Catherine Lacey (author)

{{Infobox writer

| name = Catherine Lacey

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| image = CatherineLacey2023.png

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| native_name_lang = English

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1985|4|9}}

| birth_place = Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.

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| occupation = Novelist

| language = English

| education = Loyola University New Orleans, Columbia University

| notableworks = Biography of X,

Pew

| awards = Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship

| website = {{URL|http://www.catherinelacey.com/}}

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Catherine Lacey (born April 9, 1985) is an American writer.

Career

Lacey's first novel, Nobody Is Ever Missing, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Dwight Garner, in The New York Times, called her prose "dreamy and fierce at the same time." Time Out named it "the (hands down) best book of the year." It also made The New Yorker{{'}}s list for the best books of 2014. It has been translated into Dutch,{{cite web|url=https://dasmag.nl/shop/catherine-lacey-niemand-is-ooit-verloren|title=Niemand Is Ooit Verloren|publisher=Das Mag|access-date=Aug 3, 2017}} Spanish,{{cite web|url=http://www.elcultural.com/noticias/letras/Catherine-Lacey-Todo-el-mundo-necesita-desaparecer-en-algun-momento/9430|title=Catherine Lacey: "Todo el mundo necesita desaparecer en algún momento"|publisher=El Cultural|access-date=Aug 3, 2017}} Italian,{{cite web|url=http://www.edizionisur.it/catalogo/bigsur/nessuno-scompare-davvero/|title=Nessuno scompare davvero – SUR|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2016}} French,{{cite web|url=http://www.actes-sud.fr/catalogue/litterature/personne-ne-disparait|title=Personne ne disparaît|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803003556/http://www.actes-sud.fr/catalogue/litterature/personne-ne-disparait|archive-date=August 3, 2017|url-status=dead}} and German.{{cite web|url=http://www.aufbau-verlag.de/index.php/autoren/catherine-lacey-a01|title=Niemand verschwindet einfach so|publisher=Aufbau Verlag|access-date=Aug 3, 2017}} The novel was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/awards/young-lions-fiction-award/list-winners-finalists|title=Young Lions Award List of Winners and Finalists|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2016}} In 2016, Lacey won a Whiting Award for her fiction.{{cite web|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/23/whiting-2016/|title=Introducing the Winners of the 2016 Whiting Awards|first=Dan|last=Piepenbring|date=March 23, 2016|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2016}}

In 2017 Lacey was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists. Her second novel, The Answers (2017), was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It received several positive reviews and comparisons to Don DeLillo and Margaret Atwood.{{cite web|url=http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/can-you-still-write-a-novel-about-love.html|title=Can You Still Write a Novel About Love|first=Christian|last=Lorentzen|date=July 6, 2017 |publisher=Vulture|access-date=August 3, 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/books/review-answers-catherine-lacey.html|title='The Answers' Runs Down the Rabbit Hole of Love|first=Dwight|last=Garner|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 3, 2017}} In an interview with Vogue, Lacey said, "Even the person who wrote Nobody Is Ever Missing, I can’t really speak on her behalf anymore. The text is kind of what's left of that person, and that person doesn’t exist anymore. It both makes me very uncomfortable and very relaxed, because who you are and what you think that you’re attached to vanishes very quickly."{{cite web|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/catherine-lacey-the-answers-interview|title=Catherine Lacey's Dating Dystopia The Answers Is This Summer's Must-Read Novel|first=Megan|last=O'Grady|date=June 1, 2017|publisher=Vogue|access-date=March 27, 2018}}

File:9.21.14WritersLifePanelByLuigiNovi8.jpg, and Salman Rushdie at a panel on "The Writer's Life" at the 2014 Brooklyn Book Festival]]

Lacey was a founding member of 3B, a cooperatively owned and operated bed and breakfast in downtown Brooklyn, where she lived as she wrote her first novel.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/a-way-for-artists-to-live.html?ref=opinion|title=A Way for Artists to Live|last=Lacey|first=Catherine|website=The New York Times |date=April 19, 2014|publisher=|access-date=Aug 3, 2017}} In 2012, Lacey won an Artists' Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts{{cite web|url=https://www.nyfa.org/Content/Show/Past%20Fellows#2012fellows|title=New York Foundation for the Arts|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2016|archive-date=May 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528190114/https://www.nyfa.org/Content/Show/Past%20Fellows#2012fellows|url-status=dead}} that she credits in giving her the financial freedom to finish Nobody Is Ever Missing.{{Cite web|url=http://current.nyfa.org/post/135335220073/conversations-sarah-dohrmann-interviews-catherine|title=Conversations: Sarah Dohrmann Interviews Catherine Lacey|last=NYFA.org|website=NYFA.org - NYFA Current|date=December 16, 2015 |access-date=2018-03-20}}

Her 2020 novel, Pew, was shortlisted for the 2021 Dylan Thomas Prize{{Cite web|title=Shortlist for Dylan Thomas Prize Is Revealed|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/shortlist-for-dylan-thomas-prize-is-revealed/|access-date=2021-03-29|website=Kirkus Reviews|language=en}} and won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award.{{Cite web|title=In the States, the Young Lions Fiction Award goes to Catherine Lacey|url=https://publishingperspectives.com/2021/06/in-the-states-the-young-lions-fiction-award-goes-to-catherine-lacey/|website=Publishing Perspectives|date=June 18, 2021 |language=en}}

In 2023, she published her fourth novel Biography of X, a fictional biography. The New Statesman described it as a book that "thrillingly subverts the conventions of life-writing."{{cite web |last1=Peirson-Hagger |first1=Ellen |title=Catherine Lacey's biography that isn't |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2023/05/catherine-laceys-biography-x |website=The New Statesman |date=May 5, 2023 |access-date=May 8, 2023}} Time named it among "the 100 must-read books of 2023."{{cite magazine |title=Biography of X By Catherine Lacey |url=https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2023/6332838/biography-of-x/ |access-date=July 3, 2024 |magazine=Time|date=November 14, 2023 }} It was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2024.{{Cite news |last=Creamer |first=Ella |date=2024-03-21 |title=Caleb Azumah Nelson and Mary Jean Chan shortlisted for Dylan Thomas prize |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/21/caleb-azumah-nelson-and-mary-jean-chan-shortlisted-for-dylan-thomas-prize |access-date=2024-07-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

She has an upcoming debut nonfiction work, titled The Möbius Book, as well as an upcoming second short story collection, My Stalkers.

Personal life

In August 2015, she married actor and teacher Peter Musante; they divorced the next year. Lacey was partnered with writer Jesse Ball from 2016 to 2021.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-ent-catherine-lacey-0913-story.html|title='The Answers' author Catherine Lacey conjures sentences that can stop you cold|last=Borrelli|first=Christopher|website=chicagotribune.com|date=September 12, 2018 |access-date=2020-02-06}} She has taught at Columbia University in the Writing Program at the School of the Arts.[http://arts.columbia.edu/writing/faculty/catherine-lacey "Catherine Lacey"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194852/http://arts.columbia.edu/writing/faculty/catherine-lacey# |date=March 4, 2016 }}, Writing Program, Columbia University School of the Arts.{{-}} As of 2024, she is married to the writer Daniel Saldaña París. https://open.substack.com/pub/catherinelacey/p/notes-on-reading

Bibliography

=Novels=

{{Cite book |last=Lacey |first=Catherine |title=Nobody Is Ever Missing |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2014 |isbn=9780374711283 |edition=paperback 1st |location=New York |author-mask=2}}
{{Cite book |last=Lacey |first=Catherine |title=The Answers |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2017 |isbn=9780374100261 |edition=hardcover 1st |location=New York |author-mask=2}}
{{Cite book |last=Lacey |first=Catherine |title=Pew |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2020 |isbn=9780374230920 |edition=hardcover 1st |location=New York |author-mask=2}}
{{Cite book |last=Lacey |first=Catherine |title=Biography of X |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2023 |isbn=9780374606176 |edition=hardcover 1st |location=New York |author-mask=2}}

=Short fiction=

{{Cite book |last=Lacey |first=Catherine |title=Certain American States: Stories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vRFDwAAQBAJ&q=Certain+American+States |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2018 |isbn=9780374714352 |author-mask=2}}

=Nonfiction=

{{Cite book |last=Lacey |first=Catherine |title=The Art of the Affair: An Illustrated History of Love, Sex, and Artistic Influence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h74MkAEACAAJ |publisher=Bloomsbury |others=Illustrated by Forsyth Harmon |year=2017 |isbn=9781632866554 |author-mask=2}}

References

{{reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=

{{cite web

| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/books/catherine-laceys-nobody-is-ever-missing.html?_r=0

| title= Abandoning All Stability to Test Fate

| work= The New York Times

| date= July 22, 2014

| accessdate= February 23, 2016

| quote=... “Nobody Is Ever Missing” is composed mostly of long, languid sentences that push into the night like headlights. ... there’s nothing depleted about Ms. Lacey’s prose, which manages to be dreamy and fierce at the same time.

| first= Dwight| last= Garner

}}

{{cite web

| url= http://www.timeout.com/newyork/books/the-10-best-books-of-2014

| title= The 10 best books of 2014

| work= TimeOut New York

| date= November 19, 2014

| accessdate= February 23, 2016

| quote=...the (hands-down) best book of the year ...

| first= Tiffany| last= Gibert

}}

{{cite magazine