On the Shelf for February 2026
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 335 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction.
In this episode we talk about:
The 2026 fiction line-up:
“Between One Word and the Next” by L.J. Lee
“Love for Love’s Sake” by Shannon Lippert
“Salt for the Unmarried” by Khayelihle Benghu
The Sultan’s Vetala by Priya Sridhar
The Tale of Gudrun Sigurdsdóttir by Daniel Stride
Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
Reay, Barry. 2009. “Writing the Modern Histories of Homosexual England” in The Historical Journal, 52, 1. pp.213-233
Crannell, Marissa. 2015. Utterly Confused Categories: Gender Non-Conformity in Late Medieval and Early Modern Western Europe. Dissertation.
Mara-McKay, Nico. 2018. “Becoming Gendered: Two Medieval Approaches to Intersex Gender Assignment” in Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies vol. 7, no. 1.
Roelens, Jonas. 2017. “A Woman Like Any Other: Female Sodomy, Hermaphroditism, and Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Bruges” in Journal of Women’s History, vol. 29 no. 4, Winter 2017. pp.11-34
Loveday, Kiki. “Sister Acts: Victorian Porn, Lesbian Drag, and Queer Reproduction” in Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol. 60, no. 2, 2019, pp. 201–26.
Larson, Ruth. 1997. “Sex and Civility in a 17th-Century Dialogue: L’Escole des filles” in Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, no. 47: 497-514.
Rivers, Christopher. 1995. “Safe Sex: The Prophylactic Walls of the Cloister in the French Libertine Convent Novel of the Eighteenth Century” in Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 5, No. 3: 381-402
Book Shopping
Wurzelbacher, Karli. 2025. Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History. Huntington: The Heckscher Museum of Art. ISBN 979-8-9925162-1-0
Lodge, Sara. 2024. The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-28660-1
Boyd, Rebecca. 2024. Exploring Ireland's Viking-Age Towns. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-03-259109-4
Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction
Hawthorn & Bitter by Shannon K. Kelly
Cut on the Bias by Susanna Bonaretti
Before the Swallow Dares by Hannah Perrin-Haynes
The Stillness Between Us (Voices of the Hive Trilogy) by Clara Bellweather
The Language of Bees (Voices of the Hive Trilogy) by Clara Bellweather
The Keeper of Tides (Voices of the Hive Trilogy) by Clara Bellweather
The Language of Leaves (The Silent Companions) by Clara Bellweather
The Marginal Truth (The Silent Companions) by Clara Bellweather
The Stitched Confession (The Silent Companions) by Clara Bellweather
Fire Sword and Sea by Vanessa Riley
Sword and Silk: The Legend of Julie d'Aubigny by Maeve Campbell
La Maupin : The Scandalous Story of Julie d'Aubigny by C.C. Parke
The Black Lark's Oath by Tess Wilder
Embers on the Moor by Giada Moretti
Unfinished Story by Jade Winters
The Midnight Daughters by Aeressa
The Hidden Petition (Beacon Hill Mysteries #1) by Maeve McQueen
The House of Hidden Hearts by Matus Zelenay
E.V. Bancroft by E.V. Bancroft
A Very Hamble Christmas by E.V. Bancroft
Star & Thea at Court by A V Kakkad
The Hidden Flower in the Palace: A Queer Court Tragedy by Shin Hwayoon
She-Wolf: A Sapphic Beowulf Retelling by E.K. O'Connor
The Fifth Day of Her Heart by Richard Cicay
The Found Family Victory (Salvation's Edge #1) by Lady K
Belonging to the Air by Avery Irons
Joe the Pirate by Hubert
A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis
What I’ve been consuming
Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia
A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.)
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Mastodon: @
[email protected]Bluesky: @heatherrosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
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