.jpg "Keir Graff")
I’m the senior editor of Booklist Online. I choose the content for BOL’s landing page (including the Review of the Day); edit our newsletters, REaD ALERT and Booklist Online Exclusives; oversee our family of blogs; assign and edit Web-only content; and help format Booklist content for republication online (that means making links, lots and lots of links). Although BOL provides lots of new ways to get at Booklist reviews and features, it’s only as good as the stuff in the magazine, so I make sure to work closely with the brilliant, experienced editors of Booklist. (I had to write that — they might be reading.)
I also write reviews (like this one). And I contribute to this blog. I used to write it by myself, but now I get to read lots of posts by other talented contributors. Most of them are Booklist editors; a couple of them, David Pitt and Vanessa Bush, are trusted, longtime Booklist reviewers.
In my own time, I write a variety of stuff. In January 2007, I published my first novel, Cold Lessons, under the pseudonym Michael McCulloch. In October 2007, I published my second novel, My Fellow Americans, under my real name–I was going to use another pseudonym but the publisher talked me out of it. Since then, I’ve published two more: One Nation, Under God and The Price of Liberty. Next year, I’ll be entering the realm of children’s books with a tale of a fourth-grader with a dream-world doppelganger.
I’ve published short stories in the Chicago Reader (“If You Should Have Any Need at All,” “The Courage of My Companions,” “Double Fault“), the Portland Review (“Lake Bus“), Time Out Chicago (“Ghost Stations“), and a couple of other places. And before I came to Booklist, I was a columnist for Billiards Digest and a freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune, Playboy.com, the Daily Herald, CS, and NewCity, among other places.
I used to write the “Designated Drinker” column, first at NewCity, then at Local Palate. My attempts to turn it into a thriving blog have been somewhat thwarted by a lack of time.
I also confess to writing poetry, but no one has ever confessed to liking my poetry enough to publish it.
Okay, the personal stuff: I was born and raised in Missoula, Montana; I am married to the lovely and talented Marya Graff; I have two sons, Felix and Cosmo; and I live on the lakefront in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
Now I know why I didn’t write one of these for a year: it seems that, unless one wants to take the “affinities” approach (I like mystery novels, ale or porter, and long walks on rainy beaches) then the “who is” document feels uncomfortably like a “Look at me!” document.
Anyway, there’s my C.V. for your perusal.
