Author Archives: Nat McNeil

Nat McNeil

About Nat McNeil

Nat is a Children’s author, inspiring play writer, and a spoken word poet, who was born and bred in Manchester.

5 More Must-Read Lesbian Books for the Weekend – #outwriters

5 More Must-Read Lesbian Books for the Weekend

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (2006)

Noted lesbian writer and cartoonist Alison Bechdel always suspected that her father was a closeted gay man. But did her coming out to him contribute to his death? A story that beseeches us to be who we want to be, not enslave ourselves to other people’s expectations.

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Nancy Garden, Annie on My Mind (1982)

This tale of fortitude and perseverance focuses on two teenagers, Liza and Annie, who fall deeply in love, despite coming from very different backgrounds.

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Fannie Flagg, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe (1987)

In a hick town in ’80s Alabama, Ruth falls for Idgie and their dalliance leads to the opening of a cafe, betrayal, the forming of a makeshift family, a rescue and a murder.

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Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body (1982)

The unnamed narrator of this novel by Winterson, who is best known for her autobiographical novel Oranges are not the Only Fruit (1985), is rather unlucky in love. Her decision to leave her partner for a beautiful woman called Louise creates all kinds of drama.

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Audre Lorde, Sister Outside (1984)

This veteran lesbian feminist campaigner’s best assortment of essays on life, love, art and critical thinking. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand and critique the inherently patriarchal societies we all have to grin and bear.

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What to Expect at This Years LFest – #LFest2014

LFest is the multi award winning Lesbian Music, Arts and Comedy Festival.

LFest is the multi award winning Lesbian Music, Arts and Comedy Festival, widely recognised as being the “number one” Lesbian festival in the UK and is now in it’s fourth year. With a host of acts and activities to suit all tastes it has grown year on year.

It’s a festival that offers a safe and fun environment where lesbians can bring their families and just hang out. We try and pack as much into the weekend as possible and aim what we do at a broad spectrum of ages and interests. We have outdoor music stages – one for acoustic music – and an arts stage. There’s cabaret, a comedy stage, a cinema, fun sports and a wide array of workshops too. We have an attitude of ‘if it’s not been done before, let’s try it!’

Cindy Edwards – Festival Director

So what and who to expect this year…

2 Music Stages – An Areana and the Acoustic Stage

“Some familiar faces return together with a huge selection of new artists from far and wide who will be tantalising your ears, delivering an eclectic and electrifying mix of smooth acoustic folk through to bluesy soul pop and rock. You will certainly find all you need at L Fest 2014 ..whatever your flavour and whatever your mood, we are sure this year’s line-up will have you rockin’ out in the summer sun…”

Lucy & Mandy Burton. L Fest Music Coordinators

Art Stage

“Three years ago if someone had said to me you will programme the arts stage at L Fest, I would have thought they were mad! I must thank SpringOut once again for the the arts, cinema & workshops programming for the past 3 years… I’m so pleased with the amazing artists we have for you over the weekend with a diverse line up of authors, spoken word,discussion, theatre and much more.”

Cindy Edwards – Festival Director

Cinema

“This year the L Fest cinema has a truly international theme with films from across the globe! We will provide a wide range of entertainment from full length feature films: “Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?” (from Peccadillo Pictures -starring Guinevere Turner) and Australia’s “Submerge” by director Kat Holmes who’ll be flying in for Q & A’s…

Award-winning short films-the adorable “Cat Sitting”(by Wollie Boehm) and thought provoking anti-bullying short “Love Is All You Need” (k Rocco shields writer director & producer Dana Gardner) – PLUS- the PSA/Music video “She4Me” directed by Nicole Conn starring Nicole Pacent, Gabrielle Christian, Barbara Niven (“A Perfect Ending”) with cameos by Traci Dinwidie (“Elena Undone”) and Cathy DeBuono.

Late Night films for the ladies looking for a quieter evening: “Hannah Free” – starring Sharon Gless and “And Then Came Lola” starring Jill Bennett, last year’s L Fest guest. With this great line-up and schedule in our L Fest cinema, we’ll reverse the schedule over the weekend to be sure you get to see the projects important to you while enjoying all L Fest has to offer”

Denise Warner-Gregory

Here Come The Girls Cabaret Night

“Another new area for 2014, the cabaret and comedy stage will run each night due to your feedback for more in 2013! Cabaret style seating and tables, large stage in the downstairs bar will ensure room for everyone… I cannot wait to see all of these shows!”

Cindy Edwards – Festival Director

Writers Creating Awareness – Sarah Waters New Book Coming Out Soon

Sarah Waters is our ‘Writers Creating Awareness’ favourite for the month, and that is with good reason. The novelist, best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, is back with a new book ‘The Paying Guests’. This week The Bookseller previewer Alice O’Keeffe dubbed the new novel “gripping tale of class, sex and the consequences of a passionate affair” and “indisputably at the top of her game”.

About the book – Well, it is set in 1922, and the backdrop of London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. When Len and Lillian move in, Frances begins a tentative friendship with the latter, which soon grows into a full-blown affair.

The Paying Guest has taken Waters four years to write. The author told The Bookseller:

“I slowed down a bit because I had to get to know the period and [it] always takes time to feel at home in a period. There was more research than I’d had to do for the last book (The Little Stranger, 2009); I already knew the 1940s quite well. It was a much more challenging book to write than the last one, which was a very straightforward haunted house story. Even though there’s a strong plot to it, it’s quite character-driven.”

Waters also said:

“I always use lesbian desire to sort of upset something that we are familiar with. So with the other novels it would be taking a Victorian scenario that has been done to death a million times and putting lesbians into it and seeing what that does to it. With this novel it was a similar adventure.”