GREALY, Lucinda (Margaret) 1963-2002 (Lucy Grealy)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born 1963, in Dublin, Ireland; died December 18, 2002, in New York, NY. Educator and author. Throughout her life, Grealy struggled with a facial disfigurement caused by cancer that she wrote about in her bestselling book Autobiography of a Face (1994). Developing Ewing's sarcoma in her jaw as a child, she underwent years of chemotherapy that caused her to lose half her jawbone. Several plastic surgeries failed to correct the problem, and she spent most of her early life anguishing over her appearance. When she entered Sarah Lawrence College, however, Grealy discovered poetry and found solace in it. She became a writer herself, and after graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1985 and then an M.F.A. from the prestigious writing program at the University of Iowa in 1987, she took up teaching and was an instructor at both her alma maters, as well as at Amherst College, Bennington College, and New School University. Composing her own verses, Grealy won numerous literary awards, including two Academy of American Poets prizes, a Times Literary Supplement poetry prize, and the 1995 Whiting Writer's Award. In addition to her autobiography, she was the author of Everyday Alibis, which contains poems and a novel, and the essay collection As Seen on TV: Provocations (2000).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Chicago Tribune, December 30, 2002, section 1, p. 10.

Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2002, p. B14.

New York Times, December 21, 2002, p. B17.

Washington Post, December 23, 2002, p. B5.