Jennifer Weiner

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Jennifer Weiner (born March 28, 1970 [1]) is a bestselling contemporary American author of novels often categorized as chick lit. Weiner (the first syllable is pronounced like "wine") was raised in Connecticut and educated at Princeton University, where she studied English and creative writing with Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison among others, and also minored in women's studies.[2] She has jokingly referred to herself as a pariah of Princeton's prestigious creative writing tradition.[3]

After college, Weiner entered journalism as a cub reporter for the Centre Daily Times, the daily newspaper of State College, Pennsylvania. After moving on to Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader while maintaining a column about Generation X, she eventually landed at The Philadelphia Inquirer as a features reporter. Though she no longer writes daily for the Inquirer, Weiner continues to contribute to the paper occasionally while residing in the city of Philadelphia with her husband, lawyer Adam Bonin, young daughter Lucy, and dog, Wendell. She believes strongly that her career in journalism was beneficial to her fiction writing, and is a proponent of aspiring writers getting a job rather than an Master of Fine Arts degree (a controversial position). [4]

Weiner is the author of four novels and one collection of short stories. In order of publication, they are Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, Little Earthquakes, Goodnight Nobody, The Guy Not Taken. In Her Shoes was adapted into a feature film, released in 2005, and starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette. Good in Bed and Little Earthquakes have also been optioned as films. Weiner's works, especially her first novel, are semi-autobiographical, often taking place in Philadelphia and focusing on female characters who come to terms with their plus-size figures.

Weiner has spoken up in the debate over the term "chick lit," citing the elitism she perceives from women who throw the term around. [5] She writes about such opinions, in additions to daily happenings in her life, in her blog, SnarkSpot. She also maintains a MySpace profile. [6]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Good in Bed is the story of Candice "Cannie" Shapiro, a reporter-cum-screenwriter (similar to Weiner, who moved from reporting to fiction writing). Shapiro writes for the fictional Philadelphia Examiner. Like Shapiro, Weiner is a child of divorce, with an absent father and a mother who comes out as lesbian later in life. Good in Bed tells the story of Cannie's break-up with her boyfriend Bruce, who later writes an article called "Loving a Larger Woman" for a women's magazine. In flashbacks throughout the book, the reader learns of Cannie's life and how she became the present day woman readers love.

The plot of In Her Shoes focuses on two sisters, Rose and Maggie Feller, and borrows elements of Weiner's relationship with her real-life sister, Molly. Rose (the character more similar to Weiner) falls in love with and marries a lawyer. Weiner's husband is also a lawyer.

There is some overlap between the worlds of Weiner's novels. Cannie Shapiro of Good in Bed reappears in In Her Shoes. The same fictional Philadelphia law firm also appears in both novels.