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Her books include ''Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder'' (1999);<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kramer |first=Peter D. |date=November 21, 1999 |title=I Contain Multitudes |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/11/21/reviews/991121.21kramert.html |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=The New York Times}}</ref> ''Mark Morris'' (1993), a biography of modern dancer and choreographer [[Mark Morris (choreographer)|Mark Morris]];<ref name="nyt1">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/23/books/the-big-hairy-guy-of-dance.html |title=The Big Hairy Guy of Dance |last=Rockwell |first=John |authorlink=John Rockwell |date=January 23, 1994 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=March 20, 2015}}</ref> and ''Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints'' (2007), which explores the virtues common among extraordinary artists.<ref name="nyt2">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/review/Harrison-Kathryn.html |title=Lives in the Arts |last=Harrison |first=Kathryn |authorlink=Kathryn Harrison |date=February 18, 2007 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=March 20, 2015}}</ref><ref name="ny" /> Reviewing ''Twenty-Eight Artists'' in ''[[The New York Times]]'', Kathryn Harrison called Acocella “knowledgeable without being a show-off, meticulous in her research and energetically conversational,” and said her “typical essay thus functions as a tantalizing biographical sketch, as well as a critical study, inviting us to pursue a deeper exploration.”<ref name="nyt2" />
Her books include ''Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder'' (1999);<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kramer |first=Peter D. |date=November 21, 1999 |title=I Contain Multitudes |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/11/21/reviews/991121.21kramert.html |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=The New York Times}}</ref> ''Mark Morris'' (1993), a biography of modern dancer and choreographer [[Mark Morris (choreographer)|Mark Morris]];<ref name="nyt1">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/23/books/the-big-hairy-guy-of-dance.html |title=The Big Hairy Guy of Dance |last=Rockwell |first=John |authorlink=John Rockwell |date=January 23, 1994 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=March 20, 2015}}</ref> and ''Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints'' (2007), which explores the virtues common among extraordinary artists.<ref name="nyt2">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/review/Harrison-Kathryn.html |title=Lives in the Arts |last=Harrison |first=Kathryn |authorlink=Kathryn Harrison |date=February 18, 2007 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=March 20, 2015}}</ref><ref name="ny" /> Reviewing ''Twenty-Eight Artists'' in ''[[The New York Times]]'', Kathryn Harrison called Acocella “knowledgeable without being a show-off, meticulous in her research and energetically conversational,” and said her “typical essay thus functions as a tantalizing biographical sketch, as well as a critical study, inviting us to pursue a deeper exploration.”<ref name="nyt2" />


Acocella also edited ''The Diary of [[Vaslav Nijinsky]]: Unexpurgated Edition'' (1999), ''André Levinson on Dance'' (1991), and ''Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell'' (2001),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=James |first=Helen |date=2006 |title=Review of Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40860827 |journal=Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=179–181 |issn=0741-2037}}</ref> her grandmother.
Acocella also edited ''The Diary of [[Vaslav Nijinsky]]: Unexpurgated Edition'' (1999),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Deresiewicz |first=William |date=February 28, 1999 |title=Dancing With Madness |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/28/reviews/990228.28deresit.html |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> ''André Levinson on Dance'' (1991), and ''Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell'' (2001),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=James |first=Helen |date=2006 |title=Review of Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40860827 |journal=Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=179–181 |issn=0741-2037}}</ref> her grandmother.


Acocella's ''New Yorker'' article "Cather and the Academy," which appeared in the November 27, 1995, issue, received a Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York and was included in the "Best American Essays" anthology of 1996.<ref name="ny"/> She expanded the essay into ''[[Willa Cather]] and the Politics of Criticism'' (2000), receiving a starred review ''in [[Publishers Weekly]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 31, 2000 |title=Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism by Joan Ross Acocella |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780803210462 |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref>
Acocella's ''New Yorker'' article "Cather and the Academy," which appeared in the November 27, 1995, issue, received a Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York and was included in the "Best American Essays" anthology of 1996.<ref name="ny"/> She expanded the essay into ''[[Willa Cather]] and the Politics of Criticism'' (2000), receiving a starred review ''in [[Publishers Weekly]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 31, 2000 |title=Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism by Joan Ross Acocella |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780803210462 |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref>

Revision as of 07:51, 9 January 2024

Joan Acocella
Acocella at the National Book Critics Circle award nominations, 2011
Born
Joan Ross

(1945-04-13)April 13, 1945
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedJanuary 7, 2024(2024-01-07) (aged 78)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Rutgers University
OccupationDance critic
EmployerThe New Yorker

Joan Acocella (née Ross, April 13, 1945 – January 7, 2024) was an American journalist. From 1998 to 2019, she was dance critic for The New Yorker.[1] She also wrote for The New York Review of Books for 33 years and authored books on dance, literature, and psychology.

Education

Joan Barbara Ross was born in San Franciso on April 13, 1945, to Arnold Ross, a cement company executive, and Florence (Hartzell) Ross, a homemaker.[2] She grew up in Oakland and received her B.A. in English in 1966 from the University of California, Berkeley.[2] She earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Rutgers University in 1984 with a thesis on the Ballets Russes.[2]

Career

In the 1970s, Acocella was a writer and editor at Random House, where she co-authored a psychology textbook that went on to be reprinted in revised editions for two decades.[2] In the 1980s, she served as senior critic for Dance Magazine, including authoring a piece about her son’s performance in The Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet.[2]

Acocella wrote for The Village Voice,[3][4] and was the New York dance critic for the Financial Times. For 33 years, her writing also appeared regularly in the New York Review of Books.[2] She began writing for The New Yorker in 1992 and served as its dance critic from 1998 to 2019.[1]

Her books include Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder (1999);[5] Mark Morris (1993), a biography of modern dancer and choreographer Mark Morris;[6] and Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints (2007), which explores the virtues common among extraordinary artists.[7][1] Reviewing Twenty-Eight Artists in The New York Times, Kathryn Harrison called Acocella “knowledgeable without being a show-off, meticulous in her research and energetically conversational,” and said her “typical essay thus functions as a tantalizing biographical sketch, as well as a critical study, inviting us to pursue a deeper exploration.”[7]

Acocella also edited The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky: Unexpurgated Edition (1999),[8] André Levinson on Dance (1991), and Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell (2001),[9] her grandmother.

Acocella's New Yorker article "Cather and the Academy," which appeared in the November 27, 1995, issue, received a Front Page Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York and was included in the "Best American Essays" anthology of 1996.[1] She expanded the essay into Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (2000), receiving a starred review in Publishers Weekly.[10]

A 2012 review by Acocella of Henry Hitchings's The Language Wars drew criticism from Jan Freeman and Mark Liberman. John McIntyre of The Baltimore Sun wrote about the episode in an opinion column.[11]

Death

Acocella died of cancer at her home in Manhattan, on January 7, 2024, at the age of 78.[2] She was survived by her son, her partner Noël Carroll, and two grandchildren.[2]

Bibliography

  • Acocella, Joan (1999). Creating hysteria : women and multiple personality disorder. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • — (2000). Willa Cather and the politics of criticism. University of Nebraska Press.
  • Hartzell, Jessie MacKinnon (2001). Mission to Siam : the memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell. Edited with a biographical essay by Joan Acocella. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
  • Acocella, Joan (2004). Mark Morris. Wesleyan.
  • —, ed. (2006). The diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. University of Illinois Press.
  • — (2007). 28 artists & 2 saints. Pantheon.

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Joan Acocella". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Sandomir, Richard (January 7, 2024). "Joan Acocella, Dance Critic for The New Yorker, Dies at 78". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  3. ^ "My Kind of Town: New York". Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  4. ^ "(untitled interview)" (PDF). National Arts Journalism Program. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  5. ^ Kramer, Peter D. (November 21, 1999). "I Contain Multitudes". The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  6. ^ Rockwell, John (January 23, 1994). "The Big Hairy Guy of Dance". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Harrison, Kathryn (February 18, 2007). "Lives in the Arts". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  8. ^ Deresiewicz, William (February 28, 1999). "Dancing With Madness". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  9. ^ James, Helen (2006). "Review of Mission to Siam: The Memoirs of Jessie MacKinnon Hartzell". Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 17 (2): 179–181. ISSN 0741-2037.
  10. ^ "Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism by Joan Ross Acocella". Publishers Weekly. January 31, 2000. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  11. ^ McIntyre, John E. (May 12, 2012). "A bad week for Joan Acocella". The Baltimore Sun.
  12. ^ "2017 Literature Award Winners – American Academy of Arts and Letters". artsandletters.org. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  13. ^ "The New York Public Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers Announces 2017-2018 Fellows". nypl.org. The New York Public Library. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  14. ^ "Past Fellows – American Academy". American Academy. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  15. ^ "Joan Acocella – American Academy". American Academy. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  16. ^ "Joan Acocella". New York Institute for the Humanities. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
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