​“While there are many critical appraisals as well as biographies and bio fictions of Anne Lister’s life, this monograph by Sarah E. Maier and Rachel M. Friars is a sustained attempt at going far beyond a merely biographical account. It contributes valuable material and intriguing perspectives to gauging the cultural impact of neo-Victorian re-writings and adaptations of Anne Lister’s diary. The volume fully engages with existing neo-Victorian and Adaptation Studies research and devotes four chapters to contemporary re-writings of Lister to create a methodologically convincing account of the various refractions of an important queer pioneer that is both theoretically informed and highly readable.” — Eckart Voigts, Professor of English Literature and Culture, TU Braunschweig

Becoming Anne Lister: Diaries, Adaptations, and Afterlives examines Anne Lister’s historical legacy as a prolific diarist, landowner, and queer woman, as well as her representation in transmedia adaptations in neo-Victorian literature, film and television. Sarah E. Maier, PhD is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. Her latest work includes Neo-Victorian Young Adult Narratives (Palgrave 2024), and Neo-Victorian Lesbians on Screen (2025 with Friars) while her current research is on neo-Victorian biofiction(s) of authors and artists. Rachel M. Friars, PhD is an independent scholar in Sussex, New Brunswick whose work includes Neo-Victorian Lesbians on Screen (2025 with Maier). Friars has written on neo-Victorianism, nineteenth-century lesbian literature and history, life writing, true crime, and the Gothic in Neo-Victorian Studies, Crime Studies Journal, Studies in the Novel, and The Palgrave Handbook of Neo-Victorianism.