She spent her professional career teaching both Spanish and French full-time in a Philadelphia public high school and later worked part-time with student teachers at a local university while writing as much as possible.

We are invisible to each other.”[7] In a 2020 op-ed piece at Women & Words called “Excuse Me While I Burn a Few Bridges,” Bess urges all readers to take the time to discover Black voices, especially those of feminist and lesbian authors.

She and the interviewers, Dr. Stephanie Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle, raise fascinating and important issues about racism, class, inclusion, diversity, and lesbian publishing.

[9] As an advocate for all people and a devoted believer in detailing accurate history, Bess envisioned compiling an anthology in remembrance of all those killed by a homophobic man who shot up the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

She appealed to trailblazing author Lee Lynch who called the idea “brilliant” and wrote this at The Amazon Trail in Diversity Rules Magazine: “One day, out of the blue, I received an email from well-respected writer Renée Bess.