Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some big topics. Recently, Elizabeth faced down a premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of — running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the bestselling and deeply beloved memoir Eat, Pray, Love, about her process of finding herself by leaving home. Her fascinations include genius, creativity and how we get in our own way when it comes to both.
She’s a longtime magazine writer — covering music and politics for GQ and Spin — as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the novel Stern Men (about lobster fishermen in Maine), the story collection Pilgrims and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man. So far, two movies have been made based on her work: Coyote Ugly, based on her own tale of working at the famously raunchy bar in New York City, and Eat, Pray, Love, with the part of Gilbert played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off.
In 2010, Elizabeth published a memoir named Committed, exploring her ambivalent feelings about the institution of marriage. And her 2013 novel, The Signature of All Things, is “a sprawling tale of 19th century botanical exploration.”
Gilbert also owns and runs the import shop, Two Buttons, in Frenchtown, New Jersey.
