Greenwald, Andy

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Greenwald, Andy

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—Jim Fitzgerald, James Fitzgerald Agency, 136 E. 57th St., 14th Fl., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2003.

Miss Misery (novel), Simon Spotlight Entertainment (New York, NY), 2006.

Senior contributing writer to Spin; contributor to periodicals and Web sites, including Village Voice, Washington Post, Complex, Magnet, Blender, and MTV magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: Andy Greenwald takes the pulse of young people and writes about current trends and music in mainstream and independent publications read mostly by those in that age group. His first book, Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo, is a study of the music, including the subgenre emo, as well as of bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and the Promise Ring, appeal to a primarily underground youth culture. The CDs for these musical artists often sell faster than those of many more-recognizable, popular, artists. Greenwald, who went on tour with Dashboard Confessional, Weezer, and Jimmy Eat World, draws on interviews with artists and publicists, as well as on the words of bloggers and visitors to message boards, to present a full picture of the music. He notes the importance of the online world to the music's success and growing fan base. Sean Moeller, who reviewed the book for Playbackstl.com, wrote that "when the subject matter happens to be born of the heart, as emo is, having its history transcribed by the closest thing the genre has to a cardiologist seems about right."

Blogging is the focus of Greenwald's first novel, Miss Misery. Twenty-something David Gould has lost his lover, is agonizing over his deadline for a book about blogs, and has become obsessed with reading the online diaries of others. Into his life come teen blogger Cath Kennedy, known as Miss Misery, and a girl in Utah who sends him endless instant messages. He is encouraged by Miss Misery to reinvent his own life for the world to read, which he does. In keeping with his background and expertise, the music culture is an integral part of Greenwald's story of David, whose parallel life is threatened when his site is hacked. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described Miss Misery as "a genial novel that will appeal to those who share the protagonist's musical interests."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 2003, Mike Tribby, review of Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo, p. 469; November 15, 2005, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Miss Misery, p. 22.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005, review of Miss Misery, p. 994.

Library Journal, November 15, 2003, Robert Morast, review of Nothing Feels Good, p. 68.

Publishers Weekly, September 26, 2005, review of Miss Misery, p. 61.

Village Voice, October 1, 2005, Nick Catucci, review of Nothing Feels Good, p. C78.