All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation

Elizabeth Gilbert is an American journalist, author, and speaker. Born in 1956 in Waterbury, Connecticut, Gilbert studied at New York University before pursuing a career as a freelance writer, selling short stories and travel articles to magazines. Gilbert found mainstream success with her popular 2006 memoir Eat Pray Love, which detailed the author’s pursuit of healing through travel and new experiences after a devastating divorce. The book was a commercial juggernaut, spending 187 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and spawning a hit film adaptation starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem. Gilbert’s other works include the novels City of Girls and The Signature of All Things as well as non-fiction works The Last American Man, Big Magic, and Committed. Writing for The Guardian, book critic and novelist Elizabeth Day describes The Signature of All Things as “quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years (Day, Elizabeth. “The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert—Review.” The Guardian, 2013). Gilbert’s books have been translated into over fifty languages and have sold over 25 million copies, making her one of the best-known authors in America today. Gilbert is also a popular public speaker and has performed several TED Talks about overcoming failure and fostering creativity.