Hickey, Elizabeth 1971–

PERSONAL: Born 1971, in Louisville, KY; married Jonathan Selwood (a novelist). Education: Williams College, degree (art history); Columbia University, M.F.A., 1999.

ADDRESSES: Home—Portland, OR. Agent—c/o Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Worked as a legal secretary in Portland, OR, 1999–2000; novelist, 2000–.

WRITINGS:

The Painted Kiss (novel), Atria Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Elizabeth Hickey's novel The Painted Kiss is based on the lives of twentieth-century Austrian avant-garde painter Gustav Klimt and fashion designer Emilie Floge. The two knew each other when Floge was Klimt's student and sometime model in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Years later, after Klimt's death in 1918, Floge is faced with the responsibility of rescuing what parts she can of his work from the depredations of the Nazi regime, which objected to Klimt's predilection for Jewish subjects and models. "Working with the few facts of Emilie's life," stated Jane Davis in the Decatur Daily Online, "Hickey presents the creativity and elan of Old Vienna when it was bursting with Strauss compositions, newly designed galleries and museums that brought the latest archeological finds and artworks to the people and celebrating the latest discoveries in medicine, science and technology." A Publishers Weekly reviewer declared that "Hickey's language is sensual, lush and unhurried, and the prose wears its author's research gracefully." A Kirkus Reviews critic described the novel as "lovely, if a little ornate—rather like Klimt's work, in other words."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2005, review of The Painted Kiss, p. 249.

Library Journal, June 1, 2005, Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, review of The Painted Kiss, p. 116.

Publishers Weekly, March 28, 2005, review of The Painted Kiss, p. 57.

ONLINE

Decatur Daily Online, http://www.decaturdaily.com/ (October 18, 2005), Jane Davis, review of The Painted Kiss.

Elizabeth Hickey Home Page, http://www.elizabethhickey.com (October 18, 2005).