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JT Leroy (J.T. LeRoy, Terminator), a young American author, has written a novel, Sarah; a collection of short stories, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things; and the novella Harold's End illustrated by Australian artist Cherry Hood. He is currently working on a fourth work, to be released by Viking Press later this year.

Career

JT has written for such magazines as 7x7, Zoetrope, McSweeney's, and the online magazine Memorious and newspapers ranging from the New York Times and the London Times to Spin, Vogue and Interview. His work has also appeared in such anthologies as The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003, MTV's Lit Riffs, XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits, Nadav Kander's Beauty's Nothing, and The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes. Leroy wrote the original screenplay for Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003) and is listed as the film's associate producer. He also wrote the liner notes for Billy Corgan's book of poetry, Blinking With Fists.

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things was made into a film in 2004, directed by Asia Argento, who also starred in the adaptation. It has since been picked up by Palm Pictures and is slated to be released in the U.S. later this year. The film version of Sarah is currently being written by screenwriter Jeffery Hatcher for Secretary (2002) director Steven Shainberg. JT is also slated to write the screenplay for Jean-Claude Schlim's House of Boys with Bob Graham, currently in pre-production.

JT Leroy entered into an e-mail relationship with Garbage singer Shirley Manson in early 2001 after she mentioned reading his book Sarah on her online journal on the band's website. He sent her a manuscript for The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and they became friends. At the time Manson was writing and recording the band's third album, what would become beautifulgarbage and wrote a song loosely based on Leroy called 'Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)'. Although the song was never released in the U.S., it was a top ten smash in Australia. Manson and Leroy never actually met until December 2001 when Leroy attended a live performance of the band. Shirley Manson later name-checked Leroy and Speedie in the title song from the band's fourth effort Bleed Like Me.

JT Leroy lives in San Francisco with Speedie and Astor, members of the rock band Thistle LLC for whom he writes the lyrics.

Identity

Few hard facts are known about the enigmatic author. He credits his writing to Dr. Terrence Owens, a therapist at the McAuley Adolescent Unit of St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco. Dr. Owens encouraged JT to write in-between sessions to maintain continuity of thought and convinced him that these accounts would help to train a class of prospective social workers. These writings eventually made their way into the collection of short stories Close to the Bone: Memories of Hurt, Rage and Desire (1998). Leroy is notoriously camera-shy and often—perhaps borrowing a page from artist Andy Warhol—sports a wig and/or sunglasses when in public. He avoids the media, but it is said that he appreciates his fans, and e-mails them whenever he can.

An article in New York magazine October 10, 2005 by author Stephen Beachy suggested that LeRoy and Speedie are both personas adopted by a woman named Laura Albert. Beachy, like several commentators since 1999, speculates on parallels to the case of Anthony Godby Johnson. Unlike that case, however, here many persons have had direct personal dealings with LeRoy and consider themselves close friends and associates. These tend to dismiss the article as a "hatchet job" by a magazine seeking to create publicity for itself using LeRoy's name.

Books

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

ISBN 1582341427 (hardcover); ISBN 1582342113 (paperback)

Published in America on June 1, 2002 by Bloomsbury. The book consists of a collection of short stories that focus on the early life of young Jeremiah and his truck stop prostitute mother Sarah. Although published second, the writing of the stories actually predated the novel Sarah by 2 or 3 years.

Sarah

ISBN 1582340765 (hardcover); ISBN 158234146X (paperback)

First published in America on June 9, 2001 by Bloomsbury. The novel follows 12-year-old Cherry, a boy who aspires to be the most famous "lot lizard" (a prostitute at a truck stop). Growing jealous of the beauty of his mother, he passes himself off as a female and enters the service of the pimp who runs a truck-stop brothel in West Virginia, filled entirely with young boys dressed as women. The story itself has many of the elements of The Heart, but has much more humor in its account of Cherry's quest—renaming himself Sarah after his mother—to become the greatest "lizard" in the brothel. Much as in Leroy's previous work, the protagonist falls upon bad times and faces exploitation and abuse at the hands of another pimp. Surprisingly less dark than the short story collection, the novel has a distinct mythical/Dickensian feel and relates a story of love of a child's mother, expressed through his imitation of her.

Harold's End

ISBN 0867196149

Published by Last Gasp on January 30, 2005. The novella follows a young heroin addict, Oliver, who is befriended by Larry, an older man with an unusual turn-on, from whom he receives an unusual pet.

Earlier versions of Harold's End were published by:

• literary journal McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. The novella is one of nine separate booklets which together make up issue #7.
• Italian publisher Fazio Editore as a trade paperback in 2003. Titled La fine di Harold (ISBN 8881123878), the volume includes, on facing pages, the text of both the English original and an Italian translation by Martina Testa.

External links

• JT Leroy's official website
• Thistle LLC official site
• The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things film official site
• The McAuley Institute at St. Mary's Medical Center
• (media link) Real Audio stream of interview with JT Leroy conducted by Terry Gross. Broadcast on her U.S. National Public Radio show Fresh Air on November 26, 2001

• American writers