Catherine Lacey (author)

Catherine Lacey
Lacey in 2015
Born (1985-04-09) April 9, 1985
Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
EducationLoyola University New Orleans (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
OccupationNovelist
PartnerDaniel Saldaña París
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
Notable worksBiography of X, Pew
Notable awardsWhiting Award (2016)
Guggenheim Fellowship (2019)
Young Lions Fiction Award (2021)
Lambda Literary Award (2024)
Websitewww.catherinelacey.com

Catherine Lacey (born April 9, 1985) is an American writer. She is the author of the award winning novels Biography of X and Pew. She is the recipient of a 2016 Whiting Award and 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction.[1][2]

Early life and education

Lacey was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1985.[2][3] She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola University New Orleans, where she majored in visual arts and writing.[4][5] She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University in 2010.[6]

Career

Lacey was a founding member of 3B, a cooperatively owned and operated bed and breakfast in downtown Brooklyn, where she lived while she wrote her first novel.[7] In 2012, Lacey won an Artists' Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts[8] that she credits for giving her the financial freedom to finish Nobody Is Ever Missing.[9]

Nobody Is Ever Missing was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In The New York Times, Dwight Garner called Lacey's prose "dreamy and fierce at the same time."[10] Time Out named it "the (hands down) best book of the year."[11] It also made The New Yorker's list of the best books of 2014.[12] It has been translated into Dutch,[13] Spanish,[14] Italian,[15] French,[16] and German.[17] The novel was a finalist for the New York Public Library's 2015 Young Lions Fiction Award.[18]

In 2017, Lacey was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists. Her second novel, The Answers (2017), was also published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It received several favorable reviews and comparisons to Don DeLillo and Margaret Atwood.[19][20] 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."[21]

From left: Lacey, Siri Hustvedt, and Salman Rushdie at a panel on "The Writer's Life" at the 2014 Brooklyn Book Festival

Lacey's 2020 novel Pew was shortlisted for the 2021 Dylan Thomas Prize[22] and won the New York Public Library's 2021 Young Lions Fiction Award.[23]

Lacey's fourth novel, Biography of X, a fictional biography and alternative history, was published in 2023. The New Statesman said the book "thrillingly subverts the conventions of life-writing."[24] Time named it one of "the 100 must-read books of 2023."[25] The novel was shortlisted for the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize.[26] It won the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.[27]

Lacey's nonfiction/fiction hybrid work The Möbius Book was released in June 2025.[28] The Möbius Book was a finalist for the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction.[29]

Lacey's short-story collection My Stalkers is set for release in January 2027.[14][30]

Personal life

In August 2015, Lacey married actor and teacher Peter Musante; they divorced the next year. Lacey was partnered with writer Jesse Ball from 2016 to 2021.[31] As of 2024, she is married to the writer Daniel Saldaña París.[32] The couple live in Mexico City.[3]

Lacey has taught in the writing program at Columbia University's School of the Arts.[33]

Bibliography

Novels

  • —— (2014). Nobody Is Ever Missing (paperback 1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374711283.
  • —— (2017). The Answers (hardcover 1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374100261.
  • —— (2020). Pew (hardcover 1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374230920.
  • —— (2023). Biography of X (hardcover 1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374606176.

Short fiction

Hybrid (memoir/novella)

Nonfiction

References

  1. ↑ Piepenbring, Dan (March 23, 2016). "Introducing the Winners of the 2016 Whiting Awards". Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Catherine Lacey". Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  3. 1 2 "Visiting Writer Series: Catherine Lacey". butlerartscenter.org. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  4. ↑ "Catherine Lacey, Interview". Granta. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  5. ↑ "Loyola Alumni Bookshelf". loyno.edu. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  6. ↑ "Creative Writing Lecture: Catherine Lacey". Columbia University. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  7. ↑ Lacey, Catherine (April 19, 2014). "A Way for Artists to Live". The New York Times. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  8. ↑ "New York Foundation for the Arts". Archived from the original on May 28, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  9. ↑ NYFA.org (December 16, 2015). "Conversations: Sarah Dohrmann Interviews Catherine Lacey". NYFA.org - NYFA Current. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  10. ↑ Garner, Dwight (July 22, 2014). "Abandoning All Stability to Test Fate". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2016. ... "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.
  11. ↑ Gibert, Tiffany (November 19, 2014). "The 10 best books of 2014". TimeOut New York. Retrieved February 23, 2016. ...the (hands-down) best book of the year ...
  12. ↑ Heller, Nathan (December 23, 2014). "The Best Books of 2014". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 23, 2016. ...incantatory, cool, and unerringly tuned to fresh detail. Lacey writes with a peculiar suppleness entirely her own...
  13. ↑ "Niemand Is Ooit Verloren". Das Mag. Archived from the original on March 16, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  14. 1 2 "Catherine Lacey: "Todo el mundo necesita desaparecer en algún momento"". El Cultural. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Nessuno scompare davvero – SUR". Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Personne ne disparaît". Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Niemand verschwindet einfach so". Aufbau Verlag. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Young Lions Award List of Winners and Finalists". Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  19. ↑ Lorentzen, Christian (July 6, 2017). "Can You Still Write a Novel About Love". Vulture. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  20. ↑ Garner, Dwight (May 30, 2017). "'The Answers' Runs Down the Rabbit Hole of Love". The New York Times. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  21. ↑ O'Grady, Megan (June 1, 2017). "Catherine Lacey's Dating Dystopia The Answers Is This Summer's Must-Read Novel". Vogue. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  22. ↑ "Shortlist for Dylan Thomas Prize Is Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  23. ↑ "In the States, the Young Lions Fiction Award goes to Catherine Lacey". Publishing Perspectives. June 18, 2021.
  24. ↑ Peirson-Hagger, Ellen (May 5, 2023). "Catherine Lacey's biography that isn't". The New Statesman. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Biography of X By Catherine Lacey". Time. November 14, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  26. ↑ Creamer, Ella (March 21, 2024). "Caleb Azumah Nelson and Mary Jean Chan shortlisted for Dylan Thomas prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  27. ↑ "Congratulations 2024 Lammy Award Winners". lambdaliterary.org. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  28. ↑ Jacobs, Alexandra (June 15, 2025). "A Relationship Breaks in Two. So Does the Book That Explains Why". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2025.
  29. ↑ "2026 Lambda Literary Award Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 2026-08-19.
  30. ↑ "My Stalkers: Stories". Macmillan Publishers. Retrieved 2026-08-18.
  31. ↑ Borrelli, Christopher (September 12, 2018). "'The Answers' author Catherine Lacey conjures sentences that can stop you cold". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  32. ↑ "Notes on Reading". December 23, 2024.
  33. ↑ "Catherine Lacey" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Writing Program, Columbia University School of the Arts.
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