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Grace Lavery

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Grace Elisabeth Lavery is an associate professor of English critical theory and gender and women's studies at UC Berkeley, whose research focuses on the history of language and aestheticism in 19th century Victorian English society, along with topics involving the language and literature of sexuality and gender.

Education

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Lavery graduated under advisor Paul Saint-Amour with an English Ph.D. in 2013, with a thesis titled "Empire in a Glass Case: Japanese Beauty, British Culture, and Transnational Aestheticism".[1]

Career

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As a first publication, Lavery released Quaint, Exquisite in 2019 on a subject connected to her post-doctoral research: Victorian era sensibilities in relation to Japan as viewed through a queer theory lens. One major focus of the book is on the idea of orientalism and how that colored English understanding of Japan as the "Other Empire".[2] A 2022 memoir titled Please Miss was her second published book and covered a wide range of topics beyond her own life and background. An introspection on being trans through a wide variety of genres and non-sequitur asides, the book psychoanalyzes the trans experience and aspects of life that represent it.[3]

Lavery's third book, Pleasure and Efficacy, was released in 2023 and discussed the meaning of being transgender and how transitioning works in relation to how the topic is discussed in various genres of literature. The book also includes philosophical views of writers from the 19th century and how understanding of "transness" is complicated and nuanced, unlike how it can commonly be portrayed in current times.[4] Pleasure and Efficacy was announced as a finalist for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.[5] In 2024, Closures, her fourth book, was published on the topic of the American sitcom and its usage of heterosexuality to define the nuclear family and cause conflict and issues that reinforce the scenario. Lavery explains how the storylines in sitcoms use "external agents" to create strife that ultimately promotes the heteronormativity seen in the nuclear family value system.[6]

She received a $125,000 advance from Substack to publish a newsletter on their platform.[7]

Personal life

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In 2018, Lavery officially began transitioning and noted in later interviews that she was happy to have done so before the publication of her first book and her bid for tenure, as it allowed her to enter the academic space with her chosen name.[8][9]

Lavery married Daniel M. Lavery in 2019 and they moved from California to New York. In 2020, they formed a throuple with Lily Woodruff and they had a son in 2024.[10]

Bibliography

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  • — (January 26, 2024). Closures: Heterosexuality and the American Sitcom. Duke University Press. p. 128. ISBN 9781478059134.[11]
  • — (May 30, 2023). Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques. Princeton University Press. p. 304. ISBN 9780691243931.[12]
  • — (February 8, 2022). Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis. Basic Books. p. 174. ISBN 9781541620643.[3]
  • — (May 28, 2019). Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan. Princeton University Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780691183626.[13]

References

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  1. ^ "Grace Lavery". english.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. 2024. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  2. ^ Friedman, Dustin (Summer 2020). "Lavery, Grace. Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan". Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies. 16 (2). Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Wark, McKenzie (February 2022). "Cocky as Hell". Liber. Vol. 1, no. 1. Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  4. ^ Plagmann, Saeri (June 1, 2023). "The Pen Ten: An Interview With Grace E. Lavery". PEN America. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  5. ^ Stewart, Sophia (January 25, 2024). "2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  6. ^ Watson-Fore, McKenzie (June 3, 2024). "Closures: Heterosexuality and the American Sitcom – Grace Lavery". Full Stop. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  7. ^ Smith, Ben (April 11, 2021). "Why We're Freaking Out About Substack". The New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  8. ^ Pettit, Emma (January 20, 2019). "The Anxiety of 'Doing Womanhood Correctly' in Academe". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
  9. ^ Clifton, Mallen (February 9, 2022). "An Exchange of Letters: Interview with Grace Lavery, author of Please Miss". Berkeley Fiction Review. Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
  10. ^ Sicha, Choire (April 10, 2024). "Keeping Up With the Laverys". The Cut. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  11. ^ Reviews for Closures:
  12. ^ Clare, Stephanie D. (April 2024). "Grace E Lavery. Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions and Other Trans Techniques". The Review of English Studies. 75 (319): 245–247. doi:10.1093/res/hgad122. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  13. ^ Reviews for Quaint, Exquisite:
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