Weil, Elizabeth

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Weil, Elizabeth

(Elizabeth Ann Weil)

PERSONAL: Married Daniel Duane Weil (a writer); children: Hannah.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Francisco, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Chronicle Books, 85 2nd St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94105.

CAREER: Freelance journalist.

WRITINGS:

They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: An Incurable Dreamer Builds the First Civilian Spaceship (nonfiction), Bantam Books (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Amy Maniatis) Crib Notes: A Random Reference for the Modern Parent, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

(With Natasha Bondy and Amy Maniatis) Love Notes: A Random Reference for the Modern Romantic, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Vogue, Glamour, Real Simple, Mademoiselle, Rolling Stone, and New York Times Magazine, as well as to National Public Radio's This American Life.

SIDELIGHTS: Elizabeth Weil has a strong background in freelance journalism as a contributing writer to prominent magazines and National Public Radio. Her first book, They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: An Incurable Dreamer Builds the First Civilian Spaceship, takes an in-depth look at Gary Hudson and the Rotary Rocket Corporation. This is the world that joins former astronauts and aerospace engineers with space fanatics and private investors as they attempt to outsmart the professionals at NASA. Gilbert Taylor remarked in Booklist that Weil "faithfully expresses the junction where visionary futurism and practicality meet." A Publishers Weekly reviewer added that the work could have been better had the author expressed "more passion for the subject," but the critic still found that "Weil's writing is simple and occasionally elegant."

Weil turns to a more personal subject with her next book, Crib Notes: A Random Reference for the Modern Parent, written with Amy Maniatis. The volume collects a variety of random trivia and information surrounding pregnancy and parenthood, from old wives' tales to tips on the proper delivery of nursery rhymes. Newsweek contributor Lisa Helem called Weil's effort "an enjoyably quirky new book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, January-February, 2003, David A. Schneider, review of They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: An Incurable Dreamer Builds the First Civilian Spaceship, p. 72.

Booklist, September 1, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus, p. 34.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2002, review of They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus, p. 1021.

Newsweek, August 30, 2004, Lisa Helem, "What You Never Knew," review of Crib Notes: A Random Reference for the Modern Parent, p. 10.

Parenting, September, 2004, review of Crib Notes, p. 190.

Publishers Weekly, July 15, 2002, review of They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus, p. 63.