KK's purple suede stilettos mean business. And bunions.

Keeping it ‘Real’ and Buying into the Big Lie

Karin Kallmaker LIFE + STYLE 12 Comments

When we’re alone, afraid and cold, we look for shelter. Sometimes we find a tent and make our way inside. Sometimes we have what it takes to pitch our own tent. Either way, we are joined by others seeking shelter from the same storms of life. In the queer community, the LGBTQI letters hold up a lot of canvas of a very Big Queer Tent. Read More

Art and Monsters – On Marion Zimmer Bradley and Not Looking Away

Karin Kallmaker Sisters of the Pen 5 Comments

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Trigger warning. This blog deals with child rape and a writer you probably loved. Marion Zimmer Bradley was a rare talent as a writer. Unfortunately she was also something even more rare: a female pedophile.

How do people with the power of art inside them commit monstrous acts? The emerging truth about MZB irreparably soils my love of her work. Read More

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“Women’s Fiction” – A Sign or an Answer to Sexism in the Book Industry?

Karin Kallmaker Business of Books 1 Comment

British novelist Joanne Harris’s Capitalize. This. is a blistering blog about sexist assumptions she routinely receives about her work. Women writers have heard them all – from the suggestion that if you write about a topic that was ever touched by a man, you’re capitalizing on the man’s involvement, to, of course, that you slept or in some way partnered with a man to get any success that you may have. Even lesbian writers get these belittling, dismissive statements that our careers somehow revolve around men. Read More