Amy Judith Levy (10 November 1861 – 9 September 1889)[note 1] was an English essayist, poet, and novelist best remembered for her literary gifts; her experience as the second Jewish woman at Cambridge University, and as the first Jewish student at Newnham College, Cambridge; her feminist positions; her friendships with others living what came later to be called a "New Woman" life, some of whom were lesbians; and her relationships with both women and men in literary and politically activist circles in London during the 1880s.

At 13, she wrote a criticism of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's feminist work Aurora Leigh; at 14, Levy's first poem, "Ida Grey: A Story of Woman's Sacrifice", was published in the journal Pelican.

Her family was supportive of women's education and encouraged Amy's literary interests; in 1876, she was sent to Brighton and Hove High School and later studied at Newnham College, Cambridge.

While travelling in Florence in 1886, Levy met Vernon Lee, a fiction writer and literary theorist six years her senior, and fell in love with her.

[citation needed] Levy's works of poetry, including the daring A Ballad of Religion and Marriage, reveal her feminist concerns.

On 9 September 1889,[2] two months away from her 28th birthday, she died by suicide "at the residence of her parents ... [at] Endsleigh Gardens" by inhaling carbon monoxide.