Lynnette D'anna (born 1955 as Lynnette Dueck)[1] is a Canadian writer, and the author of five novels. Canadian literature
D'anna was born in Steinbach, Manitoba and currently resides in Winnipeg.[2] She was a finalist for the John Hirsch Most Promising Manitoba Writer Award in 1992 following the publication of her first novel, sing me no more, published by Press Gang Publishers using the author's birth surname Lynnette Dueck. Her second novel, RagTimeBone, a coming-of-age story for young adults published by New Star Books, is also available in German, translated and published as Zeit der Blöße by Argument Verlag (Hamburg) in 2000.
Her first three books—sing me no more, RagTimeBone and fool's bells—form a thematic trilogy. Belly Fruit, an erotic murder-mystery published by New Star Books in 2000, is a farcical examination of contemporary relationships. Vixen, published in 2001 by Insomniac Press, explores the themes of memory and censorship. D'anna wrote "Captain Don Murray: Highliner & Adventurer," a privately commissioned biography, published in 2008.
D'anna is a graduate of creative communications with a journalism major. She was a regular contributor to Zygote magazine, a feature books page columnist at Interchange, and has contributed to a large number of literary journals and newspapers during the course of her career. As managing editor of the Canadian Women's Health Network Magazine, she facilitated the production of two special issues on Diversity and Women's Health.
She is past-president of Prairie Fire Press board of directors, past mentor to emerging writers in the Manitoba Writers Guild Mentor Program, and awards jurist for the Manitoba Arts Council. Over the course of her writing career, her work has been recognized with awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the B.C. Arts Council and the Manitoba Arts Council.
D'anna is considered an important figure in Queer Mennonite literature and has been described by Daniel Shank Cruz as "the godmother of queer Mennonite literature."[3]