Daniel M. Lavery (born Mallory Ortberg, November 28, 1986) is an American author and editor. He is known for having co-founded the website ''

The Toast ''The Toast'' was an American anthology, humor and feminist writing website, founded by editors Nicole Cliffe and Daniel M. Lavery (né Ortberg) and publisher Nicholas Pavich. It was active from January 2013 through July 2016. Content and ta ...

'', and written the books ''Texts from Jane Eyre'' (2014), ''The Merry Spinster'' (2018), '' Something That May Shock and Discredit You'' (2020), and ''Women's Hotel'' (2024). Lavery wrote ''Slate'''s "

Dear Prudence "Dear Prudence" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. Written in Ri ...

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

from 2016 to 2021. From 2022 to 2023, he hosted a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

on Slate titled ''Big Mood, Little Mood''. In 2017, Lavery started a paid e-mail newsletter titled ''Shatner Chatner'', renamed to ''The Chatner'' in 2021.

Early life

Born Mallory Ortberg, Lavery grew up in

northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois, with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by ...

and then

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, one of three children of the

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

author and former Menlo Church pastor

John Ortberg John Carl Ortberg Jr. (born May 5, 1957) is an American evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor. He served as the senior pastor of Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California, an ECO Presbyterian church with more than 4,000 members, for ...

and Nancy Ortberg, who is also a pastor and the CEO of Transforming the Bay with Christ. Lavery attended

Azusa Pacific University Azusa Pacific University (APU) is a private evangelical research university in Azusa, California, United States. The university was founded in 1899 in Whittier, California, with classes first held on March 3, 1900, and degrees offered in 193 ...

, a private, evangelical Christian university in California. While a student, Lavery appeared on ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' and finished last.

Writing

Influences

Lavery has credited the work of

Shirley Jackson Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Her writing career spanned over two decades, during which she composed six novels, two memoirs, and mor ...

and her novel ''

We Have Always Lived in the Castle ''We Have Always Lived in the Castle'' is a 1962 mystery novel by American author Shirley Jackson. It was Jackson's final work, and was published with a dedication to Pascal Covici, the publisher, three years before the author's death in 1965 ...

'', in particular, and

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

's ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early moder ...

'' as influential.

Career overview

Lavery wrote for ''

Gawker ''Gawker'' was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers that was based in New York City and focused on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month in 2015. Fo ...

'' and ''

The Hairpin ''The Hairpin'' was a women's writer-led website in ''The Awl'' network. It was founded in 2010 by Edith Zimmerman. It ceased publication at the end of January 2018. From 2013 to 2014, ''The Hairpin'' was edited by Emma Carmichael, with Jia Tol ...

''. Through this work, he met

Nicole Cliffe Nicole Cliffe (born September 2, 1982) is a Canadian writer living in Utah, who co-founded and co-edited the website ''The Toast'' with Daniel Lavery. Early life Nicole Cliffe was born September 2, 1982, and grew up in Kingston, Ontario. A fi ...

, with whom Lavery operated ''

'', a feminist general interest web site, from July 2013 to July 2016. Lavery was included in the 2015 ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' "30 under 30" list in the media category. On November 9, 2015,

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

announced that he would take over the magazine's "

" advice column from

Emily Yoffe Emily J. Yoffe (born October 15, 1955) is an American journalist and contributing writer for ''The Atlantic''. From 1998 to 2016 she was a regular contributor to ''Slate'' magazine, notably as Dear Prudence. She has also written for ''The New Y ...

. Lavery stopped writing the column in May 2021. In 2017, Lavery launched ''Shatner Chatner'', a paid e-mail newsletter. On May 19, 2021, he accepted a Substack Pro deal and shortened the newsletter's name to ''The Chatner''.

Books

''Texts from Jane Eyre''

Lavery's first book, ''Texts from Jane Eyre'', was released in November 2014 and became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. The book was based on a column that he wrote first at ''The Hairpin'', then continued at ''The Toast'', which imagines well-known literary characters exchanging text messages. The premise was inspired by a comments section thread on a piece Cliffe had written for

The Awl ''The Awl'' was a website about "news, ideas and obscure Internet minutiae of the day" based in New York City. Its motto was "Be Less Stupid." History Founded in April 2009 by David Cho and former ''Gawker'' editors Choire Sicha and Alex Balk ...

; on Cliffe's review of ''

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

'', a commentator wrote that his or her experience in the South was nearly identical to the novel "except everybody has cell phones". This prompted Lavery to imagine how

Scarlett O'Hara Katie Scarlett O'Hara is the protagonist of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 in literature, 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' and the 1939 Gone with the Wind (film), film of the same name, where she is portrayed by Vivien Le ...

might have used a cell phone.

''Rick and Morty Presents: Krombopulos Michael''

Lavery's first comic

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'', a ...

, entitled '' Rick and Morty Presents: Krombopulos Michael'', was published by

Oni Press Oni Press is an American independent comic book and graphic novel publisher based in Portland, Oregon, best known for publishing such series as '' Scott Pilgrim'' and ''Rick and Morty''. In 2019, it became an imprint label following the company's ...

on June 20, 2018, following the ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...

of the same name.

''The Merry Spinster''

A short story collection, ''The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror'' ( Henry Holt, 2018), appeared in 2018. The book, Lavery's second release, was highly anticipated, with ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', ''Bustle'',

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

and ''InStyle Australia'' included in their lists of forthcoming titles in 2018. ''The Merry Spinster'' reinvents fairy tales such as ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

'' and ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

''; in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', Agatha French described his renderings as making the "stories both weirder and yet somehow more familiar".

''Something That May Shock and Discredit You''

Lavery's third book, a memoir entitled '' Something That May Shock and Discredit You'', was published in February 2020 by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. It was originally published as individual essays.

''Women's Hotel''

Lavery's fourth book, a novel entitled ''Women's Hotel'', was published in October 2024 by HarperVia.

Personal life

Lavery identifies as

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

. In February 2018, he spoke to

Autostraddle Autostraddle is a queer and trans-owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer fem ...

about the process of

gender transitioning Gender transition is the process of affirming and expressing one's internal sense of gender, rather than the sex assigned to them at birth. It is a recommended course of treatment for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, providing impro ...

while writing ''The Merry Spinster''. The following month, Lavery was interviewed by

Heather Havrilesky Heather Havrilesky (born June 1970)Julia Llewellyn Smith, ''She's written a tell-all memoir about hating her husband...'', Times, London, 28 February 2022, ''Times2'', pp. 4-5. is an American author, essayist, and humorist. She writes the advice c ...

in ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' magazine's '' The Cut'' about coming out as

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

. In November 2018, Lavery and his girlfriend, Grace Lavery, an associate professor of English at

U.C. Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

and "the most followed transgender scholar in the world on social media" including Twitter and Instagram, announced their intention to marry. They were married on December 22, 2019.

References

External links

Contributions on The Toast''Texts from Jane Eyre''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavery, Daniel M. 1986 births American advice columnists American bloggers Transgender male writers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Slate (magazine) people 21st-century American non-fiction writers LGBTQ people from Illinois LGBTQ bloggers American satirists Azusa Pacific University alumni Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area 21st-century American LGBTQ people American transgender men American transgender writers