“Elana was very studious, hardworking and serious about her writing,” Chernoff said. Her thesis advisor was Maxine Chernoff, SF State Professor and Graduate Advisor. Her second novel “Beyond the Pale,” won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction in 1998.īeyond the Pale also served as Dykewomon’s master’s thesis. She was also involved in the Women & Gender Studies Department.ĭykewomon’s first novel “Riverfinger Women,” won the Lee Lynch Classic Award in 2022, 48 years after its publishing date in 1974. She and her two siblings grew up in a Jewish, middle-class family.ĭuring her academic career, Dykewomon received a BFA in Creative Writing from the California Institution of Arts in Santa Clarita in 1971 and an MFA from SF State in 1997.Īfter receiving her MFA, Dykewomon went on to be a Graduate Teaching Associate for SF State’s Creative Writing Department before teaching composition for the English Department.Īccording to Maricel Santos, English Department Chair and professor, Dykewomon taught for over a decade. 7, after being diagnosed nearly a year before.ĭykewomon was born Elana Michelle Nachman in Manhattan, New York on Oct. Just 20 minutes before the performance started, Dykewomon passed away from her battle with esophageal cancer on Aug. “How to Let Your Lover Die” is based on the real-life, emotional journey of love, acceptance and grief that she felt when she slowly lost her partner, Susan Levinkind, to Lewy Body Dementia in 2016. The play was a part of the 2022 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, held in San Francisco. Surrounded by her loved ones in her Oakland home, Elana Dykewomon was preparing to virtually watch a performance of her first play “How to Let Your Lover Die” according to a memorial by The New York Times.

Beyond the pale by elana dykewomon