Deena Metzger

Deena Metzger
Deena Metzger at her home in Topanga, CA, in 2013.
Deena Metzger at her home in Topanga, CA, in 2013.
Born1936 (age 87–88)
Brooklyn, New York, US
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • poet
  • healer
  • teacher
LanguageEnglish
Alma materBrandeis University
Notable worksRuin and Beauty: New and Selected Poems, La Negra y Blanca

Deena Metzger (born 1936) is an American writer, healer, and teacher whose work spans multiple genres including the novel, poetry, non-fiction, and plays. Metzger is a creative writing teacher and feminist scholar. In the 1960s and 1970s Metzger was a member of the Critical Studies faculty at the California Institute of the Arts, taught English at Los Angeles Valley College, and was on the faculty of the Feminist Studio Worship. Metzger also founded the writing program at Woman's Building in Los Angeles. Metzger was a contributing editor to Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women's Culture that ran from 1977 to 1980 in Woman's Building.[1]

Metzger is also known for her image in Hella Hammid's 1977 photograph, sometimes referred to as "The Warrior," or “Tree” poster, in which the post-mastectomy Metzger stands in a celebratory pose.[2] She first introduced and convened Daré, monthly gatherings for community and individual healing in 1999 and then ReVisioning Medicine in 2004. Her novel La Negra y Blanca won the 2012 Oakland Pen Award for Literature.[3][4]

  1. ^ Klein, Jennie (2009). "Goddess: Feminist Art and Spirituality in the 1970s". Feminist Studies. 35 (3): 588–589. JSTOR 40608393.
  2. ^ Bolaki, Stella (2011). "Re-Covering the Scarred Body: Textual and Photographic Narratives of Breast Cancer". Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. 44 (2): 1–17. doi:10.1353/mos.2011.a440539. S2CID 142943479 – via Project MUSE.
  3. ^ Metzger, Deena. "Deena Metzger". deenametzger.net. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  4. ^ "PEN Oakland Awards & Winners". www.pen-oakland.org. PEN Oakland awards. Retrieved June 30, 2024.