KIRSTEN MILLER
I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. After high school, I moved to New York City to attend Barnard College. Though I will always consider myself a Southerner, I reside in Brooklyn now with my kid and my cat. There are five bagel shops within a two-block radius of our house, which makes it pretty damn close to heaven.
I wanted to go into publishing after college, but I needed to eat, so I took a job in advertising instead. I spent my first few years in advertising working for a brilliant woman at an agency I adored. I was well into my career when I left that agency and discovered the ad world was rarely a warm and welcoming place for women.
Around 2004, I started writing about a band of six delinquent girl scouts who discover a secret city beneath Manhattan and end up saving the world. That was how I amused myself back then. I had no idea I was writing a book. Several bizarre strokes of luck later, Kiki Strike was published. One early reader, who’s now all grown up, called it her “first feminist handbook.” I must say, that made me very happy.
Since Kiki, I’ve written over fifteen books. About half of them were co-authored with Jason Segel, one of the finest, funniest, and most talented human beings I’ve ever known. After the last book in our second series was published, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. So I sat down and started writing to amuse myself. That’s how I ended up with The Change.
The Change was not my first foray into the seriously dark and disturbing. (That would be How to Lead a Life of Crime.) But it was, technically, my first novel for adults. And yes, the title does indeed refer to menopause. (Say it loud and proud, ladies.) I’ve heard The Change described as a feel-good feminist revenge fantasy. That sounds about right. As any woman my age will understand, I had a lot to get off my chest. And believe you me, I had a damn good time doing it. The Change came out in May, 2022. I hope it’s as fun to read as it was to write.
My next book Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books will be out in June, 2024. More on that later. But I promise—it’s a doozy.