Hi friends. I haven’t updated you here in a long time, and I have lots of news for you!
Of course, this email is being sent out in the midst of a brazen attempt at an authoritarian coup in the United States, which really puts my small bit of writing and publishing news into, as they say, perspective.
Before I get to the latter, JOIN ME IN FIGHTING BACK!
Go to indivisible.org and any demonstrations you can.
Trump, of course, hates oppositional queer writing by women (among others), so maybe this newsletter from me is topical after all!
My novel DONNAVILLE is going like gangbusters. I’m thrilled that I will be one of four featured writers at this year’s Rainbow Book Fair in Manhattan, Saturday, May 10 at the LGBTQ Center, 208 W. 13th Street.
The WROTE podcast did a really fun interview with me about DONNAVILLE, which is up right now. Hosts Vance Bastian and Baz Collins zeroed in on the role of mythology in the book, and asked if its structure had anything to do with Joseph Campbell, which… DING! DING! DING! Yes, it does :-) I love the hero’s journey (which is both less hokey and less sexist than some think), and I love myth even more. The WROTE podcast hosts got it, and I was over the moon.
Meanwhile, I did ANOTHER interview with the Chills at Will podcast, which is “a celebration of the visceral beauty of literature.” I loved host Peter Riehl’s questions, and I can’t wait till that podcast is up.
Watch for a DONNAVILLE reading this summer at Blue Heron Books in High Falls, New York… Also watch for a summer memoir writing workshop from me.
In two weeks, I’m appearing for the first time at the Saints and Sinners Festival in New Orleans, an LGBTQ writing conference I have always wanted to go to. Delighted that I will be on a panel on “nurturing your writing habit” with Michael Cunningham, Jewelle Gomez, Jonathan Alexander, and Joan Larkin, greats all! on Saturday, March 29. I will also be giving a writing workshop Friday, March 28 on writing that straddles memoir and fiction…
Back in New York, I’ll be lecturing on Gnosticism, my favorite religion of all time, at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, Sunday, April 20 from 12:30 PM to 2 PM, 269 4th Avenue. (Don’t worry, I won’t be talking for that whole time, there will be some other things on the program besides me, like music :-) ) Come on down and learn about this radical ancient religion that hated the idea of a jealous, worship-demanding patriarchal god. Some of their medieval adherents thought that, ahem, queer sex was more holy…
DONNAVILLE is now available as an e-book in addition to a paperback. You can get the e-book here and everywhere!
Finally, the next Lit Lit, the monthly open mic for writers I host in Beacon, NY, will be Friday, April 4 from 7 to 9 PM. We are open to all, including non-locals! Check out our new poster by artist Samantha Palmeri. For a fabulous evening with over 20 writers of all genres, come to the Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main Street. If you’d like to read your work (five-minute time limit) get there by 6:30 to sign up.
That’s all I’ve got. Take part in nationwide protests on April 5.
I love you — Donna
September 25 Memoir Writing Workshop on Zoom!
Hey, I’m teaching my eight-week memoir writing workshop again, on Wednesday nights starting September 25 on Zoom! The class meets from 7-9 PM ET, and the last class is November 13.
The workshop focuses on craft, especially on using emotion, the senses, lyricism, storytelling, and voice. Students will get frequent feedback in a supportive atmosphere. Class size is limited to 8. The fee is $325.
Let me know if you’re interested! You can contact me at minkowitz46@gmail.com.
Below is some more information about my background:
Donna Minkowitz has taught memoir writing for 24 years, at venues ranging from the 92nd Street Y and the Mt. Chocorua Writing Workshop to the JCC of Manhattan, the New York Writers Workshop, and The Kitchen. Her most recent memoir, Growing Up Golem, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award, and she won a Lambda Literary Award for her first memoir, Ferocious Romance. A former columnist at The Village Voice, she has also written for Slate, The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, New York magazine, and Salon. Donna earned a BA in Literature from Yale University and received an Andrew D. White Fellowship in Comparative Literature from Cornell University. She founded the Lit Lit literary series in Beacon, and has served as a judge for four book awards.
Lit Lit Mixer!
Hey, Lit Lit is having a mixer! At the great Happy Valley Bar at 296 Main St. in Beacon on Thursday, October 12 from 6-8 PM. We’ll be yakking it up in their beautiful courtyard.
The nice folks at Happy Valley have offered us a 10% discount at the bar. (Nonalcoholic beverages also available, and you can even order eats from MOD.) Also, everyone who is interested in writing and reading is welcome — you don’t need to have come to Lit Lit before!
September Memoir Writing Workshop
Hey, I’m teaching my eight-week memoir writing workshop again, on Wednesday nights starting September 20 on Zoom! The class meets from 7-9 PM ET, and the last class is November 8.
The workshop focuses on craft, especially on using emotion, the senses, lyricism, storytelling, and voice. Students will get frequent feedback in a supportive atmosphere. Class size is limited to eight. The fee is $325.
Let me know if you’re interested! You can contact me at minkowitz46@gmail.com.
Below is some more information about my background:
Donna Minkowitz has taught memoir writing for 24 years, at venues ranging from the 92nd Street Y and the Mt. Chocorua Writing Workshop to the JCC of Manhattan, the New York Writers Workshop, and The Kitchen. Her most recent memoir, Growing Up Golem, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award, and she won a Lambda Literary Award for her first memoir, Ferocious Romance. A former columnist at The Village Voice, she has also written for Slate, The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, New York magazine, and Salon. Donna earned a BA in Literature from Yale University and received an Andrew D. White Fellowship in Comparative Literature from Cornell University. She founded the Lit Lit literary series in Beacon, and has served as a judge for three book awards.
My Gender: A Deep Dive
So, over on Substack I finally took a deep dive into the subject of my gender, after 59 years. Come with me into feminine-masculine, butch, femme, masculine-feminine, and everything at once. What’s my gender? And what does it mean? I hope you enjoy the piece.
June Excitement
Hi sweeties! I’ve been writing my butt off for Substack, and I’ve written some pieces I’d love you to see.
Here’s one called Sexy, which is about why, yeah, I probably feel sexier at 59 than I have ever felt before. Hint: I feel completely able to say no and fuck you.
Here’s one called My Two Mothers, about bringing together the mother who never nurtured me with the mother who taught me and cultivated in me some of the things in life I love the most. (They were the same person.)
And here is one called Cooking Up Rebellion, about how cooking, like writing, depends on a universe of others (including our hominid ancestors.)
I hope you enjoy. And if you’ve got something to say, leave a comment! :-)
- The very first Beacon Literary Festival will be June 17-18 at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY. I am excited to be on the first panel of the day on Saturday, June 17, talking about how to make nonfiction into art. 477 Main Street, 11:15 AM -12:15 PM.
- New York City friends, come see me read at East Midtown Pride on Tuesday, June 27, a collaboration between the East Midtown Partnership and the Publishing Triangle! I’ll be reading with Lauren Melissa Ellzey, Anastacia-Renée, James Villanueva, and Fay Jacobs. 7 PM, at the SUNY Global Center, 116 E. 55th St, NYC. More information here.
All About My Economic Class! Plus Hunky Gay Robots.
So, I have a couple new pieces on the Substack that I really wanted to tell you about! Coming out today, I have a science fiction story called “The Tender Brigade” that is a riff on the fact that the US military has been developing lethal, autonomous military robots with, um, “ethical” capacities. And because this is a story by me, the ethical, military robots are also gay, and very sexual.
Next, I wrote an essay called “This Is the One About Class,” which details exactly what economic class I currently am, plus the class that I grew up in. This one was hard to write — it’s about, among other things, growing up on welfare, but much later on becoming economically privileged through the pure luck of the draw. And how I feel about that very complicated reality. It’s very much about the shame many of us feel about being poor, and about how easy it is to be attracted to the false claims of elitism (the idea that we get better stuff in society BECAUSE WE’RE WORTH IT! I’m proud of this piece, so I’d love it if you’d take a read.
Finally, I have some neato events coming up! Lit Lit in Beacon is Friday, May 5 at the Howland Cultural Center, from 7-9 PM. We have our very first LIT LIT MIXER scheduled for Thursday, May 11 at Homespun Foods, 272 Main Street in Beacon, 7-9 PM — an opportunity for all of us local readers and writers to meet each other and TAWK! And then, on Friday, May 12, I will be participating in a fantastic event called Twice Told Tales, where 10 writers write original pieces based on photographs by the artist Margot Kingon. At Norma’s, in Wappinger’s. Then on June 17 and 18th, get on down to the first Beacon Literary Festival, where I will be reading and talking about my work on the 17th. Would love to see you there. :-)
Rough Tongue
Houston, we have a Substack! Yup, after thinking about it and working on it for awhile I have launched a Substack called Rough Tongue, dedicated to “sensation, emotion, and food under capitalism.” Want to see it? Here it is:
It’s mostly free for now — please subscribe!
I’m going to write about why luxury feels so damn good even though we know it’s based on someone getting the shaft. Whether upper-class food or poor people’s food is objectively “better.” And why we should all listen much more to our emotions, because they’re on our side.
Some more topics: why sex when you’re old is better (at least for me :-) ). What does it mean that even most upper-middle-class people can’t afford to eat at the majority of Manhattan restaurants? And then, of course, regular lists of stark raving pleasures that are absolutely free, from Sappho borrowed from the library to the sight and smell of the roses at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, if you ask for free admission.
Two more bits of news: I was interviewed by a wonderful podcast called Beaconites about my life and writing, you can listen here.
Finally, the next Lit Lit will be Friday, March 3 at the Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St. in Beacon. See everybody there!