This original collection of essays explores the work and life choices of Spanish women who through their writings and social activism addressed social justice, religious dogmatism, the educational system, gender inequality, and tensions in female subjectivity.

Ana I. Simón-Alegre is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Adelphi University (Garden City, New York).

Lou Charnon-Deutsch is Professor Emerita of the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, New York).

Introduction: From "Chicas Raras" to Queer Women in Spanish Modern Culture

Ana I. Simón-Alegre and Lou Charnon-Deutsch

1: Nineteenth-Century Women Activists: Concepción Arenal's Cross-Dressing

Aurélie Vialette

2: Women Moved by the Spirit: Spiritism and Early Feminism in Spain

Lou Charnon-Deutsch

3: Queer Literary Friendships in Salons: Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer, Carmen de Burgos, and Others

Ana I. Simón-Alegre

4: Concha de Albornoz: Exception, Dandy, and Character

Isabel Murcia Estrada

5 : The Dissidence Inside Her Closet: Elena Fortún versus Encarnación Aragonés Urquijo

Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles

6: Celia, Elena Fortún's Queer New Girl

Elena Lindholm

7: The Unsuspected Truth: Abjection and Queer Narration in Nada

Nora Lynn Gardner

8: Trickster Women: Exploring Gender Identity and Sexuality with Txus García and Hannah Gadsby

Beth Bernstein