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Summer Memoir Workshop!

Hey friends, I’m teaching a six-week memoir workshop this summer, on Wednesday nights starting July 16. The last class date is August 20, and we meet from 7 to 9 PM ET on Zoom.

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 $300.

Let me know if you’re interested! You can contact me at minkowitz46@gmail.com.

Here’s my bio:

Donna Minkowitz has taught memoir writing for 27 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. She was recently inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival LGBTQ Writers Hall of Fame.

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Rainbow Book Fair!

Hey, I’m thrilled that I will be one of only two featured readers at the Rainbow Book Fair, the largest LGBTQ literary event in the country!

Come see me read from DONNAVILLE at length and answer your questions on Saturday, May 10 at 3 PM at the LGBTQ Center, 208 W. 13th Street in New York City! The Chills at Will podcast recently called DONNAVILLE “a master class in worldbuilding… deft, with vivid imagination.”

Looking forward to seeing you there.<3

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Updates During A Coup



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

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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.

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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!

 

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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.

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My Gender: A Deep Dive

By OCCullens - Paint.net, CC BY 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41656157

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.

https://roughtongue.substack.com/p/my-gender

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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.