Lauren John Joseph (formerly La JohnJoseph) is a British born American-educated artist and writer, who works at the intersection of video, text, and live performance.
They have written extensively on contemporary culture, art, performance, pornography, gender theory and the Golden Age of Hollywood, contributing in print and online to publications including iD, The Independent, Sleek, The Guardian, Time Out, Attitude, Amuse, Siegessäule, Parterre de Rois, Charleston Press, and the ‘zines Birdsong, Fat Zine, 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, and Not Here: An Anthology of Queer Loneliness. They have also authored the experimental prose work Everything Must Go (ITNA Press in 2014), and the plays, A Generous Lover and Boy in a Dress, which were published by Oberon in 2019.
They have presented performances at the Royal Opera House; Deutsche Oper; Bristol Old Vic; Barbican; Schaubühne; Art Basel Hong Kong; SF MoMA; Dixon Place, NY; Martin-Gropius Bau; Fancy Him, Tokyo; La Java, Paris; and Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói. Their fine artwork has been shown in group exhibitions in the UK, US, Germany and Mexico.
Current publication:
It's four in the morning, and our narrator, a trans writer living in Mexico City, is walking home from the club when they realise that it's February 29th - the birthday of the man who was something like their first love. Piecing together art, letters, dirty DMs and memory, they set about trying to write the story of a doomed love affair that first sparked and burned a decade ago.
Ten years earlier, and our young narrator and a boy named Thomas James, long aware of one another across bars and readings and other murky late-night gatherings, fall into bed with one another over the summer of their graduation. Their ensuing affair, with its violent, animal intensity, its intoxicating and toxic power play, will initiate a dance of repulsion and attraction that will cross years, span continents, drag in countless victims - and culminate in terrible betrayal.
Praise:
SELECTED FOR
STYLIST'S FICTION YOU CAN'T MISS IN 2022 - 'AN ESSENTIAL READ'
NAMED AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY ESQUIRE, STYLIST, SHEERLUXE, Shelf Awareness AND FOYLES
“A transgender performer and writer recounts a doomed love affair with a beautiful Londoner…an almost operatic retelling of queer longing and artistic struggle.”--Kirkus Reviews
“Postmodern tale of high heartbreak…Joseph honors the stylistic legacy of Kathy Acker, and the Beats before, in a delicious stream of consciousness. The book celebrates the freedom and nonconformity of the narrator’s youth, and the enormous capacity for love and tragedy that such a life can hold. This raucous and dazzling debut showcases a bright new voice in fiction.”--Booklist
“Lauren John Joseph is extraordinarily talented on many fronts…At Certain Points We Touch, their first proper novel, distills those talents into a queer, autofictional love story both haunting and hilarious, and crystallizes Joseph as a literary artist of the highest caliber…Despite their crossed stars, JJ and Thomas James enjoy an explosive sexual connection that infuses every scintillating line of this exceptional novel. At Certain Points We Touch ruminates on themes of love, loss and queerness with such a mature sense of craft that one can almost hear the scratch of a calligrapher's stylus as they painstakingly etch this elegy to a dead lover…Gracefully merging past and present, comedy and pathos, high and low art, Lauren John Joseph has produced a masterpiece.”--Shelf Awareness
“Hot, steamy, smart, sexy. All can describe At Certain Points We Touch, which finds the narrator reminiscing about a first love. Lauren John Joseph has their finger on the pulse of what makes readers want to eagerly turn the page as they hang on every sensual word.”--Debutiful
“Vivid.”--New York Times Book Review
“A queer coming-of-age story told by an unnamed narrator about the first time they fell in love, this stunning debut pulled me in immediately and refused to let go. In attempting to piece together the narrative of a decade-long failed relationship, the narrator lets their audience experience the heady feeling of new love and the slow devastation of losing it. A distinctly singular narrative voice propels this gorgeous novel that’s funny, sexy, and bold by turns.”--Buzzfeed
“Don’t miss this stunning debut by Lauren John Joseph that is sure to elicit all the feels. In electrifying prose, Joseph manages to thrill, terrify, move and infect you within the space of a page.”--Ms.
'Gracefully merging past and present, comedy and pathos, high and low art, Lauren John Joseph has produced a masterpiece. At Certain Points We Touch displays brilliance at every single touchpoint. Shelf Talker: An ornate elegy to a dead love, this funny, sexy and smart first novel displays Lauren John Joseph's many talents.' - Shelf Awareness
"Joseph honors the stylistic legacy of Kathy Acker, and the Beats before, in a delicious stream of consciousness. The book celebrates the freedom and nonconformity of the narrator’s youth, and the enormous capacity for love and tragedy that such a life can hold. This raucous and dazzling debut showcases a bright new voice in fiction.” - Booklist
"A stone-cold masterpiece, which in its scope, frankness and ambition reminds me of The Line of Beauty, retooled for the 21st century. By turns libidinous, hilarious, melancholy and full of feeling, it reveals Lauren John Joseph as a shocking new talent.” - Olivia Laing
‘A moving portrait of youth, friendship and first love’ - the Observer
‘A queer romance novel like no other... The beating heart of this book is... the author’s poetic writing - each page is a pure delight to read. Joseph presents a kaleidoscope of beautiful characters with infectious energy and harsh realities. Their descriptions of love, identity, trauma, sex and death are deeply graphic, tragic and yet tender, and will resonate with any reader’ - Tatler
‘A smart, sparkling, twisting, millennial queer odyssey... Lithe, perspicacious, melancholic and as funny as hell’ - Attitude
"Lauren John Joseph's vivid debut novel has a live current running through its pages... An impressive debut with lines that linger with on the page." - Esquire
‘With unique style and flair, Lauren John Joseph weaves a dreamlike coming-of-age tale about toxic relationships, wild young artists and an unspeakable betrayal’ - Woman’s Own
‘A dazzling novel’ - Elle
‘A searing debut’ - Harper's Bazaar
'‘a riotous coming-of-age story that marks the arrival of a bold new writer’ - Sheerluxe
"Lauren John Joseph writes with such wit, glamour, and Style! I haven’t read a book that so powerfully evokes what it’s like to be a wild young artist among other wild young artists since the Bright Young Things were publishing." - Torrey Peters, author of Detransition Baby
'Lauren's debut novel is so exciting. The writing is so fresh, funny and gripping - and carries the trademark wit that I have always loved from Lauren' - Travis Alabanza
'At Certain Points We Touch is as much a love letter to the glamour and glory of countercultural nightlife as a self-aware sendup of its absurdities and deprivations. This novel is a rollicking study of the stubbornness, irrationality, and dysfunction of the human heart, with prose as extravagant and daring as a Rococo gown. I would spend as many pages with this narrator as Lauren John Joseph cares to write.' Kim Fu, author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
‘A rich and sensuous read, a coming of age story that is full of life and love that reminded me of The Line of Beauty. Tender and dark in turn, it brings the art world at its heart and its cast list of bright young things brilliantly to life’ - Living Magazine
