Aimee Liu

Ms. Magazine

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.