Donna Minkowitz is a writer of fantasy, memoir, and journalism lauded by Lilith Magazine for her “fierce imagination and compelling prose.” Science fiction great Terry Bisson called her writing “rich and wild, dark and funny, as fearless as her legendary journalism and as scary as a fairy tale.” And she’s proud that Kirkus has praised the “defiant and playful energy” of her work.
Minkowitz is the author of the forthcoming novel DONNAVILLE, which will be out in October 2024 from Indolent Books.
You can preorder it right here.
Her most recent memoir was Growing Up Golem, a finalist for both a Lambda Literary Award and the Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award. It’s a “memoir with fantasy” written as though instead of giving birth to her, her mother had created her as her own personal golem. Writer Ellis Avery called Golem “brilliant, exciting, startlingly fresh,” and Lily Burana said of the work, “Her writing is magic.”
Minkowitz’s first book was Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me about Sex, God, and Fury.
It’s about what it was like to cover the Christian right as an openly lesbian reporter, often in disguise and undercover. Ferocious Romance won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Book On Religion/Spirituality.
She writes a Substack called Rough Tongue, with “personal, urgent, leftist, tender” essays. You can find it here.
Minkowitz’s take-no-prisoners journalism has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, The Nation, New York magazine, Salon and the Village Voice.
For this work, she has won a GLAAD Media Award, an Exceptional Merit Media Award, and an NLGJA Award for Outstanding Journalism.
Filmmaker Kimberly Peirce has said her movie “Boys Don’t Cry” was directly inspired by Minkowitz’s 1994 Village Voice article about Brandon Teena, the 21-year-old trans man murdered in Falls City, Nebraska. (She recently revisited that article and some of its problems here.)
In 2014, she fulfilled a lifelong dream by becoming the inaugural food and restaurant critic for Gay City News, New York City’s LGBTQ paper.
After the election of Donald Trump, she started doing deep-dive investigative reporting on the white supremacist movement for The Nation, Slate, The Forward, and the progressive think tank Political Research Associates.
Donna teaches memoir writing classes and works as a writing coach.
You can find her on all the socials: @donnaminkowitz on Instagram and
https://www.facebook.com/DonnaMinkowitz.
Contact: minkowitz46 AT Gmail.com.
Literary agent: Valerie Borchardt at Georges Borchardt, Inc.
All contents (c) Donna Minkowitz 2011-2024
Wow Donna! Your blog is outstanding!! In the midst of my morning ritual to arrive on time for the day job, but I can’t wait to sit and read every word of your wonderful and so engaging work. Big gentle hug.
Big Fan! Angela
Oh man, thanks so much, Angela! Your comment made my day.
Hi Donna, will you be doing any memoir writing workshops this fall? Thank you
Hi Katherine. Yes, I have a workshop starting this week, on Wednesday the 21st in Brooklyn! I will email you to let you know the details. Thanks for writing.
Hi: Couldn’t locate a contact address here. I am very interested in taking a memoir writing class in NYC with you. Saw that you are teaching a class at JCC now, and I can’t make that class (and too late anyway). Will you be teaching in the summer? Any info would be appreciated!
Hi Stefanie. Thanks for writing. I’ve answered you privately, but you and others can contact me at growingupgolem AT gmail.com. :-)
I want to follow your writing but I can’t find a sign up sheet! Please include me! Lovely meeting you !
Kindly,
Lauren Decker
Hi Lauren. It was wonderful to meet you, too, and thank you so much for writing!! There is a subscription sign-up sheet, but I just realized that it’s only visible on the full version of this website, not the mobile version. :-(
While I get this fixed, you can sign up on the full version of donnaminkowitz.com, and I will add you to my regular email list! All best :-) – Donna