From 1997 - 1999 Sister Spit toured the United States, bringing an ever-changing roster of female writers and performance artists across the country, including poet Eileen Myles, New York Times Bestselling author Beth Lisick, and transgender author, musician and performance artist Lynn Breedlove. In 1994 Michelle Tea created Sister Spit, an all-girl open mic that ran weekly for two years in San Francisco, earning a Best of the Bay Award from The San Francisco Bay Guardian. She is the creator of Mutha Magazine, an online publication about real-life parenting. Michelle writes for various print and web publications, including The Believer, n+1, Buzzfeed, and xoJane. Michelle was the recipient of an award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, a GOLDIE in Literature from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and selected Best Local Writer by both the Guardian and San Francisco Weekly.

Her most recent book is How to Grow Up, a memoir in essays published by Penguin/Plume. She is also the author of a Young Adult fantasy trilogy being published by McSweeney's.

She is also the author of the novel Rose of No Man's Land, and editor of anthologies Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache Without a Net It's So You and Baby, Remember My Name. Valencia was also made into a feature-length film and toured film festivals globally, and the book was translated into Slovenian, Japanese, and German.

Michelle Tea's memoirs include The Passionate Mistakes, The Chelsea Whistle, Rent Girl, and Valencia, winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction.

Black Wave by Michelle Tea