USC.edu

M G Lord

Associate Professor of the Practice of English
M G Lord
Pronouns She / Her / Hers Email marylord@usc.edu Office THH 355 H Office Phone (213) 740-3252

Education

  • 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 , 09/01/2004 – 09/01/2005

  • 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
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