Happy Fake Writer's Day, JT LeRoy

[carsonshepherd]

Many people are angry about this. What do you think? http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2006/01/10/1

Author JT LeRoy Called A Hoax
The elusive, gender-bending literary artist known as JT LeRoy was revealed Monday as an elaborate hoax that duped many readers, celebrities and editors, as reported by the New York Times.

Rather than being a 25-year-old, HIV-positive former male teen hustler, the author is allegedly a 40-year-old woman named Laura Albert. The person who appeared in public as LeRoy -- usually disguised with a blond wig and dark sunglasses -- is Albert's sister-in-law Savannah Knoop, the Times reported.

LeRoy became a literary sensation in 2000, when his first novel, "Sarah," was published. The story was reportedly based on LeRoy's own life story, which involved being pimped by his mother into prostitution at the age of 12. He was supposedly rescued from the streets by Albert and her husband, Geoffrey Knoop, and they became a family in San Francisco.

His dramatic life story attracted celebrities and high-profile literary figures, including Gus Van Sant, Courtney Love and author Dave Eggers, to support and encourage his burgeoning career. He later published a collection of short stories, "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things," and a long short story called "Harold's End."

JT LeRoy rarely appeared in public, but when he did he was heavily disguised to look androgynous, and his voice was reportedly feminine. At some time during his rise to fame, he began saying that he was actually a transgender woman.

The elusiveness and several oddities, such as the advance for "Sarah" being paid to Laura Albert's sister, led many to question JT LeRoy's identity. Stephen Beachy wrote an article casting doubt about the writer's persona in the October issue of New York magazine.

"There is no longer any doubt that 'JT LeRoy' is a fake identity created by Laura Albert and her husband, Geoffrey Knoop, maintained with the help of Geoffrey's sister, Savannah," Beachy said in an e-mail to the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.

Albert and Knoop did not respond to requests for comment from the Chronicle or the Times.

Jenny Stewart, the entertainment editor for PlanetOut Inc., said she was not surprised to hear about the hoax, as she tried to work with the author on a few occasions that became frustrating because of LeRoy's unusual demands and whims.

Stewart, who in August 2005 decided not to publish a celebrity interview LeRoy conducted, said the author's payment was held up because he refused to give a Social Security number.

"We always require a Social Security number from our writers, but what we got was to send payment to some company in Nevada," she said. "Without that number, we cannot pay, and we've made that clear to JT Leroy's 'people.' "

Christopher Daly, director of the Transgender Law Center, told the PlanetOut Network he found some elements of the hoax troubling.

"It's obviously not the crime of the century," he said, "but for a community like the transgender community, whose voice is so rarely heard, it stings to hear about somebody fraudulently appropriating the experiences of transgender people in this way."

Ron Turner of Last Gasp, LeRoy's publisher in San Francisco, told the Chronicle the revelation will not change his plan to publish LeRoy's next novel, "Labour," this spring.

"If it was a hoax, hey, it was a great hoax," he said. "They're still great books. I don't care who wrote them as long as they're really good reads."



****

 

[carsonshepherd]

Here's another article about some in the GLBT community's reaction to the hoax.
***

JT LeRoy Hoax Angers GLBT Fans, Writers

Truth, the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction. And the truth about JT LeRoy -- revealed in an October expose and reinforced this week -- is far stranger than the heartbreaking childhood story and gritty works of fiction that, together, catapulted the young, HIV-positive, transgender novelist to international acclaim.

Young? HIV-positive? Transgender? LeRoy, it turns out, is none of those things. In a revelation that has rocked the literary world, he doesn't even exist. The painfully shy 20-something writer who rose out of truck-stop child prostitution and heroin addiction in West Virginia to become a best-selling novelist and voice of the downtrodden is a persona created and perpetuated, for an astounding 11 years, by one Laura Albert, a 40-year-old middle-class white woman from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Aided by her mother, her husband and her sister-in-law, among others, Albert charmed celebrities, famous writers and publishers into believing that LeRoy had produced remarkable works of harrowing fiction, informed by a woeful past of abuse, prostitution, drug addiction and, ultimately, gender transition. Literary heavyweights like Dave Eggers, Mary Gaitskill and Dennis Cooper eagerly promoted LeRoy's writings, and celebrities from Madonna to Courtney Love to Carrie Fisher offered enthusiastic support and encouragement.

According to a New York Magazine expose last October, Albert and her husband, Geoffrey Knoop, both failed rock musicians, began the ruse to gain access to literary and celebrity circles. Over the years, the hoax gradually morphed into a virtual cottage industry of deception. Readers worldwide bought LeRoy's three critically acclaimed books (the second of which is tellingly titled, "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things,") to pore over what they had been told were "semiautobiographical" stories.

Profits from LeRoy's books and magazine articles were paid to Albert's sister and mother via a Nevada company called Underdogs, Inc. Through the JT LeRoy Web site, devoted fans can buy not just the three books, but also CDs for a rock band, Thistle, for which LeRoy supposedly writes lyrics; buttons; T-shirts; the raccoon bones LeRoy allegedly wears as pendants; and wiffle balls signed by LeRoy.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, LeRoy was an associate producer for "Elephant," an award-winning 2003 film by famed director Gus Van Sant, and, more recently, was hired by HBO to write an episode of the series "Deadwood."

But not everyone is willing to simply write off the LeRoy story as a harmless hoax that hoodwinked America's literati.

"This charade is unfortunate and cruel for gay and transgender writers who fight over many years to get into print," said Charles Flowers, director of Lambda Literary Foundation, an organization that promotes LGBT writing. "It's particularly cruel for people who read the work hoping to find an image of themselves or to have their experience reflected back."

Flowers believes the LeRoy debacle will make it harder for real transgender and gay writers who have survived difficult circumstances to get their work published.

It's heinous," said Mitcho Thompson, a facilitator of drop-in support groups for homeless transgender youth in San Francisco. "She [Albert] is preying on this already vulnerable population, making a lot of money while hiding behind this fake image."

Thompson and other transgender activists take particular offense to LeRoy's citing a transgender identity as reason not to appear in public, which allowed Albert to continue the hoax even as readers clamored to see more of LeRoy. "As a transgendered human subject to attack," LeRoy wrote to a New York Times reporter, "I use stand-ins to protect my identity."

Michelle Tea, a San Francisco writer and literary curator who helps shepherd young LGBT writers, had a six-year working relationship with LeRoy and helped publish his work. "This whole thing is so gross," Tea said, still reeling from what she called a "great diabolical hoax."

Tea said she spent many hours on the phone and had lengthy e-mail exchanges with LeRoy, encouraging what she thought was a greatly troubled young man trying to get his voice out into the world. "It's such a slap to the artists who really are toiling away to create meaning from the hardships of their lives," Tea said. "It turns the redemptive quality of a lot of writing into a total farce."

But the farce of JT LeRoy has not yet run its course. Despite mounting pressure on Albert to admit her role in the ruse, she has not yet done so. "I don't need this in my life right now," she said before hanging up on a New York Times reporter who called to inquire about the story.

And according to Tea, writers around the country are just beginning to grapple with a decade of professional and emotional deception.

Thompson, the support group facilitator, is calling for Albert to make reparations, a demand that is likely to gather steam in the coming weeks. "She should fund a drop-in shelter for homeless queer youth," he said. "She's been using this population to bolster her own fame and make money, and has not returned anything back. And that is disgusting."

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Hmmm.

At first glance, you wonder why someone who obviously is talented felt the need to create a cover story. On the other hand, you read some of the memories of famous writers and al they went through and you can see where the author's persona as a hook might occur.

Dishonesty rankles. And if you are one of those pubically taken in, there is a certain sense of outrage that has more to do with being made to look a fool than the actual offense might warrant.

They say no publicity is bad publicity. M. Jackson seems to bear that out. So perhaps reacting to the disclosure is doing more to furhter the author than rebuke her.

The issues involved are complex enough that I would have to ruminate on it a while before I come to a firm opinion.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Hmmm.

At first glance, you wonder why someone who obviously is talented felt the need to create a cover story. On the other hand, you read some of the memories of famous writers and al they went through and you can see where the author's persona as a hook might occur.

Dishonesty rankles. And if you are one of those pubically taken in, there is a certain sense of outrage that has more to do with being made to look a fool than the actual offense might warrant.

They say no publicity is bad publicity. M. Jackson seems to bear that out. So perhaps reacting to the disclosure is doing more to furhter the author than rebuke her.

The issues involved are complex enough that I would have to ruminate on it a while before I come to a firm opinion.

Well, the fact remains that, while she did lie, writers create characters all the time. This character just got out of control and the author got sucked into bigger and bigger lies.

Couldn't help noticing your charming typo there, Colly

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Well, the fact remains that, while she did lie, writers create characters all the time. This character just got out of control and the author got sucked into bigger and bigger lies.

Couldn't help noticing your charming typo there, Colly

One thing I know, if anyone ever attempts to hijack my account they'll have trouble rememberoing to typo with the regularity I do

 

[Norajane]

One thing I know, if anyone ever attempts to hijack my account they'll have trouble rememberoing to typo with the regularity I do

And we'll recognize you if you open a new account!


Not that I would know anything about that.

*whistles innocently*

 

[BlackShanglan]

Same debate is now going on over "A Million Little Pieces." Interesting how people's opinion on a work changes depending on whether it's fiction pretending to be non-fiction or admitting to being fiction.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Same debate is now going on over "A Million Little Pieces." Interesting how people's opinion on a work changes depending on whether it's fiction pretending to be non-fiction or admitting to being fiction.

Yeah, I haven't been keeping up with that one.

JT's work is supposedly "semi-autobiographical" and I think finding out it's all false pissed a lot of people off, because they believed it and now they feel foolish.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Same debate is now going on over "A Million Little Pieces." Interesting how people's opinion on a work changes depending on whether it's fiction pretending to be non-fiction or admitting to being fiction.

Well, yes.
As a reader, I approach a novel with a different set of expectations than I do an autobiography. I am willing to invest more of my empathy and sympathy in another real person- I reserve judgement on a fictive character, and tend to judge how well the author has brought him to life. My sympatetic imagination is awakened if I know, or think I know, that someone really underwent these trials- the they are not, for instance, an amalgma of several tales heard and decanted into one.

I haven't heart of Leroy before this- but if I'd read his story, felt my heart tear asunder in recognition of his plight- and then found out that it was all a fabrication- I'd be fucking pissed off. If I had read it as a novel- I might still have felt my meart break. And I'd be impressed with the author's skill, to boot.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Well, yes.
As a reader, I approach a novel with a different set of expectations than I do an autobiography. I am willing to invest more of my empathy and sympathy in another real person- I reserve judgement on a fictive character, and tend to judge how well the author has brought him to life. My sympatetic imagination is awakened if I know, or think I know, that someone really underwent these trials- the they are not, for instance, an amalgma of several tales heard and decanted into one.

I haven't heart of Leroy before this- but if I'd read his story, felt my heart tear asunder in recognition of his plight- and then found out that it was all a fabrication- I'd be fucking pissed off. If I had read it as a novel- I might still have felt my meart break. And I'd be impressed with the author's skill, to boot.

the novels were known to be fiction, but he had quite a life that he based them on (all a fabrication.)

 

[Stella_Omega]

the novels were known to be fiction, but he had quite a life that he based them on (all a fabrication.)

So I understand. AS I said, if I think I see the real person in a work, I am more inclined to invest much more emotional energy into my reading. Burroughs, for instance- I'm always assessing his words against what I know of the man- is this a fragment from his memories? I bet it is, it fits with this or that- unlike Elmore Leonard, whom I just read for the good plot and some blood.

 

[carsonshepherd]

So I understand. AS I said, if I think I see the real person in a work, I am more inclined to invest much more emotional energy into my reading. Burroughs, for instance- I'm always assessing his words against what I know of the man- is this a fragment from his memories? I bet it is, it fits with this or that- unlike Elmore Leonard, whom I just read for the good plot and some blood.

That, I think, is the danger of author-as-personality.

 

[caramelgirl_2]

Hmmm....Fresh Air Interview

So who was talking on the phone with Terry Gross??? It sounded like a young guy. Not a woman.

Wow...my mind is blown. The things you have to do to get published...lol.
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/index.html

 

[Liar]

Things that's on my mind is...would a 40 year old "normal" woman be able to write and publish this kind of literature in the first place? Was assuming a persona with "street cred" the only chance to get read?

 

[carsonshepherd]

Things that's on my mind is...would a 40 year old "normal" woman be able to write and publish this kind of literature in the first place? Was assuming a persona with "street cred" the only chance to get read?

That is the most applicable question, I think. It involves her motivation- exactly why did she do this: because she thought it was the only way to be taken seriously, or was it a just a flight of fancy that got out of control. That's really the question on my mind.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Things that's on my mind is...would a 40 year old "normal" woman be able to write and publish this kind of literature in the first place? Was assuming a persona with "street cred" the only chance to get read?

That is the most applicable question, I think. It involves her motivation- exactly why did she do this: because she thought it was the only way to be taken seriously, or was it a just a flight of fancy that got out of control. That's really the question on my mind.

That's a very good point, actually. And will I- a fifty year old mother of two- be taken seriously if I present my tales of leather dykedom to a publisher? *grin*

These deceptions were easier to carry off back in the days before the Internet- back before book tours and media blitzes. Didn't Mary Shelly originally publish "Frankenstien" under a pseudonym? And Clara Schumann published her music compositions as her brother's.

But neither of these examples tried to take the deception as far as Leroy's. They didn't have to- no newspaper reporters came clamoring to their doors, only polite letters dropped in the mail box. No one demanded public appearances from writers. If you wanted to publish under a nom de plume, you added a set of quotation marks around your name, thus; "Stella Omega" and everyone respected your desire for privacy, except, of course, for the dashing gentleman who found you out and swept you off your feet and out of your bodice- another problem for a suburban woman, no bodice to rip!

Stella, you're babbling, now shut up.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Stella, you're babbling, now shut up.

Hee hee, ha ha, you're hilarious when you babble.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Hee hee, ha ha, you're hilarious when you babble.

Want me to sing "Malaguena Salerosa" ?

Nevermind, I can't remember all the words- It'll have to be "La Cucaracha" instead