Kathleen Gilligan

At Thomas Dunne Books, Kathleen Gilligan had the extreme fortune to dive head-first into an exciting list of fiction--both commercial and literary--from the sassy private-eye in T. Lynn Ocean’s Southern Fatality, to the poignant, provocative work of Michelle Wildgen, You’re Not You, about a young caregiver who grapples with the devastating effects of ALS, to
Smart Girls Like Me by McSweeney’s alum Diane Vadino—who penned the quirky and poignant character of Betsy who gleefully topples all notions of what constitutes commercial women’s fiction.

Though she mostly acquires fiction, she’s had the great (and hilarious) pleasure to work with Susan Konig--whose memoirs on motherhood (Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road and I Wear the Maternity Pants in the Family) have USA Today calling her “Bombeckian.” Most recently, Kathleen acquired Giller Prize short-list nominee, Effigy, by Alissa York; the South African hit Strange Nervous Laughter by the delightful Bridget McNulty; and a laugh-out-loud novel, Was It Planned?, by Maureen Lipinski about a married couple whose unexpected pregnancy disrupts their happy, IKEA-furnished, pub-crawling, honeymoon years.

Kathleen is constantly on the look-out for more women’s fiction, particularly with curious, genuine narrators whose quirks resonate with her own; moving literary fiction; or non-fiction projects that inspire her to cook delicious food.