Joe Queenan (author)

Joe Queenan (born November 3, 1950) is an American satirist and critic. He is the author of nine books, including '' Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon'' and ''If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble''. His memoir ''Closing Time'' was a 2009 ''New York Times'' Notable Book. 

Life and writings

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Queenan has written for such publications as '' Spy Magazine'', ''TV Guide'', '' Movieline'', ''The Guardian'', and ''The New York Times Book Review''. He writes the "Moving Targets" column for the ''Wall Street Journal'' and regularly writes about movies for ''The Guardian.''

Formerly an editor at ''Forbes,'' a staff writer at ''Barron’s,'' a television critic at ''People'', and a columnist at ''TV Guide'', ''GQ, Spy, Smart Money,'' ''Men’s Health'', ''Barron’s Online'' and ''Movieline,'' his stories have appeared in the ''New York Times'', ''Rolling Stone, Esquire,'' the ''New Republic, Time, Newsweek,'' the ''Washington Post'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', the ''Toronto Globe'' & ''Mail'', ''Playboy, Rotarian, Golf Digest, Us, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Town & Country, Allure,'' the ''New York Daily News'' and ''New York.'' His work has appeared overseas in the ''Independent,'' the ''Spectator,'' the ''Times'' of London, and ''Bon''.

Queenan has been a guest on ''The Late Show with David Letterman,'' ''Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show, Today, Good Morning'', ''America, Charlie Rose'' and ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', and appeared more than a dozen times on ''Politically Incorrect''. He regularly writes and hosts radio features for the BBC, and for three years was host of the BBC's ''Postcard from Gotham''.

In 2005, he won a Sports Emmy for his work on HBO's ''Inside the NFL''. He wrote and appeared in three short films for the UK's Channel 4: ''Mickey Rourke for a Day'', ''My Fair Hugh'' and ''So You Wanna Be a Gangster''. He has also made a low-budget film about people with maddening addictions, entitled ''12 Steps to Death.'' The experience was recounted in his book ''The Unkindest Cut''.

His short fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including the ''North American Review''. His snap Internet novella ''Serb Heat'' was published online by Mr. Showbiz in 1997. 

In 2019, Queenan co-authored with T.J. Elliott his first stage play, the problem comedy ''Alms'', an Equity Showcase production directed by John Clay at TheaterLab in New York City. In 2020, Elliott and Queenan debuted their play ''Grudges'' on Zoom, directed by Dora Endre.

Their third collaboration, ''Genealogy'', was part of the 2021 season at Broom Street Theater in Madison Wisconsin. Their fourth collaboration, ''The Oracle'', played at Theater for the New City in May 2022. Queenan's solo comedy
The Counterfeit Moron
will premiere in February as part of the Chain Theater Winter One-Act festival In New York City.

A graduate of St. Joseph's College, he is married, with two children, Bridget, a neuroscientist, and Gordon, a lawyer. He lives in Tarrytown, New York.

Bibliography

* ''Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation'', a critique of the Baby Boomers generation
* '' Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon: Joe Queenan's America'', a tour of low-brow American pop culture
* ''Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else'', a scathing view of Dan Quayle
* ''Closing Time'', a memoir of Queenan's own abusive, alcoholic father and his bleak working-class upbringing in East Falls. ''Closing Time'' was included in ''The New York Times list 100 Notable Books of 2009.
* ''If You're Talking to me Your Career Must be in Trouble: Movies, Mayhem, and Malice''
* ''The Unkindest Cut: How a Hatchet-Man Critic Made His Own $7,000 Movie and Put It All on His Credit Card''
* ''My Goodness: A Cynic's Short-Lived Search for Sainthood''
* ''Malcontents: The Best Bitter, Cynical, and Satirical Writing in the World''
* ''Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country''
* ''True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans''
* ''Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler: Celluloid Tirades and Escapades''
* ''One for the Books'' (2012)

References

External links

*
Joe Queenan Article archive
''The Guardian'' website; accessed September 5, 2014.
Africa on the Silver Screen
Here on Earth - Radio Without Borders radio show, interviewed by Jean Feraca, April 5, 2007; accessed September 5, 2014.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queenan, Joe
1950 births
Living people
American television critics
American memoirists
American male journalists
American travel writers
The Guardian journalists
The American Spectator people
Saint Joseph's University alumni
Writers from Philadelphia
21st-century American non-fiction writers
The New York Times journalists
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers