Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin Profile

Calvin Trillin has been called “a classic American humorist” and The Nation’s “deadline poet.” He has written for The New Yorker for 40 years and published several books, including New York Times best-sellers, Obviously He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme and its sequel, A Heckuva Job. Others include Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Election in Rhyme, Remembering Denny, Messages from My Father and About Alice, a 2007 New York Times best-seller hailed as “a miniature masterpiece.”

After graduating from Yale in 1957, Trillin spent some time in the army before becoming a writer for Time. He spent a year covering the South from the Atlanta bureau, then moved to New York. In 1963 he became a staff writer for The New Yorker, where he produced a highly-praised series of articles called “U.S. Journal.” In 1978, Trillin became a columnist for The Nation, writing what USA Today called “simply the funniest regular column in journalism.” The column was syndicated in newspapers for almost a decade.

Trillin has written and performed two one-man shows at the American Place Theater in New York. Both were critically-acclaimed and sold out. In his review of “Words, No Music,” New York Times theater critic, Mel Gussow, called Trillin “the buster Keaton of performance humorists.”

Currently, Trillin lectures widely and makes regular television appearances. He is a trustee of the New York Public Library and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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  • Calvin Trillin, the author of Random House′s

  Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Election in Rhyme

  • , is

  The Nation

  • ′s “deadline poet.” He has been acclaimed in fields of writing that are remarkably diverse. As someone who has published solidly reported pieces in

  The New Yorker

  • for forty years, he has been called “perhaps the finest reporter in America.” His wry commentary on the American scene and his books chronicling his adventures as a “happy eater” have earned him renown as “a classic American humorist.” His

  About Alice

  • —a 2007

  New York Times

  • best seller that was hailed as “a miniature masterpiece”—followed two other best-selling memoirs,

  Remembering Denny

  • and

  Messages from My Father

  • .

  Trillin was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and now lives in New York. He graduated from Yale in 1957, did a hitch in the army, and then joined Time. After a year covering the South from the Atlanta bureau, he became a writer for Time in New York.

  In 1963, he became a staff writer for The New Yorker. From 1967 to 1982, he produced a highly praised series of articles for The New Yorker called “U.S. Journal”—3,000-word pieces every three weeks from somewhere in the United States, on subjects that ranged from the murder of a farmer′s wife in Iowa to the author′s effort to write the definitive history of a Louisiana restaurant called Didee′s “or to eat an awful lot of baked duck and dirty rice trying.” Some of the murder stories from that series were published in 1984 as Killings, a book that was described by William Geist in the New York Times Book Review as “that rarity, reportage as art.”

  From 1978 through 1985, Trillin was a columnist for The Nation, writing what USA Today called “simply the funniest regular column in journalism.” From 1986 through 1995, the column was syndicated to newspapers. From 1996 to 2001, Trillin did a column for Time. His columns have been collected in five books.

  Since 1990, Trillin has written a piece of comic verse weekly for The Nation. In 2004, he published Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme. A sequel, A Heckuva Job, was published in 2006. Both were New York Times best-sellers.

  Trillin′s books have included three comic novels (most recently the national best-seller Tepper Isn′t Going Out) and a collection of short stories and a travel book and an account of the desegregation of the University of Georgia. Three of his antic books on eating—American Fried, Alice, Let′s Eat, andThird Helpings—were compiled in 1994 into a single volume called The Tummy Trilogy.

  He lectures widely, and has appeared often as a guest on television. He has written and presented two one man shows at the American Place Theater in New York—both of them critically acclaimed and both sell outs. In reviewing “Words, No Music,” in 1990, New York Times theater critic Mel Gussow called Trillin “the Buster Keaton of performance humorists.”

  Calvin Trillin is a trustee of the New York Public Library, a former trustee of Yale and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.