Lilly Dancyger

Lilly Dancyger
Born1988 (age 37–38)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
EducationThe New School (BA)
Columbia University (MA)
OccupationWriter
Writing career
Genrenonfiction
Notable worksNegative Space (2021)
First Love: Essays on Friendship (2024)
Websitewww.lillydancyger.com

Lilly Dancyger (born 1988) is an American author and editor. She is the author of the memoirs Negative Space and First Love: Essays on Friendship, as well as editor of the anthology Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger. Her essays have been published by Literary Hub, The New York Times, Elle, Slate, and Brevity, among other outlets. She writes the newsletter The Word Cave.

Early life and education

Lilly Dancyger was born in Buffalo, New York. She grew up in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. She dropped out of Bard High School Early College at the age of 14 and earned a GED.

She later graduated from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts with a BA in Literary Studies and received an MA in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Career

Dancyger was the Memoir Editor at Narratively from 2014-2020, during which time she also worked as a freelance journalist, writing for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Glamour, The Cut, and others.

Her 2021 memoir, Negative Space, details her investigation into her father's life, who had an addiction to heroin and died prematurely, through the art he created. Gabino Iglesias from NPR and Claire Rudy Foster from The Rumpus both praised the work's nonlinear narrative and exploration of grief. Negative Space was selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards. In 2021, Dancyger was named a "Writer to Watch" by BookPage.

In 2023, Dancyger received an Artist Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Her second book, First Love: Essays on Friendship, a memoir-in-essays, was published in 2024 by The Dial Press. Ann Levin from Associated Press described the work as "vivid, thoughtful, and nuanced." Julia Shipley from The Philadelphia Inquirer also gave the collection a positive review. The book was a finalist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction.

She currently teaches creative nonfiction in the low-residency MFA program at Randolph College. She has previously taught at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Her next book, Muscle Memory, is forthcoming from Autofocus Books in 2027.

Personal life

Dancyger lives in New York City.

Bibliography

Nonfiction

Anthology

  • Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger (editor) (2019) Seal Press

References

  1. 1 2 Harris, Eliza. "How Writing Can Raise the Dead: An Interview with Lilly Dancyger, author of 'Negative Space'". Catapult. Retrieved 10-02-2026.
  2. 1 2 "Misadventures in J-School: When Grad School is the Wrong Thing". Literary Hub. Retrieved 10-02-2026.
  3. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (September 17, 2024). "Learning to Connect With Friends — Without Alcohol". The New York Times. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  4. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (August 4, 2024). "We Need to Talk About Our Ex-Best Friends". elle.com. Elle. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  5. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (May 2, 2024). "On Murder Memoirs". slate.com. Slate. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  6. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (January 30, 2024). "Looking at an Eclipse: A Braided Essay About Braided Essays". brevity.wordpress.com. Brevity Blog. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  7. ↑ "The Word Cave". substack.com. Substack. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  8. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (April 26, 2021). "Coming Home to Somewhere Unfamiliar". Guernica. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  9. 1 2 Iglesias, Gabino (May 5, 2021). "A Daughter Rediscovers Her Deceased Father's Life In 'Negative Space'". NPR. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  10. ↑ "New School Narratives, Lilly Dancyger". Library, The New School. Retrieved 10-02-2026.
  11. ↑ Lillibridge, Lara (October 8, 2023). "INTERVIEW: Lilly Dancyger, Writer, Editor, Teacher". Hippocampus Magazine. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  12. ↑ "Lilly Dancyger". rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Lilly Dancyger". glamour.com. Glamour Magazine. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  14. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (October 15, 2017). "The New Alternative to 'Female Viagra' Is Zapping the Brain". The Cut. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  15. ↑ VanDenburgh, Barbara (2021-04-26). "Nonfiction runs the gamut, plus Lahiri's 'Whereabouts'". USA Today. p. 14. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  16. ↑ Foster, Claire Rudy (2021-06-02). "Both of These Things Are True: Negative Space by Lilly Dancyger". The Rumpus. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  17. ↑ "The SFWP Awards Judged by Deesha Philyaw". sfwp.com. Santa Fe Writers Project. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  18. ↑ "Writers to watch: 10 women on the rise". bookpage.com. BookPage. March 1, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  19. ↑ Aronoff, Amy (September 19, 2023). "Introducing 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows, Finalists, and Panelists". nyfa.org. New York Foundation for the Arts. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  20. ↑ Puckett-Pope, Lauren. "Lilly Dancyger on First Love and the Friendships that Made (and Sustained) Her". ELLE. Retrieved 10-02-2026.
  21. ↑ Levin, Ann (May 5, 2021). "Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger's penetrating essays explore the power of female friendships". AP. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  22. ↑ Shipley, Julia (2024-12-21). "Best Philly nonfiction books to gift this year". The Philadelphia Inquirer. pp. B8. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  23. ↑ "2025 Lambda Literary Awards". lambdaliteerary.org. Retrieved 10-02-2026.
  24. 1 2 3 "Faculty". randolphcollege.edu. Randolph College. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  25. ↑ "Professor Lilly Dancyger Unveils New Essay Collection 'First Love'". arts.columbia.edu. Columbia University. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  26. 1 2 3 "Lilly Dancyger: Essays, Memoir, Non-fiction". Write or Die. Retrieved 10-02-2026.
  27. ↑ "Muscle Memory - Lilly Dancyger". Autofocus Books. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
  28. ↑ "Negative Space | Lilly Dancyger". Santa Fe Writers Project. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  29. ↑ "First Love by Lilly Dancyger: 9780593447574 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  30. ↑ Dancyger, Lilly (2019-02-05). Burn It Down. Basic Books. ISBN 978-1-58005-894-0.