I grew up in a Navy family and lived in thirty-four places before I finally settled in my current home in Berkeley with my wife, Tanya, and our son, Cooper, who now lives in Oakland. I consider living in one place for over thirty years a major accomplishment. A lawyer who hated practicing law, I became a mediator in 1986 and worked with divorcing couples and neighbors with disputes. In 2007, I dropped writing legal documents and began writing fiction and memoir and have been at it ever since. I love creating serenity in our home, gardening, reading, going to plays, and that the music venue Freight and Salvage is five minutes from our house. In my spare time, I like to Zentangle, a kind of meditative drawing. Some of my tangles appear on this website.
BOOK PRIZES
GOLD MEDAL 2020
Grieving/Death & Dying
Living Now Awards
SILVER MEDAL 2020
Health/Medical
Readers’ Favorite Awards
FINALIST 2020
Health/Death & Dying
Best Books Award
FINALIST 2020
Health/Cancer
Best Book Awards
I’m Still Here
By Martina Reaves
“Martina Reaves has lived an extraordinary life. She has been present and involved in some of America’s most profound changes—moving to San Francisco in 1969, becoming a lawyer when few women did, coming out of the closet and marrying her wife, finding a sperm donor so that they could create a family, and then, years later, supporting her son as he openly and publicly sought out his biological father. She also has survived cancer (twice).”
— Anara Guard, San Francisco Book Review
Her memoir braids her cancer odyssey and her life story in a chronicle of hope, fear, family, friendship, perseverance, and living with a terminal diagnosis. Failing to die is one of Martina’s favorite accomplishments.
News & Updates
DEAR FRIENDS
As my first book, I’m Still Here, winds its way through the publication process, I edited my second book, Ebb & Flow, which I began writing in January of 2013 as an experiment to see if flash memoir would work like flash fiction. As I look for a home for Ebb & Flow, I decided to actively blog.
From time to time I’ll be posting new flash memoirs below.
BLOG
PUBLICITY
VIDEO
Interview, Stephanie Storey, in her series Storey Time on May 18, 2020.
AUDIO
I’m Still Here with Martina Reaves, Daily Authors Podcast, Aaron Gendle, Interview posted: July 10, 2020.
Interview, Diane Dewey, There’s a Rainbow Out There Somewhere: Bonding, Optimism, & Survival Now at Voice America, April 24, 2020
Interview, Jack Anthony, of WYTX-FM in Rock Hill, South Carolina, , April 2020.
Writing About Surviving Cancer and Lesbian Parenting: Martina Reaves, Helene Stelian’s site Empowering Women in Midlife, featured on April 28, 2020. The interview includes a number of photos from my life.
Interview: Martina Reaves, The Debutante Ball, an on-line journal, feature Yodassa Williams, on May 16, 2020.
Review of I’m Still Here, Berkeley Times, Knox Book Beat, Wyndy Knox Carr, November 19, 2020 edition.
REVIEWS
A Lesbian Mom’s Memoir of Cancer & Life, Mombian, Sustenance for Lesbian Moms, July 6, 2020.
I’m Still Here review, San Francisco Review of Books and also posted an interview with me in its April 2020 edition.
MENTIONS
Covid-19 Pandemic Anxiety: Time for Some Inspiring Reading, Ms. Career Girl’s article, was syndicated in March and ran in publications nationwide.
Facing Life’s Obstacles with Two Works of Fiction and Two Poignant Memoirs, Book Trib featured my book in a syndicated story, which was published nationwide.
Having Cancer Means Learning to Be Selfish––And That's OK!, Coping with Cancer magazine published my essay in their May/June 2020 issue.
Why I Stopped Talking, NCSD.org. My essay was posted on the website on April 21, 2020.
Writing About A Terminal Diagnosis, Shewrites.com featured my essay on April 21, 2020.
Getting Old, Inter-Connecting-Circles, April 2019.
Less Than One Percent, Months to Years, Fall 2018.
Wanda, Inter-Connecting-Circles, Issue 2, September 2017.
My Bag, Persimmon Tree, Fall 2018.
Big Bad Behavior, KQED Perspectives, March 1, 2012.
LINKS
TO OTHER
WRITTEN WORK
TESTIMONIALS
“Martina’s story is poignant, inspiring and funny, and she tells it with a fresh voice, imbued with self-awareness and wisdom. . . This memoir will catch and hold you with its resonance. It will also breeze you through so smoothly, you might well find yourself turning back to re-read when you reach the last page.”
— Mollie Katzen,
Author of the Moosewood Cookbook, James Beard Hall of Fame laureate
“Immediate, visceral, loaded with humor and insight, I’m Still Here is like an intimate conversation with a wonderful friend—it leaves you feeling enlightened, enriched, and a little happier than you were before. Savor this book and share it with people you love!”
— David Schweidel,
author of Confidence of the Heart (winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize) and co-author of What Men Call Treasure
"A story rich in emotional description..."
— Kirkus Reviews
“I couldn’t put this book down. The writer’s extraordinary life is shared in a beautifully written account that at times had me laughing out loud, teary eyed, and mostly in awe. She faces enormous challenges - life and death challenges - with courage, grace and humor. While this book would be inspiring for those battling cancer, it’s inspiring on many other fronts as well. Beyond recounting her cancer struggles (and her doctor’s prognosis that her condition was terminal) she chronicles an amazingly adventurous life. Her insights on romance, marriage, discrimination, activism, the law, parenting, family, friendship, and more, are imbued with emotional literacy, which made the process of hearing her story an uplifting gift.”
— Mary McNeill
Voracious Reader, Attorney, Mediator
Here I am, an almost 72-year-old writer, lesbian, and wife of 40 years. Tanya and I have been hibernating in our home in Berkeley for the past year due to the pandemic. Cocooned with us are Tanya’s 92-year-old mother, Laura, and our 18-year-old great-niece, who ran away from her father and step-mother’s home in North Carolina to live with us until high school graduation in May. She Zooms to her classes in North Carolina, starting at 5:30 a.m. most mornings.