Elizabeth Gilbert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Elizabeth Gilbert | |
|---|---|
 Gilbert at TED 2009 |
|
| Born | July 18, 1969 Waterbury, Connecticut |
| Occupation | Novelist, Memoirist |
| Nationality | American |
| Writing period | 1997 - present |
| Genres | Fiction, Memoir |
| Notable work(s) | Eat, Pray, Love (2007) |
| Official website | |
Elizabeth M. Gilbert (born July 18, 1969 in Waterbury, Connecticut) is an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, biographer and memoirist.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Her father was a chemical engineer, her mother a nurse. Along with her only sister, novelist and historian Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Gilbert grew up on a small family Christmas tree farm in Litchfield, Connecticut. The family lived in the country with no neighbors, and they didn’t own a TV or even a record player. Consequently, they all read a great deal, and Gilbert and her sister entertained themselves by writing little books and plays. [1] She attended New York University and graduated in 1991 with a BA in Political Science, after which she lived the life of a literary vagabond — experiencing life as a cook, a waitress, and a magazine lackey — in order to write about it. Her experiences as a cook on a dude ranch found their way into both short stories and her book The Last American Man (Viking 2002).
[edit] Journalism
Esquire published Gilbert's short story “Pilgrims” in 1993, under the headline, “The Debut of an American Writer.” She was the first unpublished short story writer to debut in Esquire since Norman Mailer. This led to steady work as a journalist for a variety of national magazines including, SPIN, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Allure, Real Simple, and Travel + Leisure.
Her 1997 GQ article, "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon," a memoir of Gilbert’s career as a bartender in a lowdown East Village dive, was the basis for the film Coyote Ugly. She adapted her 1998 GQ article, "Eustace Conway is Not Like Any Man You've Ever Met," into a biography of the modern naturalist, The Last American Man. It received a nomination for the National Book Award in non-fiction. "The Ghost," a profile of Hank Williams III published by GQ in 2000, was included in Best American Magazine Writing 2001.
[edit] Books
Her first book Pilgrims (Houghton-Mifflin 1997), a collection of short stories, received the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. This was followed by her novel Stern Men (Houghton-Mifflin 2000), selected by The New York Times as a "Notable Book".
Most recently, she published Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Viking, 2006), a chronicle of the author's year of spiritual and personal exploration while traveling abroad. The memoir was on the New York Times Best Seller list of non-fiction in the spring of 2006, and in October, 2008, after 88 weeks, the book was still on the list at # 2 [2]., and subsequently she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show [3] The book has been optioned by Columbia Pictures, with Julia Roberts slated to star.[4]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Story collections
- Pilgrims, (1997) (Pushcart Prize, finalist for PEN/Hemingway Award)
[edit] Novels
- Stern Men, (2000)
[edit] Biographies
- The Last American Man, (2002) (finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critic's Circle Award)
[edit] Memoirs
- Eat, Pray, Love, (2006)
[edit] As contributor
- The KGB Bar Reader: Buckle Bunnies (1998)
- Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction (contributor) (1999)
- A Writer's Workbook: Daily Exercises for the Writing Life (foreword) (2000)
- The Best American Magazine Writing 2001: The Ghost (2001)
[edit] References
- ^ "Elizabeth Gilbert, Zacharis Award". http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleID=4813. Retrieved on 2008-12-13.
- ^ Paperback Nonfiction New York Times, October 3, 2008.
- ^ Why We Can't Stop Talking About Eat, Pray, Love! The Oprah Winfrey Show.
- ^ Fleming, Michael (2006-10-10). "Par setting table for adaptation". Variety.com. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117951656.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved on 2007-06-15.
[edit] External links
- Author's Official site
- "Eat, Pray, Love" Reviews
- Interview with Elizabeth Gilbert on Lessons and Inspiration from Her Mother - Big Think
- Interview at Powells.com
- "Eat Pray Love" Fan News Blog
- Works by or about Elizabeth Gilbert in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Audio-Video link
- Eat, Pray, Love (audio), interview by Megan Sukys, The Beat, KUOW, March 14, 2006.
- Elizabeth Gilbert Talks
- TED Talks: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity at TED in 2009
