My Lesbian Husband-Landscapes of a Marriage

WINNER of the American Library Association GLBT Nonfiction Book Award
FINALIST for the Lambda Literary Award and the Minnesota Book Award

Before I began writing My Lesbian Husband I thought the issue of "lesbian marriage" was dull, conservative, even repressive. Then my baby brother announced his wedding engagement. As I watched the cultural machinery of the marriage ritual take hold of my south-side-of-Chicago family I began to wonder -what is the place of a couple of longtime lesbian lovers amongst all this hoopla? This is a book by the lesbian at the wedding. I’ve written about how if feels for a butch-femme couple like my beloved and I to stand on the sidelines of the family extravaganza, but also about who we are when we dance amidst the hoopla of our own making.

Restoring the Color of Roses

The stench of Chicago’s industrial corridor. A Polish mother. A Croatian nose. Guitar riffs trapped under the skin. The rattle of commuter trains. Blonde beauty queens and beaded yellow bras. Nipples the color of roses. My first book is a collection of memoirs about getting better. My subjects are sex, alcoholism, cultural identity, and the landscapes of a rebuilt life. This is book about falling out of life and coming back restored.