Anna Quindlen to Join Newsweek as a Contributing Editor and Columnist

Posted on June 16, 1999

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling novelist Anna Quindlen will be joining Newsweek as a contributing editor and columnist in October, Newsweek Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Richard M. Smith announced today. Quindlen's column will appear every other week on Newsweek's back page, alternating with George F. Will. She succeeds long-time columnist Meg Greenfield, who died last month.

"Anna's wonderfully creative mind, her no-nonsense thinking and her unerring sense of justice and injustice have made her one of the most powerful voices of her generation," Smith said. "She will be a superb successor to our beloved Meg, and a source of great insight and joy to Newsweek's readers."

"Newsweek has given me the perfect opportunity to combine my work as a novelist with a public forum on social and political issues," Quindlen said. "I've read the magazine since I was very young and I'll be proud to appear on its back page."

A journalist since graduating from college, Quindlen gained national attention and a loyal following as a columnist on The New York Times's op-ed page from 1990 to '94. She was only the third woman in the newspaper's history to write a regular column when she began the nationally syndicated "Public and Private." In 1992, Quindlen was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In 1995, she left the Times and journalism to pursue a career as a novelist full-time.

Quindlen's first book, Living Out Loud, a collection of essays, was published by Random House in 1988 and her first best-selling novel, Object Lessons, was also published by Random House in 1991. Her second best-selling novel, One True Thing, published by Dell in 1994, was released as a film in 1998 and starred Meryl Streep and William Hurt. Black And Blue, her third novel, was also a best seller and a selection of Oprah Winfrey's book club.