Priestdaddy

Priestdaddy was reviewed widely and favorably,^[10][11] with particular praise for Lockwood's wit and the "pleasure in her line-by-line writing; the author can describe even a seminarian’s ordination ceremony in a colorful, unexpected way, her prose dyed with bizarre sexuality, religious eroticism, and slapstick timing" (Laura Adamczyk writing at The A.V. Club).^[5]

Rooney likewise said Lockwood's book displayed "the same offbeat intelligence, comic timing, gimlet skill for observation and verbal dexterity that she uses in both her poetry and her tweets."^[8] In The New York Times, Dwight Garner called Priestdaddy "electric," "consistently alive with feeling," and Lockwood's father Greg "one of the great characters of this nonfiction decade."^[12] Writing for Playboy, James Yeh dubbed it "a powerful true story from one of America’s most relevant and funniest writers," The New Yorker praised the book as "a vivid, unrelentingly funny memoir ... shot through with surprises and revelations,"^[13] and The Atlantic lauded it as "a deliciously old-school, big-R Romantic endeavor."^[14] Gemma Sieff, writing for The New York Times Book Review, concluded the memoir positioned Lockwood as "a formidably gifted writer who can do pretty much anything she pleases."^[15]

Priestdaddy was named one of the 10 best books of 2017 by The New York Times, one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Sunday Times, The Guardian,^[16] The New Yorker, The Atlantic, New York, Elle, NPR, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly, among others. Lithub's Emily Temple compiled an exhaustive and comprehensive assessment of critic attitudes towards literature from 2017 calling it an "Ultimate Best Books of 2017 List"; she determined that altogether 13 mainstream magazines and outlets explicitly named the memoir as a critical or important work of the year on their own platforms.^[17]

Priestdaddy was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize^[18] and won the 2018 Thurber Prize for American Humor.^[19]