# Wendy Lesser > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wendy_Lesser > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wendy_Lesser.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Lesser > Source revision: 1318154455 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American novelist}} {{Infobox writer | name = Wendy Lesser | image = Wendy Lesser.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|3|20}} | birth_place = [Santa Monica, California](/source/Santa_Monica%2C_California), U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = | education = [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) ([BA](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts))
[King's College, Cambridge](/source/King's_College%2C_Cambridge) ([BPhil](/source/Bachelor_of_Philosophy))
[University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley) ([PhD](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy)) | period = | genre = non-fiction | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = [Millicent Dillon](/source/Millicent_Dillon) (mother) | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = | portaldisp = }} '''Wendy Lesser''' (born March 20, 1952) is an American [critic](/source/critic), writer, and [editor](/source/Editing) based in [Berkeley, California](/source/Berkeley%2C_California)."Wendy Lesser." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-06-10. Version dated 2009 available online [http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/lesser-wendy-1952 via ''Encyclopedia.com'']. She is the founding editor of the arts journal ''[The Threepenny Review](/source/The_Threepenny_Review)'', and the author of a novel and several works of nonfiction, including most recently a biography of the architect [Louis Kahn](/source/Louis_Kahn), for which she won the 2017 [Marfield Prize](/source/Marfield_Prize).{{Cite news|url=https://artsclubofwashington.org/news/wendy-lesser-receives-10000-marfield-prize-arts-writing/|title=Wendy Lesser Receives $10,000 Marfield Prize for Arts Writing - DC Art Events {{!}} DC Wedding Reception Venue|date=2018-04-01|work=DC Art Events {{!}} DC Wedding Reception Venue|access-date=2018-04-04|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405024412/https://artsclubofwashington.org/news/wendy-lesser-receives-10000-marfield-prize-arts-writing/|url-status=dead}} == Biography == Lesser was born in 1952 in [Santa Monica, California](/source/Santa_Monica%2C_California) and moved in 1955 to [Palo Alto, California](/source/Palo_Alto%2C_California), where she was raised.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/article/ZZ/20150114/NEWS/150119037|title=Threepenny Review editor Wendy Lesser looks back on 35 years of 'Table Talk'|access-date=2017-06-29|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-mar-07-bk-14638-story.html|title=The Residue of Design|last=LINFIELD|first=SUSIE|date=1999-03-07|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2017-06-29|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/lesser_su10.html|title=Unearthly Powers|date=2010|website=Threepenny: Lesser|access-date=2017-06-29}} She is the daughter of Murray Lesser, an engineer and writer, and [Millicent Dillon](/source/Millicent_Dillon), a writer. She earned a B.A. at [Harvard University](/source/Radcliffe_College) in 1973; a B.Phil. at [King's College, Cambridge](/source/King's_College%2C_Cambridge), in 1975; and a Ph.D. at the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), in 1982. She is the author of several books, including a novel, ''The Pagoda in the Garden'' (Other Press, 2005), and the nonfiction book ''Why I Read'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014). She is a member of the [American Academy of Arts and Sciences](/source/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences), and has received fellowships from the [Guggenheim Foundation](/source/John_Simon_Guggenheim_Memorial_Foundation), [National Endowment for the Humanities](/source/National_Endowment_for_the_Humanities), the Dedalus Foundation, and the [New York Public Library](/source/New_York_Public_Library)'s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, among other places. ==Works== *''The Life Below the Ground: A Study of the Subterranean in Literature and History'' (1987) *''His Other Half: Men Looking at Women Through Art'' Harvard University Press, 1991. {{ISBN|9780674392113}}, {{OCLC|59903884}} *''Pictures at an Execution'' Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|9780674667365}}, {{OCLC|38972017}} *''A Director Calls'' Berkeley : University of California Press, 1997. {{ISBN|9780520212060}}, {{OCLC|611228387}} *''The Amateur: An Independent Life of Letters'' New York : Vintage Books, 1999. {{ISBN|9780375703812}}, {{OCLC|44405154}} ** ''Портрет балерины'' ([Tamara Toumanova](/source/Tamara_Toumanova))[http://az.lib.ru/t/tumanowa_t_w/text_16_portret_baleriny.shtml] *''Nothing Remains the Same: Rereading and Remembering'' Boston [u.a.] : Houghton Mifflin, 2002. {{ISBN|9780618340811}}, {{OCLC|798974644}} *''The Pagoda in the Garden'' New York : Handsel Books, 2005. {{ISBN|9781590511763}}, {{OCLC|795582468}} *''Room for Doubt'' New York : Pantheon Books, 2007. {{ISBN|9780375424007}}, {{OCLC|636819815 }} *''Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets'' New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, 2011. {{ISBN|9780300169331}} , {{OCLC|770869230}} *''Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books'' New York : Picador/Farrar, Staus and Giroux, 2014. {{ISBN|9781250062093}}, {{OCLC|898154175}} *''You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn'' New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. {{ISBN|9780374537630}}, {{OCLC|988048542}} *''Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery''. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020, {{ISBN|9780374216979}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== {{external media |audio1 = [http://www.gracecavalieri.com/poetLaureates/featuredpoet_wendylesser.html Wendy Lesser], ''The Poet and the Poem 2017-18 Series'' }} *[http://www.otherpress.com Other Press] *[http://www.threepennyreview.com ''The Threepenny Review''] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20180915044056/https://www.villagevoice.com/2007/01/30/freeze-framed/ ''Freeze framed: Wendy Lesser's essays break emotional ice''], review of ''Room for Doubt'' by Emily Weinstein at [The Village Voice](/source/The_Village_Voice) *[http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=17361 Random House: Wendy Lesser] *[http://www.films42.com/feature/august_feature.asp Films42 feature: Wendy Lesser] {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesser, Wendy}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:Writers from Palo Alto, California Category:Novelists from California --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wendy Lesser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Lesser) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Lesser?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.