Sinister Wisdom is an American lesbian literary, theory, and art journal published quarterly in Berkeley, California.

Started in 1976 by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Ellenberger (Desmoines) in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is the longest established lesbian journal, with 128 issues as of 2023[update].

[1] Each journal covers topics pertaining to the lesbian experience including creative writing, poetry, literary criticism and feminist theory.

[1] After attending the workshop, Nicholson and Ellenberger (Desmoines) submitted a leaflet calling for any lesbian writing to be part of a new journal.

Ellenberger in particular called for "revolution, reversal, and transformation" and wanted a place that was outside of the patriarchal realm for lesbians to communicate and express themselves.

Ellenberger (Desmoines) writes in her first "Notes for a Magazine":[5] The Law of the Fathers equates "right-over-left, white-over-black, heterosexual-over-homosexual, and male-over-female with good-over-evil."

To continue to publish outside of the patriarchal system, the journal had to pay for their office space, supplies, printing, and mailing out of pocket.

In the Summer of 1983, Rich and Cliff wrapped up their final issue at Sinister Wisdom and the journal was turned over to Michaele Uccella and Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz.

[12] At this point, Sinister Wisdom provided 80 free subscriptions to incarcerated lesbians, an initiative that the journal has continued to the present.

The contributions to the journal often represent different mediums, such as art, photography, short stories, personal accounts, poems, interviews, feminist and queer theory, and literature reviews.

The back of the journal usually contains classified ads calling for specific submissions, workshops, conferences, publications, videos, and requests for correspondence.

Ads also often advertise feminist bookstores where copies of Sinister Wisdom can be purchased, as well as other lesbian literature and arts journals for readers to subscribe to.

Works featured in the journal include the experiences of lesbians from a variety of cultural, racial, religious, and class backgrounds.

[21] In this agreement, Sinister Wisdom has made these back issues available on its website as downloadable PDFs to increase accessibility to lesbian literary content for readers.