Jenifer Levin

{{Short description|American fiction writer}}

Jenifer Levin (born October 31, 1955) is an American fiction writer, noted for her contributions to lesbian fiction. As well as writing fiction, she has contributed to the New York Times{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/05/books/love-is-a-federal-highway.html?pagewanted=1 |title=Love is a federal highway |work=New York Times |accessdate=20 July 2009 |first=Jenifer |last=Levin |date=5 November 1988 }} and The Washington Post.{{Cite news |title=Vassar, hear them roar |newspaper=Washington Post |first=Jenifer |last=Levin |date=8 July 1993 }} The Washington Post called her a member of the "lesbian literati".{{Cite news |first=Kara |last=Swisher |title=A Different Sort of Sell For Gay Authors; The New Lesbian Literati Can Take or Leave Crossover Appeal |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=15 March 1993 }} She graduated from the University of Michigan Residential College in 1977.{{Cite web |last=Madaj |first=Daniel |title=RC Writing Alumni Bios 1971-2023 |url=https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/rcwriters/wp-content/uploads/sites/101/2024/02/RCBiosB.pdf}}

Levin, herself a former competitive swimmer,{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/10/books/new-noteworthy-paperbacks-532576.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/B/Book%20Trade |first=Laurel |last=Graeber |title=New and noteworthy paperbacks |accessdate=20 July 2009 |date=July 10, 1994 | work=The New York Times}} has set many of her novels in the world of competitive sport, receiving attention for her coverage of gender, power, and sexuality in that context.{{Cite book |title=Upon further review |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCSfLuycVwAC&q=%22jenifer+levin%22&pg=PA105 |page=106 |first=Michael |last=Cochiarale |publisher=Greenwood |year=2004 |isbn=0-275-98050-2 }} Her first novel was Water Dancer, the tale of a long-distance swimmer recovering from a nervous breakdown, whose trainer and his wife both fall in love with her. The New York Times noted that Levin involved her readers successfully in "an odd world", but criticized the characters' depth and the lack of resolution to their difficulties.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/28/books/swimming-and-surviving.html?&pagewanted=all |work=New York Times |accessdate=20 July 2009 |first=Brina |last=Caplan |title=Swimming and surviving |date=November 28, 1982 }} Levin is Jewish{{Cite news |url=http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/07/17/author-talk-jenifer-levin-and-david-pratt|work=Lambda Literary|accessdate=14 April 2013|title=Author Talk: Jenifer Levin and David Pratt|date=17 July 2012}}. and her third novel, Shimoni's Lover, was set in Israel.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/08/books/children-s-books-among-the-kibbutzniks.html?pagewanted=2 |work=New York Times |title=Children's Books; Among the Kibbutzniks |first=Jenifer |last=Levin |date=August 8, 1993 |accessdate=20 July 2009}} In 1993 she produced The Sea of Light, which the Dallas Morning News called "beautiful and probing."{{Cite news |title='Sea' teems with swimmers' emotions |first=Annemarie |last=Marek |work=Dallas Morning News |date=August 8, 1993 }} The Sea of Light was voted 8th in a Bywater Books (a lesbian publisher) poll of the ten most important lesbian novels of the 20th century.{{Cite web |url=http://www.bywaterbooks.com/xcart/pages.php?pageid=9 |title=Big Lesbian Read Contest: The Winners |access-date=20 July 2009 |publisher=Bywater Books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205142037/http://bywaterbooks.com/xcart/pages.php?pageid=9 |archive-date=5 February 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} Her fifth published book, Love and Death and Other Disasters, collected stories written over a period between 1977 and 1995.{{Cite news |first=Valerie |last=Miner |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-294398_ITM |date=1 July 1997 |title=Love and Death and Other Disasters |work=Women's Review of Books }}

Levin has two sons, adopted from Cambodia.{{Cite news |title=Essays convey range of the adoptive experience |publisher=Boston Globe |url=https://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/03/09/essays_convey_range_of_the_adoptive_experience/ |date=9 March 2006 |accessdate=20 July 2009 | first1=Chuck | last1=Leddy}} She has spoken several times of her experiences adopting as a single gay woman, from a country that does not formally allow foreign adoptions,{{Cite news |date=5 May 1998 |url=http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1998/05/05feature2.html |work=Salon.com |first=Rob |last=Spilman |title=Missing Children |accessdate=20 July 2009 }} including in a 1995 volume Wanting a Child edited by Jill Bialosky and Helen Shulman.{{Cite book |title=Wanting a Child |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |editor=Jill Bialosky |year=1998 |isbn=0-374-28634-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wantingchildtwen00jill }}