Suzannah Terry Lessard (born December 1, 1944) is an American writer of literary non-fiction. She has written memoir, reportorial pieces, essays, and opinion.

Life

Lessard was born in

Islip, New York Islip ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States, on the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island. The population was 339,938 at th ...

to John Ayres Lessard and Alida Mary (White). She is the great-granddaughter of architect

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

. She has taught at Columbia School of the Arts,

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

, and

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1885 as a Nonsectarian, nonsecterian Women's colleges in the United States, ...

MFA in Creative Non-fiction. She was one of the first editors of the ''Washington Monthly'' from 1971 to 1974. From 1975 to 1995 she was a staff writer at The New Yorker Magazine She has also published in ''New York Times Magazine'', ''Architectural Record'', ''Architectural Digest'', and ''Wilson Quarterly'' and Harvard Design.

Awards and honors

* 1995

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

* 2003 Mark Lynton History Prize, ''Mapping the New World: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Sprawl'' Fellowships *2001-2002 Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. *2002-2003 Jenny McKean Moore Fellowship for creative non-fiction, at George Washington University

Works

She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, ''The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family'' (1996). Her next book, ''Dreamscape: Finding Our Way in a Time of Epochal Change'' was, as of fall 2011, in editorial process. It is a reportorial essay about the experience of going from the Industrial Age to the Information Age with changes in the form and meaning of landscape and place as the point of entry. Her next book, ''The View From a Small Mountain: Reading the American Landscape'' was published in 2017. In 2019, Lessard published ''The Absent Hand:Reimagining Our American Landscape'' which Michael Kimmelman described as “thoughtful, exquisitely written collection of interconnected essays…”

Anthologies

References

External links

"Suzannah Lessard and Honor Moore", ''BOMB 57'', Betsy Sussler, Fall 1996Profile at The Whiting Foundation
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lessard, Suzannah Living people 1944 births American biographers American essayists