions and bitter separation between us, are shapes which hang in my house now and live with me. In order to give me a chance, my parents had to create a child they did not understand; they had to endure my shame of them. The pride we carry about each other is surrounded by a sadness none of us can dissolve.

Customer Reviews (1)

fantastic
I really enjoyed this series of essays. Most importantly, I found her articulation of class and the effects of that on herself in relation to her family the words that I have been looking for, but never able to form....Overall, it was an excellent read. ... Read more

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Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award: At the suggestion of her friend Tennessee Williams, Southern writer Carson McCullers adapted her novella The Member of the Wedding into a touching and poignant play that was an enormous success when it opened on Broadway in 1950, and has long since become a classic of the American theater.With compassion, veracity and wit, in The Member of the Wedding Carson McCullers depicts the intrinsically enmeshed lives of whites and blacks in the American South. Julie Harris became a star playing the awkward, twelve-year-old tomboy Frankie Adams, who falls deeply in love with her older brother and his fiance. Exhilarated by her naive conviction that being a member of their wedding means she will become what she calls the "we of me," Frankie is devastated when she learns she is not invited on the honeymoon. Bernice Sadie Brown, who has experienced a lifetime of love and loss, is a surrogate mother for Frankie. Portrayed on stage and in the film versions by the great Ethel Waters, Bernice is an epic character, fiercely loyal, down-to-earth, and centered by deep faith. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

As ordered
I am constantly amazed at the speed with which I receive my purchases.I know they will be as stated so I am not surprised by the quality of the merchandise, but I am always pleased at the speed of delivery.Thanks ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Dorothy E. Allison, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2984 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Chapters: Robert Jordan, Mary Mcleod Bethune, Dorothy Allison, Pat Conroy, William Gilmore Simms, Robert Quillen, Marian Wright Edelman, Percival Everett, Ron Rash, Clyde N. Wilson, James Dickey, Henry Timrod, Benjamin B. Dunlap, David Ramsay, Faith Hunter, Dubose Heyward, William Price Fox, William Porcher Dubose, Matthew J. Bruccoli, Julia Peterkin, Sherod Santos, Francis Butler Simkins, John Faucheraud Grimké, John Drayton, Betsy Byars, John Jakes, John H. Leith, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr., Kathleen Parker, Paul Hamilton Hayne, Ed Madden, Anne Rivers Siddons, Sue Monk Kidd, J. Gordon Coogler, Archibald Rutledge, Vertamae Grosvenor, Virginia Mixson Geraty, John Dunning, Josephine Humphreys, Josephine Pinckney, Peggy Parish, Benjamin Mays, Ambrose E. Gonzales, Jacob Stroyer, Carrie Allen Mccray, Effie Wilder, Blanche Mccrary Boyd, Misty Massey, Kwame Dawes, Sam Savage, Jeffrey Rotter, George Singleton, Caroline Howard Gilman, Franklin Burroughs. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 211. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (July 10, 1875 May 18, 1955) was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for black students in Daytona Beach, Florida that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Born in South Carolina to parents who had been slaves, and having to work in fields at age 5, she took an early interest in her own education. With the help of benefactors, Bethune attended college hoping to become a missionary in Africa. When that did not materialize, she started a school for black girls in Daytona Beach. From six students it grew and merged with an institute for black boys and eventually became the Bethune-Cookman School. Its quality far surpassed the standards of...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1412179 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HighQuality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Dorothy E.Allison was born on April 11,1949 inGreenville, South Carolina to Ruth Gibson Allison, whowas fifteen at the time. Ruth was a poor and unmarriedmother who worked as a waitress and cook. When Allisonwas five, her step dad began to sexually abuse her. Itlasted for seven years (until age 11) and then she wasable to tell a relative, who told Ruth, and it stopped.The family still would remain together. The physicalabuse lasted for another five years, and she contractedgonorrhea from her stepfather. This went undiagnoseduntil Allison was in her 20's, making her unable tohave children. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Worth buying, used
This was a good read.The essays aren't for everybody, and I rolled my eyes at more than a few them.That said, I agree with the other reviewer that there are some real gems waiting to be underlined.The pieces are definitely not "how-to"--instead, they feel more like little stories about writing.Plus, the CD that comes with the book is great--it's fun to hear these writers speak in their own voices about their experiences with the written word.

Fun and sexy essays about writing.
This is not your Mother's writing manual. Hell, Tin House's new book of craft essays, by a wonderful host of heavy-hitting writers, is not a manual at all, and it is so much the better for it. The Writer's Notebook takes its name seriously when presenting seventeen sexy essays that avoid giving step-by-step instructions, but confidently leads the reader on a pleasant hike up the mountain of writing craft. Leave your own notebook in the other room, but keep your pen handy, you may need to underline a few choice gems. These essays, while dealing with some of the usual suspects with renewed pizzazz, delve deeper and ask you to think about certain elements in a different way, like Mathea Harvey's deliciously bizarre turn at imagination and writing in "The Mercurial World of the Mind."
The Writer's Notebook manages to lure you in and befriend you, but just when you think it's going to reveal the secret to writing success, it chuckles and admits it's merely trying to get you thinking about writing from a different and fresh perspective. Often the authors confidently divulge their wisdom in the clever guise of their own mistakes, as in Peter Rock's "The Telling that Shows: Some Provocations from inside the Story." Mr. Rock states "---" This seems to be the general tone of the Notebook. Even as Margot Livesey points out Shakespeare's mistakes and success in, "Shakespeare for Writers: Sixteen Lessons."
If you are seeking the distilled wisdom in the form of a key to success, turn left and follow the heavily trodden path of 12 step programs. However, if you want to journey with Tin House's fantastic stable of wise Authors and Poets, Authors that speak with great character and kindness, then follow them down the bramble trail and pick up this Writer's Notebook. You'll emerge with some minor gashes in your writerly thinking, but the scars and these essays will likely help you write better stories.
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Selections made from nominations by the editors of independent noncommercial presses and magazines. The first Editor's Choice spanned the period from 1965 to 1977. The volume following this one, Editor's Choice III, spans the period from 1983 to 1990. ... Read more

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Founded in 1999, Tin House's mission was to create a literary magazine without the stuffy, elitist reputation that afflicts so much of the genre. The only literary journal with a recipe for its own martini, Tin House quickly established itself as one of the most exciting, eclectic, and popular literary magazines in America, regularly honored in anthologies like Best American Short Stories and with awards including the O. Henry Prize. Best of Tin House celebrates six years of the magazine and wonderful storytelling. With a foreword by Dorothy Allison, the collection features nearly 30 stories that range from the experimental to the traditional from today's masters of the short form. Authors include James Salter, Deborah Eisenberg, Denis Johnson, Aimee Bender, Steven Millhauser, Steve Almond, Amy Bloom, Pinckney Benedict, Robert Olen Butler, Elizabeth Tallent, Mark Jude Poirier, Marshall N. Klimasewiski, Ryan Harty, Anthony Swofford, Amanda Eyre Ward, and others. ... Read more

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This comprehensive new exhibition catalogue, published to accompany the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's major mid-career survey of Catherine Opie's work, is the first to gather all of the artist's key projects to date in a single volume. Opie is best known for her subtle but potent portraits of people from the queer communities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In this definitive volume, each of Opie's series--among them Portraits, Freeways, Domestic, Icehouses and In and Around Home--is reproduced in full color plates alongside works that were not displayed in the exhibition, allowing for the most complete overview of this important Los Angeles artist's work to date. In addition, this volume features a lead essay by exhibition curator Jennifer Blessing, which surveys Opie's artistic career and its historical contexts; a series of interviews with the artist by Russell Ferguson, Chair of the Department of Art at UCLA; and a brief personal reflection by internationally renowned novelist Dorothy Allison, whose work explores many concerns similar to Opie's. It also includes introductory essays on each of the artist's series by Nat Trotman, Assistant Curator at the Guggenheim, as well as a newly researched, exhaustive exhibition history and bibliography, making it the primary source for future research on Opie's work.
Catherine Opie was born in Ohio in 1961 and is currently Professor of Photography at UCLA. Opie's work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. She has had solo exhibitions of her work at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; St. Louis Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among many others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A stunning book.
I have to admit that I had not heard of this photographer until recently.However, now that I have this book in my hands, I have to say that I understand why Opie is so highly regarded. While it may be true that this book is a collection of many different projects, the quality of the work is readily apparent.I was so impressed with Opie's work that I ordered her Chicago book. I might add that I also like the size of the book, not too big but not too little either--just right for my bookshelf.

Derivative work that wanders all over the place
I can't say I'm deeply impressed with Opie's pictures. She seems like a young artist who has not found her style yet. Much of the work seems derivative. Each small series seems to copy the style of a different photographer. For example:

* "Large Format Polaroids" = Robert Maplethorpe
* "Mini-malls" = Walker Evans
* "Domestic" = Tina Barney
* "1999" = William Christenberry
* "Surfers" = Rineke Dijkstra

Where is her own voice?

For another thing her work seems to be all over the place. She does color as well as black-and-white. She does landscapes, cityscape and portraits. She has miniature panoramas (some of her most interesting work) and lot of large format work. The list goes on-and-on: Self-portraits, studio portraits, night shots and family pictures (with some very cute pictures of her son).

Since she is part of the lesbian S/M community, there are a lot of portraits of her gay friends as well as some self-mutilation pictures (cutting). These are all done in a very formal way that I did not find as visually rich as similar work done by Robert Maplethorpe.

Despite these complaints I have to admit that I enjoyed looking at many of the pictures and will be interested to see how her career progresses.

This book is an exhibit catalog for Opie's show that just finished at the Guggenheim in New York. If you go to the Guggenheim website and look under past exhibits there aresome great online pictures

Cahterine Opie:American Photographer
The book is absolutely wonderful and I wish I could go to NY to see the show. The book contains photos, however, that are not in the show and so that makes it special. Catherine Opie is a wonderful photographer with a unique eye. This thorough retrospective covers her career up to date, nearly. Within her ongoing themes, such as community, there is much diversity of subject matter, so the variety keeps the viewer intrigued. Essays by the curator and writer Dorothy Allison and Interviews are included. My favorites are those interviews by Russel Ferguson. He seems quite perceptive and knowledgeable, as well as a warm interviewer, thus eliciting a satisfying set of interviews. I also appreciate the bibliography.

There was a problem with packaging the book for delivery, and it got bruised somewhat. The box was trashed. There was inadequate packing underneath the book (inflated plastic is also not environmentally friendly, either) and none above. The empty space of course got completely squashed. There was also only minimal tape used, definitely not according to the rules of the USPS! Of course, as anybody knows, boxes get stacked and thrown around and Amazon needs to prepare for that. I suggest stiff balled-up paper and/or excelsior, and the box filled with packing matls. This is not a cheap novel we are dealing with here, but something people will want to look nice for many years. ... Read more