M.F.A. Writing, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 1/2016
B.A. Politics, the Graphic Arts, and Letters, Yale University, 1977
Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments
Lecturer, Master of Professional Writing Program, University of Southern California, 2006-01-01-
Book
Lord, M. G. (2012). The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted By Her Beauty to Notice. Walker/Bloomsbury USA.
Lord, M. (2005). Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science. 2005: Walker.
Lord, M. (2004). Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll. Walker.
Lord, M. (1982). Mean Sheets: Political Cartoons. New York: Little Brown.
Book Chapters
Lord, M. G. (2012). “Cold Warrior’s Daughter” in Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century In Southern California (Western Histories). Blue Sky Metropolis University of Southern California Press.
Opera Libretto, Librettist, ONE-TEN. Opera commissioned by Los Angeles Opera, co-written with Shannon Halwes; music by Laura Karpman. Workshop performance funded by the NEA, November 2009. About the 110 Freeway., 2009-2010
Podcast, Limited Series, “LA Made: The Barbie Tapes,” a three-part podcast for LAist Studios, Southern California Public Radio, 2023. (Based on digitized versions of interviews I did for my 1994 book, Forever Barbie, it was the #1 downloaded podcast in the US from July 17 to 23, 2023.), 07/14/2023
Podcast, Limited Series, “LA Made: Blood, Sweat & Rockets,” a 12-part podcast on the origins of rocketry in Southern California, for LAist Studios, Southern California Public Radio, 2022-2023. (I also moderated a panel on women in engineering and planetary science for LAist with JPL director Laurie Leshin in January 2023.), 11/2022-03/2023
Finalist, Los Angeles Press Club 1000+ Word Feature (For “How She Broke the Rules” in The Hollywood Reporter, April 2011) , 2012-2013
First Place, Los Angeles Press Club Best Nonfiction Book on Entertainment (For “The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness And We Were Too Distracted By Her Beauty to Notice”), 2012-2013
North American Travel Journalists Association, First Place Award for Domestic Magazine Writing, 2008-2009
Sloan Research Fellowship Recipient, Alfred P. Sloan grant to write ASTRO TURF: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF ROCKET SCIENCE , 2004/09/01-2005/09/01
Reviewer for Publications
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, The New York Times, “Unnatural Women,” September 16, 2012. Full-page review of Florence Williams’ “Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History.”, Fall 2012
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, The New York Times, “More Notes on Camp,” October 5, 2012. Review of Lisa Cohen’s “All We Know: Three Lives.”, Fall 2012
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, The New York Times, “Astral Bodies,” August 6, 2010. Review of Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars., Fall 2011
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, The New York Times, “Forbidden Pluto,” January 2, 2011. (I reviewed Mike Brown’s book How I Killed Pluto.), Spring 2011