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.
Early life
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]
Career
Early career
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]
Writing and other projects
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 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.
Personal life
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]
References
^Cliffe, Nicole (September 2, 2018). "'it's my birthday...'". Twitter. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
