Skip to main content

Vanessa Lawrence

Biography

Vanessa Lawrence

Vanessa Lawrence is a writer, editor and native New Yorker. Her debut novel, ELLIPSES, was named a best book of 2024 by Vogue and a most anticipated book of the year by ELLE, Electric Literature and Autostraddle. For nearly two decades, she covered the arts, fashion, beauty, design and New York society as a staff writer for publications including Women’s Wear Daily and W Magazine. She has a BA in history from Yale University and an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College.

Vanessa Lawrence

Books by Vanessa Lawrence

Sheer
by Vanessa Lawrence - Fiction, Women's Fiction

It’s 2015, and Maxine Thomas, the founder and creative director of the cult makeup company Reveal, has just been suspended by her own Board for a scandalous transgression. Housebound in her New York City apartment, where she awaits the verdict on her future, Max recounts her version of the events that have brought her to this moment. From her start as a precocious suburban child in the '80s to her decades as a workaholic visionary, Max proselytizes a sheer, dewy look --- cosmetics through a female gaze --- all while battling sexist investors, the whiplash of cultural change, and the mounting pressure to keep her sexuality a secret. But when Max’s story catches up to her present, she must contend with the cost of true transparency. Who has she become in her relentless pursuit of success? And what will happen if she loses it all?