New Lesbian Nuns

New Bella/Spinsters Ink cover

In May 2013 Bella Books, in Florida, brought my 1985 collection Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence back into print and, for the first time, made it available as an ebook. This edition is even better than the original, featuring an excellent foreword by historian Joanne Passet describing the controvesies that raged around the book and analyzing its impact on the LGBT and mainstream culture.

This edition also includes new afterwords with my co-editor's and my personal stories. Why did we ever undertake a project that would disrupt our lives as college English teachers, propelling us into international media limelight, making us targets of so much hostility?

Portuguese edition, from Brazil

Lesbian Nuns was published in 7 languages in 11 countries. Rosemary and I were interviewed by Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and hundreds of other domestic and international publications, radio programs, and television shows. Callers, audiences, and letters to editors (and to us) called us immoral, sensationalistic, depraved. We were thrown out of a hotel in Dublin and guarded by Irish police during a live television show that had received threats. We were even denounced in print by some lesbian feminists for exploiting the nuns and ex-nuns whose stories were in the book.

Despite our fear and chronic exhaustion, Rosemary and I accepted every invitation to speak or be interviewed for over 2 years.  We hoped that by simply being the first open lesbians many people had ever seen or heard, we could support the early lesbian and gay rights movement's efforts to educated people, reduce ignorance and fear, and increase understanding and acceptance.

Over the years, Rosemary and I heard from many hundreds of people who were helped by the book. Just this summer, almost 3 decades after its initial publication, I received a Facebook message from a closeted ex-nun school teacher who had just discovered a used copy of the original LNBS. She said she "found pieces of [her]self in each story," which lessened her feelings of isolation. She wrote that is inspired to follow the examples in those stories to live more open and to risk being more authentically herself.

Rosemary Keefe Curb and Nancy Manahan, 2005, Duluth, MN

Although Rosemary died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2012 and didn't know our book would be back in print, I compiled her afterword based on the memoirs she was writing. Her vibrant, witty personality and her deeply feminist intelligence shine from very paragraph. Rosemary's Chicago newspaper obituary, also included in the new book, documents what an extraordinary woman she was. Working with Rosemary Keefe Curb to create and publicize a book that made a difference in the world is one of the greatest blessing of my life.

The new Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence is available at Amazon and Bella Books. For an autographed copy, contact me directly or go to nanbec.com.

For pictures from the University of Minnesota book launch, the book event in the Dominican Republic, foreign covers, and quotes from the Bella edition, click here.

Nancy