Susan Jane Gilman is the American bestselling author of three books. Her latest, Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, is a thriller-like memoir about a disastrous backpacking trek she made through China in 1986 in an attempt to be “the female Odysseus.” (Published in German by BestQuality as “Pfannkuchen in China” in 2010.)
This book was named one of the “100 Best Books of 2009” by Amazon.com, a “Best Nonfiction Book of 2009” by Barnes & Noble, and was chosen as an Oprah Book Club recommendation. She is also well-known for her New York Times bestseller Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress (2005) and Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess, (2001) a guide to power and attitude for young women, now in its eleventh printing (published in German by Ariston as “Keine Kinder, Keine Kuche, Keine Kirche”) She has contributed to numerous anthologies and is a commentator for America’s National Public Radio.

Gilman’s journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Ms., The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, and Real Simple, among others. She began her career as a reporter for The Jewish Week newspaper in New York City, where she earned a New York Press Association Award for articles written on assignment in Poland.

A native New Yorker, she now lives with her husband, “The Amazing Bob,” in Switzerland. Most of her time is spent as a writer “staring catatonically at a blinking cursor” as she works on her first novel.

She has a degree in literature and history from Brown University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She has taught writing and literature at two American universities and occasionally offers creative writing workshops in Switzerland.

You can read about her adventures and insights as a female traveler and American ex-pat in “A View from A Broad,” at www.susajanegilman.blogspot.com and learn more about her at www.susanjanegilman.com

Foto: Francois Bourru