Once these subjects emerge in their conversations, Anne can help Hunter to write a well-grounded, proper, formal essay, which is what he does. How can a young woman *not* speak up when something so vile happens to her? LACY CRAWFORD: I think each of those books is different from the others and has its own integrity and its own pleasures. This varies by school, of course, but often there is a simple reckoning of data points: school, state, class rank (percentile), standardized test scores (if applicable), and various leadership positions held (standout athletic, artistic achievements included). Leslie Lindsay is the award-winning author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA (Woodbine House, 2020). Henrietta's personal network of family, friends, associates & neighbors include Lacy Underwood, Luwann Underwood, Bethany Sumrall, Lance Underwood and Janie Williams. In 2010, she and her husband had their first son and moved to San Francisco. NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with author Lacy Crawford about her new memoir, Notes on a Silencing, about her sexual assault at an elite boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire. Lacy Crawford served for fifteen years as a highly discreet independent college admissions counselor to the children of powerful clients in cities such as New York, Chicago, … I think of those spaces of where we exist—what we’ve inherited--as distinct from where we belong. Before the kid is even born! Here’s what Ms. Crawford has to say about the process–and more! Ronald James Brown (born March 31, 1961) is an American former athlete and American football wide receiver, winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1984 Summer Olympics. As a result, Anne’s students are frightened, and they produce essay drafts as though they’re going to be graded that very afternoon—rote, dry, pseudo-sophisticated essays that don’t sound like the true voices of the students who wrote them. They stole my health, my privacy, my sense of safety, my self-esteem. Once you get that taken care of, you realize your prized preschool has a waiting list. But, no she didn’t write the essays for them, she merely sharpened their skills so they could write their own. VIDA is doing excellent work, and there are wonderful readers and writers grappling with the challenge, but in a sense we are all in thrall to a rapidly shifting marketplace, and it’s a scary and exciting time for those of us who love written stories. And I was right. But it is clear to me that legacy institutions, which pride themselves on their history and, specifically, the relationships between current and former students, can be particularly dangerous in that they create an expectation that anyone who has trouble, who stumbles or is weak, does not belong. In fact, a perfect example in EARLY DECISION is when Anne (the protagonist/admissions whisperer) is working with Hunter on his essay, “Just pretend you’re telling Nicole all about Montana. But by the time seniors come to work on their applications, almost everything else is set in stone, or will be soon—their grades, their scores, their performance across so many variables. I did not want to let them hurt my parents, which meant not telling my parents. I didn’t do any research at all. ‘Early Decision’ author Lacy Crawford breaks down the college admissions craziness for Lizzie Crocker. “Erudite and devastating… Crawford's writing is astonishing… Notes on a Silencing is a purposefully named, brutal and brilliant retort to the asinine question of 'Why now? Crawford started this work in 1997 when she took a job as an English teacher at a private school in Palo Alto, Calif., and assigned her students to write their college essays as homework. LACY CRAWFORD is an author of fiction and nonfiction, including the satire EARLY DECISION (Morrow, 2013) and the forthcoming memoir NOTES ON A SILENCING (Little, Brown, 2020). Kathleen “Kathy” Carroll Giles became the Fourteenth Rector of St. Paul’s School on July 1, 2019. Lacy Crawford is the author of the novel Early Decision. Ah yes…enter Lacy Crawford. I have had the privilege of being inside this process for a long time, and I wanted to write a book that would make people laugh and make people say, 'Oh, I am not as bad as those people are,' but encourage them to think about a better way to approach all of this.". That horrific experience involving two senior athletes and 15-year old Lacy in the boy’s dorm after-hours wasn’t just a figment of her imagination. I want to leave on a positive note, so can you talk about three things you’re looking forward to? "Naturally when people read it, they felt like I was attacking folks when really I was inspired by the idea of trying to make things better," the 25-year-old said during a phone interview. Can you describe this a little more? I wanted to go back to being a high school kid, go back to being normal. ARTIST'S STATEMENT: I have always been drawn to the gnawing questions that focus on identity and belonging, with (dis)placement and (up)rootedness. She guesses that what he would write about in an email to his girlfriend is far more likely to be something that matters to him, something that, for whatever reason, caused him to think or feel strongly. I don’t know that there is a #1 reason. Attending St. Paul’s was a privilege for Lacy, who worked hard in academics, athletics, and music. This is a tale about those in power refusing to believe, then shaming, and finally, attempting to silence. In talking to Hunter, Anne realizes that he was deeply moved by his summer trip to Montana, and that there is passion and unexplored interest there. This feels like a critical and exciting moment. When she arrived, her friends informed her that she already had missed some deadlines for the city's best preschools. I look forward to trying to model what progress might look like. Leslie Lindsay: There are other books about getting into college—Admission (Jean Hanoff Korelitz), Acceptance (Susan Coll), Dangerous Admissions (Jane O’Connor), Getting In (Karen Stabiner), and there are books about the college experience—J. LACY CRAWFORD: I have a few pieces of narrative nonfiction in the pipeline, and I’ve been working on a new novel for about a year. Being a Chicago-based writer, I related to much to witnin the pages of this book [the novel takes place on the Gold Coast and in the city]. You successfully pull that off by incorporating elements of classic literature into the story through Anne’s former aspirations as a journist/English major. Alicia Kircher Lydon, 84, of Lake Forest, passed away peacefully at home on Feb. 1, 2012. Editorial Reviews. Lacy, welcome and thank you so much for chatting about this very personal and heart-wrenching time. And I sure as hell didn’t want to let them take my school. Missouri, that is–who will be sharing her book, THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD (March, 2014). If one were to try to relate the publishing industry and college admissions, I’d say the query letter finds its closest analogue in the quick review that most applications receive in the earliest stages of the process. Optional interviews notwithstanding, the essay is the single opportunity for expression offered by the application process, and that makes it singularly daunting. more In 1990, when Lacy Crawford was a 15-year-old student at St. Paul’s — an elite New Hampshire boarding school whose alumni include John Kerry, Robert Mueller III, and the fictional … While I no longer work with high school seniors on their college applications, I’ve found that there is no shortage of families in search of rational, useful advice to help them navigate the admissions … And she graciously offers a complimentary copy? Lacy has 7 jobs listed on their profile. But my children are very small and I’m their primary caregiver, so I will see what bears out. Students do a fair amount of writing, but most of it is expository, and when it comes time to write a compelling piece of first-person narrative, they’re stumped. Leslie Lindsay: Lacy, what do you think is the #1 reason college-bound seniors don’t know how to tackle that personal essay/mission statement? I did not want them to take my advisors’ confidence in me, which meant not telling my teachers. These are just a few of the questions Lacy grapples with in NOTES ON SILENCING. Lacy lives in California with her husband and three children. Detectives asked for victims to come forward, and though it had been decades, Lacy threw her hat into the ring. She panicked and set to work filling out applications. Since 2013, Leslie has interviewed over 700 bestselling and debut authors on her author interview series. And I’m very eager to see how we can create change. What—if any—research did you do as you wrote the book? Also, along those lines, the idea that women are socialized to ‘go along with things,’ or that they ‘exaggerate.’ Oh, how I loathe those phrases. 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