Bill Scheft (born February 15, 1957,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

) is an American comedy writer and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while othe ...

. He is best known for being a staff writer for

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of '' Late Night with David Letterma ...

from 1991–2015, during which time he was nominated for 15

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s. He ran a weekly humor column "The Show" in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...

'' from 2002 to 2005. A collection of his columns, ''The Best of "The Show",'' was published by

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hache ...

in 2005. Scheft is the author of four novels
''The Ringer''
(2002)
''Time Won't Let Me''
(2005)
''Everything Hurts''
(2009) an
''Shrink Thyself''
(2014). ''Time Won't Let Me'' was a finalist for the 2006

Thurber Prize for American Humor The Thurber Prize for American Humor, named after American humorist James Thurber, recognizes outstanding contributions in humor writing. The prize is given out by the Thurber House. It was first awarded irregularly, but since 2004 has been besto ...

. Both ''The Ringer'' and ''Everything Hurts'' have been optioned for film. Scheft is the nephew of the late

Herbert Warren Wind Herbert Warren Wind (August 11, 1916 – May 30, 2005) was an American sportswriter noted for his writings on golf. Early years Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Wind began golf at age seven at the Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, and played w ...

, the legendary golf and profile writer for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'' and ''

''. In 2011, he co-edited and wrote a foreword for the collection
''America's Gift to Golf: Herbert Warren Wind on The Masters.''
Scheft graduated from Harvard College in 1979 with honors. He was married to comedian

Adrianne Tolsch Adrianne Tolsch (October 31, 1938 – December 7, 2016) was an American comedian. Tolsch's comedy style is bold, conversational, and covers broad topics. She made jokes about life as a middle-age woman, her sex life, her Jewish identity and Jewish ...

for 26 years before her death on December 7, 2016.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scheft, Bill 1957 births 21st-century American novelists American comedy writers 20th-century American Jews American male novelists Harvard University alumni Living people Writers from Boston 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Massachusetts 21st-century American Jews