Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a British–Australian writer, living in London. She has written two books about how trauma affects the body.

Early life and education

Osborne-Crowley was born in London and raised in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia. She was a junior gymnastics champion.[1] She graduated with a degree in international studies from the University of Sydney in 2013 and with a Juris Doctor degree from the University of New South Wales in 2018.[2] In 2023, she was accepted into the PhD creative writing program at the University of East Anglia.[3]

Career

Osborne-Crowley works as a journalist, legal affairs correspondent, and writer.[2] She first published I Choose Elena in 2020. The book is a short memoir "in which she recounts her experience of suffering a violent rape as a teenager, leading to years of chronic illness, anxiety and an eating disorder."[4] In My Body Keeps Your Secrets (2021) "as well as telling her own story, she draws from more than 100 interviews to explore how women and non-binary people are defined by and fighting for their bodies. [. . .] a hybrid of academic prose, memoir and reportage".[4] This book won the Somerset Maugham Prize for literature in 2022.[5] Her third book, The Lasting Harm, was published by HarperCollins in 2024.[6] It was subsequently longlisted for the Walkley Book Award.[7]

Publications

• I Choose Elena: On Trauma, Memory and Survival. Mood Indigo Book 2. London: Indigo, 2020. ISBN 9781999683399.[8]
• My Body Keeps Your Secrets: Dispatches on Shame and Reclamation. London: Indigo, 2021. ISBN 9781911648130.[9][10]
• The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. London: Fourth Estate, 2024. ISBN 9780008591182.[11]

See also

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

References

1. "'My body started going rogue': How sexual assault derailed the life of a champion gymnast". ABC Radio. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
2. "About". luciaosbornecrowley.com. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
3. @@LuciaOC_ (22 July 2023). "This barbie is doing a PhD in creative writing at UEA, supervised by one of her favourite novelists, the totally totally totally brilliant and unbelievably talented @St_Bishop_❤️❤️❤️" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
4. "My Body Keeps Your Secrets by Lucia Osborne-Crowley review – on women's health and trauma". The Guardian. 9 September 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
5. Reed, Martin (1 June 2022). "Graphic novel wins at the 2022 Society of Authors' Awards". Society of Authors. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
6. "The Lasting Harm (Hardback)". Waterstones. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
7. "Finalists announced for the 2024 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism". Walkley Book Award. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
8. "I Choose Elena by Lucia Osborne-Crowley book review". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
9. "Author's follow-up tackles trauma". The West Australian. 17 September 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
10. Mitchell, Natasha (26 November 2021). "In a frank memoir, a writer tackles how trauma shows up in the body". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
11. "The Lasting Harm by Lucia Osborne-Crowley review – legacy of abuse". Retrieved 11 July 2024.

External links

• Official website