Catherine Hiller
Biography
Catherine Hiller
Catherine Hiller began writing in a diary when she was 10 and now has dozens of spiral-bound journals, which she never rereads. She grew up in Greenwich Village and Park Slope and attended Hunter College High School, Brooklyn College, and Sussex University. She has a Ph.D. in English from Brown University.
Her first published piece, about gender role reversal in The Way We Were, appeared in the New York Times. Soon after, she published two books for children: ARGENTAYBEE AND THE BOONIE and ABRACATABBY (both Coward, McCann).
She then started publishing fiction for adults (see Works Page), often about unconventional love. After her third novel, she became interested in documentary film making.
She is the co-producer/co-director, with Robert Richter, of Do Not Enter: The Visa War Against Ideas, about the McCarran Walter Act, which made it difficult for politically left wing foreigners such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes and Dario Fo (all of whom are in the film) to visit the US. The film aired on PBS and was shown to members of Congress. It received a Blue Ribbon at the American Film and Video Festival.
Catherine also co-produced and co-directed, with Regina Weinreich, Paul Bowles: The Complete Outsider, a portrait film about the American writer and composer, author of The Sheltering Sky. The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art and was released theatrically in 20 cities. Broadcast on the Sundance Channel, the film was called “spell-binding” by the New York Post. The Washington Post said it was “a fabulous film. You want to see it again and again.”
Hiller’s next books return to the subject of passion. Her story collection, SKIN: Sensual Tales (Carroll & Graf), was praised by John Updike. The novel CYBILL IN BETWEEN is the most directly erotic of her books, starting with the cover: a photo from neck to knees, of a woman in red lingerie.
Her most recent novel is THE ADVENTURES OF SID SAWYER: Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer --- turned upside down. Told from the point of view of Tom’s sissy half-brother Sid, we get a whole new angle on this beloved classic.
Her latest book, JUST SAY YES: A Marijuana Memoir, created something of a stir. The first chapter was published as a Private Lives piece in the New York Times. This was followed by a profile about her in the Times in April 2015. For about a year, she wrote many pieces about cannabis, some of which she cross-posted on Huffington Post.
Catherine's current mission is to add a new character to the world of contemporary fiction: the adventuresome and appealing older woman. She has written a number of stories on this theme, such as "Her Last Affair," which appeared in the 2010 Summer Fiction issue of the Antioch Review, and "Cybill at Burning Man," which she read at Center Camp, Burning Man, 2009. She is working on THE FACEBOOK LOVER, a collection of these stories.
Catherine Hiller
