Donna Levin

Donna Levin
Levin in 2009
Born	September 4, 1954 Oakland, California
Occupation	Novelist
Notable works	Extraordinary Means California Street

Donna Levin (born September 4, 1954) is a San Francisco-based author, editor and writing teacher. She has published the novels Extraordinary Means (Arbor House, 1987) and California Street (Simon and Schuster, 1990).

Born in the city of California, Levin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in theater arts, and earned a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Levin worked for many years for the University of California, Berkeley Extension as an instructor in the creative writing department. Levin drew from her experiences as a workshop leader there and at other venues to write two books on the craft of fiction, Get That Novel Started (Writer’s Digest Books, 1992) and Get That Novel Written (Writer’s Digest Books, 1996).

Levin’s papers are part of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, and her novels are part of the collection of “California novels” in the California State Library.

Extraordinary Means is a literary fantasy in which a young woman, although diagnosed in an irreversible coma, is able to observe her family members debate over whether or not to withdraw life support. It is loosely drawn from the real-life controversy surrounding the Karen Ann Quinlan case. California Street, categorized as "romance mystery" by Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times was published at a time when the number of women mystery writers was proliferating. The protagonist is Joel Abramowitz, a compassionate but flawed psychoanalyst who inadvertently becomes involved in the disappearance of one woman and the murder of another.

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