Debut novel by Donna Minkowitz
Official publication date October 31, but you can get yours this summer through this special pre-order SALE!!!
DONNAVILLE is set almost entirely in the author’s own mind, depicted as a city called Donnaville. The city is outwardly verdant, pleasant, and attractive to tourists, but at its center lies a dark and malevolent prison that most residents prefer not to think about. Some parts of Donna run the prison, some are incarcerated there, and others are trying to burn the place down. Meanwhile, why can’t the mother goddess do anything to stop this from happening? Can a sexy trickster dude inside Donna free the inmates, or will he need help from the feminine principle he despises and fears?
“Not an allegory but a wild romp of a fantasy story that takes the reader on a journey to the most forbidden recesses of the psyche, and the most hopeful ones. A tour de force of wit and imagination, Donna Minkowitz’s debut novel DONNAVILLE invents a whole new way of talking about the psyche and the internal struggles we all face. Devising a fantasy city in which all components of her mind and heart dwell (and variously flirt with, imprison, and rebel against one another), Minkowitz narrates a harrowing personal journey toward wholeness and a state in which no parts of her may be abandoned to self-torture and shame. A very queer, very sexy novel, where the author assumes all genders and many different sexualities, and where riotous sex scenes can be the occasion of important plot points. I’ve long loved Minkowitz’s work. DONNAVILLE is one more reason to be grateful to this fearless author who sheds all skins.”—Steven Petrow, contributing columnist, The Washington Post
“Part anti-prison fable, part gory horror camp, part dyke Goddess gay porn, Donnaville shocks the senses to open the gates between myth and belonging. This is the abusive family narrative turned inside-out, vomiting up the possibility of survival. Tender and grotesque, Donnaville frees the self of its burdens.”—Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Touching the Art
About the Author
Donna Minkowitz is the author of the memoirs Ferocious Romance, winner of a Lambda Literary Award, and Growing Up Golem, a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and for the Judy Grahn Award from the Publishing Triangle. A former columnist for the Village Voice, Minkowitz’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, Salon, and Slate. She is the recipient of a GLAAD Media Award, the Exceptional Merit Media Award, and the Award for Outstanding Journalism from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, as well as an Art Omi residency.