Gillian Zed Loves Words

Gillian Zed 2019     Photo by Meri Hoffsten

Gillian Zed’s newest blog brings insight and humor to reviewing the lessons of her previous six decades, emerging as a healthy and happy woman who’s not wasting time with bullshit. 

Born at the end of the baby boom, Essays on Aging, reflects on the author’s LGBTQ family, inspiring travels, surviving breast cancer, career pivots, grief, mental health, punk rock, cats/dogs/children, vanity nearing 60, and the irony of choosing to stop drinking weeks before moving to California wine country.

More about the author:

Gillian Zed loves words. Her last name originated at 20 from a tongue in cheek philosophy: If you can’t have the last word, have the last LETTER. 

She still has her first hand-made book of poems and songs about gender-ambiguous love, (and against war!) created at ten. In her early teens Gillian Zed began publishing short stories and poetry, often receiving prizes in writing contests. 

While attending Branksome Hall in Toronto, Canada, (her mother’s alma mater,) Gillian Zed founded the school’s first newspaper, The Branksome Boaster. She graduated 1979 from Santa Monica High, CA, where she won multiple Forensic Society awards for her original speeches and poetry. 

In college at Humboldt State University, she wrote songs with various punk bands, including “Boutique Baby” recorded by Agent 86. Her work was included in zines of the day. Visiting Europe throughout her 20's, she produced poetry, stories and long letters home.(Longhand!)

The opportunity to write with specific artists and composers,  inspired a move to Hollywood in the 1980’s. She worked as a lyricist and songwriter, gleaning multiple song copyrights.

During her 30's, Gillian Zed completed My Brother's True Stories and Other Lies, a collection of autobiographical short stories about growing up with her alcoholic older brother in the affluent suburbs of 1970's Philadelphia. “Family Time,” a story about an accused rape, was published by The Toyon Literary Magazine in1997. 

Throughout a 25-year career in creative marketing and merchandising, Gillian Zed wrote advertising copy, press releases, trade articles and originated product names and tag lines for the fashion, jewelry and gift industries. During this period, she developed content for dozens of websites, published opinion and lifestyle pieces in newspapers and continued to write short stories, primarily for young adult (YA) readers.

Pier View, Gillian Zed’s five-star reviewed LBGTQ YA short story about gender identity, was published on Amazon as a Prime eBook in 2014, and dedicated posthumously to transgender suicide victim Leelah Alcorn. The author thoughtfully presents middle aged women, rich with experience and empathy, as the potential advocates and allies desperately needed for today's vulnerable LBGTQ youth.  

Gillian Zed begins 2019 with Essays on Aging, a monthly blog of personal stories, cultural observations and lessons from her journey to 57. Here she offers her voice to a generation of ‘Did-it-my-way-now-what-the-fuck?’ baby boomer feminists. We’ve reached that inevitable turn in life’s path, only to find a bigger mess waiting for our golden years than we could have ever imagined from our optimistic, often rebellious, youth. But, hey, at least we’re in it together!

Thank you for reading!
Next up in February: "No One Owns The F**king Sunrise"