Teddy Wayne

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A regular contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, and McSweeney’s, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently adapting Loner and The Love Song of Jonny Valentine into series for HBO and MGM Television. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Greathead, and their children.

Recently I asked Wayne about what he was reading. His reply:

I've just reread the late William Goldman's two screenwriting memoirs, Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell? Both are brisk, entertaining, incisive looks at screenwriting, the movie business, and the characters (real and fictional) Goldman dealt with over his long career. Goldman's pleasure in storytelling is evident on the page as well as the screen; he loves a punchy, revealing anecdote. There are other books that are more instructive for the aspiring screenwriter, but none that are as soulful.

Learn more about the book and author at Teddy Wayne's website.

The Page 69 Test: Kapitoil.

--Marshal Zeringue