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Grace Lavery

{{Short description|British-American writer and academic}}

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| birth_place = Birmingham, England

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| spouse = {{marriage|Daniel M. Lavery|2019}}

| children = 1

| website = {{URL|https://www.gracelavery.org/}}

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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.

Early life and education

Lavery was born in Birmingham, England. She graduated from the University of Oxford and the University of Sussex.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/daunt-wins-four-way-battle-lavery-memoir-1224711|title=Daunt Books wins four-way battle for Lavery memoir|work=The Bookseller|first=Mark|last=Chandler|date=4 November 2020|accessdate=3 June 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://felicitybryan.com/fba-author/grace-lavery/|title=Grace Lavery|work=Felicity Bryan Associates|accessdate=3 June 2025}} Under advisor Paul Saint-Amour, she completed her English Ph.D. in 2013, with a thesis titled "Empire in a Glass Case: Japanese Beauty, British Culture, and Transnational Aestheticism".{{cite web |url=https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/grace-lavery |title=Grace Lavery |author= |date=2024 |website=english.upenn.edu |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=July 3, 2024}}

Career

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".{{cite journal |last1=Friedman |first1=Dustin |date=Summer 2020 |title=Lavery, Grace. Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan |url=https://ncgsjournal.com/issue162/friedman.html |journal=Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies |volume=16 |issue=2 |access-date=July 3, 2024}} 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.{{cite magazine |last1=Wark |first1=McKenzie |author-link1=McKenzie Wark |date=February 2022 |title=Cocky as Hell |url=https://www.liberreview.com/issue-1-1-cocky-as-hell |magazine=Liber |volume=1 |issue=1 |access-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-date=January 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118012023/https://www.liberreview.com/issue-1-1-cocky-as-hell |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite news |last=Plagmann |first=Saeri |date=June 1, 2023 |title=The Pen Ten: An Interview With Grace E. Lavery |url=https://pen.org/the-pen-ten-an-interview-with-grace-e-lavery/ |work=PEN America |access-date=July 3, 2024}} Pleasure and Efficacy was announced as a finalist for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.{{cite news |last=Stewart |first=Sophia |date=January 25, 2024 |title=2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists Announced |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/94167-2024-national-book-critics-circle-awards-finalists-announced.html |work=Publishers Weekly |access-date=July 6, 2024}} 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.{{cite news |last=Watson-Fore |first=McKenzie |date=June 3, 2024 |title=Closures: Heterosexuality and the American Sitcom – Grace Lavery |url=https://www.full-stop.net/2024/06/03/reviews/mckenziewatsonfore/closures-heterosexuality-and-the-american-sitcom-grace-lavery/ |work=Full Stop |access-date=July 3, 2024}}

She received a $125,000 advance from Substack to publish a newsletter on their platform.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Ben |date=April 11, 2021 |title=Why We're Freaking Out About Substack |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/business/media/substack-newsletter-competition.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=July 3, 2024}}

Personal life

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.{{cite news |last=Pettit |first=Emma |date=January 20, 2019 |title=The Anxiety of 'Doing Womanhood Correctly' in Academe |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-anxiety-of-doing-womanhood-correctly-in-academe/ |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education |access-date=July 4, 2024}}{{cite news |last=Clifton |first=Mallen |date=February 9, 2022 |title=An Exchange of Letters: Interview with Grace Lavery, author of Please Miss |url=https://berkeleyfictionreview.org/2022/02/09/an-exchange-of-letters-interview-with-grace-lavery-author-of-please-miss/ |work=Berkeley Fiction Review |access-date=July 4, 2024 |archive-date=November 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127012208/https://berkeleyfictionreview.org/2022/02/09/an-exchange-of-letters-interview-with-grace-lavery-author-of-please-miss/ |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite news |last=Sicha |first=Choire |date=April 10, 2024 |title=Keeping Up With the Laverys |url=https://www.thecut.com/article/daniel-lavery-grace-lavery-lily-woodruff-brooklyn-interview.html |work=The Cut |access-date=July 3, 2024}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book |last=Lavery |first=Grace Elisabeth |author-mask=1 |date=January 26, 2024 |title=Closures: Heterosexuality and the American Sitcom |publisher=Duke University Press |page=128 |isbn=9781478059134}}Reviews for Closures:
  • {{cite news |last=Bartholomew |first=Isabel |date=May 25, 2024 |title=What Was the Sitcom? On Grace Lavery's "Closures" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/what-was-the-sitcom-on-grace-laverys-closures/ |work=Los Angeles Review of Books |access-date=July 3, 2024}}
  • {{cite news |last=Watson-Fore |first=McKenzie |date=June 3, 2024 |title=Closures: Heterosexuality and the American Sitcom – Grace Lavery |url=https://www.full-stop.net/2024/06/03/reviews/mckenziewatsonfore/closures-heterosexuality-and-the-american-sitcom-grace-lavery/ |work=Full Stop |access-date=July 3, 2024}}
  • {{cite news |author= |date=November 9, 2023 |title=Closures: Heterosexuality and the American Sitcom |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781478030140 |work=Publishers Weekly |access-date=July 6, 2024}}
  • {{cite book |last=Lavery |first=Grace Elisabeth |author-mask=1 |date=May 30, 2023 |title=Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=304 |isbn=9780691243931}}{{cite journal |last1=Clare |first1=Stephanie D. |date=April 2024 |title=Grace E Lavery. Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions and Other Trans Techniques |url=https://academic.oup.com/res/article-abstract/75/319/245/7510936 |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=75 |issue=319 |pages=245–247 |doi=10.1093/res/hgad122 |access-date=July 6, 2024|url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite book |last=Lavery |first=Grace Elisabeth |author-mask=1 |date=February 8, 2022 |title=Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis |publisher=Basic Books |page=174 |isbn=9781541620643}}
  • {{cite book |last=Lavery |first=Grace Elisabeth |author-mask=1 |date=May 28, 2019 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=219 |isbn=9780691183626}}Reviews for Quaint, Exquisite:
  • {{cite journal |last1=Friedman |first1=Dustin |date=Summer 2020 |title=Lavery, Grace. Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan |url=https://ncgsjournal.com/issue162/friedman.html |journal=Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies |volume=16 |issue=2 |access-date=July 3, 2024}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Brink |first1=Emily Eastgate |date=Spring 2022 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan by Grace Elizabeth Lavery |url=https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring22/brink-reviews-quaint-exquisite-victorian-aesthetics-and-the-idea-of-japan-by-lavery |journal=Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide |volume=21 |issue=1 |doi=10.29411/ncaw.2022.21.1.7 |access-date=July 3, 2024|doi-access=free }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Biswas |first1=Preeshita |date=Fall 2022 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan by Grace E. Lavery (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/900632 |journal=Victorian Review |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=333–337 |doi=10.1353/vcr.2022.a900632 |access-date=July 5, 2024|url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite news |author= |date=September 3, 2021 |title=What We Are Reading Today: Quaint, Exquisite by Grace E. Lavery |url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1922541/books |work=Arab News |access-date=July 5, 2024}}
  • {{cite news |author= |date=June 27, 2019 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan, by Grace E. Lavery |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/quaint-exquisite-victorian-aesthetics-and-idea-japan-grace-e-lavery-princeton-university-press |work=Times Higher Education |access-date=July 5, 2024}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Agathocleous |first1=Tanya |date=Winter 2021 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan by Grace Lavery (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/801007 |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=275–277 |doi=10.2979/victorianstudies.63.2.07 |access-date=July 5, 2024|url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite news |last=Pennington |first=H.L. |date=December 2019 |title=Quaint, exquisite: Victorian aesthetics and the idea of Japan |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2319145378 |work=Choice Reviews |access-date=July 5, 2024 |id={{ProQuest|2319145378}} }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Orrin N.C. |date=Autumn 2021 |title=Recent Studies in the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2895607251 |journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=707–755 |doi=10.1353/sel.2021.a910836 |access-date=July 5, 2024 |id={{ProQuest|2895607251}} |url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite news |last=Banerjee |first=Jacqueline |date=July 26, 2019 |title=Transnational flows: Nineteenth-century responses to Japanese culture |work=Times Literary Supplement |issue=6069 |via=Gale}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Kalnay |first1=Erica Kanesaka |date=2020 |title=Grace E. Lavery, Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/vic.2020.0372 |journal=Victoriographies |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=115–117 |doi=10.3366/vic.2020.0372 |access-date=July 5, 2024|url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite news |last=Gordon |first=Peter |date=May 13, 2019 |title="Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan" by Grace E Lavery |url=https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/quaint-exquisite-victorian-aesthetics-and-the-idea-of-japan-by-grace-e-lavery/ |work=Asian Review of Books |access-date=July 5, 2024}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Dixon |first1=Laurinda S. |date=2020 |title=Grace E. Lavery Quaint, Exquisite. Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/joj/5/2/article-p211_211.xml?language=en&ebody=previewpdf-117261 |journal=Journal of Japonisme |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=211–216 |doi=10.1163/24054992-00052P04 |access-date=July 5, 2024|url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Han |first1=Jonathan |date=April 2020 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan. By Grace E. Lavery |url=https://academic.oup.com/eic/article-abstract/70/2/246/5837687 |journal=Essays in Criticism |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=246–251 |doi=10.1093/escrit/cgaa006 |access-date=July 5, 2024|url-access=subscription }}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Laurence |date=December 2019 |title=Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan |url=https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=622 |journal=The Japan Society Review |volume=14 |issue=6 |access-date=July 6, 2024}}
  • {{cite news |last=Frey |first=Angelica |date=September 2, 2019 |title=How Victorian Intellectuals Idealized Japan and Its Culture |url=https://hyperallergic.com/510784/how-victorian-intellectuals-idealized-japan-and-its-culture/ |work=Hyperallergic |access-date=July 6, 2024}}

References

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American women academics

Category:Academics from Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Alumni of the University of Sussex

Category:American women literary critics

Category:American LGBTQ academics

Category:American transgender women

Category:British LGBTQ academics

Category:British women literary critics

Category:English transgender writers

Category:Transgender academics

Category:Transgender women writers

Category:People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham

Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty

Category:Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)