Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Last updated
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Born
Stephanie Akner

1975or1976(age 49–50)
New York City, U.S.
Alma mater New York University
OccupationJournalist
Spouse
Claude Brodesser-Akner
​
​
(m. 2006)​
Children2
Website www.taffyakner.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Taffy Brodesser-Akner (born Stephanie Akner) is an American journalist and author. She has worked freelance and as a contributor to GQ and The New York Times , where she is now a staff writer. Her profiles of celebrities have won her the New York Press Club Award and Mirror Award. Her first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble , achieved widespread success.

Contents

Career

Journalism

Brodesser-Akner's first major journalism job was at Soap Opera Weekly, a job she held until it was eliminated due to layoffs in 2001. [1] She also wrote for Mediabistro [2] and did freelance pieces for magazines including ESPN The Magazine , GQ , and Texas Monthly . The Columbia Journalism Review called her "one of the nation's most successful freelance writers". [3] Many of her freelance articles were celebrity profiles, several of which went viral. [4] In 2014, she became a contributing writer to both The New York Times and GQ, [2] and won a New York Press Club Award for entertainment news in a magazine for her story about actress Gaby Hoffmann. [5] She won two New York Press Club awards in 2015, for her profiles of Damon Lindelof and Britney Spears. [6] The same year, Brodesser-Akner was nominated for a Mirror Award for her profile of Joey Soloway, [7] and in 2016 she won the award for her profile of broadcaster Don Lemon. [8] In 2017, she became a full-time staff writer at The New York Times. [4]

Fiction and television

Her first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble , was published in 2019 by Random House in the US [9] [10] and by Wildfire in the UK. [11] The novel was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020. [12] Brodesser-Akner adapted the novel as a TV miniseries, which debuted on Hulu on November 17, 2022. [13] In 2023, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Her second novel, Long Island Compromise , was published in 2024 by Random House in the US [14] and by Wildfire in the UK. [15]

Personal life

Born Stephanie Akner, Brodesser-Akner received the nickname "Taffy" at a young age and continued using it professionally. [16] She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, [17] in an Orthodox Jewish household. [18] She attended New York University.

She married Claude Brodesser in 2006. [17] Brodesser converted to Judaism, [17] a process that eventually led Akner to evaluate and reinforce her own observance of Jewish customs. [19] After marrying, both took hyphenated last names. [16] They have two children. [20] She wrote that as a "3G" grandchild of Holocaust survivors, she was particularly alarmed when her son was called an antisemitic slur on the basketball court in Riverside Park, and her other son had a caricature done in Times Square that evoked antisemitic tropes. [21]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Small, Jonathan (November 13, 2017). "Ep. 9 — New York Times Culture Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner On Celebrity Profiles, Personal Essays, and Her Bizarre Brush with British Tabloid Fame from Write About Now". www.WriteAboutNow.com. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  2. 1 2 Horgan, Richard (2014-10-22). "Taffy Brodesser-Akner Makes a Splash With GQ Feature Debut". Adweek . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  3. ↑ Croatto, Pete (2017-10-27). "The most annoying thing an editor can do". Columbia Journalism Review . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  4. 1 2 Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara (2017-06-28). "New York Times Adds Feature Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner to Staff". Women's Wear Daily . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  5. ↑ O'Shea, Chris (2014-06-04). "NY Press Club Award Winners Announced". Adweek . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  6. ↑ "The New York Press Club Journalism Awards". New York Press Club . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  7. ↑ O'Shea, Chris (2015-04-15). "2015 Mirror Awards Finalists Announced". Adweek . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  8. ↑ O'Shea, Chris (2016-06-09). "Mirror Award Winners Announced". Adweek . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  9. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner". Book Marks. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  10. ↑ "Fleishman is in Trouble: Will Gompertz reviews Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel ★★☆☆☆". BBC News. 27 July 2019.
  11. ↑ "Wildfire". February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Women's prize for fiction lines up 'heavy hitters' on 2020 longlist". TheGuardian.com . 3 March 2020.
  13. ↑ Cordero, Rosy (September 23, 2022). "FX's 'Fleishman Is In Trouble' Sets Hulu Premiere Date". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner". Book Marks. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  15. ↑ Long Island Compromise at Wildfire. July 2024. ISBN   978-1-4722-7303-1.
  16. 1 2 Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2013-07-30). "If Your Name Isn't Jolie-Pitt or Beyoncé Knowles-Carter: To Hyphenate or Ditch the Dash?". Vogue . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  17. 1 2 3 Brown, Janelle (2006-04-06). "Taffy Akner and Claude Brodesser". The New York Times . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  18. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2017-03-30). "The High Price of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Life". The New York Times . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  19. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2010-05-27). "Intermarried: My Husband, a Convert, Is More Observant Than I Am". Tablet . Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  20. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2018-07-25). "How Goop's Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow's Company Worth $250 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  21. ↑ Brodesser-Akner, Taffy (2025-04-06). "The Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn't Write". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-04-16.
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