Jump to content

Lizzie Skurnick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lizzie Skurnick is a writer, critic and editor.[1] In 2007, she started Jezebel's Fine Lines column, "the feature in which we give a wrinkled look at the books we loved as youth," which she wrote until 2009.[1][2][3] Shelf Discovery, her book on young adult fiction of her youth, appeared from HarperCollins in 2009.[4]

Her YA publishing imprint, Lizzie Skurnick Books, was founded in 2013.[1][5] The press's classic YA reprints have been praised by The Boston Globe,[6] The New York Times[7] many other publications and organizations.[8] The press's first original book, Isabel's War, published in 2014, received praise from The Wall Street Journal and other critical outlets and the Association of Jewish Libraries named it a Sydney Taylor Honor Book (second to the first prize winner).[9][10][11]

Skurnick's "That Should Be a Word" column appeared weekly in The New York Times Magazine's One Page Magazine from 2011 to 2014.[12] Her coinages have been praised and/or used by Bust Magazine,[13] Salon,[14] and ABC affiliates,[15] among others. The Mets' Ron Darling suggested his own addition to the series.[16] Skurnick's That Should Be a Word: A Language Lover’s Guide to Choregasms, Povertunity, Brattling, and 250 Other Much-Needed Terms for the Modern World, inspired by and expanding upon the column, was published by Workman in April 2015.[16]

Skurnick first became known as the founder of a litblog.[17]

Personal life

[edit]

Skurnick identifies as black and Jewish.[18][19] She has written that her parents' union was illegal in most of the United States when they married.[20] She has also written about her reasons for giving birth to her son through a sperm donor.[21] She was born in the Bronx and grew up in New Jersey.[22] She lives in Jersey City.[23][24] On May 20, 2023, she married Matthew Lenaghan, a resident of Ossining.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Billard, Mary (2012-10-03). "Lois Duncan: Revisiting the Classics of an Earlier Generation". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  2. ^ Sklar, Rachel (2008-02-07). "Jezebel's "Fine Lines" Feature Gets Picked Up By HarperCollins In First Non-Gawker Gawker Book Deal". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  3. ^ "Fine Lines". Jezebel. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  4. ^ "Books That Helped Us Grow Up". NPR. 2009-07-23. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  5. ^ Mayer, Petra (2012-09-30). "Did The Cat Eat Your Gymsuit? Then These Books Are For You". Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  6. ^ Steinitz, Rebecca (2014-12-13). "Reviving the All-of-a-Kind Family books". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  7. ^ Wolitzer, Meg (2014-10-19). "Look Homeward, Reader: A Not-So-Young Audience for Young Adult Books". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  8. ^ Ivry, Sara (2014-05-27). "'All-of-a-Kind Family' Series Getting Reissued". The Tablet. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  9. ^ Cox Gurdon, Meghan. "Out of Harm's Way: An American girl must share her room with a 14-year-old German refugee whom everyone else seems to adore". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  10. ^ "Isabel's War Gets a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly". Lizzie Skurnick Books. 2014-09-28. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  11. ^ "2015 Sydney Taylor Book Awards Announced by AJL" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  12. ^ Skurnick, Lizzie (2011-12-14). "That Should Be a Word". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  13. ^ Houlihan, Brittany. "There IS A Word For That! Check Out Writer Lizzie Skurnick's Hilarious Website". Bust. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  14. ^ McDonough, Katie (2013-01-07). "Welcome to generation 'fidgital': The New York Times introduces a new word -- and pegs a new problem". Salon. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  15. ^ "10 words you should add to your vocabulary". Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  16. ^ a b Vecsey, David (2012-04-21). "Mets' Ron Darling Pitches 'That Should Be a Word' Submission". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  17. ^ "Lizzie Skurnick: Book Critic". NPR. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  18. ^ "Harper Lee's Depiction of 'Polarization In A Southern Town' Defines Legacy". NPR. 2016-02-19. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  19. ^ "The Royal Baby and Blackness as a Badge of Honor". www.msn.com. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  20. ^ Skurnick, Lizzie (2018-05-24). "Wedding, Schmedding". Lizzie Skurnick. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  21. ^ Skurnick, Lizzie (2016-06-01). "How I Shopped for My Son's Sperm Donor". ELLE. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  22. ^ "Elizabeth Skurnick". Poetry Foundation. 2018-05-27. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  23. ^ Palmer, Joanne (2016-04-08). "All-of-a-Kind Family meets one-of-a-kind writer". Jewish Standard. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  24. ^ McDonald, Terrence T. (2018-03-16). "Parents mixed on Jersey City teachers' strike". NJ.com. Retrieved 2018-05-27.