Marilyn Jaye Lewis
Marilyn Jaye Lewis, 2007
Marilyn Jaye Lewis, 2007
Born (1960-07-22) July 22, 1960
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
GenreFiction, Memoirs, Screenwriting
Notable awardsOhio Independent Screenplay Award, Best Voice of Color Screenplay 2013 for Tell My Bones: The Helen LaFrance Story Independent Publisher Book Awards, Silver Medal 2011 for Freak Parade
SpouseChong Foun Kee 1981-1990 Gaylon Wayne Lewis 1993-2007
Website
www.marilynjayelewis.com

Marilyn Jaye Lewis (born July 22, 1960 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American writer and editor of novels, short stories, memoirs, screenplays and teleplays. Lewis grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s. Lewis began writing during her preteen years. She spent her high school years in Columbus before moving to New York City in 1980. She initially focused her creative energies mainly on singing and songwriting, before beginning to write more fiction in the 1980s. Lewis studied recording and audio engineering in New York. She worked there as a singer-songwriter under the name Marilyn Jaye, and later under her married name, Marilyn Jaye Lewis, until 1994. During those years, Lewis performed at such iconic New York clubs as SpeakEasy, Folk City and CBGB. Lewis was included twice in Fast Folk Musical Magazine, Jack Hardy's music magazine, recorded on vinyl. Those recordings are now in the Smithsonian Collection and available on Smithsonian Folkways. Lewis appeared on Volume 1, No. 6 with her song "Breaking Glass."[1] Her song "One Thing Leads to Another" was included in Volume 1, No. 10.[2]

Marilyn Jaye Lewis onstage at CBGB in 1984.

By the mid-1990s her work consisted of writing fiction exclusively. A hallmark of Lewis's work has been her willingness to confront the issues of racism, prejudice and bigotry. This theme can be seen throughout her career, from the young interracial couple in Neptune and Surf, to the Puerto Rican characters in Freak Parade, the gay men and lesbians in 1920s Hollywood in Twilight of the Immortal, and right through to the incredibly talented African American artist Helen LaFrance who is so lovingly documented in Tell My Bones. Always growing as a writer, Lewis expanded her repertoire to screenplays and teleplays in 2012 with Tell My Bones. After making it to the second round of the Austin Film Festival in 2012, Tell My Bones won the Ohio Independent Screenplay Award in the Best Voice of Color category in 2013. Also in 2013, Lewis wrote a TV pilot called Cleveland's Burning which was a semi-finalist in the Industry Insider Television Writing Contest. The program is a family drama following an African American family in Cleveland as they react to the turmoil of the 1960s.

Marilyn Jaye Lewis, 2002

Awards

  • Semifinalist, 2013 Industry Insider Television Writing Contest for Cleveland's Burning[3]
  • Best Voice of Color Screenplay, 2013 Ohio Independent Screenplay Award for Tell My Bones: The Helen LaFrance Story[4]
  • Silver Medal, 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards for Freak Parade[5]
  • Finalist, 2000 William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition for The Curse of Our Profound Disorder[6]
  • Award winner, 2000 New Century Writer Awards for The Curse of Our Profound Disorder[7]

Works

Screenplays

  • Cleveland's Burning, 2012
  • Tell My Bones: The Helen LaFrance Story

Historical novels

  • Twilight of the Immortal, Anaphora Literary Press, CreateSpace, 2011, ISBN 1-4609-0412-5, ISBN 978-1-4609-0412-1

Novels

  • 1954 Powder Blue Pickup, (Lulu, 2021).
  • The Guitar Hero Goes Home, (Lulu, 2021).
  • Freak Parade, Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2010, ISBN 0557472407
  • When the Night Stood Still: An Erotic Romance, Magic Carpet Books, 2004, ISBN 0-9726339-7-9
  • When Hearts Collide: An Erotic Romance, Magic Carpet Books, 2003, ISBN 0-9726339-1-X
  • In the Secret Hours, Magic Carpet Books, 2003, ISBN 0-9726339-4-4

Short stories

  • Neptune and Surf, Masquerade Books, 1999, ISBN 1-58419-001-9
  • Half-Moon Bride, (Lulu, 2021), ISBN 9780557946143
  • The Muse Revisited, (3 volumes, Smashwords,).

References

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