Lucinda Margaret Grealy (June 3, 1963 – December 18, 2002) was an Irish-American poet and memoirist who wrote '' Autobiography of a Face'' in 1994. This critically acclaimed book describes her childhood and early adolescent experience with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

of the jaw, which left her with some facial disfigurement. In a 1994 interview with Charlie Rose conducted right before she rose to the height of her fame, Grealy stated that she considered her book to be primarily about the issue of "identity."

Life

Grealy was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and her family moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in April 1967, settling in

Spring Valley, New York Spring Valley is a village in the towns of Ramapo and Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Chestnut Ridge, east of Airmont and Monsey, south of Hillcrest, and west of Nanuet. The population was 33, ...

. She was diagnosed at age 9 with a rare form of cancer called

Ewing's sarcoma Ewing sarcoma is a type of cancer that forms in bone or soft tissue. Symptoms may include swelling and pain at the site of the tumor, fever, and a bone fracture. The most common areas where it begins are the legs, pelvis, and chest wall. In about ...

. Treatment for this often fatal cancer (Grealy reports an estimated 5% survival rate using therapies available at the time of her diagnosis) led to the removal of her jawbone, and over the following years she had many

facial A facial is a family of skin care treatments for the face, including steam, exfoliation (physical and chemical), extraction, creams, lotions, facial masks, peels, and massage. They are normally performed in beauty salons, but are also a comm ...

reconstructive surgeries. In her memoir, ''Autobiography of a Face'', Grealy describes her life from the time of her diagnosis and how she weathered the cruelty of schoolmates and others, suffering taunts and stares from strangers. At 18, Grealy entered Sarah Lawrence College where she made her first real friends and nurtured her love of poetry. She graduated in 1985 and went on to study at the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative W ...

. In

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

she lived with fellow writer

Ann Patchett Ann Patchett (born December 2, 1963) is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel ''Bel Canto''. Patchett's other novels include '' The Patron Saint of Liars'' (1 ...

. Their friendship is the subject of Patchett's 2004 memoir '' Truth and Beauty: A Friendship''. In 1991, she was awarded a Bunting Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study, where she completed her memoir. In 1995, the book won Grealy a Whiting Award, given to young writers of exceptional talent. She published a collection of essays in 2000, ''As Seen on TV: Provocations''. She taught writing at

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

and

New School University The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. Following her final reconstructive surgery, Grealy became dependent upon her prescribed painkiller,

OxyContin Oxycodone, sold under various brand names such as Roxicodone and OxyContin (which is the extended release form), is a strong, semi-synthetic opioid used medically for treatment of moderate to severe pain. It is highly addictive and a commonly ...

, as she had earlier with codeine. She died of a heroin

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

on December 18, 2002, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, at age 39. Her sister, Suellen Grealy, was opposed to Ann Patchett's timing in publishing ''Truth and Beauty''. While she claims that Patchett and the book's publisher

Harper Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

stole the Grealy family's right to grieve privately, she acknowledges that "Ann was a far better 'sister' to Lucy than I could ever have been".

Awards

* 1995 Whiting Award Lucy Grealy won several prizes for her poetry, among them the

Sonora Review ''Sonora Review'' is a biannual graduate student-run literary magazine that was established in the fall of 1980. ''Sonora Review'' publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, as well as interviews, book reviews, and art. Each issue is produced ...

Prize, the London TLS poetry prize and two

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

awards.

Works

* ''Everyday Alibis'', a chapbook of poems * ** (Renamed British edition of ''Autobiography of a Face'') *

Anthologies

* *

Essays

References

External links

Lucy Grealy interview with Charlie RoseProfile at The Whiting Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grealy, Lucinda Margaret 1963 births 2002 deaths Irish emigrants to the United States American essayists 20th-century American memoirists American autobiographers Deaths by heroin overdose in New York (state) Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Sarah Lawrence College alumni Bennington College faculty People from Spring Valley, New York 20th-century essayists Drug-related deaths in New York City Women memoirists