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. 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)

    43 min
  2. 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)

    48 min
  3. 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

    49 min
  4. 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)

    22 min
  5. Apr 4

    On the Shelf for April 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 339

    On the Shelf for April 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 339 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: Exciting news about the next season of Bridgerton. The upcoming 10th anniversary Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Fielding, Henry. 1746. The Female Husband: or, the Surprising History of Mrs Mary, Alias Mr George Hamilton. Liverpool, M. Cooper. Baker, S. 1959. “Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband: Fact and Fiction” in PMLA, 74 pp.213-24. Book Shopping Kehoe, M. (ed). 1986. Historical, Literary and Erotic Aspects of Lesbianism. New York. ISBN 0-918393-21-3 Gilbert, Oscar Paul (trans. by J. Lewis May). 1932. Women in Men's Guise. The Bodley Head, London. Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction Stand and Deliver by Ivy Warren Romeo & Her Sister by Jillian Blevins To Love a Boleyn by Joey Evangelista Arguments Against the Cultivation of Female Curiosity (Curiosity #2) by Suzanne Moss The Countess and the Cartographer by Lyra Ashwood The Egyptologist's Curse by Georgina Kenyon Love's Joy and Sorrow Between Women by Emilie Knopf Counterpoint by Barbara Bergmann Forever Yours, Nell by Andrea Ead The Witch and the Huntress by Luna McNamara A Whisper of Bells and Prayers by C.C. González Scallywag! by K.L. Mitchell The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy by Erin Edwards She Tamed the Lady by Judith Lynne Flirting with Disaster by Kerrigan Byrne As a Lover by Hilary McCollum At Last It's You by Marianne Marston Other Titles of Interest The Keyholder by S. Kallistos A Lady for All Seasons by T J Alexander What I’ve been consuming Queen Demon by Martha Wells Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh/em> by Rachael Lippincott Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien Lady Eve's Last Con/em> by Rebecca Fraimow The Rushworth Family Plot/em> by Claudia Gray Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner by Katrine Marcal 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)

    30 min
4.6
out of 5
22 Ratings

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.

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