Nancy Balbirer
Author Interview - Nancy Balbirer
Author of Almost Romance
“Almost Romance” is a memoir which tells the story of how the thirty-two year *almost romance* I’d shared with one of my oldest friends turned into a *real* one with the help of the “Grace and Frankie”writers’ room and the denizens of a fabled but cursed Manhattan apartment building. It is a real-life, When Harry Met Sally-ish romantic comedy about hope and friendship and how even if it's "late" it's never *too* late for love.
Author Interview - Nancy Balbirer
Author I draw inspiration from: Nora Ephron
Jane Wagner
Cookie Mueller
Toni Morrison
Erica Jong
Ntozake Shange
Joan Didion
Eve Babitz
Colette
Maya Angelou
Carrie Fisher
Terry McMillan
Tennessee Williams
Truman Capote
James Baldwin
Quentin Crisp
Shalom Auslander
Author Interview - Nancy Balbirer | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: in bed (second place is the subway)
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Isadora Wing/Fear of Flying/Erica Jong
Author Interview - Nancy Balbirer | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I was 15 and reading Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth (I know—I didn't know he was an asshole then). I was all alone, reading in the living room of a condo in Key Largo, Florida and I was laughing hysterically. This was a total revelation to me: I had certainly laughed at TV shows or movies or theatre but I was all alone with nothing but the words this writer, Phillip Roth had typed onto a page and I was knocked out at the power of it. And I knew in an instant it was something I just had to do. To make someone laugh (or feel anything but especially laugh) with nothing more than my words.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardback for the shelf; paperback to read in bed
The last book I read: My Body by Emily Ratajkowski
Author Interview - Nancy Balbirer | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Computer
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: "Carrie Fisher" in The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Author Interview - Nancy Balbirer | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Broadway Lyricist
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1970's (runner-up: 1940's)
Place I’d most like to travel: Place I've been: Paris; place I've never been: Rome
My signature drink: Dirty Martini
Favorite artist: Lee Krasner
Augusta Savage
Jean Cocteau
Alice Neel
Nancy Goldin
Colette Coriat
Number one on my bucket list: Writing the movie/television version of Almost Romance; getting the Queen of England to grant an OBE to my friend the actress Millicent Martin
Anything else you'd like to add: I'm so excited for people to read this book! :)
Find more from the author:
Instagram: @nancybalbirer
Author Bio: Nancy Balbirer is the author of three memoirs: Take Your Shirt Off and Cry (Bloomsbury, 2009); A Marriage in Dog Years (Little A, 2018) and the soon-to-be-released, Almost Romance (Little A, Feb 2022). As an actress she wrote and performed the critically acclaimed solo-show, I Slept With Jack Kerouac; reoccured on both "Remote Control" and “Seinfeld" and annually stars as a rotating bevy of floozies in Charles Busch’s cult classic Times Square Angel. A native New Yorker, she currently resides in Los Angeles with her family.
