Rita Mae Brown
From Open Encyclopedia
Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944) is a prolific American writer and social activist, notable for novels, poetry, and screenwriting. She has also been nominated for an Emmy.
Brown was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, but she grew up in Florida, and as of 2004 lives outside Charlottesville, Virginia.
In the 1960s, Brown attended the University of Florida, but was expelled for her participation in a civil rights rally. She later moved to New York and attended New York University, where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later she received another degree in Cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts. She also holds a doctorate in Political Science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
In the late 1960s, Brown turned her attention to politics. She became active in the feminist movement (including the then-fledgling National Organization for Women), the American Civil Rights Movement, and the anti-war movement. She was central to the founding of The Furies, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective of the early '70s, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
Brown is the bestselling author of a number of books including Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Sudden Death, High Hearts, Bingo, Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual, Venus Envy, Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War, Riding Shotgun, Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser, Loose Lips, and Outfoxed.
She is also, along with her cat Sneaky Pie Brown, author of a mystery series featuring animals, including Wish You Were Here (1990), Rest In Pieces (1992), Murder At Monticello (1994), Pay Dirt (1995), Murder, She Meowed (1996), Murder On the Prowl (1998), Cat On the Scent (1999), Sneaky Pie's Cookbook (1999), Pawing Through the Past (2000), Claws And Effect (2001), Catch As Cat Can (2002), The Tail Of the Tip-Off (2003), Whisker Of Evil (2004), Cat's Eyewitness (2005)
She also wrote the film Slumber Party Massacre, intending it as a parody of the slasher genre. The producers instead decided to play it as serious.
She is the former girlfriend of tennis great Martina Navratilova, and also of actress and writer Fannie Flagg.[1]
