Bio
"full of burning intensity and feral longings...bittersweet...(a) moving and unexpected...fierce memoir"-New York Times Book Review
Honors, Awards and Stagemates
Universities & Colleges played
Acclaim
Michelle Tea is much beloved for her writing, her spoken word, and her innovative arts organizing that brought the world Sister Spit, the all-girl open mic event that earned a San Francisco Bay Guardian "Best of the Bay" Award. During it's two year span, Sister Spit enjoyed visits by such trangressive literary luminaries as Mary Gaitskill and Eileen Myles. In 1997, Sister Spit decided to take the show on the road, and so the Ramblin Roadshow was born. The lineup of The Roadshow has included Eileen Myles, Marci Blackman, Sini Anderson, Lynn Breedlove, Beth Lisick, Tara Jepsen, Nomy Lamm, and many more- over thirty different performers have performed throughout the country with Sister Spit on its many tours.
Michelle has been as prolific with her publishing and recording as her organizing. Tea's first novel, "The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America" was published by Semiotext(e) and garnered lengthy, positive reviews in The Village Voice and The Nation. "Valencia" (Seal Press), her second effort, captured the 2000 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction, was selected by the Voice Literary Supplement as one of the top twenty-five books of the year, and earned Tea both a San Francisco Bay Guardian "Goldie Award" for Literature and a prestigious award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation for female writers at the start of their careers. Tea's third book, "The Chelsea Whistle", was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the Autobiography category, and was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the top 100 books of 2002. She currently is working on several books and editing several anthologies, including "The Beautiful" (Manic D. Press), "Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache" (Alyson Publications), and "Without A Net" (Cleis Press). Her work will be included in the forthcoming anthologies: "Women Who Eat" (Seal Press), "Punk Rock Porn" (Soft Skull Press), "Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws" (McGilligan Press), "Coming Out of the Closet Again", and "Night". She is at work on a illustrated (graphic) novel, "Rent Girl", with artist Laurenn McCubbin, to be published Summer 2004 by Last Gasp.
Tea's writings are included in many anthologies and publications including books on Manic D Press, Painted Leaf Press, Semiotext(e) Seal Press, Alyson Publications, and MacAdam/Cage. Tea's essays and opinions frequently turn up in the following print and web publications: the San Francisco Bay Times (winning her the Cable Car Award for Best Critic in 1997), the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Believer, On Our Backs, Girlfriends Magazine, The Stranger, Nerve, Nerve.com, LesbianNation.com, Out Magazine, Other Magazine, Plazm and Lodestar Quarterly.
Her work has garnered her stage time at Bumbershoot, the Seattle Poetry Festival, the Albuquerque Poetry Festival, The Michigan Women's Music Festival, and universities and dive bars nationwide. Tea has taught writing at The Michigan Women's Music festival, The San Francisco Public Library, The Art Center School of Design in Pasadena, California, and The Center for New Words in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has guest lectured at universities, festivals, and colleges nationwide.
She is one-half of the astrology duo Double Team Psychic Dream, who pens horoscopes for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Girlfriends Magazine. She recently completed the screenplay "Chelsea", a feature-length film loosely based on her memoir, "The Chelsea Whistle", and is communicating with interested filmmakers in Los Angeles and New York.