Hilary Levey Friedman
Author Interview - Hilary Levey Friedman
Author of Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America.
“Many predicted that pageants would disappear by the 21st century. Yet they are thriving. America’s most enduring contest, Miss America, will soon celebrate its 100th anniversary. Why do they persist? In Here She Is, I use beauty pageants to trace the arc of feminism in America- starting in the 1840s with the Seneca Falls Convention and PT Barnum and going up to the present with #MeToo and Donald Trump. As the daughter of a Miss America and President of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women, I am uniquely positioned to consider how pageantry has morphed into culture everywhere from The Bachelor and RuPaul’s Drag Race to cheer and specialized contests.”
Author Interview - Hilary Levey Friedman
Author I draw inspiration from: When it comes to non-fiction I admire Susan Orlean- she can paint a person's portrait with words. With fiction, anyone who can write a page turner.
Author Interview - Hilary Levey Friedman
Favorite place to read a book: Anywhere and everywhere! When I'm in a line (though rarer in these times), I'm grateful for the Kindle app on my phone, and I always have a stack of books to read in my office and bedroom.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Gabriel Allon from the Daniel Silva books as he'd know how to get us out!
Author Interview - Hilary Levey Friedman
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: As a child I was very rarely not reading. I just assumed I would write books someday-- though I had no idea how hard it would be! Once I started a PhD program I quickly came to realize that I am a "books" and not "articles" person, so writing a non-fiction book became much more inevitable. Not sure fiction will ever happen, but you never know!
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: ebook- for flexibility (see waiting in line comment!)
The last book I read: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart- I read a lot of YA, both because it's a genre that made me fall in love with reading and because the emotions and characters seem much more heightened, and at times real
Author Interview - Hilary Levey Friedman
Pen & paper or computer: Oh, definitely computer. I've never had good penmanship and it's gotten so much worse over the years (partly because I type so much more!).
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Author Interview - Hilary Levey Friedman
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Lawyer
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1950s for sure-- think Midge Maisel!
Place I’d most like to travel: Hawaii
My signature drink: I love a good, sweet wine- so any ice wine.
Favorite artist: Edgar Degas
Number one on my bucket list: Write a New York Times bestseller... someday?!
Find more from the author:
FB: @hilaryleveyfriedman
Twitter and Insta: hleveyfriedman
Author Bio: I'm a sociologist at Brown University where I teach in the Education Department. My first book, Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture, comes in handy now as I raise my two sons, who are in first and third grade.
