Stella Duffy

Stella Duffy (born 1963) is a British lesbian novelist and performer.

She was born in Woolwich but spent her childhood in New Zealand and studied English Literature and Drama at Victoria University, Wellington. Duffy is a practising Buddhist and lives in Lambeth with her partner, playwright Shelley Silas.

he has written thirteen novels – eight literary novels published by Virago and Sceptre, and five crime novels featuring the lesbian primate investigator Saz Martin, published by Serpent's Tail – and ten plays.

As a stage performer, she is an associate artist with Improbable, has been a member of the comedy improvisation company Spontaneous Combustion since 1988 and has guested with The Comedy Store Players. She has performed her solo show "Breaststrokes" (Time Out and The Guardian Critic’s Choice) in London, Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, York, and Amsterdam.

In 2008 she wrote and presented a documentary for the BBC's Time Shift strand called How to write a Mills and Boon where she took on the challenge of writing a Mills and Boon romance novel.

Awards and recognition
Stella Duffy has twice won the Stonewall Writer of the Year Award: in 2008 for The Room of Lost Things and in 2010 for Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore.

She was ranked number 35 in the Pride Power List 2011, 34 in the Pink List 2011, 41 in the Pink List 2012 and 44 in the World Pride Power List 2013. The World Pride Power List citation said:
 * Novelist Duffy said in an interview with the Independent last year: "No one ever says 'He's a straight; she's a heterosexual', but I'm constantly being called 'a lesbian' and it's just not the most interesting thing about me." Duffy has been a vocal crusader for gay marriage and formed a civil partnership with the playwright Shelley Silas in 2004.