Spend an Intimate Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert
On May 4, author Elizabeth Gilbert will make her long-awaited return to the Mile High City for an evening of wisdom, laughs, and audience interaction at the Paramount Theatre.
Unquestionably one of her generation’s most beloved voices, Gilbert became an international sensation with her 2006 memoir Eat Pray Love, which chronicled her journey alone around the world looking for solace after a difficult divorce. With over 12 million copies sold and translated into over 30 languages, as well as being made into a critically acclaimed film starring Julia Roberts, the book became so popular that Time Magazine named Gilbert as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Her latest book, City of Girls, is a glittering, coming-of-age epic set in 1940s New York City that People Magazine calls “vibrant, sexy, and wise.”
Nadia Bolz-Weber, author, Lutheran minister, and founding pastor of Denver’s House for All Sinners and Saints, will be Gilbert’s special guest and moderate the conversation.
OFM caught up with Gilbert to talk more about her upcoming appearance, the impact she hopes her work has on people, her passion for creativity, and tips for fellow writers.
Can you begin by telling us what we can expect from An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert?
Yes! I’m going to be giving a talk about creativity, courage, and finding a way to find some serenity. I know it sounds funny in this moment of history, but within that serenity, you should be able to hear the voices guiding you to do the work. So, basically, I’ll be talking about my favorite thing that I always talk about, which is creativity and how to be more free with it.
It’s been a while since you’ve done an event like this. How excited are you to get back on stage?
It’s wild. It’s been about two-and-a-half years since I was last on stage, right before COVID. I have a feeling I’m going to feel just as strange as people in the audience feel being in an audience. Like, it’s been a long time since we gathered like this, so I feel there’s going to be sort of a speed bump for all of us. We’re going to be like, “Do we still remember how to do this? Do I still remember how to talk to a room full of people?” But I’m looking forward to it. It’s been too long.
Nadia Bolz-Weber will moderate the discussion. What was the decision behind making her your special guest?
I’m a huge fan of her. I think she’s extraordinary, and I think her work in the world is so poignant and powerful. Unlike anybody else, she’s a true original, and we actually share the same lecture agent who has been wanting to introduce us for a very long time. Like I said, I’ve been a fan for a very long time, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Liz and Nadia to finally get to meet.
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Ultimately, what do you hope audiences take away from this evening?
A sense of permission. I often joke that I sort of think of myself as a walking permission slip. I go around the world and offer people permission to live their life differently than what they’re used to, especially women. After Eat Pray Love came out, it’s the book that launched 100,000 divorces (laughs), and on the 10-year anniversary, we did an anniversary edition called Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It, which are essays where people wrote about what they did after reading the book.
It was interesting because it wasn’t necessarily everybody getting divorced and moving to India, but it was people kind of realizing that they don’t have to stay in situations or mindsets that are not beneficial to them. So, I try to carry that message forward. Now that the world is more dangerous than it was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago for many of us, I sort of take that more into an inward level. Like, what can you change about your interior landscape so that you don’t have to remain in fear and inner seclusion?
Have you always had a passion to be a writer?
For sure. That’s the only thing I ever wanted to be. There was never a moment where I thought about being anything else. I made it simple. It’s like the one thing in my life that’s been clear and simple. I think if you’re lucky, the universe will maybe give you one part of your life that’s straightforward. The rest of my life certainly has not been, but that path has always been in front of me. I could see it; I stepped onto it, and I’ve never veered off.
Did you ever imagine that Eat Pray Love would make such a significant cultural impact?
Absolutely not, and I don’t think there’s any way that anybody could have predicted that. The irony is that up until that point, I was known for my journalism career, not my books. I was writing for GQ and Esquire, and I was known as a woman who wrote about men. I did a lot of profiles on men back then, so for me, I felt like I was deviating from my career and taking a huge risk because I was turning the attention towards myself and writing a book about a woman’s journey.
I really did have this thought that nobody was going to want to read this, but I needed to do this. So, I’m just going to go ahead and do this. I hope everybody will forgive me for writing this book that nobody wants to read, and then I’ll go back to my old life. Of course, I never went back to my old life! Still haven’t!
What were your thoughts on the film starring Julia Roberts?
I thought it was beautiful. It’s funny because somebody asked me the other day, did you choose Julia Roberts to play you in the movie? I was like, “No, you don’t understand power dynamics.” (Laughs.) Julia Roberts chose to play me in a movie; I didn’t choose her. She chose it, and she’s one of the few women in Hollywood who has the power to make a project like that happen. I have no critical distance from it because it’s so close to me, but personally, I thought it was very beautiful.
Your first novel, Stern Men, was published in 2000, and your latest book, City of Girls, came out in 2019. How would you say you have evolved as a writer over the years?
I think I’m more confident than I am more ambitious. It’s interesting because there’s a similarity in Stern Men and City of Girls. I’m almost a little more interested to say how I’ve remained the same, and I’m writing another book right now that can fall into this category too, I’m still intrigued by writing books about women in far-flung places and unusual circumstances who have to find their own power and sort of make their way in a world where they might not see something that’s common or well-known.
I’m still writing about strong female leads and interesting locations, and I’m still really interested in writing novels that have to be researched, places and cultures I’m unfamiliar with. Stern Men was set in a lobster fishing community in the 1970s off the coast of Maine, and City of Girls is about a 1940s showgirl, so I love to go outside of my realm of familiarity.
What can you tell us about the book you are currently working on?
I’m not talking too much about it, but just know that it has a strong female lead and is set in a far-flung place!
What’s the best advice you can offer to other writers?
Write your book to somebody. Whenever somebody tells me that they’re writing a book, I always ask them who it’s for, and they tend to answer, if they can even answer, that its for a certain demographic. They’ll say, “This is a book for women between the ages of 40-60 who are going through a divorce,” or, “This is a book for anybody who has lost a partner to disease,” and that’s not a person. It’s a demographic, a voting bloc.
I always tell people to choose one human being who you want to tell your story to. Somebody who you know, love, or admire—the ideal reader who you think your book will be perfect for, and then write the entire book as if it’s like a letter to this one person. It brings out a level of intimacy in the voice. I can’t write to a void or a demographic. I have to write to an individual.
Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?
Yeah, there is. I have a book club called The Onward Book Club, where I try to use my spotlight to celebrate and amplify books written by Black female writers. If you go to my website, there’s a section called Onward, and if you click on that, you can see the interviews I’ve done over the years with Black women writers. My followers are mostly white women, and they’re big readers, but like many of us, they tend to read within their cultural demographic.
There’s also a lot of discrimination in the publishing world against Black women. They don’t get paid or publicized as much, and it’s not hard to find incredible books by Black women. It’s not hard to find incredible books about women who haven’t had the privilege of the publicity that they get, so I always try to promote those books and encourage my readers to introduce them to their own book clubs, for their own benefit. I want these other voices in our world to be heard.
So, that’s a project that I ongoingly do, and on my website, you can see lists, book suggestions, and interviews. It’s a project that’s extremely close to my heart. I care about it a lot.
Stay up-to-date and connect with Gilbert by following her on Instagram @elizabeth_gilbert_writer, or visit her official website, elizabethgilbert.com. For more information and to purchase tickets for her upcoming engagement, visit paramountdenver.com.
Photos courtesy of Timothy Greenfield Sanders
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