My research is a chronological and global trajectory of published black lesbian authored narratives in fiction (and not poetry). The project is interested in analyzing the multiple ways black lesbians have chosen to use complete sentences to tell fictional stories, throughout time and place and respond to the research question: “Is there a predominant black lesbian (fiction) narrative?”

To break the project down into parts, my research aims are:

1) to develop a comprehensive and biographical annotated bibliography of black lesbian identified fiction writers and authors throughout time and place;

2) to uncover a diasporic lens of “black lesbian” by tracing the narratives of fiction writers who identify as black lesbian;

3) through a chronological analysis, uncover the frequency and type of publications by black lesbian fiction writers and authors –if there was a particular heightened publication period (likely short story anthologies in the 1970s), what was its impact on a black lesbian narrative;

4) through a global rendering of black lesbian fiction writing, align narratives to reveal themes that are uniquely black lesbian by distinguishing between national or cultural tropes.

This long-term research project will become a biographical rendering of these authors as well as an analysis of their works.