Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence (2013 Edition)
This explosive international best-seller is back with a new foreword analyzing the unprecedented impact of Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence on the lesbian community and on mainstream culture. In new afterwords, the co-editors reveal how the book came to be and what happened when, for the first time in history, a lesbian book from a small publisher went mainstream.
Each nun in these stories describes her individual and searing path in, or out of, the convent to discover and face the truth of herself. Still myth-shattering, the stories remind us of the courage required to live—and love—in congruence with our authentic selves.
"Oblivious to the controversies that surrounded the initial publication of Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, whether they originated within the Catholic Church or the lesbian feminist movement, thousands of readers across the decades have embraced the book and found their lives changed by its message of empowerment."
Joanne E. Passet, Ph.D., Professor of History, Indiana University East
Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence (1985 Edition)
This ground-breaking book, co-edited with Rosemary Keefe Curb, Ph.D., recounts the struggles and accomplishments of 50 lesbian former and present nuns, including the editors. This best-seller was featured on the Phil Donahue and Sally Jessie Rafael shows and in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek. Includes 50 photos, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography.
Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence was published in hardcover and paperback editions and was translated into six languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. It was published in eleven countries: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States.
As the authors had no say in foreign rights to the book, the new covers and translated titles were sometimes shocking. See Photo Gallery below.
Original Naiad Press edition, 1985, 420 pages. Original cover shown above.
OUT OF PRINT
On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on their Scouting Experience (2021 Edition)
Lesbians, Lightning, and Bears!!!
Foreword by Pulitzer Prize nominee Victoria A. Brownworth
"Girl Scouting prepared me for my jobs and my life by giving me a sense of self and the confidence to dream big."
Jill Cruise, Olivia Travel Vice President
“Because of its importance as a cultural and historical document, I give five stars to this collection. The anthology is engaging and smart. Manahan’s introduction and sectional prefaces demonstrate astute understanding of an organization that has empowered millions of girls and women while harming many of them through lesbian purges and other manifestations of homophobia. The photos of the contributors as Brownies and Girl Scouts are charming, and the invented badges add a humorous touch.”
Elizabeth Sims, author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning
Lillian Byrd crime series and the Rita Farmer mysteries.
First published in 1997, Nancy’s second ground-breaking anthology contains hilarious, heartbreaking, and inspiring stories by thirty-three lesbian Girl Scouts, Girl Guides, and Campfire Girls -- troop members, volunteers, camp counselors, and professionals.
This is the first book to explore the contributions lesbians have made to scouting and the impact scouting has had on lesbians.
2nd Edition: NanBec Books, 2021
AUDIOBOOK NOW AVAILABLE!!!
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At Sea on the Range: From Berkeley Radical to Arizona Homesteader, 1934-1948 (2024 Edition)
Winner of The Great Southwest Book Festival for Memoir (2025)
Edited by Nancy Manahan and Natalya Lukin
"Gripping, funny, and heartwarming. A feminist tour de force of a woman who discovered her own strength, resourcefulness, skill, and courage."
—Bettina Aptheker, Professor Emerita, Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz
"A rollicking testimony of what it felt like to become a homesteader during the Depression, as seen through the eyes of an educated Bay Area bohemian. Come for the comic complications of marrying into a conservative ranch family; stay for the enlightened experiments in self-sufficiency."
—Lauren Coodley, author of Upton Sinclair:
California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual
More precious than gold, Jo Alexander's voice and vivid memories attest that women have always held up half the sky, and sometimes more."
—Camille Cusumano, author of Tango: An Argentine Love Story
"Jo Alexander was a talented writer, . . . a keen observer, an honest and kind person, and of course, a very intelligent and courageous woman."
—Hava Samuelson, Regents Professor of History, Arizona State University
In the midst of the Great Depression, a twenty-four-year-old, hoping to gain perspective on America's problems, fled to the Arizona desert. There she fell in love with and married a handsome but impoverished rancher. Far from being at “Home on the Range,” this UC Berkeley graduate was At Sea on the Range, with no telephone or electricity, cooking sowbelly on a wood-burning stove, building an adobe brick house, branding cattle, and running a popular dude ranch.
Lost for decades, never before published, this candid memoir by a prize-winning journalist/photographer is a thoughtful and humorous story of triumph over adversity. Includes original historic photos taken by the author.
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