Items

• Common lives/lesbian lives : a lesbian feminist quarterly. Number eight, Summer 1983
  Founded in 1981 and edited, typeset, printed and bound by a lesbian collective from Iowa City, ‘Common Lives/Lesbian Lives’ was a quarterly journal committed to “describing the lives of ordinary lesbians” in all their diversity. As the front matter states, this included “lesbians of color, Jewish lesbians, fat lesbians, lesbians over fifty and under twenty years old, physically challenged lesbians, poor and working-class lesbians and lesbians of varying cultural backgrounds”. This issue features poetry, childhood memoir from Joan Nestle and a piece showcasing visual art, with black-and-white reproductions. It is also notable for the essay ‘Love as Addiction – A Story of Battering’ by Kate Hurley, one of the first explorations of intimate partner violence among same-gender couples. ‘Common Lives/Lesbian Lives’ ran for a total of 56 issues, until its primary distributor went bankrupt in 1995.