Claire Davidson
On February 16th, the non-profit reading series Dirty Laundry Lit, partly sponsored by PEN Center USA, hosted a reading called Love Sucks, which featured UCSC alumnus Zoë Ruiz as one of the readers. Dirty Laundry Lit organizes quarterly readings, blending live music with readings from diverse groups of writers to “inspire the literary community and promote reading.”
At Love Sucks, Ruiz read “Donna,” an essay about falling in love with a porn star and struggling with self-acceptance. “Donna” was originally published on The Rumpus, an online arts and culture magazine, and is being published again in Ruiz’s new zine, where it is the title piece. With a cover illustration by Sam Geer and a design by Caelin White, Donna is printed by Writ Large Press and currently being sold at Stories and Books Cafe in Los Angeles. Ruiz will soon make Donna available for purchase on her blog.
“I folded/stitched the zines, which I learned how to do in Gary Young's class Method and Materials,” Ruiz writes. “I also learned the importance of fostering and cultivating community from Micah!” Ruiz adds that the creation of the zine would not have been possible without her community of friends at Dirty Laundry Lit.
Ruiz, who graduated from the Creative Writing program at UC Santa Cruz, has published several pieces in The Rumpus, as well as Two Serious Ladies and Fine Print. She lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a writer, yoga instructor, the Saturday Editor of The Rumpus, and a staff member of FOUND magazine. Currently, she’s working on her interview project “Learn People Better” and curates READINGS, a reading series.
