THE LOCALS

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KRISTIAN LALIBERTE

  • OCCUPATION

    Senior Editor, Refinery29

  • HOMETOWN

    Nahant, Massachusettes

  • CURRENT RESIDENCE

    East Village

Born in Massachusetts, raised in the smallest town in New England, Nahant, it's a peninsula and has cliffs you can jump off. Went to Milton for boarding school — surprisingly I liked it. Came to NYC for college, at Columbia, and never left. I live in a tiny apartment in the East Village, just an eight-minute walk from the Refinery29 offices in Cooper Square, where I work as the senior editor. I eat at Westville East about three times a week, and don't own a TV.   

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE ONE PERSON TO SHOW YOU “THEIR NEW YORK CITY”, WHO WOULD IT BE? Ryan Gosling. For obvious reasons. 

WHAT OR WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU RECENTLY, AND WHY? I just re-read all 14 books of The Wheel of Time — Robert Jordan (now Brandon Sanderson), is who I aspire to be, and I can’t wait for the last one. Plum Sykes…I am obsessed with her, truly. My EIC, Christene, who’s always making me stretch my mind and think of new story ideas, my New York Editor, Annie, who’s a sounding board for my weird thoughts, anyone who’s fighting for Marriage Equality, as I have been woefully neglectful….

WHAT CAN’T YOU TRAVEL WITHOUT AND WHY? My kindle. I keep it in a Pierre Hardy pouch to disguise the fact that it’s not a fancy iPad. Then again, I love that it has no glare. Right now I’m reading Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which Michael Cunnigham recommended. It’s for kids, but not really…

WHERE IS YOUR FAVORITE TRAVEL DESTINATION? Paris. So obvious… but so true. I lived there for a year in college and went back and stayed for two more summers. I had a crazy-cheap apartment on Rue Charlot, before it was “Rue Charlot.” I went back and hung out with some of my old friends in the building — apparently the rent went up like 6,000 Euros or something. The truth is new neighborhoods are always popping up, and new stores… on my last trip I jotted down 10 new designers I had never heard of. Stop by Eleven Paris in the 3rd, the pants really fit.  

WHAT WOULD THE TITLE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY BE? Kristianity, Not Just A Religion