You could say I discovered Sapphic fiction by accident. I was finishing listening to an audio book on my way home when I got the usual “if you enjoyed this book, you might like this” recommendation. The book I just finished was paranormal fiction. One of my favorite genres, together with fantasy. So, I opened the first recommendation in the list to read the blurb. I think I ended up reading it four or five times because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Partly because I’d never seen sapphic representation in a book before and partly because the blurb and book were in English. Which isn’t my native language, so I didn’t quite trust that I got it right. However, I got the audio book and started listening to it immediately. Even though it was a fairly long book I finished it in a day and a half and I was in tears by the end of it.
Listening to that book I found something I didn’t even know I needed at the time and that in a sense was seeing myself represented in a book. It had the power to make me feel less like the odd one out. It also made me feel less alone in the world. It threw me a lifeline at a time I really needed one.
After that I went looking for sapphic books and found out quickly that there weren’t many in my native language. I’m very happy that that has changed in the past couple of years. But I found many more books in English and through social media, the reading community that came along with it. Subsequently, it led me to fly to England a couple of years later to attend a book event in Nottingham. It gave me a community where I feel like I belong.
Lee Haven’s story, Blood Moon, is in SapphFic Eclectic, Volume 5.
Butterworth Books 