Liftin, Hilary (L.) 1969-

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LIFTIN, Hilary (L.) 1969-

PERSONAL:

Born August 12, 1969, in New York, NY; daughter of John and Ellen Liftin; married Chris Harris (a writer), September 14, 2002. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1991.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Lydia Wills, Writers & Artists, 19 W. 44th St., Suite 1000, New York, NY 10036. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Prodigy Services, White Plains, NY, associate producer, 1995-96; Cahner's, New York, NY, director of online business development, 1996-99; Muze, New York, NY, marketing manager, 1998-99; Barnes & Noble, New York, NY, manager of e-books, 1999-2000; AOL Time Warner Book Group, New York, NY, director of online business development, 2000-01; writer, 2001—. Member of board of directors, Sound Portraits Productions.

MEMBER:

Women's Media Group.

WRITINGS:

(With Kate Montgomery) Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean, Vintage Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Candy and Me: A Love Story, Free Press (New York, NY), 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Writing for television.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hilary Liftin has written two unconventional coming-of-age nonfiction titles, one serious and the other lighthearted. Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean is a collection of letters between Liftin and her friend Kate Montgomery, all written shortly after the two women graduated from college. Montgomery went into the Peace Corps as a schoolteacher in Kenya, and Liftin moved to Manhattan for her first job. The letters alternate between Montgomery's experiences in Africa—including eating rancid goat meat and witnessing corruption in her African school—and Liftin's more mundane but no less emotionally draining descriptions of struggling to find housing and meaningful relationships in New York. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Dear Exile a "humorous, touching, real-as-daylight collection" and "a testament to the power and blessing of friendship."

From its cover featuring a peppermint to its chapters named after favorite confections, Liftin's Candy and Me: A Love Story is a memoir filtered through the memories of candies eaten in quantity. Liftin's story begins at age seven, when she consumed powdered sugar from paper cups, and continues through adolescence and young womanhood with reverent attention to the sweets that helped her through transitions, successes, and setbacks. Liftin is resolute on one subject: she offers no apology for the sugar-saturated lifestyle and does not dwell upon issues of weight, tooth decay, or healthy diet. The resulting lighthearted autobiography provides "a surprisingly touching and interesting story," to quote Beth Leistensnider in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly critic found Liftin's writing "fluid and engaging, inviting consumption at one sitting." In her Newsweek review of Candy and Me, Elise Christenson praised Liftin's "spot-on confessions" and concluded: "Read the book, but hide your candy supply first—you'll devour both in one sitting." A New York Post correspondent wrote, "Candy is dandy.… It's a delicious read: often bittersweet, and occasionally as gritty as a Root Beer Barrel." Jessica Shaw in Entertainment Weekly declared: "Candy and Me may be the greatest book ever. At least for those who sully their copies with chocolate fingerprints while riding a serious gummy-bear high."

In a Publishers Weekly interview, Liftin said of Candy and Me: "I wanted each chapter to feel like a nugget.… For me, candy is a memory trigger and I wanted the book to be a candy necklace of memory."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 1999, Ellie Barta-Moran, review of Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean, p. 1287; May 1, 2003, Beth Leistensnider, review of Candy and Me: A Love Story, p. 1566.

Entertainment Weekly, May 30, 2003, Jessica Shaw, "Sugar Rush: In her Memoir Candy and Me, Hilary Liftin Sings a Romantic Song to her Wonka Wonka Burning Love," p. 119.

Newsweek, May 12, 2003, Elise Christenson, "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You," p. 10.

New York Post, June 18, 2003, "True Confection: A Writer's Trip down Sweet Memory Lane," p. 47.

Publishers Weekly, March 8, 1999, review of Dear Exile, p. 53; April 21, 2003, review of Candy and Me, p. 49, Nora Rawlinson, "A Necklace of Candy Memories," p. 50.