Jillian Medoff is the acclaimed author of five novels. Her most recent, WHEN WE WERE BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL (Harper/HarperCollins, 2022), was longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, a Book of the Month Club feature selection, an Apple Books Best of the Month, an Audible Editor’s Pick, a PEOPLE Pick of the Week, and a favorite of Town and Country Magazine, Oprah Daily, and others.
Praised for her “uncannily insightful takes on the dark side of family institutions” (Entertainment Weekly), Jillian writes about loyalty, power, secrecy, and moral compromise—questions at the center of her forthcoming novel, THE LIFE OR DEATH COMMITTEE (Harper, 2027).
In 1961, a group of seven ordinary Seattle citizens was tasked with deciding which patients would receive access to dialysis, an experimental life-saving treatment, and which would be denied. Inspired by this controversial true story, the novel follows the committee as members grapple with the consequences of those choices, exploring questions of fairness, responsibility, what it means to be a good person, and who has the right to decide. Unfortunately, these moral dilemmas are as urgent today as they were then. (Yes, it’s a big swing; and no, she didn’t think she could pull it off, either.)
Her earlier novels include THIS COULD HURT (Indiebound bestseller), I COULDN’T LOVE YOU MORE (national bestseller), and GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD (big flop). Her debut novel, HUNGER POINT, was made into an original Lifetime movie starring Christina Hendricks and Barbara Hershey, directed by Joan Micklin Silver.
A former fellow at MacDowell, Blue Mountain Center, VCCA and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, Jillian has a BA from Barnard and an MFA from NYU, where she studied with Mona Simpson and Jonathan Dee. She also took master classes with Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, and Grace Paley. In 1995, she sold her MFA thesis to HarperCollins where it was retitled HUNGER POINT and published two years later. Back then, readers loved the deeply depressed Frannie; now, they hate her and her whole stupid, self-absorbed family. Times change, culture evolves, and still, trauma endures.
In addition to writing novels, Jillian has a long career in corporate consulting. Now a vice president with Segal Benz, she advises clients on communication strategies for all aspects of the employee experience.