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.

Born    1971
Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts , United States
Occupation    Author and Poet

This is the ninety-fourth post in a series highlighting the best gay and
lesbian authors from the 20th century (with a few before and after that
period) who have recorded in fiction, and nonfiction, the history of
gay people telling what life is, and was,
during an important time of history.

She
is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts (a city next to Boston) and
currently lives in San Francisco. Her books, mostly memoirs, are known
for their views into the queercore community.
 

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 long side 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.

Books

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.

List of works
Transforming Community (2007) ISBN 0978902343
Baby, Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl's Writing (ed.) (2006)[15] ISBN 0786717920
Rose of No Man's Land (2006) ISBN 1596921609
Without A Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class (ed.) (2004) ISBN 1580051030
Pills, Thrills, Chills, and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person (with Clint Catalyst) (2004) ISBN 1555837530
Rent Girl (2004)[16] ISBN 0867196203
The Beautiful (2003) ISBN 0916397890
The Chelsea Whistle (2002) ISBN 1580050735
Valencia (2000)[17] ISBN 1580050352
The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (1998) ISBN 1570270740