January 10, 1996 Contact: Barbara McKenna (408/459-2495)

NOTED NOVELIST AND LESBIAN ACTIVIST WILL PRESENT PUBLIC TALK AT UC SANTA CRUZ

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Novelist, playwright, and activist Sarah Schulman will present a free public lecture at 7:30 p.m. January 23 in Kresge Town Hall at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Schulman, who is in residence at UCSC for two weeks as a UC Regents' Lecturer, will read selections from her latest novel, Rat Bohemia. The talk is sponsored by Kresge Student Parliament. For more information, call (408) 459-2103.

Schulman's novels, nonfiction work, and plays have earned critical praise for their humorous yet gritty portrayal of urban life. Her stories often involve themes of survival for people outside of society's mainstream. Rat Bohemia, published last October by Dutton publishers, takes place in New York's Lower East Side. The story's protagonist is Rita, banished from her home at the age of 16 when she came out to her parents as a lesbian. Rita's lover and a friend who is HIV-positive are also central to the story.

A prolific writer, Schulman, 37, has penned six novels, a nonfiction book, and contributed to such publications as the Nation, Village Voice, and Mother Jones. She is a founding member of the Lesbian Avengers--lesbian rights activists--and is a member of the New York branch of ACT-UP, a national organization of lesbian and gay rights activists. She is the winner of Columbia University's 1993 Revson Fellowship, the 1991 Word Project for AIDS/Gregory Kolovakos Memorial Award, and the 1989 American Library Association's Gay and Lesbian Book Award.

The University of California established the UC Regents' Lecturer position to bring distinguished men and women--ordinarily from nonacademic fields--to UC campuses for short residencies. In addition to her public talk, Schulman's residency will include meetings with students and faculty and a presentation in the class, "Aspects of the American Jewish Experience."

Schulman's other books are: My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life During the Reagan/Bush Years (New York: Routledge, 1994); Empathy (New York: Dutton, 1992); People in Trouble (New York: Dutton, 1990; New York: Plume, 1991), After Delores (New York: Dutton, 1988); Girls, Visions, and Everything (Seattle: Seal Press, 1986); The Sophie Horowitz Story (Tallahassee, Fla.: Naiad Press, 1984).

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