Gillespie, Spike 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born 1964; children: Henry. Hobbies and other interests: Knitting, putting on Teen Rock events.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Austin, TX. E-mail—spike@spikeg.com; spikegillespie@gmail.com.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, teacher, documentary filmmaker, and wedding officiant. Dallas Morning News, former reporter and columnist. Alkali Marketing, copywriter. Austin Children of Musicians, Artists and Writers Fund, founder.

WRITINGS:

All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

Surrender (But Don't Give Yourself Away): Old Cars, Found Hope, and Other Cheap Tricks, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 2003.

Pissed Off: On Women and Anger: Finding Forgiveness on the Other Side of the Finger, Seal Press (Emeryville, CA), 2006.

Quilty as Charged: Undercover in a Material World, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 2007.

Contributor of articles to magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Real Simple, Washington Post, Playboy, GQ, Elle, Cosmo, Texas Monthly, Salon.com, and Nerve.

SIDELIGHTS:

A pioneer in the art of the online confessional and an early cyber celebrity, Texas writer Spike Gillespie parlayed her soul-searching/soul-baring personal columns into her first book, the 1999 title All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: A Memoir. Speaking of her online writing, New Statesman reviewer Andrew Brown noted: "Parts of it are simply brilliant, shocking in the way that only careful and perceptive writing can be." Online she related her problems with alcohol, cancer, and men, and in her memoir she follows a similar self-revealing style. Salon.com contributor Katie Allison Granju commented that in the book, Gillespie "recounts her personal history in an unflinching straight line." Born in New Jersey to working-class parents, Gillespie spent summers at the Atlantic shore and later became a single mother in the artistic setting of Austin, Texas. Along the way she suffered disappointments and depression, much of it brought on by her miserable relationships with men. However, love for her young son helped turn her life around. Reviewing the memoir in the Library Journal, Shana C. Fair felt that "women struggling to end destructive relationships and start new lives will find inspiration here." A Publishers Weekly reviewer, however, found that "Gillespie's lack of personal responsibility and ‘poor me’ attitude is wearying." A higher assessment came from Granju, who noted: "Despite the bleak specifics of Gillespie's story, at its heart it is both uplifting and inspiring." Brit Fedorev, writing in Feminista, observed: "Gillespie recounts with humor and fearless honesty the most profound events of her life, a journey that has taken her across the country and to hell and back, writing it as she remembers it—without apologies."

Speaking with Fedorev, Gillespie explained her motivation for writing All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: "My book is sort of a hard drive for all my memories. My memories haunt me. People tell me to forget stuff, don't dwell on it…. Now that so many stories are in the book, I've put them somewhere where I can retrieve them and so I don't dwell as much on, say, what happened between me and my dad. It frees my mind to move on, break bad patterns, come out to a better place."

Gillespie is also the author of Pissed Off: On Women and Anger: Finding Forgiveness on the Other Side of the Finger, an "engaging memoir-cure-self-help-book," as Deborah Bigelow described it in a Library Journal review. Here Gillespie relates how she came to integrate a sense of forgiveness into her life as an antidote to the rage she had long felt. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the book a "curious hybrid": part first-person memoir, and part self-help. The same contributor felt that by the end of the book readers would be "rooting for her." Similarly, Herizons writer Jennifer O'Connor termed Pissed Off an "unflinching look at anger and forgiveness," as well as a "a self-help book for people who hate self-help books."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gillespie, Spike, All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

Gillespie, Spike, Pissed Off: On Women and Anger: Finding Forgiveness on the Other Side of the Finger, Seal Press (Emeryville, CA), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Herizons, spring, 2007, Jennifer O'Connor, review of Pissed Off, p. 46.

Library Journal, August 1, 1999, Shana C. Fair, review of All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy, p. 106; July 1, 2006, Deborah Bigelow, review of Pissed Off, p. 93.

New Statesman, August 23, 1999, Andrew Brown, "Strictly Personal," p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, June 28, 1999, review of All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy, p. 64; March 20, 2006, review of Pissed Off, p. 53.

ONLINE

Alkali Marketing Web site,http://www.alkalimarketing.com/ (April 15, 2007), "Spike Gillespie."

Austin Mama,http://www.austinmama.com/ (April 15, 2007), Robin Bradford, "Neil Diamond, Cheesecake and a Pack of Dogs: A Movable Chat with Author Spike Gillespie."

Bell Jar Web site,http://www.thebelljar.net/ (April 15, 2007), unpublished novel.

Feminista,http://www.feminista.com/ (April 15, 2007), Brit Fedorev, review of All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy.

Salon.com,http://www.salon.com/ (August 11, 1998), Katie Allison Granju, review of All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy.