Emily Fisk Giffin
(born March 20, 1972) is an American author of several
novels commonly categorized as
chick lit
Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at younger women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels id ...
.
Her notable works include ''
Something Borrowed'', ''Heart of the Matter'' and ''The One and Only''.
Early life
Emily Giffin was born on March 20, 1972. She attended
Naperville North High School
Naperville North High School is a public four-year high school located at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Mill Street in the northern-central part of Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is the coun ...
in
Naperville
Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city.
Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
(a suburb of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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), where she was a member of a creative writing club and served as editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper. Giffin earned her undergraduate degree at
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...
, where she double-majored in history and English and also served as manager of the
basketball team
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
. She then attended law school at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
.
Career
After graduating from law school in 1997, she moved to
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and worked in the litigation department of
Winston & Strawn
Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm. Headquartered in Chicago, it has nearly 800 attorneys in ten offices in the United States and six offices in Europe and Asia. Founded in 1853, it is one of the largest and oldest law firms in Chic ...
. In 2001, she moved to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and began writing full-time. Her first young adult novel, ''Lily Holding True'', was rejected by eight publishers. Giffin began a new novel, then titled ''Rolling the Dice'', which became the bestselling novel ''
Something Borrowed,'' released in 2004, which received positive reviews and made it to the
New York Times bestsellers list.
Giffin found an agent in 2002 and signed a two-book deal with
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
. While doing revisions on ''Something Borrowed'', she found the inspiration for a sequel, ''Something Blue'' (2005). In 2006, her third novel, ''Baby Proof'', made its debut. She spent 2007 finishing her fourth novel, ''Love the One You're With''.
Nine of her novels have been international bestsellers. Three appeared simultaneously on ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
s Top 150 list. ''Something Borrowed'' was adapted into a major
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
(released on May 6, 2011), and its sequel novel, ''Something Blue,'' has also been optioned for film.
[McNary, Dave]
"Swank really 'Something': Actress nabs rights to Emily Giffin book"
''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', 26 August 2008.
Novels
* ''
Something Borrowed'' (2004)
* ''Something Blue'' (2005)
* ''Baby Proof'' (2006)
* ''Love the One You're With'' (2008)
* ''Heart of the Matter'' (2010)
* ''The Diary of Darcy J. Rhone'' (2012): Prequel to ''Something Blue'' and ''Something Borrowed''
* ''
Where We Belong'' (2012)
* ''The One and Only'' (2014)
* ''First Comes Love'' (2016)
* ''All We Ever Wanted'' (2018)
* ''The Lies That Bind'' (2020)
* ''Meant to Be'' (2022)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giffin, Emily
1972 births
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American women writers
American chick lit writers
American expatriates in England
American women novelists
Litigators
Living people
New York (state) lawyers
Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Novelists from Illinois
Novelists from Maryland
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Wake Forest University alumni
Writers from Atlanta
Writers from Baltimore
Writers from Chicago
Writers from Naperville, Illinois
20th-century American women lawyers
People associated with Winston & Strawn