As of 2025, Paula Bernat Bennett is a professor emerita of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She received her Bachelor of Science in 1960, Master of Arts in 1962, and her Doctorate of Philosophy in 1970, all from Columbia University. Bennett taught at Harvard University from 1990-1991, and left to teach English at Southern Illinois University in 1991, where she remained until her retirement. She has published multiple books and anthologies on feminism and sexuality, including My Life a Loaded Gun: Female Creativity and Feminist Poetics (1986), and Solitary Pleasures: The Historical, Literary, and Artistic Discourses of Autoeroticism (1995).

Feminist literature encompasses writing in all forms with a focus on describing and defending equal rights for women across civil, political, economic, and social indicators. Frequently, it identifies the inequalities between men's and women's roles and the detrimental impact these have on individuals, families, communities, and society.

Lesbian literature is comprised of works by authors representative of the LGBTQ community, as well as heterosexual authors. It typically addresses themes and topics around female sexuality, employs the use of fictional lesbian characters, or discusses current and historical events from a lesbian perspective.