Roberta Degnore (born July 1946) is an American author, filmmaker, and psychologist. Degnore wrote novels under numerous pen names before pursuing graduate studies in psychology and filmmaking. Degnore was a close friend and confidant to art curator and photography collector Sam Wagstaff at the time of his death from AIDS in 1987. She currently teaches courses in psychology at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her works include Invisible Soft Return:\, nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in 2014. Growing up outside Detroit Degnore grew up in what she recalled as the "desperately middle class" suburbs of Detroit, just north of Eight Mile Road, with her mother and father, while her older brother, for reasons unknown to Degnore, lived not far away with their grandparents. Degnore fondly recalls her cousin, Joe Groppusso, who was about a decade older than Degnore and acted as a childhood protector and early artistic and cultural influence. She attended Wayne State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Master of Arts in psychology. After her mother's discovery that Degnore was a lesbian, Degnore left Detroit for New York City. Early years in New York Degnore arrived in New York City in 1980. With two other artists, she converted a 1500 square foot commercial loft in the Bowery District. "It was all focused on the art scene," Degnore later told a reporter. "No one had money back then. Everyone was just doing art because they loved it, and we gave each other respect because of that." In the ensuing decades, the neighborhood had changed due to gentrification, and the building's owner sought to buy out the tenants and sell the building. When he did so in 2008, he told Degnore to get ready to leave but she resisted, and was the last tenant to vacate. Degnore says Richard Curtis was her agent when she began writing for a living: "great beginning, great mentor," she recalled. Writing books to pay for graduate school Degnore wrote numerous novels using pseudonyms, including The Real Connection, an "as told to" autobiography of French entertainer and heroin smuggler Edmond Taillet, which was published under the pen name Rachel Desmond. Some of her genre fiction, originally published under pseudonyms, is now available under her real name, including such romance and historical romance titles as Stuck Up, Gold Digger, and Until You See Me. Other titles Degnore published under