With the new novel The Cosmopolitans by lesbian author and activist Sarah Schulman, the New York-based Feminist Press launches its Corrective Canon initiative aimed at broadening the scope of modern literature.

The Cosmopolitans – a retelling of Honoré de Balzac’s 19th-century classic Cousin Bette – revolves around a middle-aged “odd couple” in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1958. The story of a conflicted friendship between a gay, black actor and a straight, white secretary captures the texture and soul of New York City when it was an open city in the late ’50s.

Schulman, a professor at the City University of New York, and the Feminist Press’ Kait Heacock spotlight the book and the Corrective Canon initiative in a discussion led by Kaite Stover, the Library’s director of Readers’ Services.