Jill Johnston launched her career as a writer tracking downtown’s postmodern dance scene to becoming one of the most prominent voices of lesbian feminism with a column in the Village Voice and a bestselling book, Lesbian Nation. Her writing has been arguably under-examined, yet in recent years a movement to uncover many of these archives has taken shape. Explore some of this work below, and mark your calendars for an event honoring Johnston at Skirball on February 8th.

Office Hours: Coming Soon

An archival interview from “Making Gay History” with Jill Johnston and Studs Terkel in 1973.

Get Into It

Get Thee to the LIbrary

Recommended resources on Jill Johnston’s work.

Dwight Garner, What Was The Village Voice?, 2024

Frances Chapman, talking it out in new york city: is the sexual political?, 1973

Jill Johnston, The New American Modern Dance, 1976

The Gay and Lesbian Review, Was Lesbian Separatism Inevitable?, 2006

Read All About It

William Grimes for NYT | Sept. 21, 2010

Jill Johnston, Critic Who Wrote ‘Lesbian Nation,’ Dies at 81

“In the early 1970s she began championing the cause of lesbian feminism, arguing in “Lesbian Nation” (1973) for a complete break with men and with male-dominated capitalist institutions.”

Archived by Tony Ortega for The Village Voice | March 22, 2011

Jill Johnston: ‘A Woman Like Bella’

Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives.”

Jennifer Kabat for Frieze | Sept 22, 2019

The Revolutionary Dance Critic Jill Johnston

“‘She has this complete candor and gives me the license to say anything. When I started, I took that freedom.’”

Julie Bindel for The Guardian | October 11, 2010

Jill Johnston Obituary

“Feminist writer who gained notoriety with Lesbian Nation: the Feminist Solution”

Extra Credit

50964067
Stenberg Press

The Disintegration of a Critic

“This book collects thirty texts by Jill Johnston that were initially published in her weekly column for The Village Voice between 1960 and 1974.”