Becky Birtha

Becky Birtha (born October 11, 1948) is an American poet and children's author who lives in the greater Philadelphia area. She is best known for her poetry and short stories depicting African-American and lesbian relationships, often focusing on topics such as interracial relationships, emotional recovery from a breakup, single parenthood and adoption. Her poetry was featured in the acclaimed 1983 anthology of African-American feminist writing Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Barbara Smith and published by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. She has won a Lambda Literary award for her poetry. She has been awarded grants from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts She is the younger sister of Rachel Roxanne Birtha Eitches, a former international radio broadcaster for the Voice of America. She self-identifies as an African American with Cherokee, Catawba, African, and Irish heritage, all of which inform her writing.

Birtha grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after the family moved to the Germantown section of the city in 1952. In 1963 the family relocated to the West Mount Airy neighborhood and Birtha attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls. She attended the State University of New York at Buffalo for a Bachelor of Science degree in Child Studies in 1973 and later obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 1984.

She wrote the foreword for Breaking Silence (1983) by Anne B. Keating in November 1983. Birtha and Keating were members of a local feminist writers' workshop in Philadelphia under the aegis of a local chapter of the Feminist Writers Guild.

In 1991, Birtha published The Forbidden Poems, an anthology of poetry focusing on lesbian relationships. According to Birtha, "Several [of the] poems were written as part of the process of recovering from the breakup of a 10-year lesbian relationship, of trying to find a way to deal with the feelings that the breakup produced in [her]". The Publishers Weekly review of The Forbidden Poems states that in her writings Birtha exhibits a "considerable ability to endow ordinary perceptions and occurrences with a profound significance" in her depictions of a lesbian community that is "stable, loving and creative--and whose members can all make a great cup of tea: 'even a hardcore stomping deisel dyke / can't ruin a pot of boiling water.'" Her works have been published in Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians, Conditions, Sinister Wisdom and Women: a Journal of Liberation. She writes book reviews for The New Women's Times Feminist Review.

Speaking at the 13th Annual Trenton Writers Conference in 1994, Birtha discussed her career as a writer, stating: "Have being black, a woman and lesbian been the biggest barriers I have had to overcome to become a successful writer? ... No, in fact... I celebrate it. I am also an adoptive parent, a single mother and a Quaker, and that has not stopped me from writing, either."

In later years, Birtha transitioned to writing primarily for children. Her first children's book Grandmama’s Pride (2005) has earned the Golden Kite book award and placement in the master reading lists of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Georgia. Her second picture book Lucky Beans (2010) was named as one of the New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2010 as well as one of Smithsonian Magazine′s 2010 Notable Books for Children. Birtha is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Personal life Birtha lived with her partner Nancy and daughter Tasha in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. As of 2021, she is the caretaker for her elderly mother and resides in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

She practiced Balkan folkdancing for over seventeen years and later studied other forms of modern and folk dance.

In 1992, she won one of the 4th Lambda Literary Awards for her anthology of lesbian poetry, The Forbidden Poems (1991).

She was awarded one of the Pew Fellowships in the Arts grants for $50,000 for the year 1993.

Her children's book Grandmama's Pride (2005) won the 2005 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Honor Book for Picture Book Text.

Selected work Short stories For Nights Like This One: Stories of Loving Women, Frog in the Well (January 1983). Lovers' Choice, The Seal Press (1987).

Poetry The Forbidden Poems, The Seal Press (1991).

Anthologies "Jonnieruth" in McMillan, Terry, ed. Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American fiction, Viking Press (1990). . Also in Busby, Margaret, ed. Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent, London: Jonathan Cape (1992). "Babies" in Mullen, Bill, ed. Revolutionary Tales: African American Women's Short Stories, from the First Story to the Present, Laurel Press (1995). "Ice Castles" in Ruff, Shawn Stewart, ed. Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers, H. Holt (1996). "Maria de las Rosas" in Smith, Barbara, ed. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Rutgers University Press (2000).