Tiffany Gholar is a lifelong resident of Chicago, Illinois. She is the author of three art books: Post-Consumerism, Imperfect Things, and The Doll Project. A Bitter Pill to Swallow is her first novel, which started out as a short story she wrote during the summer of 1993 when she was about to begin her freshman year of high school. She studied art, creative writing and film at the University of Chicago, where adapting her story into a screenplay was her thesis project. In addition to taking classes in an MFA program in fiction writing at Columbia College, she also studied interior design at Harrington College of Design, and has a Masters Degree in painting from Governors State University. She is an artist, writer, interior designer, and Jeopardy! champion.