Yvonne Zipter

Yvonne Zipter is the author of two nonfiction books (Ransacking the Closet and Diamonds Are a Dyke’s Best Friend), three poetry collections (Kissing the Long Face of the Greyhound, The Patience of Metal, and Like Some Bookie God), and a number of short stories, including “Günther’s Wife,” which won first place in LitPot ezine eclectic’s Flash Fiction Contest, and “Third Date,” which was selected for Best Lesbian Love Stories, 2005. She was also the author of the syndicated humor column “Inside Out,” on lesbian life, which ran for ten years in newspapers from Washington, DC, to Oklahoma City to San Diego after its debut in Chicago’s Windy City Times. She is one of the founders of Hot Wire: A Journal of Women’s Music and Culture and a 1995 inductee into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. In 2020, she appeared briefly in the documentary A Secret Love and provided some of the narration. Her published poems are currently being sold in two poetry-vending machines in Chicago, the proceeds from which are donated to a nonprofit arts organization called Arts Alive Chicago. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Vermont College. She recently retired from being a manuscript editor at the University of Chicago Press. She lives in Chicago with her wife Kathy Forde and retired racing greyhound Gracie—their fifth since 1999.