© Kate Vukelic

JT LeRoy was born in 1980, and was first published at the age of sixteen under the pseudonym Terminator for alternative publications like the NY Press.  In 2000 his novel Sarah was published.  It received critical acclaim, and was on both the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists.

His new collection of short stories The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things was written prior to Sarah.  According to LeRoy, he wrote most of them between the years of '94 & '97, at the time never thinking of publication, but needing to write to survive emotionally during a very difficult period of his life.

Since the publication of Sarah, his popularity as a writer has increased, and his career has grown to include working with writer/director Gus Van Sant on a number of projects. Van Sant is turning Sarah into a film, and has optioned the rights for two of the stories from his new collection The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.  He is also in collaboration with Todd Kessler and Rebecca Goldstein at No Hands Productions on an independent Television series called 'House Arrest', and a feature film for children. He contributes a monthly column to Shout magazine in which he writes a diary, and continues to do interviews for NY Press and The Face, among others.

The future appears very bright for LeRoy who recently celebrated his twenty-first birthday.  When asked to comment on his current success he says, ‘I am still getting used to the present reality that I am a writer.  I feel overwhelmed by the response Sarah has received.  It's like if you spend ten hours a day dancing, you own the toe-shoes and the tu-tu's and you get paid for pirouettes, you must really be a dancer.  I'm almost there as a writer, but there's still a loud voice inside that keeps saying it's all going to disappear.  I've spoken to other artists, musicians, painters, actors, and they say that voice never goes away.  You just keep doing it and tell the voice to shut up.’