JT LeRoy

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born

November 02, 1965 in New York, New York, The United States

gender

female

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Literature & Fiction

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Laura Victoria Albert is the author of writings credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a transgendered, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute. Albert was raised in Brooklyn, and she and her former partner Geoffrey Knoop have a young son. She has also used the names Emily Frasier and Speedie.

In a New York magazine article in October 2005, Stephen Beachy suggested that LeRoy was a literary hoax created by Albert. Beachy suggested that Albert was not only LeRoy's friend Emily Frasier, but also Speedie, LeRoy's street-hustling friend, as well as LeRoy himself. Albert has since confirmed that she is th...more Laura Victoria Albert is the author of writings credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a transgendered, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute. Albert was raised in Brooklyn, and she and her former partner Geoffrey Knoop have a young son. She has also used the names Emily Frasier and Speedie.

In a New York magazine article in October 2005, Stephen Beachy suggested that LeRoy was a literary hoax created by Albert. Beachy suggested that Albert was not only LeRoy's friend Emily Frasier, but also Speedie, LeRoy's street-hustling friend, as well as LeRoy himself. Albert has since confirmed that she is the writer behind the LeRoy books.

Investigation showed that the advance for LeRoy's first novel, Sarah, was paid to Laura Albert's sister, JoAnna Albert, and that further payments to LeRoy were made to a Nevada corporation, Underdogs Inc., whose president is Carolyn F. Albert, Laura Albert's mother.

The New York Times published an article about Disneyland Paris with the JT LeRoy byline in the Sunday magazine T:Travel supplement in September 2005. After the publication of the New York article, the Times found that expense receipts included an Air France itinerary for three people instead of the four described in the article. Employees at Disneyland Paris and two Paris hotels confirmed that the person claiming to be JT LeRoy matched photographs of Laura Albert, who told the employees she was traveling with her husband and son. She told hotel employees who thought JT LeRoy was male that she was a transsexual woman who had sex reassignment surgery three years earlier.

A 9 January 2006 article in the New York Times gave evidence that the role of LeRoy was played publicly by Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Albert's partner. Geoffrey Knoop later stated Albert was the author of the JT LeRoy works. Albert directly confessed to the hoax in a Fall 2006 Paris Review interview.

In June 2007, Albert was sued by Antidote International Films Inc. for fraud, which claims that a contract signed with JT Leroy to make a feature film of Sarah is null and void. On June 22, 2007, Laura Albert was found guilty of fraud by a Manhattan jury, and ordered to pay $110,000 to Antidote, as well as an extra $6,500 in punitive damages.
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Books by JT LeRoy

Average rating: 3.45 · 3,407 ratings · 353 reviews · 7 distinct works

	The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things 3.54 avg rating — 1,706 ratings — published 1999 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Sarah 3.38 avg rating — 1,456 ratings — published 2000 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Harold's End by JT LeRoy, Cherry Hood (Illustrator) 3.19 avg rating — 214 ratings — published 2003 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Da Capo Best Music Writing 2005 by JT LeRoy (Editor), Paul Bresnick (Editor) 3.36 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Labour by JT LeRoy, JT Le Roy 3.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2006	My rating:
	Jeremiah 3.33 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2002 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Terminal 5 by Andrew Walker, Douglas Coupland, Ben Davis 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2004	My rating:

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Quotes by JT LeRoy

“I remember when I saw Peter Pan when I was little. After all the other kids wanted to reenact the battles of the lost boys, pirates, and Indians, and all I could think about was the part where Peter Pan sits still while Wendy takes a sharp needle and, with concern and maybe love, sews his shadow onto his feet. And I wonder if the pain excited him as much as it excited me to watch. I hang here, the voices still bleeding in my ears. I watch my shadow, solid like a murdered body's outline, and I pray. Maybe one more slice, just one more, will sever it forever.”
― JT LeRoy, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

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JT LeRoy

Author profile

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Quotes by JT LeRoy

Topics Mentioning This Author

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JT's Fans (54)

JT LeRoy

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by JT LeRoy

Upcoming Events

Quotes by JT LeRoy

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Books by JT LeRoy