Becky Birtha (born October 11, 1948) is an American poet and children's author who lives in the greater Philadelphia area.
In recent years she has written three children's historical fiction picture books about the African-American experience.
[4] She is the younger sister of Rachel Roxanne Birtha Eitches, a former international radio broadcaster for the Voice of America.
[4][7] In 1963 the family relocated to the West Mount Airy neighborhood and Birtha attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls.
[7] Her second book, Lovers' Choice, continues Birtha's focus upon the experience of marginalized African-American women in such stories as "Route 23: 10th and Bigler to Bethlehem Pike", in which a desperate mother takes her children on an all-night public bus ride through the city of Philadelphia in order to keep them warm.
[11] The Publishers Weekly review of The Forbidden Poems states that in her writings Birtha exhibits a "considerable ability to endow ordinary perceptions and occurrences with a profound significance" in her depictions of a lesbian community that is "stable, loving and creative--and whose members can all make a great cup of tea: 'even a hardcore stomping deisel dyke / can't ruin a pot of boiling water.
'"[12] Her works have been published in Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians, Conditions, Sinister Wisdom and Women: a Journal of Liberation.
[7] Ed Hermance, owner and manager of the Philadelphia gay and lesbian bookstore Giovanni's Room, has stated that Birtha's stories "have a vivid sense of place as well as an emotional depth rare among storytellers".
[17] In February, 1991, she gave a keynote address to the Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns conference in which she described writing as a meditative and healing process that connects her to her Quaker faith.