Elana Dykewomon (néeNachman; 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 Lesbian Fiction.
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.[1] She was raised in a Zionist household, and her father fought in Israel's War of Independence.[2] She and her family moved from Long Island, New York to Puerto Rico when she was eight.[3]
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.[1][4]
In 1974, Dykewomon published her first novel,[6]Riverfinger Women, under her name of birth, Elana Nachman.[7]
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."[7] She also considered her name change an attempt to distance herself from the Nachman line of rabbis, and traditional literary culture, noting that "if I called myself Dykewomon, I would never get reviewed in the New York Times".[2][8]
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."[7]
In the 1989 anthology of writing by Jewish women, The Tribe of Dina, Dykewomon describes herself as "a Lesbian Separatist, descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, typesetter, ...poet"[9]
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.[10]Beyond the Pale was republished in 2013, and considered a classic of the lesbian fiction genre.[2] The novel served as Dykewomon's master's thesis at San Francisco State University, requiring her to study Yiddish, the Torah, and the Talmud.[2]Maxine Chernoff served as her thesis advisor.[5]
Periodicals
From 1987 to 1995, Dykewomon edited Sinister Wisdom, an international lesbian feminist journal of literature, art and politics, as well as contributing articles herself.[11] 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.
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.[4] In Northampton, she helped found Megaera Press, a lesbian publishing house, as well as the Women's Film Coop.[16]
In the 1970s, Dykewomon moved to Coos Bay, Oregon, before settling in Oakland, California in the 1980s.[16] In Oakland, she worked as a typesetter and taught in the English and the Women and Gender Studies departments at her alma mater San Francisco State.[6][2][5] Dykewomon was involved with the San Francisco Dyke March for over eight years.[16][5] She was married to Susan Levinkind from 1988 until her death from Lewy body dementia in 2016.[1][8]
Dykewomon died of esophageal cancer at her home on August 7, 2022, aged 72, shortly before she was to view the Bay Area Playwrights Festival's live-streamed reading of How to Let Your Partner Die, a play she had written about Levenkind's illness and death.[1][17][18][2]
Works
Books
Novels
Nachman, Elana (1974). Riverfinger Women. Plainfield, VT: Daughters, Inc.
— (2001). "Dinoflagellates". In Tulchinsky, Karen X. (ed.). Hot & Bothered 3: Short Short Fiction on Lesbian Desire. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN9781551521022.
— (2002). "The Body Politic: Meditations on Identity". In Anzaldúa, Gloria; Keating, Analouise (eds.). This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. New York: Routledge. pp. 450–457. ISBN9781135351526.
— (2003). "What Love Is". In Brown, Angela (ed.). Best Lesbian Love Stories 2003. Alyson Press. ISBN978-1555837655.
— (2007). "Seeking Welcome". In Forrest, Katherine V.; Buskirk, Jim Van (eds.). Love, Castro Street: Reflections of San Francisco. Alyson Press. ISBN9781555839970.
Poetry
"I had a dream..." and "Even My Eyes Became Mouths" in — (1990). McEwen, Christian (ed.). Naming the Waves: Contemporary Lesbian Poetry. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press. ISBN9780895943712.
— (1983). "learning to breathe". In Schoenfielder, Lisa; Wieser, Barb (eds.). Shadow on a Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat Oppression. Iowa City: Aunt Lute Books. ISBN9781879960244.
"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). ISSN1046-8358
— (1994). "A Law of Physics". Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends. ISSN1046-8358.
— (Summer 1994). "When to Answer". Zyzzyva. X (2). ISSN8756-5633.
Various in — (1999). Mohin, Lilian (ed.). Not for the Academy: Lesbian Poets. London: Onlywomen Press. ISBN9780906500606.
— (April 2000). "Butch resisting the pressure to change gender". Sojourner. Boston. ISSN0191-8699.
Foreword, "Yahrzeit," "Butch Breasts at Fifty," and "Should I Tell My Gynecologist" in Zeiser, Linda; Machado, Trena, eds. (2006). What I Want From You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets. Pittsburgh, CA: Raw Art Press. ISBN978-0972918558.
— (2011). "An Eastern/Western Country Song". In Enszer, Julie R. (ed.). Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry. A Midsummer Night's Press. ISBN978-0-9794208-8-7.
— (1983). "Traveling Fat". In Schoenfielder, Lisa; Wieser, Barb (eds.). Shadow on a Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat Oppression. Iowa City: Aunt Lute Books. ISBN9781879960244.
^ abLeland, Andrew (January 31, 2012). "Elana Dykewomon: An Oral History". The Oakland Standard. Oakland Museum of California. Archived from the original on June 22, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
^ abcLivia, Anna (2002). "Dykewomon, Elana". glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007.
