Wolk, Josh 1969-

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Wolk, Josh 1969-

PERSONAL:

June 24, 1969; married; wife's name Christine; children: Lila, Clare. Education: Graduated from Tufts University; attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Editor and writer. Vanity Fair, New York, NY, fact checker; Entertainment Weekly, senior editor. Founder of the Tufts University campus humor magazine Zamboni.

WRITINGS:

Cabin Pressure: One Man's Futile Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to New York Times, Time Out New York, Sports Illustrated, Golf magazine, and EW.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Josh Wolk is an American editor and writer. Wolk studied at Tufts University and Columbia University. After moving to New York City, he began working as a fact checker at Vanity Fair and became one of the first writers on Entertainment Weekly's Web site. He later switched to writing for the magazine itself and ultimately became a senior editor. He also contributes to periodicals, including the New York Times, Time Out New York, Sports Illustrated, and Golf Magazine.

In 2007 Wolk published his first book, a memoir called Cabin Pressure: One Man's Futile Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor, with Hyperion. In an interview in USA Today, Wolk spoke of the universality of a camp experience as a teen. Wolk stated: "A lot of people don't get to go away to camp, but I think everyone has that one place where you can be yourself, that one place that was bliss, where you forget how much adolescence (stinks)." Wolk decided to take two months off from his work at Entertainment Weekly to relive a segment from his youth. Wolk returned to summer camp as a counselor and related his experiences as a counselor of fourteen-year-old boys, both their troubles and his own. Wolk compares his personal experiences as a youth at camp with those of the boys he counseled as well as the same issues he came across as an adult, including the challenges he still encountered in finding acceptance from his camp colleagues.

A contributor to Publishers Weekly noted that "Wolk undergoes a significant transformation, leaving behind his adolescent misconceptions about manhood and reentering the world on his own terms." Writing on the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site, Tanya Boudreau commented that "this book is funny. The boys are uninhibited, and the staff members are quite the characters. By chapter three, I had laughed quite a few times already." Boudreau thought that "two of the funniest people in the book are Rocco and Charlie. Rocco's exaggerated stories and Charlie's suggested camp modifications had me laughing out loud." Library Journal contributor Tim Delaney thought that for people who like reading about nostalgic topics, Cabin Pressure "will first entice, then disappoint, as the descriptions of the day-to-day events can be boring."

Booklist contributor David Pitt called the memoir "poignant" and "very funny." Pitt added that "Wolk's reflections will get readers thinking about … taking one last plunge into childhood." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called Wolk "a genial writer," but thought that he has a tendency to "overstate his point." Ultimately, the reviewer concluded by calling Cabin Pressure "an entertainingly meandering trail toward self-discovery that's in little hurry to get anywhere."