Lacy Crawford

Lacy Crawford (born 1975) is an American author, journalist, novelist, and memoirist. She has published a novel, Early Decision, and a memoir, Notes on a Silencing.

Career Crawford's career has included working as a rape crisis counselor, a high school teacher, a private admissions counselor, and an environmental campaigner. However, her long-held dream was to be a writer. Her first book, Early Decision, was published in 2013. It is a satirical novel about the college admissions process, based on her time working as a private admissions counselor.

Notes on a Silencing Crawford attended St. Paul's School where she was allegedly raped by two senior boys in 1990 at the age of 15. She reported the incident to the school and underwent a medical examination that revealed she may have been infected with herpes, but the school covered it up. She declined that idea at the time, writing a master's thesis on the use of rape testimony in legal cases instead.

This discovery inspired Crawford to begin writing her memoir of the experience in 2017, concluding with a first draft by 2018. Crawford was impressed by the "thoughtful" apology, which she shared on her social media. She said, "There are a lot of institutions that can learn from this." It was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book, as well as a Best Book of 2020 by Time, People, NPR, BookPage, Library Journal, and LitHub. Her mother, Reverend Alicia Crawford, became one of the first women to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal diocese of Chicago in 1987.

Crawford lives in Rancho Santa Fe, California with her husband and 3 children.

Published works

(2013) Early Decision: Based on a True Frenzy. William Morrow. (2020) Notes on a Silencing. New York: Little, Brown and Company.