Judith Katz
Judith Katz (born 1951) is an American playwright, thespian, and novelist. Her debut novel, Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound (1992), won a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.
Early life and education
[edit]Judith Katz was born in 1951 in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she grew up in a traditional Jewish family.[1][2][3]
She graduated with a bachelor's in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1973.[1][2] While at UMass Amherst, she experienced homophobia at the student women's center, which led her to come out as a lesbian by publishing the article "Hard Ass Dyke Tells All" in the school newspaper.[1]
Career
[edit]Katz is known for her work as a playwright, novelist, and theater-maker. Katz's writing frequently features lesbian and Jewish characters, including in both of her novels.[1][2]
Her first full-length play was The Franny Chicago Play, which was originally produced in 1973.[1] The play explores the relationships among three lesbian women, two of whom are grappling with the third's suicide.[4][5]
Later in 1973, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where she worked with the Magic Theatre as a playwright-in-residence, technician, producer, and performer until 1977.[1][2]
In 1977, she returned to western Massachusetts, where she obtained a master's in theater from Smith College in 1979 and co-founded the Chrysalis Theatre Eclectic.[1] For her master's thesis, she wrote Tribes: A Play of Dreams, a family drama with allusions to women's history.[2][6]
Katz moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1983 to work with the feminist theater group At the Foot of the Mountain.[1][7] While with the group, she wrote and performed in plays such as The Monster in My Mother's House.[8]
In 1992, she published her first novel, Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound.[1][2][3][7] The book tells the story of a woman named Nadine Pagan as she deals with her difficult Jewish family and settles in a lesbian Jewish community known as New Chelm, featuring references to Jewish mysticism, including the dybbuk of Jewish folklore.[2][9][10] It won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction the following year.[1][2][11]
Her next novel, The Escape Artist, was released in 1997.[3][7] A historical novel set in early 20th-century Poland and Argentina, it follows a Jewish lesbian girl navigating the underworld of Buenos Aires.[12]
From the early 1980s until her retirement in 2020, she also worked as an adjunct and academic advisor for the Departments of English and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota.[1][2][7] She also taught at the Loft Literary Center and as an adjunct at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Hamline University, and Macalester College.[1][7] Additionally, Katz has long been involved in lesbian feminist and peace organizing.[1][13]
Her papers are held as part of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at the University of Minnesota Libraries.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Judith Katz Papers". University of Minnesota Libraries. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Shatzky, Joel; Taub, Michael (1997-07-16). Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 166–173. ISBN 978-0-313-03329-2.
- ^ a b c "Judith Katz". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ Koerner, Elaine (1974-10-30). "The Blue Sneaker Playwright". The Valley Advocate.
- ^ "The Franny Chicago Play". Lesbian Herstory Archives AudioVisual Collections. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ Kraft, Stephanie (1979-05-09). "Tribal Histories". The Valley Advocate.
- ^ a b c d e Huynh, Hamy (2020-05-15). "Judith Katz: Writer, Teacher, Academic Advisor, Troublemaker, Retiree". University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ "Playwright-actress to speak". The Duluth News Tribune. 1984-05-26.
- ^ Howe, Mica; Aguiar, Sarah Appleton (2001). He Said, She Says: An RSVP to the Male Text. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 34–36. ISBN 978-0-8386-3915-3.
- ^ "Women's Fiction". Seattle Gay News. 1995-05-19.
- ^ "5th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 1993-07-14. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ Scott, Tara (2017-12-20). "The Escape Artist by Judith Katz: Book Review". The Lesbian Review. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ Stern, Ella (2024-09-25). "The Chain of History: a conversation with three Jewish lesbian activists". Minnesota Women's Press. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
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