Elizabeth Benedict

Elizabeth Benedict, a graduate of Barnard College, is a bestselling novelist, journalist, teacher of creative writing, editor, and writing coach. Her latest book is the memoir, REWRITING ILLNESS: A VIEW OF MY OWN, to be published May 23, 2023. "Witty, vivid, and harrowing," writes Thomas Beller, "as though Nora Ephron wrote a book called, 'I Feel Bad About My Tumor.'" Sigrid Nunez comments: "It's the kind of inspiring book you want to share with all the important people in your life." She has published five acclaimed novels, including the bestseller ALMOST, a classic book on writing fiction, and hundreds of reviews, essays, magazine articles, and short fiction, for one of which she won a National Magazine Award. She is the editor of three celebrated anthologies, MENTORS, MUSES & MONSTERS: 30 WRITERS ON THE PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THEIR LIVES (Excelsior Press, Feb. 2012/Simon & Schuster 2009) and of WHAT MY MOTHER GAVE ME: THIRTY-ONE WOMEN ON THE GIFTS THAT MATTERED MOST (Algonquin April 2013), and ME, MY HAIR & I: 27 WRITERS UNTANGLE AN OBSESSION (Algonquin, April 2015). NEWSWEEK and Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan chose her novel, the bestseller ALMOST, as one of the top novels of 2001. Her novels have established her reputation as a writer who "specializes in the subterranean currents of modern relationships, the secret motivations and betrayals that underlie everyday interactions" (Newsday). Hallie Ephron in the Boston Globe called her most recent novel, THE PRACTICE OF DECEIT, "a wickedly funny literary suspense novel" that is "wry, at times heartbreaking, always smart and entertaining." Newsday's reviewer said that Benedict's "wit is as sharp as her eye, and twice as fast. She writes the hard, horrifying truth about human nature, and it is addictively entertaining." Her first novel, SLOW DANCING, published in 1985, was shortlisted for the National Book Award. She is also the author of several other novels and of a classic book, THE JOY OF WRITING SEX: A GUIDE FOR FICTION WRITERS, which is used widely in writing programs and has been featured on radio shows in the UK and Australia. She has taught fiction and non-fiction writing at Princeton, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, MIT, Columbia, Barnard, the New School, Princeton, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Swarthmore College, and has written for many publications, including The Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Salmagundi, Esquire, Tin House,Harper's Bazaar, and The American Prospect. She lives in New York City. Please visit: www.elizabethbenedict.com for free essays and the latest news.