Who is Anita Liberty?

              I am Anita Liberty. I am the author of HOW TO HEAL THE HURT BY HATING, a collection of diary entries, advice and poems that tell the story of how my boyfriend, Mitchell, dumped me for a woman named Heather and how I then devoted my entire career to humiliating him in public. My new book, HOW TO STAY BITTER THROUGH THE HAPPIEST TIMES IN YOUR LIFE, which is being published by Villard Books in June, 2006, is a collection of blog entries, advice and poems that tell the story of how I get perilously close to achieving true happiness and find myself clinging desperately to my edge. HOW TO HEAL THE HURT BY HATING will be reissued by Villard Books with a spanking new cover in June as well. Won’t that be fun?

              What else do you need to know about me? I’ve had a short film (imaginatively titled ANITA LIBERTY) at the Sundance Film Festival which was then subsequently broadcast repeatedly on Bravo and the Independent Film Channel. I performed my one-woman show, NOT THINKING ABOUT YOU, at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen (where I was virtually unaffected by the altitude). I have produced postcards of my work and distributed them in restaurants (prompting one ardent fan to gather up as many I hate him cards as she could so that she could paper the walls of her bathroom with them). I have been performing my work to live audiences for the past decade at various prestigious venues in New York, Los Angeles and the Hamptons. (Aren’t we fancy?). I have developed and written four network pilots and one feature-length screenplay based on the story of my life, as well as a couple of other screenplays not based on the story of my life. I have sold myself out, in the form of t-shirts, buttons, greeting cards, wall clocks and cute little teddy bears with cute little shirts that read: I hate him. (Go to www.cafepress.com/staybitter and order yours now!). And if you want to be my friend, go to www.myspace.com/anitaliberty.

              I’ve been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, New York Newsday, the New York Observer, the Los Angeles Times, the London Sunday Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and JANE, to name just ten publications. I have been named and discussed and lauded in numerous internet blogs (even inspiring one blogger to write “I totally pulled an Anita Liberty today”). My book is read by fictional characters. HOW TO HEAL THE HURT BY HATING was mentioned in the February 24th entry of BRIDGET JONES: EDGE OF REASON as one of the books that Bridget’s friend, Shaz, brings over to comfort her during her boyfriend troubles. That’s some claim-to-fame. (Of some sort, I suppose.)

              My first book went into its fifth printing. It was published in Greece and the U.K. Material from HOW TO HEAL THE HURT BY HATING is currently being used by an amazingly large number of small-town Texas high school students for interscholastic league speech and poetry competitions. And one girl’s male speech teacher can even recite Mitchell’s New Girlfriend by heart. No kidding.

              If you need to know anything more about me, go ahead and send me a question at anita@anitaliberty.com.