Ali Liebegott

Ali Liebegott is an American writer, actor, and comedian. She is best known for her work as a novelist and a writer/producer on the acclaimed Amazon original series, Transparent. Liebegott has taught creative writing at University of California, San Diego and Mills College. She is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is the author of The Beautifully Worthless; The IHOP Papers; and Cha-Ching!. Liebegott currently resides in Los Angeles and recently finished her fourth book, The Summer of Dead Birds.

Ali Liebegott
Born (1971-08-08) August 8, 1971
OccupationWriter, Actor, Comedian
NationalityAmerican
EducationMFA in Creative Writing
Alma materSarah Lawrence College
Period1992–present
GenrePoetry, fiction
Notable worksThe IHOP Papers, The Beautifully Worthless, Cha-Ching!
Notable awardsFerro-Grumley Award – Lesbian fiction
2008 The IHOP Papers

Lambda Literary Award – Women's fiction
2008 The IHOP Papers
Lambda Literary Award – Lesbian debut fiction
2006 The Beautifully Worthless

Peabody Award – Entertainment
2015 Transparent
Website
aliliebegott.com

Career

Non-Profit Work

Liebegott was the managing director at RADAR Productions a non-profit in San Francisco whose mission is to "give voice to innovative queer and outsider writers and artists whose work authentically reflects the LGBTQA community's diverse experiences."[1] RADAR Productions held an annual queer artists' retreat, THE RADAR LAB, in Akumal, Mexico that Liebegott helped found and run.[2] Liebegott has had a long relationship with small press publishing and zine making. She was the founding editor at Writers Among Artists, which published two art and poetry anthologies: Faggot Dinosaur and Vincent Van Go - Gogh.

Writing

In 2005, Liebegott published her first book, The Beautifully Worthless, on Suspect Thoughts Press. This queer, female modern day road epic follows a runaway waitress and her Dalmatian, Rorschach, across America. Liebegott wanted to subvert the epic poem by putting a queer female at the center of the book. The Beautifully Worthless, is a hybrid work of poems, letters, lists and prose pieces that form a narrative.

Liebegott has traveled the U.S. extensively, including touring on Sister Spit's Ramblin' Road Show with longtime gal pal Michelle Tea.[2][3] Traveling and the open road are recurrent themes in Liebegott's work, which often provides her with the context to explore the experiences of living on the margins, from perspectives beyond that of straight male privilege.[4] When asked about the lack of female road stories in contemporary literature, Liebegott has expressed that there isn't a lack of female road narratives, so much as there aren't enough publishers choosing to print these works.[3][4]

Liebegott's second book, The IHOP Papers, is a coming of age novel following a troubled queer waitress. It's set in early 1990s San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. The novel won the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Literature in 2008 and a Lambda Literary Award for Women's Fiction.

Originally inspired to write the third book in a planned trilogy (started by The Beautifully Worthless and followed by The Summer of Dead Birds) Liebegott traveled by train across the United States interviewing female poets. The project became The Heart has many Doors--, which takes its title from the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name. Excerpts from these interviews appeared monthly on The Believer Logger.[5] The second book of this trilogy, The Summer of Dead Birds, had "never seen the light of day" until Feminist Press decided to publish it in 2019.[2]

Liebegott, whose uncle was a blackjack dealer,[4] released her novel Cha-Ching! in March 2013 co-published by City Lights and Sister Spit. Cha-Ching! follows a butch dyke named Theo who moves from San Francisco to Brooklyn and deals with addictions to gambling, alcohol and drugs.

Animals often play significant roles in her work. Liebegott has cared for rescued dogs and cats. The 2013 reprint of The Beautifully Worthless was dedicated to Rorschach, her late dog, and inspiration for the character in the book. Liebegott has stated that a dream of hers is to one day own a farm filled with rescued animals. Some time in 2011 she rescued a street dog from Mexico and flew her back to San Francisco.[2]

Television and Upcoming Works

In 2014 Liebegott joined the writing staff of Amazon's original series Transparent, created by Jill Soloway. Ali has written and produced for the entire run of Transparent, which has earned a Peabody Award and multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy.

Transparent Episodes
  • "Wedge" (2014)
  • “Man on the Land" (2015)
  • “Life Sucks and Then You Die" (2016)
  • “Groin Anomaly" (2017)
  • “Babar the Borrible" (2017)

Liebegott's television acting work has included roles on Transparent, Maron, and Ten Days in the Valley. She can also be found doing standup throughout Los Angeles as both herself and her dog, Flaca.

Liebegott's collection of poems, The Summer of Dead Birds, is slated to be published in 2019 by the Feminist Press. She also plans to finish a novel which began as an illustrated project that includes over three hundred pen, ink, and watercolor drawings. The project, about a post-9/11 obsessive duck feeder, was started in 2001 and is titled The Crumb People.[2]

Awards

Liebegott won the 2009 Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT literature, for The IHOP Papers. She has won two Lambda Literary Awards, in the categories of Lesbian Debut Fiction for The Beautifully Worthless in 2006, and Lesbian Fiction for The IHOP Papers in 2008.

In 2015, Liebegott, along with the rest of the writing staff, was honored with a Peabody Award for Season 2 of Transparent.

Works
  • The Beautifully Worthless (Suspect Thoughts, 2005; City Lights, 2013) ISBN 978-0-87286-571-6
  • The IHOP Papers (Carroll & Graf, 2007)[6]
  • Cha-Ching! (City Lights, 2013) ISBN 978-0-87286-570-9

References
  1. "RADAR Board/Staff". RADAR Productions (About page). Archived from the original on 2013-06-15. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  2. Cohen, Paige (17 April 2013). "Ali Liebegott: Highways and Byways". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  3. Torr, Jolene (19 March 2013). "An Interview with Ali Liebegott". City Lights (Podcast). Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  4. Coleman, Elizabeth (2 May 2013). "Ali Liebegott on Road Trips, Addiction and Queer Life". Art Animal. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  5. logger.believermag.com
  6. "The IHOP Papers". Kirkus Reviews. 1 January 2007.
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