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Will Leitch

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For the BBC journalist, see Will Leitch (Northern Irish journalist).
Will Leitch
BornWilliam F. Leitch
Mattoon, Illinois, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Notable worksThe Black Table, Deadspin

William F. Leitch is an American writer and the founding editor of the Gawker Media former sports blog Deadspin. Leitch is a national correspondent for MLB.com, a contributing editor at New York, critic at Grierson & Leitch, contributor to The New York Times, GQ, The Washington Post and NBC News and has published seven books, including Catch, a novel, Life as a Loser, a memoir, God Save the Fan, a book of sports essays and Are We Winning?, a book about fatherhood and baseball.

His fifth book, the Edgar Award-nominated novel How Lucky, was published by Harper in May 2021[1] and received an endorsement from author Stephen King.[2] His sixth book, the novel The Time Has Come, was published by Harper in May 2023.

His seventh book, Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride, will be published by Harper in May 2025.

Background

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Leitch was born and raised in Mattoon, Illinois, which is also the setting of Catch. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. While there, he was an editor at the university's paper, the Daily Illini. He now lives in Athens, Georgia.

One of Leitch's first brushes with fame came when he appeared on an early episode of Win Ben Stein's Money. In his memoir, Life as a Loser, Leitch describes the experience of taping the episode within hours of being dumped by his fiancée (a fact that co-host Jimmy Kimmel included in Leitch's introduction).

Career

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IronMinds.com

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Life as a Loser appeared on Ironminds, an online magazine that existed from 1999-2002.[3]

The Black Table

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In January 2003, Leitch became a founding editor of the website The Black Table, with Eric Gillin, A.J. Daulerio and Aileen Gallagher. His Life As A Loser column ran online for five years and was ultimately compiled into a book of the same title, with a foreword written by Tom Perrotta.

Deadspin

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In September 2005, Leitch became the founding editor of Deadspin, which quickly became one of the most popular independent sports blogs on the web, and has been profiled in Sports Illustrated[4][5][6] and The New York Times.[7] Leitch announced on June 5, 2008 that he would leave Deadspin at the end of the month to become a contributing editor at New York magazine. Deadspin would later shut down after an ownership dispute, and its writers would create Defector Media.

Other work

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During the 2007 NCAA Tournament, Leitch wrote a daily column for TimesSelect, the paid section of The New York Times.[8] During the 2007 baseball playoffs, Leitch wrote a daily column for The New York Times' web site.[9]

Leitch was also the host of The Will Leitch Show for Sports Illustrated for two seasons. Guests included Guy Pearce, Lea Thompson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stephanie Beatriz, Andre Holland, Heidi Gardner and Sean Astin.[10]

Leitch also cohosts Waitin' Since Last Saturday, a podcast about University of Georgia football. He also cohosts the movie review podcast Grierson & Leitch with his lifelong friend and film critic Tim Grierson. The duo also write features for the entertainment website Vulture. Leitch also cohosts the St. Louis Cardinals podcast Seeing Red with Bernie Miklasz.

Personal life

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Leitch lives in Athens, Georgia with his wife, designer Alexa Stevenson, and their two sons, William and Wynn.

Books authored

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  • Life as a Loser. Arriviste Press, Inc. 2004. ISBN 0-9746270-0-3.
  • Catch. Razorbill. 2005. ISBN 978-1-59514-069-2.
  • God Save the Fan. HarperCollins. 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-135178-5.
  • Are We Winning?. Hyperion. 2010. ISBN 978-1-4013-2370-7.
  • How Lucky. Harper Books. 2021. ISBN 978-0-06-307309-8.
  • The Time Has Come. Harper Books. 2023. ISBN 978-0-06-323851-0.

References

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  1. ^ Haylock, Zoe (2020-06-09). "Harper Acquires New Novel From Deadspin Founder Will Leitch". Vulture. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  2. ^ "Will Leitch on Instagram: "I've seen worse chyrons."".
  3. ^ Life As A Loser, Ironminds.com, at Archive.org
  4. ^ "Video". CNN. December 19, 2005. Archived from the original on July 5, 2009.
  5. ^ "Video". CNN. March 27, 2006. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012.
  6. ^ "Video". CNN. February 25, 2008. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012.
  7. ^ Shattuck, Kathryn. "New York Times articles about Will Leitch". The New York Times.
  8. ^ "In the Paint and Off the Court at the N.C.A.A. Tournament". The New York Times.
  9. ^ "A Fan Keeps Score". The New York Times.
  10. ^ "Watch The Will Leitch Show | Prime Video". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
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