Colin McEnroe

Colin McEnroe is an American columnist and radio personality. He currently hosts The Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut Public Radio,^[1][2] writes for The Hartford Courant, and hosts a blog, ToWit, on the Courant's website.

Biography

Early life and education

Colin McEnroe was born October 15, 1954 in Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut and then from Yale University. His father, Robert E. McEnroe was a playwright who had two shows produced on Broadway.

Career

McEnroe started writing newspaper columns in the 1980s and was syndicated for a while. It was also in the 1980s that he started writing for magazines.

In 1999, McEnroe wrote an often-cited^[3][4] essay for McSweeney's in which he claimed to be book critic Michiko Kakutani. The essay, "I Am Michiko Kakutani"^[5] is now included in an anthology of McSweeney's literary essays.^[6]

McEnroe has been a contributing editor at Best Life^[7] and Men's Health magazines and has been a heavy contributor to Mirabella, Mademoiselle and Verge. His writing has also appeared in Forbes FYI, Cosmopolitan, McSweeney's, Family Fun and Metropolitan Home. McEnroe is a weekly columnist for The Hartford Courant; he has been a reporter and columnist for The Courant for over 30 years. In addition, his columns have appeared in hundreds of newspapers across America and abroad; he occasionally contributes to the New York Times op-ed page.^[8]

In 1994, McEnroe wrote a serialized novel in the pages of the Hartford Courant.^[9]

In May 2003, his play "A Woman of a Certain Age," was produced at the Ivoryton Playhouse in CT. The musical was done in collaboration with former Courant colleagues, Steve Metcalf and Lary Bloom.

In 2004, McEnroe's third book, "My Father's Footprints," published by Warner Books, won the Connecticut Book Award for best biography or memoir.^[10]

In 2006, McEnroe was heavily involved in coverage of the Senate race between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont, especially after an exchange ^[11] between Lieberman and McEnroe on the air. McEnroe also covered the race for Salon.^[12][13]

In Fall 2008 he resumed his teaching duties at Trinity College, Hartford, CT with a graduate course that tracks media coverage of the 2008 election. His blog, [To Wit],^[14] appears on the Courant’s website and offers a daily glimpse of his interests and opinions.

McEnroe hosted a weekday afternoon drive talk show on WTIC, but was laid off by the station in a cost-cutting move in December 2008.^[15] After McEnroe's show was cancelled, Vicevich's show was expanded an additional hour, only itself to be cancelled (and then reinstated)in Spring 2010. McEnroe started a weekly afternoon show on WNPR in 2009.

In 2009, McEnroe moderated the Connecticut Forum^[16] for a record-setting sixth time, this panel^[17] featuring Anthony Bourdain, Alice Waters and Duff Goldman. Since that time, he has moderated twice more. In 2013, under the auspices of the Mark Twain House, he interviewed Stephen King before an audience of more than 2500.

In the 2008-2009 season,^[18] McEnroe and Edward Cumming reformatted the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's Connections series.^[19] He has performed his own spoken word pieces twice with the orchestra under Carolyn Kuan.

McEnroe is noted for the broad range of topics he addresses and covers, both in his columns and on the air, and for a wry, sharp and quick wit and the air of levity and contemplation which he creates in his work, all of which have contributed to the loyal following he has developed. Politically, while generally associating himself with liberal and progressive viewpoints, he scrutinizes all policies, propositions and viewpoints - including his own - with a measured, continual skepticism.

In February 2011, McEnroe and his radio staff were featured on the cover of Hartford Magazine. ^[20] In 2012, McEnroe's show was voted Best Radio Show by the Advocate Newspapers. ^[21]

In 2011, he became a contributor to Bicycling magazine where he writes regular columns about taking up the sport. ^[22]

Marriage and children

McEnroe is divorced.^[23] He lives with his teen-age son whom he refers to on-air as "Mortimer."

Published works

• Swimming Chickens: And Other Half-breasted Accounts of the Animal World (Doubleday, 1987)
• Lose Weight Through Great Sex with Celebrities (The Elvis Way) (Doubleday, 1989)^[24]
• My Father's Footprints: a Memoir (Warner Books, 2003)^[25]

References

External links

• Colin McEnroe: To Wit
• http://www.ctforum.org/popups/bio.asp?event_bio_image_id=2568Colin's
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP9lBUvCoks