Michelle Tea



Michelle Tea (b. Michelle Tomasik in 1971) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, prostitution, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts and currently lives in San Francisco. Her books, mostly memoirs, are known for their views into the queercore community. In 2012 Tea partnered with City Lights Publishers to form the Sister Spit imprint.

Spoken word and magazine writing
Tea was the co-founder of the Sister Spit spoken word tour. She has toured with the Sex Workers' Art Show alongside Ducky DooLittle and others. She is also a contributor to The Believer magazine and is the co-writer of the weekly astrology column, Double Team Psychic Dream with astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo, in the San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper.

Academics
In February 2008, Michelle was the 23rd Zale Writer-in-Residence at the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute at Tulane University. She did not go to college and, in interviews, has discussed the assumption that she has studied.

Critical Acclaim
While touring together in the year 2000, Tea and writer Clint Catalyst came up with the idea to solicit first-person narratives for their 2004 anthology Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache. Described by Publishers Weekly as a "celebrat[ion of] the avant-garde," the book, which includes work by Dennis Cooper and Eileen Myles reached #10 on the Los Angeles Times non-fiction paperback bestseller list in its first week of release. Moreover, the book was a 2004 Lambda Literary Awards finalist in the Anthologies/Fiction category. Indeed, her books have won a nomination in the competition virtually every year since her Valencia won for best Lesbian Fiction in 2000.

Poetry

 * The Beautiful: Collected Poems. 2003. ISBN 0-916397-89-0

Novels

 * Valencia. 2000. ISBN 1-58005-035-2
 * Rose of No Man's Land. 2006. ISBN 1-59692-160-9

Memoirs

 * The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (1998) ISBN 1-57027-074-0
 * The Chelsea Whistle (2002) ISBN 1-58005-073-5
 * Rent Girl (2004) ISBN 0-86719-620-3
 * Transforming Community (2007) ISBN 0-9789023-4-3

Edited

 * Pills, Thrills, Chills, and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person (edited with Clint Catalyst). 2004. ISBN 1-55583-753-0
 * Without A Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class. 2004. ISBN 1-58005-103-0
 * Baby, Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl's Writing. 2006. ISBN 0-7867-1792-0
 * Sister Spit: Writing, Rants and Reminiscence from the Road. 2012. ISBN 0-87286-566-5