Minnie Bruce Pratt died on July 2, 2023, after she was diagnosed with a severe health problem in June 2023. Her children, Ben and Ransom revealed she was receiving palliative care but her health continued to deteriorate.
The American poet and activist was actively involved in women and gender issues, anti-racist and anti-imperialist initiatives as well as LGBTQ issues. The mother of two came out as a lesbian in Fayetteville in 1975 and was married to Leslie Feinberg, a trans activist, until November 15, 2014, when Feinberg died.
Minnie Bruce Pratt: Cause Of Death
Minnie Bruce Pratt died on July 2, 2023, after suffering from severe health issues. The news was confirmed by her two children, Ben and Ransom via her website.
Minnie Bruce’s sons had previously revealed to the public that she was receiving palliative care from friends and family, Sadly, her condition continued to deteriorate to the extent that it affected her cognition and ability to communicate well.
Other Facts About the Poet and Activist, Minnie Bruce Pratt
1. Minnie Bruce Pratt was born and raised in Centreville
The American poet and educator was born on September 12, 1946, in Selma Alabama to her parents, Virginia Brown Pratt, a social worker, and William Luther Pratt Jr., a clerk. She grew up in Centreville, Alabama.
As a young child, Minnie Bruce’s mother took her along when she visited impoverished women and children in rural south Alabama. Her father on the other hand enjoyed reading newspapers, which he passed down to her. Contrary to the kind of books her father enjoyed reading, Pratt preferred books that would explain the freedoms and oppressions she witnessed in her society.
2. She studied the English language at the University of Alabama
Pratt attended Bibb County High School and later the University of Alabama, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English. She later earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of North Carolina.
3. She lost custody of her children after she came out as a lesbian in 1975
While still in college, Minnie Bruce married her fellow poet Marvin E. Weaver II. With him, she started a family in Fayetteville before their family expanded after the birth of their two children: Ben and Ransom.
In 1975, she came out as a lesbian and her husband divorced her a year later. Based on the state’s crime against nature statute criminalizing homosexual activities, the poet lost custody of her children.
The pain of being separated from her children inspired her to write her most acclaimed volume of poetry, Crime Against Nature. In her poems, she shared how she struggled to maintain a good relationship with her children.
4. She co-founded WomanWrites
After her marriage crashed, Pratt went on to help found a Southeastern lesbian writers’ conference, WomanWrites in 1977.
She later joined several groups including Feminiary, a feminist writing collective, and LIPS, a Washington DC lesbian direct action group.
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5. Minnie Bruce Pratt was a political activism
She also lent her voice and engaged in political activism especially concerning the issues she based her poems on.
Most of her works talked about women’s gender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues and anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and also anti-capital work.
She was also an active member of the Women’s Fightback Network of the International Action Center, the National Writers Union Local 1981 of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America.
During her later years, she worked as an on-contract professor of Women and Gender Studies and Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University. At the same University, she was invited to help develop the first LGBT study program.
6. Her books and poems have received several
Minnie Bruce Pratt has written several books and poems which have been said to be too controversial. Her books and poems have received awards from renowned bodies such as the Academy of American Poets, the American Library Association, and the Poetry Society of America.
Her book Crime Against Nature was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and her essay on Identity: Skin Blood Heart, has been incorporated in several college classrooms as a teaching model for diversity.
Alongside lesbian writers, Chrystos and Audre Lorde, Pratt received the Lillian Hellman-Dashiell Hammett Award which was given by the Fund for Free Expressions to writers who have been victimized by political persecution.
7. She was the widow of Leslie Feinberg
In 2011, Pratt married author and trans activist Leslie Feinberg in New York and Massachusetts. They first met in 1992 and after they started dating, they settled in Jersey City where they had to enter a couple domestic partnership in 2004 and a civil union in 2006.
Her partner was a pioneer in trans and lesbian issues, workers’ rights ad intersectionality. She was identified as an anti-racist, working-class secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, and revolutionary communist.
The pair were together for 22 years before Leslie died on November 15, 2014, after suffering from complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections.
She dedicated her most recent book, Magnified to her partner and spouse, Leslie Feinberg.
