Pilgrims published by Houghton Mifflin, November 1997, ISBN# 0395836239

Reviews:
"Two things are certain in Elizabeth Gilbert’s first collection, Pilgrims: her characters possess minds of their own, and they can talk. Oh, can they talk." a Ploughshares review by Don Lee Winner of the Ninth Annual Ploughshares Zacharis Award.
"[Gilbert] has all the hallmarks of a great writer: sympathy, wit, and an • amazing ear for dialogue."
— Harper's Bazaar
"Gilbert is keen on seeing as many of her characters achieve redemption as possible — in the most creative ways possible . . . She achieves the enviable feat of telling her characters' stories in their own words, on their own terms, without pomp or superciliousness."
— New York Times Book Review
"A young writer of incandescent talent." — Annie Proulx
"Gilbert has taken her experiences as a journalist, her encounters with people of every past and place, and infused them with the light and longevity of her own imagination."
—Chicago Tribune
"An imaginative range, assured comic touch, and dead-on dialogue that's truly exceptional."
— Philadelphia Inquirer
"Bone-dry wit and talent for summing up a character with a quick phrase . . . One is left marveling at Gilbert's fertile imagination and sharp style."
— Swing
"Hopeful, deluded, intoxicated, amazed, Gilbert's characters shoot across the sky, and she catches them like a skilled photographer just as they pop, before they crash, drown, or grow dull and fade away."
— Cleveland Plain Dealer