Lez Talk: A Collection of Black Lesbian Short Fiction

Allen and Cherelle did a standout job. The stories were ordered in a way that I wanted to keep reading, rather than feel fatigued. The variation in themes kept the anthology from being repetitive (which is always a danger). I finished the anthology last week, and I’ve been talking it up like crazy. As a bookworm, I know of no higher form of praise.While I like most of the stories, there were some standouts that deserve extra applause.K.A. Smith has two stories in the anthology. Darker the Berry and Two Moons. In Darker the Berry, what looks like a supermarket pickup and casual sex turns out to be so much more complex than it first appears. I told K.A. that I would love to read a novel set in the Two Moons world because in such a short, lyrical piece, she does some intriguing world-building. K.A. is a member in my “never disappoints” club–I know that if I’m picking up an anthology or independent work by her, I will never be disappointed.S. Andrea Allen’s story, Pretty, resonated strongly for me. It begins “Everybody said she was pretty, for a fat girl.” I don’t think that there is a plus-sized woman who hasn’t heard that dig. I blinked back tears at the end of the story for that, too, was a moment I identified with. Her second story in the anthology, Epiphany, is the story of a love gone toxic. What do you do when you need to leave a relationship, but can’t see the way out? I walked away wanting to read more by Allen because in both stories, I became emotionally invested in her character’s stories and their outcomes.Eternity Philops nearly broke my heart with The Other Side of Crazy. Delilah’s girlfriend Sam is cheating on her. Again. She waits for Sam to come home, but she doesn’t. Delilah ends up seeing Sam ]kissing a girl. The resolution of their story is gut-wrenching. Of all the stories in the anthology, this is the one that I’ve most revisited, emotionally, and continue to think about.La Toya Hankins’s One More weaves the story of Toni’s first few decades of life. We bear witness to her first flickering crush in childhood that ends in shame, to her mom threatening to pull her financial support in college unless Toni renounces being gay, and the eve of her wedding. We see glimpses of the journey her family has taken on the road to accepting and celebrating Toni for who she is. Everyone except her mother. It hurts to be judged. It’s doubly painful when one’s mother–the person society tells us is supposed to love us no matter what–is the one doing the denying and shaming. Hankins deftly tells the story without allowing it to ever dip into melodrama, which it easily could have in the hands of a less skilled author. Bring tissues.I would really love to see this become an annual anthology, or the first in a series.

As a young black lesbian it’s really hard and frustrating when you don’t have book where you can insert yourself in. These stories felt real to the black gay experience, to my experience.

This was a pretty good collection of short stories. There were a couple that had endings that seemed rushed but they were all entertaining to read.

LOVED this book! I might read some of the stories to my college class.

I enjoyed the short stories and would def recommend the book ... especially Erzulie's Touch -- A MUST read

A great collection of stories, all well written and all exploring different aspects of Black lesbian life and love, this book was amazing.

This book is like water to my soul. I have missed the black lesbian voice and this collection of essays is superb!

Loved the book, can't wait to order the next in the future

This one didn't do it for me and I can't quite work out why. It should have been very much to my taste but was actually a little cheesy. Too much sweat maybe and not enough love juice. What the hell, everyone to their thing!