There are, of course, other Jewish lesbian novels with similar thematics, including Elana Nachman/Dykewomon's Riverfinger Women (1974), Alice Bloch's The Law of Return (1983), Ruth Geller's Triangles (1984), Edith Konecky's A Place at the Table (1989), Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz's My Jewish Face & Other Stories (1990), and Andrea Freud Loewenstein's The Worry Girl (1992).

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These writers relate both to Jewish and lesbian literary traditions and to the concerns of contemporary American culture. For these authors, being Jewish lesbians or lesbian Jews and writing about that experience--that is, going public--has been empowering and liberating, personally as well as collectively.

Conclusion

Although American Jewish literature in general has been pronounced moribund for more than twenty years, no such pronouncements can be made for American Jewish gay and lesbian literature.

A new collection of short fiction Writing Our Way Home (1992), edited by Ted Solotaroff and Nessa Rapoport, was consciously designed to point to new directions for American Jewish literature. In her introduction, Rapoport envisions new kinds of Jews--"children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, converts to Judaism, Sephardim, descendants of conversos in the American Southwest, lesbians, and gay men"--who will revitalize American Jewish fiction.

American Jewish gay and lesbian literature with its rich heritage, diverse subject matter, and thriving vitality has indeed imbued American Jewish literature with new life.

In the twenty years since its first appearance in the West, AIDS has been the subject of a large body of literature, most of it written by gay men and much of it designed to expose readers as closely as possible to the emergency of the epidemic and the suffering of affected individuals.

Although largely invisible to the general public, a large body of twentieth-century gay male literature by American authors was published prior to Stonewall, some of it positive but most of it tinged with misery or bleakness as the price of being published and disseminated.

After Stonewall, gay male literature became focused as a movement, aided by the development of gay newspapers, magazines, and quarterlies and the founding of serious gay and lesbian bookstores.

American lesbian literature prior to Stonewall exploited the "outlaw" status of the lesbian as it moved from encrypted strategies of expression to overt political celebrations of woman-for-woman passion.

Since Stonewall various political agendas have dominated American lesbian literature.

Although same-sex friendships played a more important role in his emotional and personal life than relationships with women, his hostility to all forms of nonprocreative sexuality caused Augustine to condemn homosexuality.

One of the first Jewish-American writers of his generation to write in English rather than Yiddish, Myron Brinig was also one of the first to create homosexual characters, though he remained publicly closeted all of his life.

Award-winning writer Bernard Cooper blurs the boundaries between autobiography, essay, poetry, and fiction in his elegantly crafted works that focus on sexuality, memory, and growing up gay in the 1950s and 1960s.

In both her poetry and prose, Elana Dykewomon presents the lesbian as an active, dynamic hero on center stage.

In his novels anatomizing gay life at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, David Feinberg used humor as a defense mechanism, a means to avoid madness and despair in a world that had become nightmarishly absurd.

Political organizer, grassroots historian, and accomplished writer, Leslie Feinberg is a pioneer of transgender activism and culture.

Award-winning Harvey Fierstein is one of the finest gay male playwrights currently working in the American theater.

The forthrightly gay Allen Ginsberg is probably the best-known American poet to emerge in the post-World War II period.

The candor with which the bisexual Paul Goodman wrote about the homosexual libido in his poetry and fiction made him an important and highly visible advocate of gay liberation.

In his novels and short stories, plays, and critical writings, Richard Hall focused almost exclusively on issues of gay identity and community.

Playwright, librettist, and educator William M. Hoffman is best known for his ground-breaking play As Is, one of the first theatrical works to focus on the AIDS epidemic.

Controversial playwright, novelist, and essayist Larry Kramer has been a pioneer in the gay political response to AIDS in America.

In addition to being a prize-winning playwright, Tony Kushner has become a celebrity spokesman for gay politics and AIDS activism.

Novelist and short story writer David Leavitt is one of the brightest stars of the gay literary world today.

Prolific Jewish femme lesbian-feminist writer of poetry, fiction, and children's books, Leslèa Newman draws on her own multiple identities to describe the complex tapestry that results when a variety of identities are woven together.

Adrienne Rich, who aestheticized politics and politicized aesthetics, is America's most widely read lesbian poet.

Poet, translator, literary and art critic, and short story writer, Edouard Roditi was associated with most of the twentieth-century's avant-garde literary movements from Surrealism to post-modernism.

Out American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Paul Rudnick brings a gently subversive wit to all of his projects.

Author and playwright Sarah Schulman is concerned with constructing a lesbian identity around and against the multicultural identities of New York.

An important voice in children's literature over the past half century, Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated books that both acknowledge the fears faced by children and celebrate the imagination with which they cope with them.

Best known for his groundbreaking play Bent, iconoclastic playwright and screenwriter Martin Sherman has created an impressive body of work.

In addition to becoming--with Alice B. Toklas--half of an iconic lesbian couple, Gertrude Stein was an important innovator and transformer of the English language.