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Blog
Catch up on Patricia Grahall’s blog, where she writes about feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, and more.
A Conversation between Patricia Grayhall and Felice Cohen
Patricia: Let’s start with the generational gap between us. When I came out in 1969, homosexuality was considered a mental illness. I...
New Novel: A Place for Us
For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Harper Bliss, E. J. Noyes, Gerri Hill, and Jen Lyon, a thrilling tale of two women who find each other...
What a journey!
Last night I got to reflect on my journey from attending my first Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference virtually in 2020 as a...
Mentoring Young Doctor Writers
The highlight of this four-day national conference on the shores of the Olympic Peninsula was meeting new friends. I volunteered to be a...
Women Use Weak Language to Get Ahead
In the early 1980s, I joined a mostly all-male multispecialty clinic to set up a new program in my specialty. As a leader, I aggressively...
Hiding No More
I just finished The Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland. The author weaves her story of her coming out and experience of...
The Risks and Rewards of Self Disclosure
“I can’t imagine writing about my intimate life for public consumption,” several of my friends have told me. It is indeed scary to leave...
Lesbian Pulp Fiction
Recently, at the urging of my friend, Barb, I listened to Terry Gross of NPR interview Marijane Meaker, a pioneer of lesbian pulp...
My Pen Name Came from my Grandmothers
Both my grandmothers were born in the 1870s. Grandmother Gray had two years of college and was a school teacher in Arizona before she...
Fabulous Launch!!
Third Place Books Lake Forest Park: October 11, National Coming Out Day was my book launch event!
My Writing Buddy, Anu
My writing buddy Anu wrote this sweet piece about my book launch at Third Place Books in Seattle: Oct 11, 2022. Today I attended...
Pride March NYC 1976
In early summer David and I traveled by train to New York for the Gay Pride Parade. It had been seven years since Stonewall. The 1969...
Review of Woman: An American Idea
The starred Kirkus Review of Lillian Faderman’s book Woman: The American History of an Idea very accurately describes her book as an...
Is Feminism Dying?
Barrow and Panovka, young women in their twenties wrote in their literary journal, The Drift, that “we’ve had the sense that feminism is...
Girls Can Kiss Now
Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz contains clever essays by a young woman exploring identity, desire, and self-worth. Pop culture, a...
"Start With a Fairy Tale," my writing teacher said.
Once upon a time there was a young woman who thought she could have everything and anyone she wanted if she tried hard enough. Her mother...
When It's Time to Let Go
I pass by my dog’s bed in the living room and look down at him. He gazes up at me with his soulful brown eyes, the whites showing in a...
In Honor of Women's History Month
Do you ever wonder what your ancestors would be like if they lived today? Both of my great aunts, born in the 1870s, were handsome women...
Two great memoir books by Melissa Febos
I found Abandon Me by Melissa Febos very compelling. For example, she writes: “The next morning the storm had grounded all planes…..We...
Do You Have Interesting Ancestors?
My grandfather was born in the mid-1870s on a farm in Iowa, the eighth child of ten. His mother died (presumably of exhaustion) when he...
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