Ellis Avery (1972-2019)
December 16, 2024 4:39 AM   Subscribe

Award-winning writer Ellis Avery "was interested in the formation of queer identity before queerness was a "social category"; ... as such, she was at the forefront of a queer historical fiction movement in which the historical setting is, among other things, an allegory for the queer child awakening to her identity in a household that cannot recognize or name her existence." Ellis' novel The Last Nude fictionalized the life of Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. Ellis died too young of leiomyosarcoma. Avery wrote in 2015 about love, grief, and difficult relationships with mothers & Mother's Day.

I read The Last Nude back around when it came out and meant to read more of Avery's work. Never got there, and yesterday I went looking to see what she'd been up to in the intervening years, only to find her now years gone. I hope someone who reads this post looks her work up and takes pleasure from it.
posted by cupcakeninja (2 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
There is an exhibition of Tamara de Lempicka at the De Young Museum here in San Francisco right now.
posted by njohnson23 at 6:12 AM on December 16 [1 favorite]


Nice! My first time seeing her work in person was also in San Francisco, Jeune fille en vert at the same museum, for an Art Deco exhibition.
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:59 AM on December 16


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