Hester, Elliott

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HESTER, Elliott

PERSONAL:

Born in Chicago, IL. Education: Attended University of New Mexico.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, 55 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Author and travel writer. Worked variously as a media buyer, baggage handler, flight attendant, and fashion model.

WRITINGS:

Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tale of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to magazines, including National Geographic Traveler, Elle (Australia), Playboy (Australia), Caribbean Travel and Life, Men's Fitness, Glamour, Salon.com, Maxim, and Details. Author of syndicated monthly columns "Out of the Blue" and "Continental Drifter."

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Adventures of a Continental Drifter, forthcoming in 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Elliott Hester has held an array of jobs, from media buyer to model to baggage handler. Cold nights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport as a baggage handler inspired him to become a flight attendant, and his experience at that job eventually led to a writing career. In addition to his 2002 book Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tale of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet, Hester is the author of several syndicated monthly columns and has contributed articles to magazines and newspapers.

Plane Insanity is Hester's first-hand account of the crazy occurrences he witnessed as a flight attendant. A Booklist contributor called Hester "a skillful raconteur," adding that "no matter how bizarre or maddening the story, he tells it with grace and abundant good nature." Hester's stories, which include tales of angry, drunken, naked, sick, and panicked passengers, capture not only how human, but also how animalistic, people's behavior can become when men and women are confined in an airplane. His stories feature badly behaved coworkers, equipment failure, cranky captains, and turbulence. Praising Hester's "careful, well-paced descriptions," a Publishers Weekly reviewer described the author as an "angrier, more street-wise Dave Barry."