Asyia Iftikhar
Published February 14, 2026 5:00pm
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Emily Dickinson’s legacy within the LGBTQ+ community remains inspirational (Picture: Apple TV/Getty)
‘I didn’t go to Emily Dickinson looking for a queer poet, but that’s what I found.’
These are the words of Professor Martha Nell Smith, a leading Emily Dickinson scholar whose pioneering work in the 1980s helped transform our understanding of this famed literary figure and her place in LGBTQ+ history.
A prolific writer living in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the mid-19th century, Dickinson’s poetry about life, death, love and nature has resonated throughout the decades.
Most will recognise snatches of her work, having forged enduring lines of literature such as ‘hope is the thing with feathers’ and ‘because I could not stop for death’.
But in recent years, it’s her personal life that has been the subject of on-screen fascination, inspired by the swathes of letters she wrote in her life, which offer a profound glimpse into this reclusive figure.
Over four decades ago, Martha embarked on her studies of Emily Dickinson.
In a recent chat, she told Metro: ‘I started to read Dickinson’s letters and realised she sure paid a lot of attention to Susan Dickinson (née Gilbert) [her sister-in-law].
Poet Emily Dickinson’s sexuality has been subject to decades of scholarly debate (Picture: Getty)
And modern-day adaptations featuring the beloved writer, such as Apple TV’s Dickinson, unapologetically portray her as a lesbian (Picture: Apple)
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‘I started to notice that they had a queer edge – what we would call queer, she wouldn’t have used the word.’
Then came the Eureka moment. ‘I was like: “She was in love with this woman.”’
In one letter written to Susan, Dickinson penned: ‘Oh that you were [here], my Susie, we need not talk at all, our eyes would whisper for us, and your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language.’
Elsewhere, her favoured descriptor for her sister-in-law was as a ‘jewel’ and, in countless letters, she shares her proclamations of love and longing for the woman.
This aspect of Dickinson’s identity was portrayed in the 2018 movie, Wild Nights with Emily, and later, Alena Smith’s Apple TV Plus series Dickinson, which ran for three seasons and offered a delightfully sapphic and playful rendition of her life.
In the show, Hailee Steinfeld portrays our eponymous poet and Ella Hunt, her dear Susie.
Professor Martha Nell Smith has spent years looking into the special relationship between Emily and Susan (Picture: Martha Nell Smith)
These modern adaptations, which unapologetically explore the LGBTQ+ sub (and not-so sub) text to Dickinson’s work, have been hard fought for, however.
As a grad student in the 1980s, Martha was granted rare access to Dickinson’s manuscripts, and shortly after became friends with Mary Landis Hampson, who inherited Susan and Emily’s brother Austin’s home, The Evergreens.
‘One day, Mary asked me: “What do you really think of the relationship between Emily and Susan?”
‘I wasn’t going to lie to her, so I said: “Well, Mary, I think if we were to talk about the relationship now, we would call it lesbian.”
‘She smashed down her cane, turned around, put her crooked finger in my face and said: “You are absolutely right, and you must tell their story, but you be careful, because they will try to destroy you for it. Don’t you ever forget that you’re right.'”
At the time, the vast majority of prevailing scholarship steadfastly ignored the romantic tones of Emily’s letters to and about Susan.
She wrote plenty of loving words about her sister-in-law that have transcended time (Picture: AFP)
Martha – who used her long-held expertise to consult on the second and third seasons of Dickinson – remembered the pushback her school of thought had from ‘very prominent scholars’ who told her she was ‘taking it too far’.
What does Metro's Asyia Iftikhar love about Apple TV show Dickinson
I remember watching Dickinson for the first time during the pandemic and being completely enraptured by its edgy, contemporary portrayal of this beloved historical figure.
Although I had heard of Emily Dickinson, it’s the show that helped me realise just how powerful her poetry is, and can be.
And as a queer woman myself, it has always moved me to discover LGBTQ+ stories from the past that enhance our shared history. What’s more, Susan and Emily’s relationship is so delightful and beautiful to witness.
I truly believe it is one of the best and most nuanced, portrayals of sapphic romance on TV – one that acknowledges the constraints of the time period without sacrificing the joy of queer love.
Another movie portraying Emily Dickinson’s romantic love for Susie is Wild Nights with Emily (Picture: Everett/Shutterstock)
‘I thought to myself, push back all you want. The facts are facts,’ she added.
Reducing these dynamics to ‘close friends’ or ‘neighbours’ is a harmful narrative, as the author of a Short History of Queer Women, Kirsty Loehr, explained to Metro.
‘[This perspective] diminishes deeply loving and meaningful relationships. Yes, history is something to study and something to learn from, but it is also something people identify with.
‘Without a visible past, it becomes incredibly difficult for queer people to imagine a present, let alone a future…
‘People deserve to see themselves reflected in history.’
What’s more, bringing joyous stories to the screen is absolutely vital, as Layla McCay, author of The Queer Bookshelf: A Reader’s Guide, told us.
She says: ‘When you think about people and generations past who largely only got to see that being a queer woman equals ending up in an asylum or being killed, that’s such a bleak and unhelpful message for people who are growing up and trying to understand themselves and their place in the world.
‘Now we have a far more diverse offering – we can be villains, we can be victims, but we can also be heroes, we can also live a happy life.’
The power of seeing yourself in history, as was the case when Kirsty read Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, cannot be underestimated.
The power of seeing yourself represented in history cannot be underestimated (Picture: BBC/Lookout Point/HBO/Aimee Spinks)
‘As a child who loved history but rarely saw myself reflected in it, that absence felt incredibly lonely.
‘Then suddenly, here was this world: queer women in the past, navigating their lives, their desires, their ambitions. It was honestly fascinating,’ she opens up.
Certainly, Dickinson seems to have introduced a whole new generation to this incredible poet.
Martha joyfully revealed that plenty of students have signed up for her class about the poet at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities ‘because of the Apple TV show’.
‘[Shows like this] bring more readers in and get them interested in the power of poetry. Especially in the United States these days, poetry is a great comfort and also an energiser.
Shows like Dickinson are drawing a whole new generation to learn about this incredible literary figure (Picture: Apple TV)
‘Also, it drives a wedge into more conservative, stodgy views of Dickinson.’
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These pieces of media ‘portray a strong person, rather than someone who’s writing her heart out because she’s sad and broken’, which has been a source for young women in her class.
From the words in Dickinson’s letters, written almost two centuries ago, to popular TV shows that tell her authentic story, the act of onscreen representation remains powerful and radical.
Layla concludes: ‘It all comes full circle in the end and you realise that queer stories have been here for centuries, for millennia, and goodness, how fascinating it is to read about us through time.’
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Dickinson is available to stream on Apple TV Plus now.
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