Famous for spilling her soul in her bestselling memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love,” author Elizabeth Gilbert has just released her latest New York Times bestselling novel, “The Signature of All Things.”
Gilbert, one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2008, spoke at Davis Auditorium on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
The event was the third collaboration between DU’s Enrichment Program and the Tattered Cover Bookstore. The Enrichment Program is part of the University College, the college of professional and continuing studies at DU. The collaboration began last spring when they hosted Michael Pollan on campus.
The event cost $35 and included a signed copy of Gilbert’s book.
According to Deb Olson, Director of the Enrichment Program, there were around 225 people in attendance.
Although “The Signature of All Things” was only recently published on Oct. 1, Gilbert was excited to announce that it made it onto the New York Times Best Seller List. She read a passage from her novel to the audience about the main character, Alma Whittaker.
“I have to share with you, I know we are supposed to be more enlightened and we are not supposed to care, but I did just find out yesterday that the book is now on the New York Times Best Seller list right under James Patterson, so there is a place for Alma Whittaker,” said Gilbert.
The crowd, mostly middle-aged women, listened carefully as Gilbert spoke of her success with her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love” and how she switched gears to write novels after that.
“As a writer, it was particularly puzzling to figure out what you do after that because it felt very clear to me from the beginning of that tsunami that anything I was to do after that would have the inevitable effect of disappointing people,” said Gilbert.
Gilbert released her other memoir, “Committed,” after “Eat, Pray, Love’s” sensation and talked about how it served as a transitional book and allowed her to have more freedom with her following novel.
With that in mind, Gilbert shifted gears from writing memoirs to a fictional novel. She took her passion for gardening and spent three years researching plant history during the 19th century.
Gilbert noted that she ended up writing a 70-page outline before she even started writing, “The Signature of Things,” a novel about a family of botanists and scientists living in Philadelphia in the 19th century.
“I am in a very rare position because of the great success of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ that I can afford to fund my own work and that is something that very few writers are ever lucky enough to get to have, and glancingly few women writers are able to have,” said Gilbert.
“I felt that the only way to honor that was to write the biggest and most expansive novel, like the ones that men get to write a book that takes time and research and crosses generations.”
Following the reading and discussion, the event was opened up to a Q & A session where many audience members asked her about her experience with “Eat, Pray, Love,” as well as writing advice.
One member of the crowd was senior Jillian Chamberlin, a history major from Laguna Hills, Calif., who asked Gilbert on advice for young writers and the writing process.
“I think it’s really great to be able to ask writers questions about the writing process and it’s just interesting to hear different processes that writers have, especially writers that I look up to so much. It inspires me to write more,” said Chamberlin.
Gilbert, who wished Chamberlin luck in her writing endeavors, believes that young writers should continue writing and being passionate about it.
“Having her wish me luck was really inspiring,” said Chamberlin.
Although there were very few students in the crowd, Chamberlin was still excited to be able to attend the event.
“It is so cool to go to a school where we have things like this and it was weird to me that students didn’t really show up. I love having these things so close to campus where I can just walk here,” said Chamberlin.
DU’s Enrichment Program and Tattered Cover will also be hosting author Isabel Allende in February and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dave Barry in March.
To find out more information about the events go to: http://bit.ly/18swQ0R.