Remembering A Literary Hoax

Michelle Tea writes about a dark time in the San Francisco literary scene. After the novel Sarah came out to critical acclaim, JT Leroy was a powerful new voice in the queer community. It turns out JT Leroy never existed. She was the creation of a woman to get a book deal. Michelle writes:

I think the real J.T. hangover has been the death of the dream that such a profound underdog could possess such talent. For a moment, all eyes were on an individual who could have given some profound insight into how people survive in the underbelly of this country. Once the hoax was revealed, and the author revealed to be a nonentity, interest in these stories seemed to evaporate as well.

Read the rest of this powerful essay here.

And now I bet you’re itching for some more Michelle Tea. Quick fix: The Rumpus Interview with her.

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Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She has a strong affinity for tattoos, otters, cat mystery books, and actual cats, but has mixed feelings about pants. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Women Who Submit, Entropy, Jaded Ibis Press, and Why There Are Words. You can find her on Twitter at @ArtsCollide.

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The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

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