Bill Scheft (born February 15, 1957, in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

) 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 other ...

. He is best known for being a staff writer for David Letterman from 1991 to 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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

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 a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' from 2002 to 2005. A collection of his columns
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 Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

in 2005. Scheft is the author of five novels
''The Ringer''
(2002)
''Time Won't Let Me''
(2005)
''Everything Hurts''
(2009)
''Shrink Thyself''
(2014) an
''Tommy Dash: Was It Everything I Said?''
2022). ''Time Won't Let Me'' was a finalist for the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor. Both ''The Ringer'' and ''Everything Hurts'' have been optioned for film. Scheft has also contributed humor essays to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

'' and '' Air Mail''. Scheft is the nephew of the late Herbert Warren Wind, the legendary golf and profile writer for ''

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

References

External links

* 1957 births 21st-century American novelists American comedy writers American humorous columnists Jewish American columnists Jewish American essayists 20th-century American Jews American male novelists Harvard University alumni Living people Novelists from Boston 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American Jews {{US-writer-stub