Happy New Year! We are starting book club again fresh in 2024 after our break at the end of 2023. This year, we will be trying to mix things up a bit and try out some new kinds of reading, starting this month with a poetry collection.
As always, Virtual Lesbian Library is hosted over Google Meet every second Sunday of each month. The link goes out to our mailing list, Discord and Instagram.
Join our Discord to take part in book club discussions throughout the month.
Tonight no poetry will serve – Adrienne Rich
For our first book of the year we will be reading Tonight no poetry will serve by Adrienne Rich, a collection of poems written by the author between 2007-2010.
Rich has been published since the 1950s and has had a massive career spanning many decades until her death in 2012. This poetry collection was her final collection published before her death, although her work has continued to be published after.
She is an important writer within both the lesbian and feminist sphere and is also known for her essay on compulsory heterosexuality published in 1981 (linked below), so we are hoping this will give us some great discussion in the next book club.
As this is a short book and easy to dip in and out of, we will be giving one month to read and then be back in with the discussion on the 11th February. As you are reading, maybe have a think about which poems are speaking to you the most so that we can all choose one each to discuss in February?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this book and we think it is a great start to the new year and the book club in 2024!
Where can I read it?
There are many listings of this book second hand on ebay or it may be available in your local library. We also spotted it in Gays the Word bookshop, however it doesn’t seem to be available to read online.
A free version of the book is available on the internet archive >here<
The internet archive also has a version of Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence >here<
Northants Lesbian Society 
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