Augusten Burroughs

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Augusten Burroughs

Burroughs in 2007
Born Christopher Robison
October 23, 1965 (1965-10-23) (age 42)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation Screenwriter, memoirist, essayist.
Nationality American
Writing period present
Subjects Memoir, humor
Notable work(s) Running with Scissors
Official website

Augusten Xon Burroughs (born Christopher Robison on October 23, 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American writer known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors (2002), which spawned a feature film of the same name.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Burroughs is the son of poet and writer Margaret Robison and the late John G. Robison, head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also the younger brother of John Elder Robison. When he was 12, his mother sent him to live with her psychiatrist's family in western Massachusetts.

His books are published by St. Martin's Press (hardcover) and Picador (trade paperback). Some of his childhood experiences were chronicled in Running with Scissors.

Augusten Burroughs discusses his road to writing, sobriety and the Turcottes over dinner in the East Village.
Augusten Burroughs discusses his road to writing, sobriety and the Turcottes over dinner in the East Village.

Burroughs dropped out of school after sixth grade, and obtained a GED at age 17. He worked his way up to a high-paying job in the advertising industry before leaving the field to become a writer. His written work blends the fantastic and the mundane, and is delivered in a matter-of-fact style. In addition to Scissors, Burroughs penned a second memoir, Dry (2003), about his experience during and after treatment for alcoholism. That was followed by two collections of essays, Magical Thinking (2003) and Possible Side Effects (2006). His first book, the novel Sellevision (2000), is currently in production as a feature film.[1][2]

Burroughs' writing pokes fun at subjects such as advertising, psychiatrists, religious families, and home shopping networks. It has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, House and Garden, BlackBook Magazine, New York, The Times, Bark, Attitude, and Out. Burroughs writes a monthly column for Details. Early in his career, he was a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition.

Burroughs has been profiled in People, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly, where he ranked 15 on the 2005 list of "The 25 Funniest People in America" and was named to the magazine's "It List".

In 2005, Universal Studios and Red Wagon Productions bought the rights to a film based on a future memoir about Burroughs' relationship with his father. In 2007, Burroughs announced on his website that this book, called A Wolf at the Table, will be released on April 29, 2008.

According to his official website, Burroughs is also working on a holiday book, titled You Better Not Cry. He began writing the book in November 2005; however, no release date has been announced.

He is developing an original, hour-long weekly series for the Showtime network.

Burroughs lives in New York City and Amherst, Massachusetts, with his partner, Dennis Pilsits, and their French bulldogs, Bentley and The Cow.[3]

[edit] Controversy

A January 2007 Vanity Fair article, "Ruthless With Scissors," alleged that Burroughs had fabricated large parts of his memoirs, including details about his "electro-shock therapy". The Turcotte family asserts that the machine Burroughs claims to have used on himself was actually an "Electrolux" brand vacuum cleaner. The family's lawsuit states that the book "falsely portrays" them as "an unhygienic and mentally unstable cult engaged in bizarre, and, at times, criminal activity. In so doing, the author, with the full complicity of the publisher, may have fabricated events that never happened and manufactured conversations that never occurred."[4]

“ It's still a memoir, it's marketed as a memoir, they've agreed one hundred percent that it is a memoir. ”

—Augusten Burroughs on the Running With Scissors settlement, [5]

Burroughs and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, settled with the Turcotte family in August 2007. The Turcottes, who alleged that Running with Scissors was largely fictional and written in a sensational manner, sought damages of $2 million, for invasion of privacy, defamation, and emotional distress. Burroughs defended his work as "entirely accurate", but agreed to call the work a "book" (instead of "memoir") in the author's note, to alter the acknowledgments page in future editions to recognize the Turcotte family's conflicting memories of described events, and express regret for "any unintentional harm" to the Turcotte family.[6] Burroughs felt vindicated by the settlement. "I'm not at all sorry that I wrote [the book]. And you know, the suit settled-- it settled in my favor. I didn't change a word of the memoir, not one word of it. It's still a memoir, it's marketed as a memoir, [the Turcottes] agreed one hundred percent that it is a memoir."[5]

Upon settling the Running With Scissors case in August 2007, Burroughs stated, "I consider this not only a personal victory but a victory for all memoirists. I still maintain that the book is an entirely accurate memoir, and that it was not fictionalized or sensationalized in any way. I did not embellish or invent elements. We had a very strong case because I had the truth on my side."[7]

[edit] Wikinews interview

Augusten Burroughs on addiction, writing, his family and his new book

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sellevison
  2. ^ In 'Sellevision,' expect silly, not satire
  3. ^ Augusten Burroughs official site: "Bio".
  4. ^ "Ruthless with Scissors", Vanity Fair, Buzz Bissinger. January 2007.
  5. ^ a b Interview with Augusten Burroughs, David Shankbone, Wikinews, October 12, 2007.
  6. ^ "Burroughs Settles Lawsuit with Scissors Family", USA Today, Rodrique Ngowi. August 30, 2007.
  7. ^ "Family Settles With 'Scissors' Author". Retrieved on 2007-10-27. 

[edit] External links