Roberta Degnore

Last updated
Roberta Degnore, Sirens M.C.jpg
Roberta Degnore, 1990
Born1946 (age 76–77)
Detroit, Michigan
Pen name
  • Carolyn Chase
  • Roslyn Dane
  • Rochel De Noreé
  • Roberta Dennis
  • Rachel Desmond
Occupation
  • novelist
  • filmmaker
  • psychologist
  • professor
Alma mater Wayne State University, City University of New York
Genres
  • romance
  • historical romance
  • science fiction
  • LGBTQ
Years active1977-
Notable worksInvisible Soft Return:\, 2013
Notable awardsFinalist Lambda Literary Awards 2014
Website
< www.robertadegnore.com

Roberta Degnore (born July 1946) is an American author, filmmaker, and psychologist. Degnore wrote novels under numerous pen names before pursuing graduate studies in psychology and filmmaking.

Contents

Degnore was a close friend and confidant to art curator and photography collector Sam Wagstaff at the time of his death from AIDS in 1987. [1]

She currently teaches courses in psychology at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her works include Invisible Soft Return:\, nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in 2014.

Growing up outside Detroit

Degnore grew up in what she recalled as the "desperately middle class" suburbs of Detroit, just north of Eight Mile Road, [1] with her mother and father, while her older brother, for reasons unknown to Degnore, lived not far away with their grandparents. [2] Degnore fondly recalls her cousin, Joe Groppusso, who was about a decade older than Degnore and acted as a childhood protector and early artistic and cultural influence. [2]

She attended Wayne State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Master of Arts in psychology. [1]

After her mother's discovery that Degnore was a lesbian, Degnore left Detroit for New York City. [1]

Early years in New York

Degnore arrived in New York City in 1980. With two other artists, she converted a 1500 square foot commercial loft in the Bowery District. [3] "It was all focused on the art scene," Degnore later told a reporter. "No one had money back then. Everyone was just doing art because they loved it, and we gave each other respect because of that." In the ensuing decades, the neighborhood had changed due to gentrification, and the building's owner sought to buy out the tenants and sell the building. [4] When he did so in 2008, he told Degnore to get ready to leave but she resisted, and was the last tenant to vacate. [3]

Degnore says Richard Curtis was her agent when she began writing for a living: "great beginning, great mentor," she recalled. [5]

Writing books to pay for graduate school

Degnore wrote numerous novels using pseudonyms, [6] including The Real Connection, an "as told to" autobiography of French entertainer and heroin smuggler Edmond Taillet, which was published under the pen name Rachel Desmond. [7]

Some of her genre fiction, originally published under pseudonyms, is now available under her real name, [6] including such romance and historical romance titles as Stuck Up, [8] Gold Digger, [9] and Until You See Me. [10]

Other titles Degnore published under pseudonyms include Renegade Hearts, Between the Lines, and A Woman of New Orleans. [6] [11] [12] [13]

Degnore explains on her website that she wrote the books to pay for graduate school as she sought her doctorate in psychology, and used pseudonyms to keep her careers separate. [14]

Degnore's early practice of psychology involved "working with artists in specialized creative block therapy". [15] In 1987, Degnore received her doctorate in psychology from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She now works in the Department of Social Sciences at the Fashion Institute of Technology, teaching a course in fashion choices and gender expression, [1] and conducting research in positive psychology, social psychology and applied psychology with a current focus on gender expression and perception in fashion. [16]

Degnore also holds a Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting from the University of California at Los Angeles. [17]

Friendship with Sam Wagstaff

Degnore met photography collector and art curator Sam Wagstaff while she was working on her dissertation for her PhD in psychology at the City University of New York. Her artist girlfriend had taken her to his apartment and bid her not talk to "the great man", but while her girlfriend fell into conversation with Robert Mapplethorpe, Degnore and Wagstaff bonded. In spite of the difference in their ages and socio-economic backgrounds, Degnore soon became his confidant. [1] "I shouldn't have fit into Sam's world," Degnore remembered. "But we were obstinately and ruinously close...until AIDS murdered him in 1987." [18]

When Wagstaff died of AIDS, Degnore was entrusted with destroying a cache of Wagstaff's intimate photos, including some taken by Mapplethorpe. [1]

When Degnore completed her doctorate in 1987, she dedicated her dissertation to Wagstaff. [19]

Degnore read an excerpt of her memoirs about her friendship with Wagstaff at the 2019 Rainbow Book Fair in New York City. [20]

Later novels and short films

In 1989, under the pseudonym Roslyn Dane, Degnore published The Assistance of Vice, [21] a novel about the downtown New York dyke scene in the years before AIDS that she later described in autobiographical terms. [22] [18] In 2004, Degnore made a short film called F*Stop based on the novel. [23] [22] Degnore's other film writing and directing credits include HairZ (2009), [24] and Heatbeat (1993). [25]

In 2013, Degnore published Invisible Soft Return:\, [26] a feminist science fiction novel that was named as a finalist in the science fiction category of the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nalo Hopkinson</span> Jamaican Canadian writer (born 1960)

Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels – Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), Midnight Robber (2000), The Salt Roads (2003), The New Moon's Arms (2007) – and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk (2001) often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Choi</span> American novelist (born 1969)

Susan Choi is an American novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Schulman</span> American writer (born 1958)

Sarah Miriam Schulman is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She holds an endowed chair in nonfiction at Northwestern University and is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities. She is a recipient of the Bill Whitehead Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund White</span> American novelist, memoirist, and essayist (born 1940)

Edmund Valentine White III is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursula Vernon</span> American comic creator and writer

Ursula Vernon is an American freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She has won numerous awards for her work in various mediums, including the Hugo Award for her graphic novel Digger, the Nebula Award for her short story "Jackalope Wives", and Mythopoeic Awards for adult and children's literature. Vernon's books for children include Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath. Under the name T. Kingfisher, she is also the author of books for older audiences. She writes short fiction under both names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Tea</span> American writer

Michelle Tea is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, sex work, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts and has identified with the San Francisco, California literary and arts community for many years. She currently lives in Los Angeles. Her books, mostly memoirs, are known for their exposition of the queercore community.

Abha Dawesar is an Indian-born novelist writing in English. Her novels include Babyji, Family Values, That Summer in Paris, and Miniplanner. Her 2005 novel Babyji won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the Stonewall Book Award.

Stacey D'Erasmo is an American author and literary critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Jane Anders</span> American science fiction author and commentator

Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette Six Months, Three Days won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine's "Top 10 Novels" of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Livia (author)</span> Irish born lesbian writer, novelist, translator, and academic

Anna Livia was a lesbian feminist author and linguist, well known for her fiction and non-fiction regarding sexuality. From 1999 until shortly before the time of her death she was a member of staff at University of California, Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Wolverton</span> American novelist, memoirist, poet, and editor (born 1954)

Terry Wolverton is an American novelist, memoirist, poet, and editor. Her book Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building, a memoir published in 2002 by City Lights Books, was named one of the "Best Books of 2002" by the Los Angeles Times, and was the winner of the 2003 Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her novel-in-poems Embers was a finalist for the PEN USA Litfest Poetry Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

Robert Triptow is an American writer and artist. He is known primarily for creating gay- and bisexual-themed comics and for editing Gay Comix in the 1980s, and he was identified by underground comix pioneer Lee Marrs as "the last of the underground cartoonists."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel R. Delany</span> American author, critic, and academic (born 1942)

Samuel R. "Chip" Delany is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction, memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society. His fiction includes Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection ; Nova, Dhalgren, the Return to Nevèrÿon series, and Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. His nonfiction includes Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, About Writing, and eight books of essays. He has won four Nebula awards and two Hugo Awards, and he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore</span> American activist and author

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is an American author and activist. She is the author of two memoirs and three novels, and the editor of six nonfiction anthologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N. K. Jemisin</span> American science fiction and fantasy writer

Nora Keita Jemisin is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and the subsequent books in her Inheritance Trilogy received critical acclaim. She has won several awards for her work, including the Locus Award. The three books of her Broken Earth series made her the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in three consecutive years, as well as the first to win for all three novels in a trilogy. She won a fourth Hugo Award, for Best Novelette, in 2020 for Emergency Skin. Jemisin was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program Genius Grant in 2020.

Roberta Leah Jacobs Gellis was an American writer of historical fiction, historical romance, and fantasy. She held master's degrees in both biochemistry and medieval literature.

Persimmon Blackbridge is a Canadian writer and artist whose work focuses on feminist, lesbian, disability and mental health issues. She identifies herself as a lesbian, a person with a disability and a feminist. Her work explores these intersections through her sculptures, writing, curation and performance. The novels she has written follow characters that are very similar to Blackbridge's own life experiences, allowing her to write honestly about her perspective. Blackbridge's struggle with her mental health has become a large part of her practice, and she uses her experience with mental health institutions to address her perspective on them. Blackbridge is involved in the film, SHAMELESS: The Art of Disability exploring the complexity of living with a disability. Her contributions to projects like this help destigmatize the attitudes towards people with disabilities. Blackbridge has won many awards for her work exploring her identity and the complexities that come with it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinelo Okparanta</span> Nigerian-American writer

Chinelo Okparanta(listen) is a Nigerian-American novelist and short-story writer. She was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where she was raised until the age of 10, when she emigrated to the United States with her family.

Imogen Binnie is an American transgender novelist who made her debut with the publication of Nevada in 2013.

Queer art, also known as LGBT+ art or queer aesthetics, broadly refers to modern and contemporary visual art practices that draw on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and various non-heterosexual, non-cisgender imagery and issues. While by definition there can be no singular "queer art", contemporary artists who identify their practices as queer often call upon "utopian and dystopian alternatives to the ordinary, adopt outlaw stances, embrace criminality and opacity, and forge unprecedented kinships and relationships." Queer art is also occasionally very much about sex and the embracing of unauthorised desires.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Schindler, Paul (23 March 2021). "An Intimate Witness to Queer Art History". Gay City News. Schneps Media. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 Degnore, Roberta (29 January 2019). "Family Monsters and Kindness: A Gay Woman and the Boy-man Who Loved Her". Medium. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  3. 1 2 Bergin, Brigid (8 November 2009). "Brack's Bowery Revisited". WNYC.org. WNYC News. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  4. ↑ Pompeo, Joe (15 July 2008). "Bowery Veteran hangs On". Observer.com. Observer Media. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  5. ↑ "Roberta Degnore". authorsguild.org. Authors Guild. Archived from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 "Roberta Degnore". kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Media, LLC. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  7. ↑ Hubin, Allen J. "Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography 1749-2000, Part 48". Crime Fiction IV. Allen J. Hubin. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  8. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (15 November 2012). Stuck Up. Digital Fabulists. ISBN   978-0615730974.
  9. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (11 October 2012). Gold Digger. Digital Fabulists. ISBN   978-0615715353.
  10. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (20 February 2012). Until You See Me. Kurti Publishing. ISBN   978-1475274479.
  11. ↑ Chase, Carolyn (1989). Renegade Hearts. New York: Dell. ISBN   0440203597.
  12. ↑ Dennis, Roberta (1983). Between the Lines. New York: Silhouette. ISBN   0671463136.
  13. ↑ DeNorré, Rochel (1983). A Woman of New Orleans. Wayne, Pa.: Banbury Books. ISBN   0440098564.
  14. ↑ "Roberta Degnore: Books". Roberta Degnore. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  15. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (1985). "The Politics of Art". Womanews. Vol. 6, no. 10. p. 16.
  16. ↑ "Roberta Degnore, PhD". researchgate.net. Research Gate GmbH. Archived from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  17. ↑ "Curriculum Vitae". Roberatdegnore.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  18. 1 2 Degnore, Roberta (2 December 2020). "Mourning and Memoir Writing: What is Tribute and What is Betrayal?". Medium. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  19. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (1987). "The Experience of Public Art in Urban Settings". CUNY Academics Works. City University of New York. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  20. ↑ ""Reader Bios"". rainbowbookfair.org. Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  21. ↑ Dane, Roslyn (1989). The Assistance of Vice. Austin, Texas: Banned Books. ISBN   0934411190.
  22. 1 2 "Roberta Degnore Biography". Roberta Degnore. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  23. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (writer/director). F*Stop. Film. 2004. Los Angeles. https://vimeo.com/17995915 Retrieved 2 July 2021
  24. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (writer/director). HairZ. Film. 2009. Los Angeles. https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2022310937?ref_=nm_rvd_vi_1 Retrieved 2 July 2021
  25. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (writer/director). Heatbeat. Film. 1993.
  26. ↑ Degnore, Roberta (2013). Invisible soft return:\. Los Angeles. ISBN   978-0615900551.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. ↑ "Lambda Literary Awards Finalists Announced". Bay Area Reporter. San Francisco: BAR, Inc. 1 April 2014. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.