Ali Liebegott
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Ali Liebegott
Ali Liebegottis an award-winning American author, poet, and teacher. She has taught creative writing at University of California, San Diego and Mills College. She currently lives in San Francisco. Liebegott is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. As of 2013 she has written three books: The Beautifully Worthless; The IHOP Papers; and Cha-Ching...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth8 August 1971
CountryUnited States of America
Since becoming an alleged adult, I've always felt like I should exercise - or should at least want to exercise - and make a feeble attempt at health, thus staving off terrible things like the coronary heart disease and high cholesterol described to me in 1980s margarine commercials.
I'm a writer who stacks cat food for a living. It's true: I have a master's degree in creative writing, I've published two critically successful books, and I get paid to replenish the shelves of my local food co-op with pet food, sponges and toilet paper. Nine days out of 10, I do it quite happily.
I was the first in my family to go to college, and I waitressed all the way through, using my earnings to pay for a bachelor's degree first and then a master's. I resented classmates who didn't have to work real jobs, the ones who had the luxury of taking unpaid internships that would eventually position them for high-paying careers.
I'd gotten the message in my home, starting with my grandfather, that real work, the kind that makes you sweat and gets your hands dirty, is a respectable, necessary thing. But I wanted to write - and writing didn't qualify. Whenever I told my parents I dreamed of becoming a writer, they said, 'Great, but what are you going to do for work?'
As a poet and writer in general I feel very grateful that I can just make a chapbook and that we don't have the expenses of filmmakers.