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Nicole Cliffe | |
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| Born | September 2, 1982 |
| Alma mater | Harvard College |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, editor, executive producer |
| Known for | The Toast |
Nicole Cliffe (born September 2, 1982) is a Canadian writer living in Utah, who co-founded and co-edited the website The Toast with Daniel Lavery.
Nicole Cliffe was born September 2, 1982, [1] [2] and grew up in Kingston, Ontario. [3] A first-generation college student, [4] she attended Harvard College on a full scholarship, studying English. [3] [5] She graduated in 2005. [6] At Harvard, her friends included future journalists Amelia Lester, Matthew Yglesias, and Josh Barro. [7]
Cliffe worked at a New York hedge fund [3] before becoming a writer. She drew attention for a Tumblr entitled Lazy Self-Indulgent Book Reviews [8] as well as a recurring book review column on The Awl called "Classic Trash". [9] In June 2011, Cliffe joined the Awl-network women's general interest site The Hairpin , [10] where she became book editor. [5] [11] [12] Through this work, Cliffe met future collaborator Daniel Lavery, first over the internet, then later in person. [13]
Cliffe and Lavery left The Hairpin in 2013 to found a separate feminist general interest website The Toast, which Cliffe and Lavery co-edited, later adding Nicole Chung as managing editor and Jaya Saxena as a staff writer. [14] (Lawyer Nick Pavich was originally the publisher and one-third owner of the site, but departed in the winter of 2013–2014). [15] [11] [16] Cliffe and her husband funded the site's launch. [15] The Toast published from July 1, 2013, [10] until July 1, 2016. [17] From October 15, 2014, to September 2015, [18] the project also included a sister site called The Butter; led by Roxane Gay, The Butter focused on personal essays and cultural criticism. [19] The Toast made a one-day return with new material on July 26, 2017. [20]
In addition to her editing and book reviews, Cliffe has drawn notice for her writing on a wide range of topics, including humor pieces, [21] [22] collegiate financial aid, [17] and Protestant Christianity. [17] She has written advice columns for Elle and Catapult's magazine, [23] [24] and in January 2018, became an advice columnist, with Carvell Wallace, at Slate. Their column, offering parenting advice, is called "Care and Feeding". [25] She left Slate in 2020.
In December 2017, Cliffe joined the board of directors of Electric Literature . [26]
In October 2019, Cliffe was credited as an executive producer for the documentary "The Acid King", based on the non-fiction book of the same name about the life of Ricky Kasso. [27]
In June 2020, Cliffe told Vox she was writing a horror novel, [28] which she later confirmed via Twitter.
Cliffe lives in Utah with her husband and three children. [3] [5] An atheist since college, she converted to Christianity in 2015. [29] She is autistic, as is one of her children. [30]
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