The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Heather Rose Jones

A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.

  1. Jul 18

    On the Shelf for June & July 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 347

    On the Shelf for June & July 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 347 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Moore, Lisa L. 2005. “Queer Gardens: Mary Delany's Flowers and Friendships” in Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. 39, No. 1 (Fall, 2005), pp. 49-70 O’Driscoll, Sally. 2003. “The Lesbian and the Passionless Woman: Femininity and Sexuality in 18th century England” in The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 44.2-3. p.103-31 Peakman, Julie. 2004. Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual History of the Eighteenth Century. Atlantic Books, London. Chapter 8 “Tribadism: ‘A New Sort of Sin’” Anonymous. 1697. The history of the intrigues & gallantries of Christina, Queen of Sweden, and of her court whilst she was at Rome faithfully render’d into English from the French original. London: Richard Baldwin. Abbott, Carmeta. 1993. “The Portrait as Text: Two Depictions of Madame de Saint-Balmon (1607-1660)” in Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice vol. 19, No. 1. Bell, Rudolph M. 1987. “Renaissance Sexuality and the Florentine Archives: An Exchange” in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 3: pp. 485-511 Reynolds, Nicole. 2010. “Cottage Industry: The Ladies of Llangollen and the Symbolic Capital of the "Cottage Ornée"” in The Eighteenth Century, Vol. 51, No. 1/2: 211-227 Vicinus, Martha. “Lesbian Perversity and Victorian Marriage: The 1864 Codrington Divorce Trial” pp.92-94 in Journal of British Studies 36, no. 1 (1997). Liddington, Jill. 1993. “Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791-1840): Her Diaries and the Historians” in History Workshop, 35: 45-77. Orr, Dannielle. 2006. A Sojourn in Paris 1824-25: Sex and Sociability in the Manuscript Writings of Anne Lister (1791-1840). (Doctoral Dissertation, Murdoch University) Roulston, Chris & Caroline Gonda, eds. 2023. Decoding Anne Lister: From the Archives to ‘Gentleman Jack’. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9781009280723 Book Shopping Norton, Rictor. 1997. The Myth of the Modern Homosexual: Queer History and the Search for Cultural Unity. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-33892-3 Mansel, Philip. 2001. Paris Between Empires: Monarchy and Revolution 1814-1852. St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-30857-4 Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction Dreaming of Jerusalem by Susie Helme Silk Road Runaways by Christine Inserra Chivalry in the Shadows by Meg Merriet Wahlberg With My Own Hand: The secret life of Marie Maitland, Scotland’s sixteenth-century Sappho by Ashley Douglas Bound By Silk & Salt Water by Caren Cross Tempest: A Novel of Anne Bonny, the Pirate Queen Who Disappeared by K. Knight The Ruby Reaper (The Ruby Reaper #1) by Eline Evans The Emerald Eclipse (The Ruby Reaper #2) by Eline Evans Mr. Moore by Giny Morales The Miseducation of Caroline Bingley by Lindz McLeod Caroline's Courtesan (The Comerford Courtesans #4) by Jess Michaels Pretence & Pretentiousness by Lynn Kear A Season of Teeth and Silk by Henriette Twinne The Art of Longing by Michael David The Green Seal (Blackthorn Hall Romances # 3) by E. L. Vale What the Willow Kept (The Women of Sapphire #1.5) by L. Creeke When Embers Find Her (The Women of Sapphire #1) by L. Creeke The Wrong Widow (Cielo Seco # 1) by D. S. Briar Gold Rush 1860 by Randa Hink Two Whoops and a Holler by Carmilla Deane Charity and Sylvia by Tillie Walden Disfigured (New York's Gilded Age #4) by Joseph P. Garland Becoming Legends Elsie-Bessie: A Love Story (book #1) by Barbara Barna Abel & Shannon McMahon Lichte Lena and Miss Cawkwell by Julie Bozza Murder by Degrees by Rachel Ford A Blue Note by Katrina Jackson Little Wild by Laura Evans The Malign Ghosts of Summer by Ann McMan Cold Water by C. R. Ellery The Rude Bird (New Orleans Noir # 1) by M. R. Dimond What I’ve been consuming Platform Decay by Martha Wells Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorofor A Change of Pace by J.A. Stevens Call for submissions for the 2027 LHMP audio short story series. See here for details. 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: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

  2. Jun 20

    So You’re Writing a Sapphic Historical Romance: Questions to Consider (Reprise) - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 345

    So You’re Writing a Sapphic Historical Romance: Questions to Consider (Reprise) The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 345 with Heather Rose Jones In this episode we talk about the questions to ask about sapphic relationships and how they are perceived in your story’s setting: How easy is it to live outside of the heterosexual marriage paradigm? What are the economic, legal, and religious constraints on your characters? What is the ordinary “background noise” of non-sexual displays of affection? How does the culture of the setting understand privacy and how does that affect your characters’ behavior? What are the realities and perceptions around sex between women in this setting? How does the culture of the setting understand gender and sexuality? How are female couples depicted in popular culture of the time? A transcript of this podcast is available here. 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: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

  3. May 16

    A Guide to the Sapphic Regency - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 342

    A Guide to the Sapphic Regency The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 342 with Heather Rose Jones In this episode we talk about: Demographics and economics affecting f/f couples Legal and religious considerations Friendship and romance Affection and sex The language of lesbianism Models of gender and sexuality Bibliography 18th Century Precursors Bennett, Judith M. & Amy M. Froide eds. 1999. Singlewomen in the European Past 1250-1800. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-1668-7 Bennett, Betty T. 1991. Mary Diana Dods: A Gentleman and a Scholar. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-4984-5 Beynon, John C. & Caroline Gonda eds. 2010. Lesbian Dames: Sapphism in the Long Eighteenth Century. Ashgate, Farnham. ISBN 978-0-7546-7335-4 Bodek, Evelyn Gordon. 1976. "Salonières and Bluestockings: Educated Obsolescence and Germinating Feminism" in Feminist Studies vol 3 no. 3/4 185-199. Clark, Anna. 1996. "Anne Lister's construction of lesbian identity", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 7(1), pp. 23-50. Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4 Dugaw, Dianne. 1989. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry 1650-1850. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-16916-2 Merrick, Jeffrey & Bryant T. Ragan, Jr. 2001. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-510257-6 Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/. (Accessed 2014/09/13) Hitchcock, Tim. 1997. English Sexualities, 1700-1800. St. Martin’s Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-16573-0 Rizzo, Betty. 1994. Companions without Vows: Relationships among Eighteenth-Century British Women. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-3218-5 19th Century Sources Binhammer, Katherine. 1996. “The Sex Panic of the 1790s” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 6, no. 3: 409-34. Jennings, Rebecca. 2007. A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500. Greenwood World Publishing, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-84645-007-5 Lanser, Susan S. 2014. The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-18773-0 Lasser, Carol. 1988. "'Let Us Be Sisters Forever': The Sororal Model of Nineteenth-Century Female Friendship" in Signs vol. 14, no. 1 158-181. Moore, Lisa. 1992. "'Something More Tender Still than Friendship': Romantic Friendship in Early-Nineteenth-Century England" in Feminist Studies vol. 18, no. 3 499-520. Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/nineteen.htm (Accessed 2014/09/13) Vicinus, Martha. 2004. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-85564-3 Whitbread, Helena ed.  1992.  I Know My Own Heart:  The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791-1840.  New York University Press, New York.  ISBN 0-8147-9249-9 Whitbread, Helena ed.  1992.  No Priest But Love.  NY Univ Press, New York.  ISBN  0-8147-5077-X A transcript of this podcast is available here. 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: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

  4. May 2

    On the Shelf for May 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 341

    On the Shelf for May 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 341 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: Say hi at GCLS Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Traub, Valerie. 1996. “The Perversion of ‘Lesbian’ Desire” in History Workshop Journal 41:19-49. Goode, Dawn M. 2008. “Dueling Discourses: The Erotics of Female Friendship in Mary Pix’s ‘Queen Catharine.’” in Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 37–60. McClain, Molly. 2008. “Love, Friendship, and Power: Queen Mary II's Letters to Frances Apsley” in Journal of British Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3: 505-527 Hitchcock, Tim. 1996. “Redefining Sex in Eighteenth-Century England” in History Workshop Journal, No. 41: 72-90 Roulston, Christine. 1998. “Separating the Inseparables: Female Friendship and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century France.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 215–31. Book Shopping Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann Consider This My Witness by Madeline Klein Beneath the Quiet Valley (Quiet Valley #1) by Eleanor Foster Beneath the Quiet Valley: Two Lives (Quiet Valley #2) by Eleanor Foster The Water That Remembers (The Woman at the Well #1) by Jade Remintgon The Weight of Staying (The Woman at the Well #2) by Jade Remintgon The Courage to Remain (The Woman at the Well #3) by Jade Remintgon The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan Bone of my Bone by Johanna van Veen Miss Woodhouse & Miss Fairfax by Maisie Jardelle The Wives of Herrick Hall by Julie Lew Her Runaway Lady by B.J. Sikes For the Love of the Quest by Alexandra Ammon Parthun The Summer I Met June by Mozie S What I’ve been consuming Word by Word by Kory Stamper True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color--from Azure to Zinc Pink by Kory Stamper Murder at Sissingham Hall by Clara Benson The Mystery at Underwood House by Clara Benson This month we interview Cecilia Tan and talk about: The fun of genre mash-ups Representing diaspora The relationship of historic stories and time-travel stories Founding SFF erotica publisher Circlet Press Future projects and the joy of pantsing 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: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page) Links to Cecilia Tan Online Website: https://www.ceciliatan.com Instagram: @ctan_writer Bluesky: @ceciliatan.com

  5. Apr 18

    Mary/Charles Hamilton: The Original Female Husband - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 340

    Mary/Charles Hamilton: The Original Female Husband The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 340 with Heather Rose Jones In this episode we talk about: The factual story of Mary/Charles Hamilton Henry Fielding’s fictional version in The Female Husband The larger historic and literary context Sources mentioned Baker, S. 1959. “Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband: Fact and Fiction” in PMLA, 74 pp.213-24. Castle, T. 1983-4. “Eros and Liberty at the English Masquerade, 1710-90” in Eighteenth-Century Studies, XVII, 2: 156-76. Derry, Caroline. 2020. Lesbianism and the Criminal Law: Three Centuries of Legal Regulation in England and Wales. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-35299-8 Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4 Friedli, Lynne. 1987. “Passing Women: A Study of Gender Boundaries in the Eighteenth Century” in Rousseau, G. S. and Roy Porter (eds). Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 0-8078-1782-1 Fielding, Henry. 1746. The Female Husband: or, the Surprising History of Mrs Mary, Alias Mr George Hamilton. Liverpool, M. Cooper. (https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-female-husband-or-_fielding-henry_1746) Lanser, Susan. 2001. “Sapphic Picaresque: Sexual Difference and the Challenges of Homoadventuring” in Textual Practice 15:2 (November 2001): 1-18. Lyons, Clare A. 2007. “Mapping an Atlantic Sexual Culture: Homoeroticism in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia” in: Foster, Thomas A. (ed). Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality in Early America. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 13-978-0-8147-2749-2 Manion, Jen. “The Queer History of Passing as a Man in Early Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Legacies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 6–11. Manion, Jen. 2020. Female Husbands: A Trans History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-108-48380-3 The full text of The Female Husband by Henry Fielding can be found at archive.org This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: Charles/Mary Hamilton, The Female Husband (Henry Fielding) A transcript of this podcast is available here. 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: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

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About

A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.