Gay and Lesbian Book Month Quiz with Answers
1. Lesbian poet and essayist who wrote about Native American culture.
Paula Gunn Allen
2. This gay author fell in unrequited love with Salvador Dali. He was murdered
by the Government of his country, some say because he was gay.
Frederico Garcia Lorca
3. This bisexual "cult figure of the feminist movement" wrote a 150 volume diary
covering a span of 50 years of her life. She said "Only the failure to love is
wrong".
Anais Nin
4. This gay author enjoyed boxing, martial arts and weight lifting. He ended his
life by committing suicide with his lover.
Yukio Mishima
5. What gay author wrote and published a 150 page "done me wrong" letter?
Oscar Wilde, De Profundus, written
in prison to Lord Alfred Douglas
6. This writer preferred to be called 'John', at 21 years of age inherited the equivalent of $10 million and wrote a book that has never gone out of print.
Radclyffe Hall, wrote The Well of Loneliness which was banned and taken
to court. After words the book sold over 10,000 copies the first year and
was selling at a rate of 100,000 copies ever year for several years. The book
has been published in 14 different languages and has never gone out of
print. (p.355)
7. This famous gay poet wrote a poem entitled "howl" and died recently.
Allen Ginsberg
8. This lesbian, feminist, poet and essayist was a librarian who recently died of
breast cancer.
Audre Lourde
9. This author wrote the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and an opera about
Susan B. Anthony.
Gertrude Stein
10. Who wrote a novel about a professional tennis player and a novel that was
made into a movie?
Gore Vidal, The City and the
Pillar and Myra Breckinridge
11. What was lesbian author Isabel Miller's real name?
Alma Routsong
12. Partners for 38 years, these 2 lesbians wrote a book first published in 1972 and
recently reprinted in a 20th Anniversary Edition
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons,
Lesbian/Woman
13. Name the author who wrote a book about a character who switches gender
every 100 years
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
14. This playwright "came out" in 1957 and challenged the idea that African
Americans should deal exclusively with black subjects.
Lorraine Hansberry (p. 357)
15. This author wrote a book about gay/lesbian mythology.
Judy Grahn (p. 340)
16. This French writer wrote more than 60 books, inspired by the writings of
Goethe and Nietzsche. He wrote a defense of homosexuality in the form of 4
Socratic dialogues. History autobiography was originally published in a limited
edition of only 13 copies.
Andre Gide, Corydon
17. Which author was a German prisoner of war who wrote only 5 books.
J. R. Ackerley
18. What lesbian writer bred dogs, was depressed about her weight and was
mocked for smoking cigars and wearing men's shirts?
Amy Lowell (p.454)
19. This playwright was known for his dandyism, translated writing from German,
Italian, English, French, Greek, and Latin, including 110 of William Shakespeare's
sonnets and 9 of his plays.
Mikhail Alekseyvich Kuzmin
20.What lesbian coedited a collection of writings by women of color?
Cherrie Moraga This Bridge
Called My Back
21. Which writer wrote a book about a lesbian who opens a women's bookstore?
May Sarton, The Education of
Harriet Hatfield
22. What lesbian author was originally named Pauline Mary Tarn?
Rene Vivien
23. Whose poems were used to mummify a crocodile?
Sappho (source Sappho: a
Garland)
24. This author wrote a book of prayers for gays.
Chris Glaser, Coming Out to
God
25. In her youth this writer preferred to be called "William" and lived with a
woman for 40 years, but did not want to be referred to as a lesbian.
Willa Cather, her partner was Edith Lewis. Before she died Willa Cather
destroyed all her personal letters and asked friends to do likewise.
26. This gay priest came out years after writing the best seller Are You Running
with Me Jesus.
Malcolm Boyd
27. This journalist wrote one of the first books about AIDS.
Randy Shilts And the Band
Played On
28. What author of young adult books wrote lesbian pulp novels in the 50's and
60's?
M.E. Kerr (Marijane Meaker) wrote under the pseudonyms Vin Packer and
famous lesbian writer Ann Aldrich. Her repeitour included (as Vin Packer)
Spring Fire, Dark Intruder, Look Back to Love, Come Destroy Me, Whisper
His Sin, The Thrill Kids, Dark Don't Catch Me, The Young and Violent,
Three-Day Terror, The Evil Friendship, 5:45 to Suburbia, The Twisted
Ones, The Girl on the Best Seller List, Something in the Shadows, Intimate
Victims, Alone at Night, Sudden Endings, The Hare in March, and Don't
Rely on Gemini. As Ann Aldrich she wrote We Walk Alone Through
Lesbos Lonely Groves, We Too Must Love, Carol in a Thousand Cities, We
Too Won't Last. As M.J. Meaker she published Sudden Endings, and
Hometown. As Marijane Meaker she published Game of Survival, and
Shockproof Sydney Skate (a novel for gay young adults). She wrote all her
young adult books from 1973 on under the name of M.E. Kerr.
29. Lifelong friends with Marlon Brando, this author wrote 17 books. He said
"The only way to teach history is to make them go through it themselves".
James Baldwin
30. This male to female transsexual was an army office and foreign correspondent
before her sex change. S/he is the author of several books on history and travel,
was published in the Rolling Stone magazine and wrote an autobiography.
Jan Morris (James Morris)
author of Conundrum and
others.
31. This author was an activist for the Black Panthers and defender of the P.L.O.
Jean Genet
32. Which lesbian author is the cousin of an employee at Monroe Community
College?
Madeline Davis, author of
Boots of Leather, Slippers of
Gold is Joyce Medwin's cousin
Bonus question: Name a Native American lesbian writer besides Paula Gunn
Allen
Some Possible Answers: Chrystos (Menominee), Barbara Cameron (Hunkpapa)
and Beth Brant (Bay of Quinte Mohawk) and others.
[note: unless otherwise noted answers varified for The Gay and Lesbian Literary
Heritage, ed. by Claude J. Summers]
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