aimee liu
Aimee Liu is the author of Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders, published by Warner Books, 2007. This sequel to Liu’s acclaimed memoir of anorexia nervosa, Solitaire (Harper & Row, 1979), draws on her own experience as well as interviews with leading researchers and more than forty other women and men with histories of anorexia and bulimia. Liu picks up her exploration of eating disorders where she left it at age twenty-five. Back then, she thought recovery meant eating well. Gaining proves that healthy nutrition is only a first step. True recovery requires a new understanding of the role that genetics, personality, relationships, and anxiety play in these disorders. Liu uses cutting edge research to dispel the myth that fashion is wholly to blame. She examines the real reasons eating disorders—at all ages—are on the rise, and how they can be prevented in future generations.
Gaining garnered critical success, especially from communities working towards treating eating disorders. The Journal of the American Medical Association said, "With uninhibited truthfulness Aimee Liu reveals incidents in her own life which propelled her into anorexia... She believes the greatest asset any of us possess is our own life story and to realize the full power and dimension of this treasure, we have to be willing to tell the whole truth, and courageously, she does so...‘Gaining' lights the way into understanding the root causes and hidden origins of these surprisingly common eating disorders. These origins are not limited to eating disorders, in various degrees they lurk in all of us."
Aimee Liu is also a novelist. Flash House (Warner Books, 2003) is a tale of suspense and Cold War intrigue set in Central Asia. Cloud Mountain (Warner Books, 1997) is based on the true story of her American grandmother and Chinese revolutionary grandfather. Liu’s first novel, Face (Warner Books, 1994), deals with mixed-race identity. These books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Before turning to writing full-time, Liu edited business and trade publications and worked as an associate producer for NBC's TODAY show. She has co-authored seven books on medical and psychological topics. Her articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in anthologies and periodicals such as Cosmopolitan, Self, Glamour, and Good Housekeeping.
Aimee Liu was born in 1953 and raised in Connecticut, received her B.A. from Yale University in 1975 and her MFA from Bennington College in 2006. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and sons and teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles and in Goddard College’s Port Townsend MFA program. In 2006, the Academy for Eating Disorders (the professional organization for eating disorder researchers, clinicians, and educator) appointed Aimee Liu to their Board of Advisors.
