minkowitz

DONNAVILLE is set in Donnaville, the author’s mind reimagined as a psychofantastic hamlet in a mythological Hudson Valley. The city is outwardly verdant, pleasant, and attractive to visitors, but at its center lies a dark and malevolent prison that most residents prefer not to think about. Some of Donnaville’s townsfolk run the prison, others are incarcerated there, and still others are trying to burn the whole place down and liberate Donnaville from the clutches of the morally ambiguous Magna Mater. It’s a bit Wizard of Oz, a bit Mad Max, and a whole lotta fantastic fun!

＂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