Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid for the Terry Wolverton papers, 1970s-2005
445
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Terry Wolverton papers
Date (inclusive): 1970s-2005
Collection number: 445
Creator:
Wolverton, Terry
Extent:
63 boxes (29.5 linear feet)
8 oversize boxes (2 flat boxes, 6 shoeboxes)
1 map folder
Abstract: Terry Wolverton (born 1954) is a poet, writer, editor, teacher of writing, performance artist, and management consultant.
She has also worked as a promoter of the arts, primarily at the Los Angeles Woman's Building, and served in management positions
at the Woman's Building. The collection consists of six college papers and research material; her teaching materials and letters
and notes from her students and samples student correspondence and samples of student submissions; professional correspondence,
research material, notes, drafts, manuscripts, publicity material, photographs, and reviews; and art collected, done by women
artists, many connected to the Woman's Building.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Terry Wolverton, 2005.
Collection 445 was donated to the Library in 2005 and processed 2005-2006 by Dan Luckenbill, with data entry by Brooke Chappell.
The finding aid was created by Dan Luckenbill, in consultation with the donor. The donor has not transferred personal materials,
records for her consulting business, or records of her current administration and teaching at Writers at Work.
[Identification of item], Terry Wolverton papers (Collection Number 445). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, UCLA.
Terry Wolverton was born in Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 23, 1954. Wolverton is a performance artist, poet, writer, editor,
teacher of writing, and management consultant. She has been an activist for women's, lesbian and gay causes. Her teaching
has included developing classes for students who are HIV positive.
Wolverton studied at the University of Detroit (1972-1973), majoring in Psychology and Theater, the University of Toronto
(1973-1974), and the Sagaris Institute, Lyndonville, Vermont (1975). She received her B.A. in Theater, Creative Writing and
Women's Studies from Thomas Jefferson College, Allendale, Michigan (1978), with further study at the Los Angeles Woman's Building
Feminist Studio Workshop (1976-1978). She worked as news writer, freelance copywriter, and publicist 1977-1980. She worked
at the Woman's Building 1977-1989 and was Development Director 1984-1988 and Executive Director, 1988-1989. Beginning 1977
she has taught adult education classes at the Woman's Building, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, Connexxus Women's Center,
UCLA Extension, and California Institute of the Arts. Beginning 1982 she has been the president of ConsultHer, a management
consulting firm. Beginning 1997 she has been the founder of and instructor at Writers at Work, a private creative writing
center. She has served on the Board of the Monette-Horwitz Trust Advisory Committee, 1998-2005.
Wolverton began her professional creative work as a performance artist, writing or collaborating on the texts and appearing
in the performances. She has published numerous articles and reviews in both Los Angeles and national periodicals; books of
poetry, fiction, and memoir; and has edited many anthologies of lesbian and gay poets and writers, some specifically of Los
Angeles writers. She has given numerous readings throughout the U.S., documented with invitations and flyers. She has won
or been nominated for numerous awards. She received the University of Detroit New Poets Award in 1983 and the Woman's Building
Vesta Award in 1991. She has been awarded several California Arts Council and other grants. She was a finalist for the Lambda
Literary Award (Lammy) in 1992, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, and 2004.
Wolverton has edited 20 volumes, beginning 1990 with
Harbinger: Poetry and Fiction by Los Angeles Writers, and including
Blood Whispers: L.A. Writers on AIDS (1991),
His: Brilliant New Fiction by Gay Writers (1995, 1997, 1999),
Hers: Brilliant New Fiction by Lesbian Writers (1995, 1997, 1999), and
Circa 2000: Gay Fiction at the Millennium (2000) and
Circa 2000: Lesbian Fiction at the Millennium (2001).
Wolverton's books have included
Blue Moon (poetry and prose, 1977),
she was cracking rocks with a hammer (poem, 1991),
Black Slip (poetry, 1992),
Bailey's Beads (novel (1996),
Mystery Bruise (poetry, 1999),
Greatest Hits: Terry Wolverton (poetry, 2001),
Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building (memoir, 2002), and
Embers (novel in poems, 2003). Among her performance art scripts and texts are works from 1979 to the present, including
In Silence Secrets Turn to Lies / Secrets Shared Become Sacred Truth (1979), the collaborative work
An Oral Herstory of Lesbianism (1979),
Me and My Shadow (1983), and
Under Eden (2001).
The papers consist of six college papers and research material and document her activities related to her professional interests,
through material collected about the Woman's Building and posters and works of art, by women artists and often relating to
the Woman's Building. At the Woman's Building she studied under and worked with co-founder Arlene Raven to create a feminist
system of education, documented with theoretical statements and teaching materials. Wolverton's teaching of writing is extensively
documented with notes for lectures, rosters, and samples of student work submitted. The bulk of the collection pertains to
her performance works and writings (performance and book reviews, poetry, interviews, non-fiction, memoir, fiction, and edited
works), documented variously by research material, notes, drafts, manuscripts, publications, programs, correspondence, photographs,
promotional materials such as posters and flyers, audio and video recordings, and post publication material such as reviews,
notices, and some letters from readers. There are copies of many works published in periodicals.
The papers are arranged in the following series:
- Biographical [boxes 1, 13-20, 31-36, 61-69]
- Professional files for work not related to writing [boxes 21-30]
- Professional files relating to Performances and Writings [boxes 1-12, 14, 29, 38-60, 63-64]
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Wolverton, Terry
Books, including those edited, have been separated for cataloging in Special Collections, searchable online as Gift of Terry
Wolverton.