Lucy Sante (formerly Luc Sante; born May 25, 1954) is a Belgian-born American writer, critic, and artist. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Her books include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991).

Early life and education

Born in Verviers, Belgium, Sante migrated to the United States in the early 1960s. She attended Regis High School in Manhattan, and attended Columbia University from 1972 to 1976. Sante worked in the mailroom and then as assistant to editor Barbara Epstein at The New York Review of Books. She became a regular contributor there, writing about film, art, photography, and miscellaneous cultural phenomena, as well as book reviews.

Career

Sante has written and edited books and written lyrics and liner notes. Her books include Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991), a non-fiction book documenting the life and politics of lower Manhattan from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century; Evidence (1992), the autobiographical The Factory of Facts (1998), Walker Evans (1999), Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces 1990-2005 (2007), Folk Photography (2009), and The Other Paris (2015). She co-edited O. K. You Mugs: Writers on Movie Actors with writer Melissa Holbrook Pierson, her former wife. In 1998 Sante translated and edited Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines (2007) for the New York Review Books (NYRB) series. In the early 1980s, she wrote lyrics for the New York City-based band The Del-Byzanteens. Sante wrote the text for Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography, a collection of historical photos of American baptismal rites, published by Dust-to-Digital in 2009. She taught in the Columbia MFA writing program. Sante now lives in Ulster County, New York, and currently teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard College.

Personal life

Sante lived as a man until announcing that she was transitioning to being a woman in 2021. She wrote on her Instagram account: "Yes, this is me, and yes, I am transitioning–I have joined the other team. Yes, I've known since at least age 11 but probably earlier and yes, I suppressed and denied it for decades.... I started...hormone replacement therapy in early May....You can call me Lucy (but I won't freak out if you misgender me) and my pronoun, thankyouverymuch, is she." In February 2022 she wrote an essay in the magazine Vanity Fair explaining her transition at almost 70 years old. Her 2024 memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition, follows her process of coming out and was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2024 by the New York Times. Sante has been married twice, and has a son.

Publications

Books

Chapbooks

Editor/Translator

Co-editor

Exhibitions

Awards and honors