Girlfriending

After a brief, head-spinning affair leaves her heartbroken, a divorced, perimenopausal mother sets out to date ten women in exploration of what she calls her lesbian adolescence, a quest she takes on with the ride-or-die support of her best friend and the small but mighty community she gathers along the way.

From the award-winning author of Stiltsville and Sea Creatures, two beloved novels about the slippery terrain of love and marriage, and inspired by her award-winning short story, "The Goddess of Illicit Choices," comes a lively and taut exploration of friendship, courtship, community, and all the shades in between. At its heart, Girlfriending asks: How do we remake our lives midstream, and how do we know when we've arrived?

PRAISE FOR "THE GODDESS OF ILLICIT CHOICES"

Winner of the 2024 Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction

"Once you start reading Susanna Daniel's engaging story of friendship, heartbreak, and the sweet, full-throated awkwardness of midlife transitions, it's hard to stop." 

- Suzanne Rivecca, author of Death is Not an Option

"This torch song of a story tricked me into believing, as the protagonist seems to, that good critical thinking applied to lost love might magically reconstrue the one who got away as one who might still make her wildest dreams come true. "

- Debra Monroe, author of The Source of Trouble