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Review

In the past few years, there has been an unprecedented surge in lesbian writing -- a burst of vitality and originality that has marked it as arguably the most interesting new writing on the American literary scene. In Close Calls, editor Susan Fox Rogers has assembled a vibrant and compelling collection of twenty-one new stories, bringing together established writers and unpublished authors in a superb anthology that probes the intellect and touches the heart. With stories that are sad and those that are funny (and some that are both), stories of illness and loss, those that explore aspects of therapy, children, violence, and sex, this collection portrays the varied aspects of lesbian life today. Featuring work from Barbara Wilson, Anna Livia, Ruthann Robson, Linda Smukler, Gwendolyn Bikis, Donna Allegra, and Lynne Yamaguchi, among others, Close Calls reflects the depth, breadth, and richness of lesbian fiction today.

'What is a lesbian story?' So asks Rogers in the introduction to this anthology. Requiring only the simple criteria that the works be written by a woman and feature a lesbian character, she lets the stories themselves respond to the question. Happily, no restrictive answer emerges: the stories in this collection encompass all the possibilities of the form in general, yielding some delightful results....With very few exceptions, the tales here are of high literary quality. There is no shortage of anthologies of lesbian writing, but Rogers's success in illuminating contemporary lesbian life in all its diversity should secure a place for Close Calls among the best of the crop."
-- Publisher's Weekly
"Rogers's criterion for selection was unpublished stories that kept her glued to her seat -- in this case, an appropriate description for a collection that is without exception well written, original, and compelling."
Library Journal