Born and raised in New Jersey, Gary Lippman received a law degree from Northwestern University, and has worked with New York's Innocence Project. Lippman's play Paradox Lust ran off-Broadway in 2001, and his writing has been published in The New York Times, The Paris Review, VICE, Fodors Travel Guides, Open City, 8x8, and other worthy places. In 2019, Lippman published his first novel, Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate.