When Savannah Knoop was unmasked as the face of the mysterious author JT LeRoy in 2005, one of the biggest literary hoaxes of the modern era was revealed. Girl Boy Girl tells the story of how a young, queer college drop out came to portray the literary wunderkind JT LeRoy, a persona created by Knoop’s sister-in-law. For six years, Knoop led a secret double life, traveling through the looking glass of celebrity to find liberation and alienation in equal measures. Knoop’s entanglement with JT and his creator was a game played at the very limits of self-expression, one that changed Knoop’s sense of self forever. This edition includes a new foreword by the author reflecting on the continued life of the JT LeRoy story in the “post-truth” era.

 

“In 2001 I photographed JT LeRoy for Vanity Fair. Five years later, we met again; this time Savannah Knoop was her true self. We immediately became friends. She gave me her book to read. Not only is it beautifully written, it’s a fascinating and intimate story. I couldn’t put it down.”—Mary Ellen Mark