Back then, I defined myself as a “travel writer.” This seems a ridiculous and non-existent category now, but at the time it was my singular identity.

I bought it with a 10-peso coin, carried it back to the apartment I shared with my Oaxacan boyfriend, and took it down in a single gulp on our bed. I first found Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert’s memoir about rediscovering meaning in life via a journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia, in 2009 at the Oaxacan Lending Library. Her life and work illuminate women's ambivalence toward female power, and their uncertainty about whether that power should celebrate the feminine or reject it. Gilbert represents the fantasy of many women writers - the juggernaut bestseller, the speaking gigs and financial success and adoring fans– and also the nightmare: the contempt of critics, the 'chick lit' label, the inability to crawl out from under a single book that has been deemed unabashedly female and therefore unworthy of serious critique. Each hints at a suite of hopes and fears with which women writers often contend. Elizabeth Gilbert doesn’t care if you think her new book is chick lit. Elizabeth Gilbert wants to see how alive we can be.

Elizabeth Gilbert isn’t afraid to show her scars. Elizabeth Gilbert is owning her past mistakes. Profiles of bestselling and iconic author Elizabeth Gilbert tend to begin with a declaration of what she is currently doing or feeling, presented with a touch of irony. Is a series about people who fascinate us, for better or worse.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert