NANCY FRANKLIN (b. 1956) has been on the staff of The New Yorker since 1978. She is now the television critic for the magazine.
IAN FRAZIER (b. 1951) has written humor and reported pieces for The New Yorker since 1974. His books include Dating Your Mom, Great Plains, On the Rez, and Lamentations of the Father.
BILLY FROLICK (b. 1959) co-wrote the Dreamworks film Madagascar and is the author of several book parodies, including The Philistine Prophecy and The Five People You Meet in Hell.
POLLY FROST (b. 1952) has written on film for Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, and about cooking for The New York Times.
FRANK GANNON (b. 1952) has written for The New Yorker since 1985. He is the author of Yo, Poe; Vanna Karenina; All About Man; and the memoir Midnight Irish: Discovering My Family and Myself.
VERONICA GENG (1941–1997) was born in Atlanta and worked as a fiction editor at The New Yorker starting in the mid-1970s. Many of her parodies were collected in Partners and Love Trouble Is My Business. A posthumous collection, Love Trouble: New and Collected Work, appeared in 1999.
WOLCOTT GIBBS (1902–1958) was born in New York and worked on newspapers in Long Island before joining The New Yorker in 1927. He became known for the varied profiles, parodies, and reminiscences he contributed and for his exacting editing of other writers. In 1940 he became the magazine’s drama critic, and in 1950 his play Season in the Sun (adapted from his earlier book about Fire Island bohemianism) became a Broadway hit.
ADAM GOPNIK (b. 1956) was born in Philadelphia and began to write for The New Yorker in 1986, where he has published under various rubrics, among them The Art World, Paris Journal, and New York Journal. He is the recipient of three National Magazine Awards for his essays and criticism and the George Polk Award for magazine reporting. He is the author of Paris to the Moon, The King in the Window, and Through the Children’s Gate.
JACK HANDEY (b. 1949) was born in Texas and lives in New Mexico. He wrote for Steve Martin in the 1970s and 1980s, was a writer for Saturday Night Live, and is the author of several books, including Deep Thoughts, Deeper Thoughts, Deepest Thoughts, and The Lost Deep Thoughts. His most recent collection is What I’d Say to the Martians.
GARRISON KEILLOR (b. 1942) was born in Anoka, Minnesota, and is the host of the long-running public radio program A Prairie Home Companion. Keillor was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, in Chicago, in 1994. He first published in The New Yorker in 1970, and his pieces have been collected in such books as Happy to Be Here, We Are Still Married, and The Book of Guys.
JOHN KENNEY (b. 1962) has been contributing humor pieces to the magazine since 1999. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
ANTHONY LANE (b. 1962) reviewed books for The Independent and films for The Independent on Sunday, in London, before coming to The New Yorker in 1993. In addition to his biweekly film reviews, he contributes book reviews and other works of criticism, for which he has received a National Magazine Award. His writing for the magazine is collected in his book Nobody’s Perfect.
JESSE LICHTENSTEIN (b. 1976) teaches writing to high-school students in Oregon. His journalism and poetry have appeared in Slate, The Economist, The Paris Review, and n+1.
STEVE MARTIN (b. 1945) is a comedian, actor, film director, and writer. He has written and starred in such films as The Jerk, L.A. Story, and Bowfinger. His writing has appeared in the magazine since 1996, and in 2005 he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He is the author of Shopgirl: A Novella and the memoir Born Standing Up.
PATRICIA MARX (b. 1953) is the author of the novel Him Her Him Again the End of Him and Dot in Larryland, a children’s book illustrated by Roz Chast.
BRUCE MCCALL (b. 1935) was born in Canada and came to the United States at the age of twenty-seven. He has been writing and drawing since the age of seven. His writing first appeared in The New Yorker in 1980 and his art first appeared three years later. In 1982, he published Zany Afternoons, a collection of humor pieces. His memoir, Thin Ice, published in 1997, was made into a film. His most recent books are The Last Dream-o-Rama and All Meat Looks Like South America.
THOMAS MEEHAN (b. 1932) was working in the Talk of the Town department when a friend introduced him to Ina Claire and Uta Hagen (“Ina, Uta”), inspiring his first (and widely imitated) Casual. Later, he wrote the book for the musical Annie, which won a Tony Award in 1977. He has won subsequent Tony Awards for The Producers, in 2001, and Hairspray, in 2002.
LOUIS MENAND (b. 1952) is a professor of English at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has contributed reviews and essays since 1991. His books include Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context, The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History, and American Studies.
SUSAN ORLEAN (b. 1955) has been writing for The New Yorker since 1987 and became a staff writer in 1992. Her work has also appeared in Outside, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and Esquire. Her books include Saturday Night, The Orchid Thief, which was the basis for the film Adaptation, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, and My Kind of Place.
DAVID OWEN (b. 1955) is a staff writer and golf enthusiast. His books include High School, The Walls Around Us, My Usual Game, The Making of the Masters, and Sheetrock & Shellac.
DOROTHY PARKER (1893–1967), famed as an Algonquin Round Table regular, wrote for The New Yorker from its second issue, in 1925, until the end of 1957. She contributed poems, stories, and theater reviews and was also known for her book reviews, written under the pseudonym Constant Reader. Her poetry collection Enough Rope was a bestseller in 1926 and was followed by three other volumes. She moved to Hollywood to work with Alan Campbell, her second husband, as a screenwriter. They received an Oscar nomination for A Star Is Born (1937).
S. J. PERELMAN (1904–1979) grew up in Providence and attended Brown University, where he edited the humor magazine. When, in 1929, the publisher of his first book, Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge, sent a copy to Groucho Marx for a blurb, Perelman was taken on as a scriptwriter and worked on two Marx Brothers movies, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. His first New Yorker piece appeared in the 1930s and he went on to contribute nearly three hundred others, which were collected in such books as Strictly from Hunger and The Road to Miltown; or, Under the Spreading Atrophy. He also collaborated on the stage comedies All the Good Americans and One Touch of Venus, and shared an Oscar for the script of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).
SIMON RICH (b. 1984), a former president of The Harvard Lampoon, writes for Saturday Night Live. He is the author of the books Ant Farm and Free-Range Chickens.
PAUL RUDNICK (b. 1957) was born in New Jersey and graduated from Yale. His plays include I Hate Hamlet; The Naked Eye; The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told; Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach; and Jeffrey, which was also made into a movie. His screenplays include Addams Family Values, In & Out, and The Stepford Wives. He is the author of two novels, Social Disease and I’ll Take It, and If You Ask Me, a collection of movie reviews written by his alter ego, Libby Gelman-Waxner.
GEORGE SAUNDERS (b. 1958) is a professor of English at Syracuse University and the author of the books CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, In Persuasion Nation, and The Braindead Megaphone. He is a four-time winner of the National Magazine Award for his fiction, and in 2006 was named a MacArthur Fellow.
CATHLEEN SCHINE (b. 1953) is a novelist. The Love Letter, a national bestseller, was translated into fifteen languages. Her other novels include Alice in Bed, To the Bird House, Rameau’s Niece, The Evolution of Jane, She Is Me, and The New Yorkers.
DAVID SEDARIS (b. 1956) published his first piece for The New Yorker in 1995. He is the author of six bestselling collections of stories and essays: Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
PAUL SIMMS (b. 1965) crea
ted the television show NewsRadio and has written for Spy, Late Night with David Letterman, The Larry Sanders Show, and Flight of the Conchords.
MARK SINGER (b. 1950) has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1974. He is the author of the books Funny Money, Mr. Personality, Citizen K, Somewhere in America, and Character Studies.
WILLIAM STEIG (1907–2003) was a prolific artist and children’s book author. He sold his first drawing to The New Yorker in 1930, and his first cover illustration in 1932. He then became one of the magazine’s longest-running contributors, publishing over 120 covers and 1,600 drawings in his lifetime. His book Shrek!, published in 1990, was made into an animated feature film in 2001, which won an Academy Award.
DON STEINBERG (b. 1962) lives outside of Philadelphia. He is the author of Jokes Every Man Should Know. His humor writing and reporting has appeared in GQ, ESPN, Harper’s, The Philadelphia Inquirer, McSweeney’s, and Spy.
JONATHAN STERN (b. 1967) is a screenwriter and producer living in Brooklyn. He produced the films The Ten and Scotland, PA, and the Web series Wainy Days, Horrible People, and Children’s Hospital. He also writes for Esquire and McSweeney’s.
JON STEWART (b. 1962) is the host of the Emmy Award–winning The Daily Show and the co-author of America: The Book.
RUTH SUCKOW (1892–1960) was born in Iowa and lived there for most of her life. She published her first poetry in 1918 and her first short story in 1921. Her first novel, Country People, appeared in 1924. She contributed to The New Yorker from 1927 to 1937. She published eleven books in her lifetime, leaving a novel unfinished when she died.
JAMES THURBER (1894–1961) was born in Columbus, Ohio, and joined The New Yorker in 1927 as an editor and writer; his idiosyncratic cartoons began to appear there four years later. His books include two children’s classics—The 13 Clocks and The Wonderful O—and a memoir of his time at The New Yorker, The Years with Ross. He also co-wrote a successful play, The Male Animal, and appeared in A Thurber Carnival, a miscellany of his works that was adapted for the stage. In 1947 his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was made into a film starring Danny Kaye.
CALVIN TRILLIN (b. 1935) has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has reported from all over America in his long-running U.S. Journal series. His many books include the bestsellers Messages from My Father and About Alice, along with comic novels, short stories, a travel book, and three books on food, collected as The Tummy Trilogy. He has twice written and performed one-man shows.
GEORGE W. S. TROW (1943–2006) first wrote for The New Yorker in 1966 and cofounded National Lampoon in 1970. He is the author of a novel, The City in the Mist, and a collection of satirical short stories, Bullies. He also wrote several plays, including The Tennis Game, and co-wrote two Merchant-Ivory films, Savages and The Proprietor.
JOHN UPDIKE (b. 1932) has written for The New Yorker since the mid-1950s, when he was a staff writer for the Talk of the Town. He is the author of twenty-two novels, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, fifteen books of short stories, seven collections of poetry, five children’s books, a memoir, and a play.
WENDY WASSERSTEIN (1950–2006) was the author of two screenplays, four novels, and eleven plays, including The Heidi Chronicles, which won both the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989.
E. B. WHITE (1899–1985) worked as a newspaperman, an advertising copywriter, and a mess boy on an Arctic steamer before coming to The New Yorker in 1927. Here, his contributions comprised humor pieces, poems, short stories, newsbreak captions, and even a cover illustration, but he was most associated with the Notes and Comment essays, which he wrote for thirty years. He is famous for three enduring works of children’s literature: Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1978.
JIM WINDOLF (b. 1964) writes regularly for Vanity Fair, where he is a contributing editor. His journalism has appeared in The New York Observer and The New York Times Book Review, and his short fiction has been published in The Ontario Review.
Disquiet, Please! Page 58
