Moehringer, J.R. 1964–

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Moehringer, J.R. 1964–

PERSONAL: Born December 7, 1964, in New York, NY. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1986.

ADDRESSES: Office—Los Angeles Times, National Bureau, Denver, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.

CAREER: Journalist and writer. New York Times, New York, NY, news assistant, 1986–90; Rocky Mountain News, Denver, CO, reporter, 1990–94; Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, reporter, 1994–97, Atlanta bureau chief, 1997–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Niemann fellow to Harvard University; Livingston Award for Young Journalists, 1997; feature writing award, Associated Press News Executives Council, 1997; Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, finalist, 1998, winner, 2000.

WRITINGS:

The Tender Bar: A Memoir, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: American journalist J.R. Moehringer has written for newspapers across the United States, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Rocky Mountain News. His work has won numerous awards, including the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

In 2005, Moehringer published his first book, The Tender Bar: A Memoir. The story recounts the author's childhood and early adulthood growing up in Manhasset, New York, where he lived with his single mother in his grandfather's house. As a boy, eagerly searching for a father figure, Moehringer accompanies his bartender uncle to the local town bar. There he meets a cast of characters—Bob the Cop, Cager, Stinky, Colt, Smelly, Jimbo, Fast Eddy, and Bobo—who take him under their wing and adopt him into their family of sorts. The memoir follows Moehringer into college at Yale University and through unsuccessful romantic relationships as well as the beginning of his career as a journalist.

Overall, critics lauded Moehringer's work in The Tender Bar. Many found the book to be a strong addition to the coming-of-age genre, one that carries with it a range of emotions for readers. The book is "a straight-up account of masculinity, maturity and memory that leaves a smile on the face and an ache in the heart," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Others found the memoir to be full of entertaining anecdotes that make for an engrossing read. "Moehringer has hours and hours of stories that any bar hound worth his stool would bend both ears to drink in," observed Gregory Kirschling in a review for Entertainment Weekly.