Home / Lilly Dancyger

Electric Literature • 20th March 2020

My Book Comes Out Next Year. Do I Even Still Believe in Next Year?

Publishing a book is all about planning ahead. The book I worked on for a decade is coming out in May 2021—supposedly. That’s not so far away, but some days I’m not sure we’ll make it that far.

Longreads • 16th September 2019

It Comes in Waves

Years after her cousin was killed, Lilly Dancyger is haunted by images of murdered women in the news.

Catapult • 20th September 2019

Fallen Women (Catapult column)

A monthly column on women coded as villains in pop culture, the power in their badness, and how they shaped fans for good.

Ravishly • 5th March 2019

How T Kira Madden’s ‘Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls’ Made Me Stop Playing the Grief Olympics

The best memoirs are the ones that not only bring you into the experience of the writer but shift your understanding of yourself in the process. T Kira Madden’s debut, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls did this for me to a degree I’ve never experienced.

OFF ASSIGNMENT • 21st February 2019

In Search of Smoky Cafes: On Anais Nin’s diaries, the creative life, and (not) time-traveling in Paris

I understood of course that time had passed since the 1930s in Paris just like it had in New York, that many of the same problems likely existed there. But in a much more visceral way, it was easy to believe that the uncorrupted, smoky, jazz-filled utopia of Nin’s Paris was a real place I could travel to if I wanted it badly enough.

Catapult • 7th June 2018

How I Learned to Stop Judging And Love Insta-Witches

When I was thirteen, I discovered witchcraft. More accurately, I started paying attention to it. It had always been around me, in the silk-wrapped tarot deck on my mother’s dresser, and the sage she burned every time we moved into a new apartment. But when I was thirteen, I dove in and studied with a hunger and dedication I had never applied to anything before, and one that I never quite matched again; not even when I went to graduate school ten years later.

The Writer • 3rd January 2018

Personal Narratives in the Trump Era

As a writer and editor of personal narratives, I’ve been having a bit of an existential crisis since the 2016 presidential election. I’ve been wondering if there’s space for the personal and internal in a world so politically fraught; with people having their rights stripped away in new and horrifying ways every day, what place do I have reflecting on the past traumas, joys, and humiliations of my own life?

The Rumpus • 5th March 2018

Passing as Privileged (Excerpt from "Without A Net" Anthology)

As I awkwardly wiped condensation from my plastic cup of wine onto my dress slacks, it occurred to me that I’d done such a good job of making something of myself that I’d made my past invisible.

Narratively • 21st August 2017

The Man Who’s Been Fighting for Medicinal Psychedelics for 45 Years

A consensus is building that demonized drugs like LSD and MDMA have significant therapeutic value. Rick Doblin has been preparing for this moment since he was 18 years old.

Ravishly • 10th October 2017

Wearing Dead People’s Clothing

It’s not unusual to keep talismans of people we’ve lost — often jewelry given as gifts by the deceased while they were still alive, or sometimes inherited. Photographs, letters. But wearing a dead person’s clothing (not clothing that they gave to you while they were living, but articles that they put on their bodies while those bodies still breathed) provides a feeling of corporeal closeness that’s hard to replicate.

The Guardian • 25th July 2016

Spanking, caning and consent play: how feminist porn frees women from shame

According to feminist pornography producer Pandora Blake, who runs the fetish porn site Dreams of Spanking and frequently portrays fantasies of “non-consent”, the answer is a no-brainer. “Absolutely.”

Washington Post • 16th October 2017

I could have been the little boy in the overdose photos

A photo recently blazed across the Internet: an Ohio couple in a car, both passed out, having overdosed on opiates. The woman in the passenger’s seat is pale and ashen. Her head is lolled over to one side, her mouth agape. She looks dead. It’s a deeply disturbing image, even before you notice the child in a car seat behind her, looking right into the camera.

Playboy • 24th August 2017

The Real Reason Nobody is Talking About the DNC Fraud Lawsuit

Distrust of the mainstream media is not just an alt-right problem. Some on the left also believe that the major news outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times are in the pocket of big government and are committed to telling us the party line.

Science of Us • 15th October 2017

The New Alternative to ‘Female Viagra’ Is Zapping the Brain

For more than a decade now — in a search that began shortly after Viagra hit the market in 1998 — pharmaceutical companies have been hunting for a female answer to the little blue pill, with little success.

Complex • 16th October 2017

After-School Satan Clubs Are Coming to an Elementary School Near You

The Satanic Temple, a Salem-based political organization with a focus on the separation of church and state, recently launched a secular after-school program to counteract what they see as harmful proselytizing by Christian evangelical programs across the United States.

The Atlantic • 16th October 2017

Meet the 'Hamilton Electors' Campaigning for an Electoral College Revolt

Two Democratic electors are hoping to convince their colleagues to select someone other than Trump for the presidency. Michael Baca of Colorado and Bret Chiafalo of Washington state call themselves the Hamilton Electors, in a nod to Alexander Hamilton’s explanation of the Electoral College.

Glamour Magazine • 16th October 2017

Apparently, Even Scientists Don't Know What the Hell Is Going on When You Orgasm

It’s not just a snappy sitcom plotline: The female orgasm is a giant mystery. And not just to the average man, either. Turns out, top researchers and even women themselves have a hard time making sense of what actually happens to the body and the brain during climax, according to research by neuroscientist Nicole Prause and her colleague Greg Siegel. In a recent study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, Prause and Siegel—who hoped to glean insight into arousal and orgasms as a way to tre

Featured Clips

My Book Comes Out Next Year. Do I Even Still Believe in Next Year?

It Comes in Waves

Fallen Women (Catapult column)

How T Kira Madden’s ‘Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls’ Made Me Stop Playing the Grief Olympics

In Search of Smoky Cafes: On Anais Nin’s diaries, the creative life, and (not) time-traveling in Paris

How I Learned to Stop Judging And Love Insta-Witches

Personal Narratives in the Trump Era

Passing as Privileged (Excerpt from "Without A Net" Anthology)

The Man Who’s Been Fighting for Medicinal Psychedelics for 45 Years

Wearing Dead People’s Clothing

Spanking, caning and consent play: how feminist porn frees women from shame

I could have been the little boy in the overdose photos

The Real Reason Nobody is Talking About the DNC Fraud Lawsuit

The New Alternative to ‘Female Viagra’ Is Zapping the Brain

After-School Satan Clubs Are Coming to an Elementary School Near You

Meet the 'Hamilton Electors' Campaigning for an Electoral College Revolt

Apparently, Even Scientists Don't Know What the Hell Is Going on When You Orgasm