Anna Livia Papers
Finding aid created by James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center staff using RecordEXPRESS
San Francisco Public Library. James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center
2022
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, California 94102
(415) 557-4567
sfhistory@sfpl.org
http://sfpl.org/sfhistory
Title: Anna Livia Papers
Dates: 1974-2004 (bulk 1986-2004)
Collection Number: GLC 121
Creator/Collector:
Anna Livia, 1955-2007.
Extent: 3 cubic feet (in 3 boxes)
Repository:
San Francisco Public Library. James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center
San Francisco, California 94102
Abstract: The papers include drafts and completed writings by Livia, correspondence, reviews, interviews, notes for lectures, and subject
files. Her work centers on issues of gender, sexuality and language. She was fluent in French and translated several books
and poems for various publishers. Some of her own work is written in French. There are subject files on Natalie Clifford Barney
and Renee Vivien.
Language of Material: English
UNARRANGED COLLECTION. Open for research. Contact Hormel LGBTQIA Center archivist for more information.
Copyright retained by the Estate of Anna Livia.
Anna Livia Papers. San Francisco Public Library. James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center
Donated by Patti R. Roberts, September 24, 2008.
Biography/Administrative History
Anna Livia (1955 -2007) was a lesbian feminist writer, translator, literary critic, teacher, and linguistic theorist. She
was well known for how her fiction and non-fiction explored issues of gender, sexuality and language. Born Anna Livia Julian
Brawn in Dublin, she spent her early childhood in Africa and communicated in English, Bemba, Swahili, Zulu and Afrikaans.
Her family moved to London when she was 15. She graduated in French and Italian from University College London. Soon thereafter
she worked for Onlywomen Press, which published her first novel "Relatively Norma" (1982) and thus established her in the
world of radical lesbian feminist writers. Livia is best known as a pioneering academic in queer linguistics through "Queerly
Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality" (1997), co-edited with Kira Hall, and "Pronoun Envy: Literary Uses of Linguistic
Gender" (2001). She also published translations of the early lesbian writers Natalie Clifford Barney and Lucie Delarue-Mardus.
From 1999 until her death she was a member of staff at University of California, Berkeley.
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers include drafts and completed writings by Livia, correspondence, reviews, interviews, notes for lectures, and subject
files. Her work centers on issues of gender, sexuality and language. Livia corresponded with Ursula LeGuin about pronoun use.
She was fluent in French and translated several books and poems for various publishers. Some of her own work is written in
French. There are subject files on Natalie Clifford Barney and Renee Vivien.
Language and languages--Sex differences.
Gays--Language.
Lesbians--England--London.
Anna Livia, 1955-2007--Archives.