Lucia Osborne-Crowley

File:Lucia Osborne-Crowley at the 2025 Adelaide Writers' Week - 01.jpg]]

Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a British–Australian writer, living in London. She has written two books about how trauma affects the body.

Early life and education

Osborne-Crowley was born in London and raised in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia. She was a junior gymnastics champion.{{cite web|access-date=2022-03-09|title='My body started going rogue': How sexual assault derailed the life of a champion gymnast|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/mornings/how-sexual-assault-derailed-the-life-of-a-champion-gymnast/12027792|date=5 March 2020|website=ABC Radio}} She graduated with a degree in international studies from the University of Sydney in 2013 and with a Juris Doctor degree from the University of New South Wales in 2018.{{cite web|access-date=2022-03-09|title=About|url=https://luciaosbornecrowley.com/about/|website=luciaosbornecrowley.com}} In 2023, she was accepted into the PhD creative writing program at the University of East Anglia.{{cite tweet|user=@LuciaOC_|number=1682719530374553600|date=22 July 2023|title=This barbie is doing a PhD in creative writing at UEA, supervised by one of her favourite novelists, the totally totally totally brilliant and unbelievably talented @St_Bishop_❤️❤️❤️}}

Career

Osborne-Crowley works as a journalist, legal affairs correspondent, and writer. She first published I Choose Elena in 2020. The book is a short memoir "in which she recounts her experience of suffering a violent rape as a teenager, leading to years of chronic illness, anxiety and an eating disorder."{{cite web|access-date=2022-03-09|title=My Body Keeps Your Secrets by Lucia Osborne-Crowley review – on women's health and trauma|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/10/my-body-keeps-your-secrets-by-lucia-osborne-crowley-review-on-womens-health-and-trauma|date=9 September 2021|website=The Guardian}} In My Body Keeps Your Secrets (2021) "as well as telling her own story, she draws from more than 100 interviews to explore how women and non-binary people are defined by and fighting for their bodies. [. . .] a hybrid of academic prose, memoir and reportage". This book won the Somerset Maugham Prize for literature in 2022.{{cite web |last1=Reed |first1=Martin |title=Graphic novel wins at the 2022 Society of Authors' Awards |url=https://www2.societyofauthors.org/2022/06/01/graphic-novel-wins-at-the-2022-society-of-authors-awards/ |publisher=Society of Authors |access-date=24 July 2023 |date=1 June 2022}}

Her third book, The Lasting Harm, was published by HarperCollins in 2024.{{cite web |title=The Lasting Harm (Hardback) |url=https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lasting-harm/lucia-osborne-crowley/9780008591182 |publisher=Waterstones |access-date=24 July 2023}} It was subsequently shortlisted for the 2025 Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction{{Cite web |date=2025-01-29 |title=Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2025/01/29/265330/victorian-premiers-literary-awards-2025-shortlist-announced/ |access-date=2025-01-29 |publisher=Books+Publishing}} and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction{{Cite web |date=2025-04-30 |title=NSW Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2025/04/30/270941/nsw-literary-awards-2025-shortlists-announced/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |publisher=Books+Publishing}} and longlisted for the Walkley Book Award.{{cite web |title=Finalists announced for the 2024 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism |url=https://www.walkleys.com/2024-walkley-finalists/|publisher=Walkley Book Award |access-date=October 10, 2024}}

Publications

I Choose Elena: On Trauma, Memory and Survival. Mood Indigo Book 2. London: Indigo, 2020. {{ISBN|9781999683399}}.{{cite web|access-date=2022-03-09|title=I Choose Elena by Lucia Osborne-Crowley book review|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/i-choose-elena-by-lucia-osborne-crowley-book-review-terri-apter/|website=The Times Literary Supplement}}
My Body Keeps Your Secrets: Dispatches on Shame and Reclamation. London: Indigo, 2021. {{ISBN|9781911648130}}.{{cite web|access-date=2022-03-09|title=Author's follow-up tackles trauma|url=https://thewest.com.au/entertainment/book-review-my-body-keeps-your-secrets-by-lucia-osborne-crowley-is-told-with-considerable-bravery-ng-b881994783z|date=17 September 2021|website=The West Australian}}{{cite web|first1=Natasha|last1=Mitchell|access-date=2022-03-09|title=In a frank memoir, a writer tackles how trauma shows up in the body|url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/the-traumas-that-a-body-can-reveal-20211122-p59b0o.html|date=26 November 2021|website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}
The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. London: Fourth Estate, 2024. {{ISBN|9780008591182}}.{{cite web|access-date=2024-07-11|title=The Lasting Harm by Lucia Osborne-Crowley review – legacy of abuse|website=TheGuardian.com |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/06/the-lasting-harm-by-lucia-osborne-crowley-review-legacy-of-abuse}}