Joan Acocella (née Ross, born 1945) is an American journalist who is a staff writer for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''.
She has written books on dance, literature, and psychology.
Education and career
Acocella received her
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in English in 1966 from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. She earned a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in comparative literature at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
in 1984 with a thesis on the
Ballets Russes.
Acocella has written for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'',
has served as a senior critic and the reviews editor for ''
Dance Magazine
''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' has multiple sister publications, including '' Point ...
,'' and was the New York dance critic for the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
''. Her writing also appears regularly in the ''
New York Review of Books
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
''. She began writing for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' in 1992 and served as its dance critic from 1998 to 2019.
Her books include ''Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder'' (1999); ''Mark Morris'' (1993), a biography of modern dancer and choreographer
Mark Morris;
and ''Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints'' (2007), which explores the virtues common among extraordinary artists.
She also edited ''The Diary of
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
: Unexpurgated Edition'' (1999), ''André Levinson on Dance'' (1991), and ''Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell'' (2001),
her grandmother.
Acocella's ''New Yorker'' article "Cather and the Academy," which appeared in the November 27, 1995 issue, received a Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York and was included in the “Best American Essays” anthology of 1996.
She expanded the essay into ''
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including '' O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and '' My Ántonia''. In 192 ...
and the Politics of Criticism'' (2000).
A 2012 review by Acocella of
Henry Hitchings
Henry Hitchings (born 11 December 1974) is an author, reviewer and critic, specializing in narrative non-fiction, with a particular emphasis on language and cultural history. The second of his books, ''The Secret Life of Words: How English Beca ...
's ''The Language Wars'' drew criticism from Jan Freeman and
Mark Liberman
Mark Yoffe Liberman is an American linguist. He has a dual appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, as Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, and as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Scienc ...
.
John McIntyre of ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'' wrote about the episode in an opinion column.
Bibliography
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Awards and honors
*2017 – Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters
*2017 – Fellow, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers
*2012 – Holtzbrinck
Berlin Prize Fellow,
American Academy in Berlin
The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...
.
*2009 –
Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing
The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, established in 1991, is an annual literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to honor Nona Balakian
Nona Balakian ( Armenian: Նոնա Պալագեան, Constantinop ...
, the
National Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...
*2007 – Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters
*2002–present – Fellow, New York Institute for the Humanities
*1993–1994 – Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acocella, Joan
1945 births
Living people
American dance critics
Dance in New York City
The New Yorker critics
American women journalists
American women critics
The Village Voice people
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women writers
Tisch School of the Arts alumni