Works

I SURRENDER

  Shifting from Anxiety to Gratitude

 

What happens when an anxiety-prone mother endures her worst nightmare and finds her child unconscious and bleeding in the middle of a remote country road, having been hit by a car?  Can the mother draw on some uncanny inner resource she did not know she possessed?  Can she offer her daughter strength, love, and comfort while fearing this might be goodbye?

“I Surrender” is a tender, honest memoir about learning to trust oneself, one’s marriage, and ultimately to trust life.  While twelve-year-old Téa miraculously recovers from a severe brain injury, the narrator contends with her lifelong severe anxiety about mortality and loss.  “I Surrender” unfolds in a way that provides unexpected hope: hope for our aging parents, hope for our fragile marriages, hope for our injured children.

Manuscript under revision – stay tuned.

OUT OF BODY

“Hilary Illick’s collection of fictional short stories won the Michael Rubin award, the title story winning the National Intro Award. “Out of Body is an out-of-the-ordinary collection of short stories written with style and zest.  Underneath the cool wit and sophistication, Hilary Selden Illick explores a world of loss, isolation, vulnerability and sadness that makes the reader laugh and wince. These are quirky, surprising stories—a breath of fresh air blows through these pages.” – Marly Swick

“Out of Body is such fun to read that it’s easy to overlook how much Hilary Selden Illick is accomplishing.  These characters are confident and resourceful—charged with life and wit and strategies—yet they’re in over their heads, fighting for their lives in ways they don’t fully understand. These are stories of power and discovery—playful, wise, full of delights.”  – Michelle Carter

“These stories charm with their intelligence, grace, and wit. The characters are outsiders and waifs, spirited originals so eager to please that they often fling themselves – literally – out of windows and into the arms of strangers. The writing is fresh, funny, and always interesting.” – Molly Giles

EVE-OLUTION

This two-woman play was originally entitled Venus De Minivan, starring the authors themselves, Illick and Krier, in Cambridge, MA. Performed for sold-out audiences, Venus De Minivan was 100% autobiographical, using the real names of Hilary, Jennifer, and all their family members. Published by DPS as “EVE-olution,” the play appeared off Broadway at The Cherry Lane Theater, with the main characters named Alison and Liza, and their husbands and children appearing under pseudonyms as well.  Due to the popularity of “EVE-olution,” Illick and Krier made an appearance on NBC’s Today Show airing of “Come Back Moms.”

Main characters Alison and Liza are navigating the channels of motherhood as they take a revealing and sometimes comedic look at the balancing act of promise and compromise.  Both women test the vision of who they think they are, who they wish to be, and ultimately who they become as individuals, as mothers, as professionals and as members of their families.  The candor of this play invites audience members and readers of the work to take honest inventory of themselves as parents and partners, and find both humor and self-acceptance in the process.

ROOM TO GROW

Hilary Illick’s essay “Befriending Zoe” is included in this anthology, Room to Grow.  The insight in the confessional essay “Befriending Zoe” can be boiled down to Illick’s bumper-sticker revelation that: Everything You Cannot Stand in Your Child is What You Secretly Hate about Yourself.

“Novelist Kline asked writers — male and female, black and white, famous and less so—to write about their experiences as parents.  The result is a strong collection of heartfelt essays, dealing with the joys, frustrations, insecurities, and discoveries of parenthood.” – Library Journal

“The writing and the experiences are rich enough that one can even recommend the book to non-parent friends.” – Kirkus Reviews