Ana María Simo is a New York playwright, essayist and novelist. Born in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, educated in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and writing in English, she has collaborated with such experimental artists as composer

Zeena Parkins Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard har ...

, choreographer Stephanie Skura and filmmakers Ela Troyano and Abigail Child.Ana María Simo
, Playwrights: Cuban/Latino Theater Archive of the University of Miami, 2005. Retrieved 2007-11-14. She made important contributions as a lesbian activist, co-founding projects such as Medusa's Revenge, the first lesbian theater in New York, the direct action group the

Lesbian Avengers The Lesbian Avengers was an American direct action group. The group was founded in 1992 in New York City by six individuals: Ana Maria Simo, Anne Maguire, Anne-Christine D'Adesky, Marie Honan, Maxine Wolfe, and Sarah Schulman. The organizatio ...

, '' Dyke TV'', and ''The Gully'' online magazine.

Career

Writer

Ana Maria Simo was 15 when she began working as a journalist in post-revolution

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Ediciones El Puente, a literary and publishing project (1961 to 1965) which Simo co-directed along with its founder, the poet José Mario Rodríguez. Simo immigrated first to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where she attended

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

' seminar and studied sociology and linguistics at the University of Paris VIII-Vincennes (1968-1972). In the mid-1970s she settled in New York, where she began her career as an English-language writer. Her association with playwright/director

Maria Irene Fornes Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

' theater workshop throughout the 1980s was pivotal in her development as a writer. Some of her most notable works includes her 1990 play "Going to New England" produced at the

INTAR theater INTAR Theatre, founded in 1966, is one of the oldest Hispanic theater companies in the United States. The INTAR acronym is for International Arts Relations. History INTAR Theatre was founded in New York in 1966 as Asociación de Arte Latinoame ...

. The New York Times'

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

gave the production mixed reviews, but also wrote that the play itself succeeded as "a study in physical and emotional claustrophobia" examining the traditions of Latin American

machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its use more wi ...

, Roman Catholic values, and erotic taboos. Simo's "The Bad Play," a 1991 dance-theater collaboration with choreographer Stephanie Skura, also reviewed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', was described as "a very broad and very funny parody" of the

Hispanic soap opera A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

with philandering doctors and cantankerous mothers-in-law. Her 1989 short film, ''How to Kill Her'', with Ela Troyano, premiered at the Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival and later went on to win first place in The Latino Film and Video Festival. Simo's work has mainly been produced in New York City by venues includin
P.S. 122Theater for the New CityINTAR Hispanic American Arts Center
th
New York Shakespeare Festival
s Latino Festival
Duo Theatre
, and th
WOW Café
Simo returned to fiction with her first novel,
Heartland
, published by Restless Books in 2018 after she was a finalist for their Prize for New Immigrant Writing. Heartland reflects Simo’s preoccupations with race, immigration, sex, and the burden of the past with an unsettling mix of noir, irreverence and hyperrealism already present in her plays. It was a finalist for the 2019 Triangle Lit Awards for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction.

Activist

Simo immigrated to Paris in time to participate in the student revolution of May 1968. Shortly afterwards, she participated in women's and lesbian/gay activist groups for the first time, including the Gouines Rouges (Red Dykes), the MLF (Mouvement de Libération des Femmes), and the FHAR (Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire). In 1976 in New York, she co-founded the lesbian theater Medusa's Revenge with actor and director

Magaly Alabau Magali Alabau (born 1945) is a Cuban-American poet, theater director, and actor. Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, she has lived in New York since 1966. She co-founded the Spanish-English ensemble Teatro Dúo/Duo Theatre with Manuel Martín Jr. and the ...

. In her book, ''Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America'',

Sarah Schulman Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She holds an endowed chair in nonfiction at Northwestern University and is a fellow of the New York ...

writes,

"It is hard to find primary lesbian content on stage by an un-closeted writer before "Fefu and Her Friends" by
Maria Irene Fornes Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
in 1977. Or maybe it was Corinne Jacker's "Harry Outside" at the Circle Repertory Company in 1975. But, although each was sealed with a passionate kiss, both of these plays contained their lesbian content in subplots. Lesbian content was primary on stage at Medusa's Revenge at 10 Bleecker Street, the first theater in the world willing to produce our work."

In 1992, Simo co-founded the direct action group The

with longtime lesbian activists Maxine Wolfe, Anne-Christine d'Adesky,

, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire. The original group's sole stated focus: "Lesbian survival and visibility." The

inspired chapters worldwide. One of its long-term accomplishments is the annual Dyke March in New York City. Shortly afterwards, along with video producer Mary Patierno and theater director Linda Chapman, she created Dyke TV. The half-hour television program produced by lesbians, for lesbians was aired on

Public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

across the United States for more than a decade. It included a mix of news, political commentary, the arts, health, and sports. Simo also co-founde
The Gully online magazine
(2000-2006) with writer and activist Kelly Cogswell, "to encourage activism and redefine and expand gay issues." It offered queer views of international news, U.S. politics, activism, race, class, LGBT issues, and included a Spanish edition.
Retrieved 09-12-09

Selected works

Novel

* Heartland (2018). Restless Books.

Plays

* Exiles, INTAR, NYC, 1982 * Pickaxe, WOW Theater, NYC, 1986 * What Do You See?, Theater for the New City, NYC, 1986 * Alma, INTAR, NYC, 1988 * Penguins, East 4th St. Theater, NYC 1989 * Going to New England, INTAR, NYC, 1990, Directed by Irene Fornes * The Bad Play (Dance-theater piece, Choreography: Stephanie Skura) PS 122, NYC 1991; Bessie Schonberg Theatre, NYC, 1991; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, 1992. * Ted and Edna (staged reading), La Mama, ETC, NYC 1990; New Dramatists, NYC 1993 * The Opium War (staged reading) New Dramatists, NYC 1990 and 1995; (workshop production) INTAR, NYC 1991, directed by Linda Chapman and Ana Maria Simo, Music composed by Zeena Parkins; New York Theatre Workshop, NYC,1996. Music-theatre piece. Music composed and directed by Zeena Parkins. * Without Qualities (staged reading), New Dramatists, NYC, 1996

Radio, audio, film

* The Table of Liquid Measures (radio play), National Public Radio, Radio Stage. Producer: Sarah Montague, 1995 * The Opium War: A 71-minute piece with music composed and directed by Zeena Parkins, Roulette/Einstein, (EIN-010/CD), 1999 * How to Kill Her, short film with Ela Troyano, 1989

Short fiction, anthologies

* Dolan, Jill; Hughes, Holly; Tropicana, Carmelita (Eds). (2015). ''Memories of the Revolution: The First Ten Years of the WOW Café Theater''. University of Michigan Press. * Cooper, Dennis (Ed.). (1992). ''Discontents: New Queer Writers''. Amethyst Press. * Scholder, Amy, Silverberg, Ira (Eds.). (1991) ''High Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden Writings''. Plume. * Hasson, Liliane (Ed, Transl.). (1985). ''Cuba: nouvelles et contes d'aujourd'hui''. Éditions L'Harmattan, (France). * Cohen, John Michael (Ed.). (1967). ''Writers in the New Cuba: An Anthology''. Penguin. * Simo, Ana María. ''Las fábulas'', Ediciones El Puente. (collection short stories)

Articles, monographs

* Simo, Ana Maria. ''Infernal Twins. Censorship as Social Death and What To Do About It'
pdf
Out/Look National Lesbian & Gay Quarterly, issue 13, summer 1991. * Simo, Ana Maria. ''Lydia Cabrera: An Intimate Portrait''. New York: Intar Latin American Gallery, 1988. * Simo, Ana María and Garcia Ramos, Reinaldo. "Hablemos claro." ''Mariel: Revista de Literatura y Arte 2.5'' (1984): 9-10.

References

Bibliography

Queer / Latino theater

* Baeta, Virginia (2022). "Ana María Simo" in Noriega and Schildcrout (eds.) ''50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre'', pp. 219–222. Routledge, ISBN 978-1032067964. * Caulfield, Carlota and Davis, Darién J. (Eds.). (2007). ''A Companion to Us Latino Literatures''. Tamesis Books. * Gale, Maggie Barbara and Gardner, Vivien. (Eds.). (2004). ''Auto/biography and Identity: Women, Theatre, and Performance''. Manchester University Press. * Solomon, Alisa and Minwalla, Framji (Eds.). (2002). ''The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater''. New York University Press. * Arrizón, Alica and Manzor, Lillian. (Eds.). (2000). ''Latinas on Stage: Practice and Theory''. Third Woman Press. * Sandoval-Sánchez, Alberto. (1999). ''José, Can You See?: Latinos on and Off Broadway''. University of Wisconsin Press. * Schulman, Sarah. (1998). ''Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America''. Duke University Press. * Peterson, Jane T. and Bennett, Suzanne. (1997). ''Women Playwrights of Diversity: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook''. Greenwood Publishing Group. * Noriega, Chon A. and López, Ana M. (1996). ''The Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts''. University of Minnesota Press.

Cuba

* Howe, Linda S. (2004). ''Transgression and Conformity: Cuban Writers and Artists After the Revolution''. University of Wisconsin Press. * Bejel, Emilio. (2001). ''Gay Cuban Nation''. University Of Chicago Press. * Quiroga, Jose. (2000). ''Tropics of Desire: Interventions from Queer Latino America''. New York University Press * Yáñez, Mirta, Cluster, Dick and Schuster, Cindy. (1998). ''Cubana: Contemporary Fiction by Cuban Women''. Beacon Press * Davies, Catherine. (1997). ''A Place in the Sun?: Women Writers in Twentieth-Century Cuba''. Zed Books. * Balderston, Daniel and Guy, Donna J. (1997). ''Sex and Sexuality in Latin America: An Interdisciplinary Reader''. New York University Press. * Lumsden, Ian. (1996). ''Machos, Maricones, and Gays: Cuba and Homosexuality''. Temple University Press. * Behar, Ruth. (1995). ''Bridges to Cuba: Puentes a Cuba''. University of Michigan Press. * Reed, Roger. (1991). ''The Cultural Revolution in Cuba''. Latin American Round Table. * "Interview with Ana Maria Simo." Daniels, Ian. ''Torch'' (New York). 15 December 1984, 14 January 1985.

External links

Dyke TV records
at the

Sophia Smith Collection The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College is an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women's history. General One of the largest recognized repositories of manuscripts, a ...

, Smith College Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Simo, Ana Maria 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American people American lesbian writers Cuban lesbian writers Living people Lesbian dramatists and playwrights American women dramatists and playwrights American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Cuban LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Cuban women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Lesbian Avengers members 21st-century American LGBTQ people American women founders American founders