Elana Dykewomon

Elana Dykewomon (; October 11, 1949 – August 7, 2022) was an American lesbian activist, author, editor, and teacher. She was a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for the Lesbian Fiction category.

Early life and education Dykewomon was born Elana Michelle Nachman in Manhattan to middle class Jewish parents; her mother was a researcher and librarian, and her father was a lawyer. She was raised in a Zionist household, and her father fought in Israel's War of Independence. She and her family moved from Long Island, New York to Puerto Rico when she was eight.

Dykewomon had a difficult childhood as she struggled with her sexuality and frequently fought with her parents. She recalled being molested by a worker at the local San Juan hotel. At around 11 or 12, she attempted suicide and was consequently sent to a residential center in New York for treatment then later to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore because of another attempt. In her later teen years, she lived in a halfway house and attended various boarding schools, including Windsor Mountain School.

Books

In 1974, Dykewomon published her first novel,

Her second book, They Will Know Me By My Teeth, released in 1976, was published under the name Elana Dykewoman, "at once an expression of her strong commitment to the lesbian community and a way to keep herself 'honest,' since anyone reading the book would know the author was a lesbian."

Fragments From Lesbos, printed in 1981 "for lesbians only," was published under the author's current last name, "Dykewomon," in order "to avoid etymological connection with men."

In 1997, Dykewomon published Beyond the Pale: A Novel, which followed two Jewish lesbians' migration from Russia to the Lower East Side in New York. The historical fiction novel included a depiction of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, as well as Russian pogroms, the U.S. suffrage movement, and midwifery practices in the early 20th century. Beyond the Pale was republished in 2013, and considered a classic of the lesbian fiction genre. She also contributed regularly to several other lesbian periodicals, including Common Lives/Lesbian Lives. She was also a regular contributor to Bridges, a magazine of writing by Jewish women.

Awards and achievements In 1998, Beyond the Pale won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the Ferro-Grumley Award for lesbian fiction.

In 2004, Riverfinger Women was selected as #87 in The Publishing Triangle's list of 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Novels, by a panel of judges that included Dorothy Allison, Samuel R. Delany, Lillian Faderman, M.E. Kerr, Sarah Schulman, and Barbara Smith. In 2018, the Golden Crown Literary Society awarded Riverfinger Women with the Lee Lynch Classic Award because it is an "essential part of American literary history, LGBT literature, politics, and popular culture."

Dykewomon was awarded the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize by the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in 2009.

Personal life and death After graduating from the California Institute of Art, Dykewomon moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where she was involved with the Valley Women's Center and lesbian separatist projects. In Northampton, she helped found Megaera Press, a lesbian publishing house, as well as the Women's Film Coop.

In the 1970s, Dykewomon moved to Coos Bay, Oregon, before settling in Oakland, California in the 1980s.

Works Books Novels

Poetry and short story collections

Other writings Prose

Poetry "I had a dream..." and "Even My Eyes Became Mouths" in

"The Census Taker Interviews the 20th Century" and "The Vilde Chaya and Civilization" in — (1992). Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends. Seattle, WA. 3 (1). "New England Cemetery" and "diving, i kiss" in

Various in

Foreword, "Yahrzeit," "Butch Breasts at Fifty," and "Should I Tell My Gynecologist" in

Essays