Category: Writing

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Growing Up Golem Is Being Republished!

Hi everyone.

Apologies for crossposting, if you’ve seen this already!

I’m very excited that my memoir GROWING UP GOLEM is going to be republished by Indolent Books in an all-new edition, after 13 years. And preorders are available NOW!

The estimable lesbian critic and poet Julie Enszer said of the book, “Minkowitz presents herself as a golem, created and controlled by her wacky, needy, and sexually abusive mother.… The quest of the book is Minkowitz’s transformation from golem to human; she desires, secretly to be a servant no longer for her mother, her sister, or the women she dates. Through their quest, Minkowitz explores her early life with the requisite wry humor that makes the book highly, even compulsively readable.… Emotional complexity, fierce imagination and compelling prose.”

The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction author Terry Bisson said of GUG, “Rich and wild, dark and funny, as fearless as her legendary journalism and as scary as a fairy tale. A serious writer at the top of her game. I love this book!”

“In Growing Up Golem,” the late novelist Ellis Avery said, “Donna Minkowitz comes to the unlikely, brilliant conclusion that she must have been her mother’s golem, a manikin formed from clay and garbage and sacred letters… Exciting, startlingly fresh. Donna Minkowitz takes a dazzling leap of fancy and then writes a new bridge into being behind her for the rest of us to follow.”

 

The book was shortlisted for both a Lambda Literary Award for memoir, and the Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Nonfiction Prize.

But I always felt this memoir didn’t get quite enough attention when it came out, so I’m over the moon that Indolent Books is bringing it out again!

If you do me a favor and preorder now, it will help my small-press publisher with publication costs

You can order right now by clicking on this secure link (just $16):

https://buy.stripe.com/4gMbJ22qdcrV65GgvK6kg18

And save the date for my New York City launch event — Thursday, April 9 at the Bureau of General Services — Queer Division at 7 PM, 208 W. 13th St. I’ll be speaking with the great Griffin Hansbury! Or for my Beacon launch event, Thursday, May 21 at 7 PM at the Howland Cultural Center with Ruth Danon, 477 Main Street in Beacon, NY! Or my event in High Falls, NY at Blue Heron Books with Kristen Holt-Browning, 4 PM on Sunday, April 12.

Thank you so much —

Donna

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Made/Up at the Newburgh Fringe Festival!


Hey, I’m thrilled to let you know that I’ll be performing a hyper-interactive show, Made/Up, in the very first Newburgh Fringe Festival, Saturday, October 24 at 1 PM! Tickets are $10 (plus $2 facilities fee). Location: The Ritz Theater, 107 Broadway in Newburgh, N.Y.

Made/Up combines writing by me about my life with writing by YOU, the audience. Those of you interested in memoir writing might especially want to come to this!

What stories do we tell about ourselves, and what happens when we want to change those stories? In this highly interactive performance, memoirist-turned-fiction-writer Donna Minkowitz reads selections from all three of her “defiant, playful, dark and funny” books (Kirkus), and invites the audience to come up with on-the-spot micro-memoirs and micro-fiction stories about themselves.

My students (or people who have been my students) are especially invited to come.

This is the show for you if you’ve ever wanted to write about your life and wondered how to go about it. It’s ABSOLUTELY for you if you’ve ever thought about writing a fairy tale about yourself, or imagining yourself as an inanimate object. (The Port Authority Bus Terminal? A poisoned peach? A subway train? The Vietnam War? A vibrator?)

For tickets, click here:

https://secure.qgiv.com/for/newburghfringefestival/event/madeup/

(You can also get tix with $12 cash at the door.) Would love to see you there!
Donna

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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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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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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.
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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:

roughtongue.substack.com

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!

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Sticky and Gooey

Hey, I’m going to get to do something fun at the Beacon Arts members show on Saturday, November 5! I’m going to read “Parker House Loaf,” a piece about food, class, status, luxury, and art. A few of you will remember my food writing from a few years back, so here’s the place to hear some more! Along with a performance by the great Donna Mikkelsen, and of course the fabulous art of the Beacon Arts members on the walls! At KuBe Art Center, 211 Fishkill Ave. in the old high school, 4-6 PM. See you then.

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A Few Delicious Things Coming Up

Hey everyone, two quick things to announce:  1) My next memoir workshop starts Wednesday, September 21 from 7 to 9 PM Eastern Time on Zoom. It will go for eight Wednesdays until November 16 (skipping the week of October 5 for Yom Kippur).

The focus is on craft, especially using emotion, sensuality, storytelling, lyricism, and voice. Everyone will get frequent feedback in a supportive atmosphere; class size will be small. The fee is $325.

Writers at all levels are welcome. For more information or to register, please contact me at minkowitz46@gmail.com.

2) We have a fabulous LIT LIT coming up for Friday, October 7 at the Howland Cultural Center! :-) Let me know if you want to read! For those of you who don’t know the drill, it’s 7 to 9 PM at the Howland, 477 Main Street in Beacon New York! Everyone who wants to can read their own writing of any genre of up to five minutes in length, until we run out of time. Because of the unique magic of Beacon, we get amazingly good memoir writers, novelists, poets, playwrights, and others!

I also keep a few slots so that people can sign up at the door. Or just come and listen. Lit Lit is a great place to meet Beacon writers and readers :-)

To sign up, please email me at litlitseries@gmail.com. The event is free, and soft drinks, wine, beer, and snacks are available by donation. Masks are required.