Female Small Business Owner is an infrequent blog written by Grace Byron. Usually she writes about books, films, and art.
Grace Byron is a writer from the Midwest based in Queens. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Vogue, Bookforum, The Nation, The Baffler, Joyland, Frieze, LARB, and other outlets. Find her emotrophywife on social. Her debut novel Herculine is forthcoming from Saga Press in October 2025. She is represented by Julia Masnik.
Selected Writing:
Short Fiction
“Princess Idiot,” R&R, 2025.
“Rookie Mistake,” TNLP, 2025.
“Pity,” Triangle House Review, 2025.
“God & Me/Joseph,” Substack, 2025.
“Joy,” Substack, 2025.
“Bright,” LARB Quarterly, 2024.
“The God-Shaped Hole,” Substack, 2024.
“Can You Hear Me?” Angel Food Mag, 2024.
“The Year of Getting Better,” The Seventh Wave, 2024.
“Shortcuts,” LARB Quarterly, Print Only, 2024.
“Bastards,” Gulf Coast, 2023.
“Validity,” Joyland, 2023.
“Emo Trophy Wife,” Triangle House Review. 2022.
“Toys,” Peach Mag. 2022.
Essays
“The Grim State of Trans Health Care,” The New Yorker, 2025.
“Nancy Mace,” The New Republic, 2025.
“The Bureaucratic Nightmares of Being Trans Under Trump,” The New Yorker, 2025.
“Luigi Mangione,” Verso Blog, 2025.
“The Zizians,” The Nation, 2025.
“The Right to Pee,” The Nation, 2025.
“Can Podcasts Be Art?: On Red Scare,” Study Hall, 2025.
“The Fag Hag Grows Up,” DIRT, 2025.
“Depression Voucher,” Substack, 2025.
“Perfect Little Baby,” LARB, 2024.
“Gary Indiana,” Substack, 2024.
“The Matriarchal Legacy of Cecilia Gentili,” Vogue, 2024.
“Idle Worship,” Parapraxis, 2024.
“Love in This Club,” Artforum, 2023.
“Assigned Womb at Birth,” AnOther, 2023.
“Repossessed,” The Baffler, 2023.
“Rethinking the Trans Eulogy,” Study Hall, 2023.
“Why Have There Been No Great Trans Women Critics?” Substack, 2022.
Criticism
“Lorde,” LARB, 2025.
“Rosie Stockton’s Fuel,” The Believer, 2025.
“Joan Didion’s Notes to John,” Study Hall, 2025.
“Lower than the Angels,” The Atlantic, 2025.
“Sophie Lewis’ Enemy Feminisms,” The Nation, 2025.
“Crossing Delancey,” New York Review of Architecture, 2025.
“Joni Murphy,” BOMB, 2025.
“Torrey Peters’ Stag Dance,” Vulture, 2025.
“Joyce Mansour,” Poetry Project, 2025.
“Kilbourne,” Pitchfork, 2025.
“Bill Gates’ Source Code,” Defector, 2025.
“On Bibliophobia,” LARB, 2025.
“Ethel Cain,” Hearing Things, 2025.
“MIZU,” Pitchfork, 2024.
“Garth Greenwell,” The Guardian, 2024.
“On Sophie’s Posthumous Album,” Vogue, 2024.
“Sally Rooney,” Substack, 2024.
“UwU It Girls: Honor Levy and Tony Tulathimutte,” Substack, 2024.
“Catalina Schliebener Muñoz’s Subversive Playhouse,” Frieze, 2024.
“On Trophy Lives,” Bookforum, 2024.
Various Drift Mentions, 2024.
“Hagiography of a Narcissist: On Salinger,” LARB, 2024.
“Marguerite Duras,” Screen Slate, 2024.
“Kathe Kollwitz’s Phantoms,” Frieze, 2024.
“Catalina Ouyang’s Corrosive Opacities,” Document Journal, 2024.
“Maggie Nelson,” TLS, 2024.
“I Saw the TV Glow,” MUBI Notebook, 2024.
“The Eternal Recurrence of Gender: On Judith Butler,” The Whitney Review, 2024.
“The Masochistic Acrobatics of Taylor Swift,” Paste, 2024.
“Candy Darling,” Document Journal, 2024.
“Very Special Episodes: On Trans Fiction in the Present Tense,” The Baffler, 2024.
“Sarah Lucas,” Bookforum, 2024.
“Puppies Puppies,” Feeld Blog, 2024.
“On Immediacy,” LARB, 2024.
“Pippa Garner,” Bookforum, 2023.
“Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and The Heron,” The Baffler, 2023.
“Pipilotti Rist,” frieze, 2023.
“Michelle Uckotter,” Hyperallergic, 2023.
“Hilary Leichter’s Terrace Story,” The Nation, 2023.
“Lauren Elkin’s Art Monsters,” Lux, 2023.
“Kate Briggs’ The Long Form,” LARB, 2023.
“Nikki de Saint Phalle,” Screen Slate, 2023.
“Strange Way of Life,” Screen Slate, 2023.
“The Trans Sitcom,” DIRT, 2023.
“Christine Lai’s Landscapes,” The Believer, 2023.
“Barbara Hammer,” Screen Slate, 2023.
“Dog Dreams, Lucy Liyou,” Pitchfork, 2023.
“Mutt,” Screen Slate, 2023.
“Annie Ernaux,” Cleveland Review of Books, 2023.
“Katherine Dunn,” The Baffler, 2022.
“It Came From the Closet,” LARB, 2022.
“Greer Lankton” Xtra, 2022.
“Cindy Sherman,” Observer, 2022.
“Imogen Binnie’s Nevada,” Observer, 2022.
“Hil Malatino’s Side Affects,” Observer, 2022.
“Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt,” Observer, 2022.
“Manywhere,” AVClub, 2022.
“On the Met’s Surrealism Beyond Borders,” Observer, 2022.
“Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby,” Observer, 2021.
Memoir
“The False Gospel of Conversion Therapy,” The Cut, 2023.
“It’s a Trap,” Nightwater, 2023.
Profiles & Interviews
Ceyenne Doroshow, The Cut, 2025.
Hannah Zeavin, Interview, 2025.
Bells Larsen, The Cut, 2025.
Andrea Long Chu, LARB, 2025.
Jamie Hood, The Cut, 2025.
Japanese Breakfast, PAPER, 2025.
Sophie Lewis, The Baffler, 2025.
Zohran Mamdani, The Nation, 2025.
Rachel Kushner, Interview Mag, 2024.
Hunter Schafer, Vogue, 2024.
Charlotte Shane, CULTURED, 2024.
Catherine Breillat, Screen Slate, 2024.
Zooey Zephyr, TeenVogue, 2024.
Lucy Sante, Interview Mag, 2024.
Irene Silt, The Rumpus, 2022.
Ethel Cain, i-D, 2022.
Cecilia Gentili, Xtra, 2022.
Sarah Thankam Mathews, Observer, 2022.
Jackie Ess, Observer, 2021.
Hannah Baer, Observer, 2021.
