Lucy Sante facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lucy Sante
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| Born | Luc Sante May 25, 1954 Verviers, Belgium |
| Occupation | Writer, critic, artist |
| Education | Columbia University |
| Notable awards | Grammy Award for Best Album Notes (1998) Guggenheim Fellowship (1992) Whiting Award (1989) |
Lucy Sante (pronounced Sahnt) is a Belgian-born American writer, critic, and artist. She is known for writing about history, culture, and her own life. Sante often writes for The New York Review of Books, a famous magazine. Her popular books include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York and her 2024 memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition.
Contents
Early Life and Schooling
Lucy Sante was born in Verviers, Belgium, on May 25, 1954. In the early 1960s, her family moved to the United States. She went to Regis High School in Manhattan. Later, she studied at Columbia University from 1972 to 1976.
After college, Sante got a job at The New York Review of Books. She started in the mailroom and later became an assistant to the editor, Barbara Epstein. This job helped her start her writing career. She began writing articles for the magazine about movies, art, and photography.
A Career in Writing and Art
Sante has had a long career creating many different kinds of work. She has written books, song lyrics, and notes for music albums.
Famous Books
Sante is best known for her books. Her first major book was Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991). It tells the story of what life was like for ordinary people in lower Manhattan in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Some of her other books include:
- The Factory of Facts (1998), a book about her own life and memories.
- The Other Paris (2015), which explores the history of Paris, similar to how Low Life explored New York.
- Nineteen Reservoirs (2023), a book about the system that brings water to New York City.
She also translated a book by Félix Fénéon called Novels in Three Lines.
Working in Music and Film
In the 1980s, Sante wrote lyrics for a band from New York City called The Del-Byzanteens. She also worked on movies. She was a historical consultant for the 2002 film Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorsese. This means she helped make sure the movie's details about old New York were accurate.
Teaching and Art
For 24 years, Sante taught writing and the history of photography at Bard College. She retired from teaching in 2023. Besides writing, Sante is also an artist who makes collages. A collage is a piece of art made by sticking different things, like paper or photos, onto a surface. Her art has been shown in galleries.
Personal Life
In 2021, Sante announced that she was transitioning to being a woman. On her Instagram account, she shared that she had known this about herself since she was a child. She wrote, "You can call me Lucy... and my pronoun, thankyouverymuch, is she."
In 2022, she wrote an essay for Vanity Fair magazine about her experience. Her 2024 book, I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition, tells the story of her transition. The book was very successful and was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2024 by The New York Times. It was also a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize. Sante has been married twice and has a son.
Awards and Honors
Sante has received many awards for her work. Here are a few of them:
- 1989: Whiting Award for new writers.
- 1992: Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant for talented artists and scholars.
- 1998: Grammy Award for writing the notes for the Anthology of American Folk Music album.
- 2023: Order of the Crown, an honor from her home country of Belgium.
See also
In Spanish: Lucy Sante para niños
