“JT Leroy” Confronts Readers in Chelsea

By Neal 

jennifer-belle-party.jpgNo sooner had I pushed my way through the crowd helping Jennifer Belle (left) celebrate her new novel, Little Stalker, when a publicist asked me if I’d seen “JT Leroy” on my way in. I hadn’t, but authors Carolyn Turgeon and Joi Brozek (inset) filled me in. Seems they were standing on line at Barnes & Noble earlier in the evening, waiting to get their copies of Belle’s book signed, when a woman came up to them and asked if they’d ever heard of Leroy. “Sure,” Brozek said, “but it was a hoax.” The woman asked her to explain, so she started summarizing Leroy’s unmasking last year, when she notices another woman videotaping her, and then a third woman approached saying, “Go on, I want to hear more about me.” Brozek says she then had an intense conversation with Laura Albert about the controversy, describing it as “one of the most sobering experiences of my life.”

So what’s Albert/Leroy doing with that footage? Should we expect some sort of documentary explaining her literary career choices to show up down the pike? I’ve pinged the old email address we had on file for JT; if it still works, maybe we’ll get some answers for you.