Everybody is Consuming Cali Loria

Who is Cali Loria?

The reclusive author published one acclaimed book of poetry and, after a viral relapse during a cover-to-cover live reading of Moby Dick in New Bedford, Massachusetts, spent the remaining days of her life behind closed doors. A recent discovery of her journals by her son, artist Harry Greene, has reawakened intrigue for the writer who both sought and rebuffed the public eye.

Loria’s journals, which were sent for handwriting analysis at the behest of her two children, are awaiting authentication before they will be displayed alongside various artifacts at her son’s Art Basel installation, “Mother: Figure,” a collection of sculptures depicting absence and grief through the lens of a loved one’s virality, juxtaposing the absent mother alongside the permanence of a digital footprint. When asked for comment regarding his mother’s passing, Loria’s son said only: “She tried. She just never really finished anything, and that included raising me.” When asked how she would reflect on his own work, receiving attention in the art world for its stunning realism and morbid fascination with ego, death, and the matriarch, he responded, “That was her problem, you know, a lot of reflection, not a lot of space for action.”

Loria’s brief, but tumultuous, rise in the literary world came after her work was pictured in a scene of the Girls reboot, All Adventurous Women Do. Lena Dunham’s character, Hannah Horvath, was seen reading Sex on a Budget: Love and Other Things I Can’t Afford. The poetry collection, spanning Loria’s early adulthood and struggles with mental illness and addiction, quickly earned her the moniker "BPD's poster queen." Loria herself, when interviewed, is famous for declaring, “I just wanted everyone to love me,” before stopping a stranger in the street for a cigarette and walking haphazardly into traffic. Her bizarre actions soon superseded her own writing, leaving many to question the state of her mental health. This business model proved profitable, and she secured an unprecedented brand deal for her spoken-word poetry reading, streamed exclusively on OnlyFans.

More has been said about Cali Loria than she, or her estate, has ever confirmed or denied. That her son may soon use her unread writings in his own art has renewed interest in what more could be revealed. Loria’s last known project, a definitive biography of Kanye West, was tabled after past problematic behavior (not including behaviors captured in her own writing) came to light. She was, as Vogue wrote in their July 2032 piece, a woman on the verge. Loria’s suicide note, left-handedly written on a yellow legal pad, has been kept closely guarded by her children, less one final note: “Sometimes I feel like the words are going to eat my skin from the inside out. It is why I always wanted to be a writer. ” Rumor has it, she signed the note with a kiss. For photos, including the infamous car accident of 2035 (can you spot the hunk Loria was rumored to be dating?!), turn to page 41.