Alec Wilkinson

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Alec Wilkinson (b. 1952 - ) is a writer, interviewer and essayist who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1980. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer he is among the "first rank of" contemporary American (20th Century and early 21st Century) "literary journalists...(reminiscent) of Naipaul, Norman Mailer and Agee." Aside from writing dozens of articles for The New Yorker, he is the author of over six books, including My Mentor; A Young Man's Friendship With William Maxwell (Houghton Mifflin, 2002), Moonshine, Midnights, Big Sugar, The Riverkeeper, A Violent Act, Mr. Apology & Other Essays, (Houghton Mifflin, 2003) and most recently, The Happiest Man in the World. In his college days he was into creating rock and roll songs. He even worked for a year as a police officer with the Wellfleet Police Department in the Cape Cod region, when he was in his twenties, which was later the basis for his book Midnights. Wilkinson is the recipient of a Lyndhurst Prize, a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and a Guggenheim fellowship, and, besides his dedication to writing for The New Yorker, he contributes to Esquire, Vogue and Rolling Stone magazines, among others. He is married, has a son, and lives in New York City. It was from his time spent in the company of his mentor, William Maxwell ( 1908 - 2000 ), one of the greats among 20th Century American writers that he fine-tuned his talent at writing.