Eli Gottlieb

Eli Gottlieb was born in Manhattan and grew up in rural New Jersey. He graduated from Hampshire College and has since worked as staff writer for the Jewish Theological Seminary, University Lecturer in Padua, Italy, Senior Editor for Elle Magazine, and freelance book critic and travel writer for the New York Times. He’s also written for many other publications. He’s been publishing literary fiction for over two decades. He has taught at the MFA program at Columbia University and currently teaches at Vassar College.

Best known for a pair of highly praised autobiographical novels, The Boy Who Went Away and Best Boy, Gottlieb has been both a vessel for stories from the larger autism community and spokesperson. This work of narrative non-fiction is nothing short of a life project that mines the complexities of lived experience with an utterly compelling investigation of why this subject has been so taboo, and what this new field of study can illuminate. This project asks how we can support neurodivergent people in their search for intimacy, and in so doing focusses our attention on a pervasive cultural bias and the ever-present need for greater understanding.