Journalist John Avlon is working on “an anthology on the greatest newspaper columns in American history” and welcomes thoughts from NSNC members and friends “on the contents and to help with suggestions on inclusion.” He’ll look at comments sent to him at jpavlon@gmail.com as well as on the NSNC Facebook page.
Avlon is senior political columnist for The Daily Beast and the author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America as well as Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he was a columnist and associate editor for the New York Sun.
He is a CNN contributor and the creator of the CNN “Wingnuts of the Week” segment.
Avlon was the youngest and longest-serving speechwriter in New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s City Hall. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, he and his team were responsible for writing the eulogies for all firefighters and police officers murdered in the destruction of the World Trade Center. Avlon’s essay on the attacks, “The Resilient City” concluded the anthology Empire City: New York through the Centuries and won acclaim as “the single best essay written in the wake of 9/11.”
He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, and C-SPAN. He has spoken at the Kennedy School of Government, the Citadel, the State Department’s visiting journalist program, and civic organizations around the nation.
The provisional title of the column anthology is Deadline Artists and it is planned for publication in the fall of 2011. He is co-editing the anthology with Errol Louis of the New York Daily News and Jesse Angelo, an editor at the New York Post.
“I’m really hoping it helps open people’s eyes to the beauty, intensity and clarity of the best columns and makes people appreciate columns as an American art form,” Avlon said.
