Elizabeth Wurtzel

Infobox Writer
name = Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel


birthdate = Birth date and age|1967|7|31|mf=y
birthplace = New York City
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist
Journalist
nationality = United States
genre = Confessional Memoir
movement =
notableworks = "Prozac Nation"
influences = Anne Sexton
Sylvia Plath
Lou Reed
Bruce Springsteen
influenced =
website

Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel (born July 31, 1967 in New York City) is an American writer, attorney and journalist famous for her work in the confessional memoir genre.

Early life

Wurtzel was brought up Jewish. Her parents divorced when she was young. As described in her memoir "Prozac Nation", Wurtzel's depression began at the ages of 10 to 12. She attended Ramaz for high school and was described as an over-achiever by her teachers, who expected her to become a nationally famous writer. While an undergraduate at Harvard College, she wrote for "The Harvard Crimson" and the "Dallas Morning News", from which she was later fired for plagiarism. [ [http://www.observer.com/node/32824 The Liars' Club: An Incomplete History of Untruths and Consequences | The New York Observer ] ] Wurtzel also received the 1986 "Rolling Stone Magazine" College Journalism Award.

"Prozac Nation"

Wurtzel is best known for publishing her memoir, the best-selling "Prozac Nation", at the age of 26. The book chronicles her battle with depression while being a college undergraduate and how she was eventually rescued by Prozac after multiple attempts at treatment and suicide attempts. The film adaptation of "Prozac Nation", starring Christina Ricci, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2001 but never had a U.S. theatrical release. It was telecast on the Starz! network in March 2005 and was released on DVD in the summer of 2005.

Personal life

Following her graduation from Harvard, Wurtzel moved to Greenwich Village in New York City and found work as pop music critic for "The New Yorker" and "New York Magazine". She graduated from Yale Law School at the end of the 2008 term. She writes on a regular basis on pop culture for "The Wall Street Journal" and is currently an attorney at Boies, Schiller & Flexner L.L.P. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122367984585224675.html?mod=rss_opinion_main]

Controversy

Controversy erupted over comments that Wurtzel, who lived near the World Trade Center in New York, made about the September 11 attacks, during an interview with Jan Wong about the "Prozac Nation" sequel, "More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction". She was quoted in a February 16, 2002, article by Wong titled, "That's enough about me, now, what do you think of me?", for "The Globe and Mail" in Toronto:

In a previous interview in October 2001, Wurtzel had described her experiences on that day in less dispassionate terms:

On Sep 21, 2008 after the suicide of David Foster Wallace, Wurtzel wrote an article for "New York" about time spent with Wallace [Citation
last = Wurtzel
first = Elizabeth
title = Beyond the Trouble, More Trouble: Depression in the best of us
newspaper = New York Magazine, "Intelligencer"
year = 2008
date = Sep 21, 2008
url = http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/50515/] , which caused controversy amongst certain of Wallace's fans. [Citation
last = Tkacik
first = Moe
title = On Knowing Elizabeth Wurtzel Screwed David Foster Wallace
publisher = Gawker
year = 2008
date = Sep 23, 2008
url = http://gawker.com/5053604/on-knowing-elizabeth-wurtzel-screwed-david-foster-wallace] .

Bibliography

*"" (1994)
*"" (1999)
*"" (2001) (previously published as "Radical Sanity" and "The Bitch Rules")
*"" (2001)

References

External links

* [http://www.geraldpeary.com/interviews/wxyz/wurtzel.html Gerald Peary's 1998 interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel]
* [http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/elizabeth_wurtzel Quotes attributed to Elizabeth Wurtzel]
* [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=108650 Sole Rock N Roll Survivor] - Wurtzel's piece from "The Harvard Crimson" which won the 1987 Rolling Stone College Journalism Award
* [http://community.livejournal.com/e_wurtzel/ Livejournal] community dedicated to Elizabeth Wurtzel
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/fashion/28wurtzel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Coming Soon: ‘Law School Nation’?] October 27, 2007 article from "The New York Times"
* [http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/speakers/speakers.asp?1-4QB9 Elizabeth Wurtzel Biography]
* http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/09/elizabeth-wurtzel-david-foster-wallace.php