Comprehensive information and links about Jennifer Weiner

is a bestselling contemporary Jewish-American author of novels often categorized as chick lit. Weiner (the first syllable is pronounced like "wine") was raised in Connecticut and educated at Princeton University, where she studied English and creative writing with Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison among others, and also minored in women's studies.[1] She has jokingly referred to herself as a pariah of Princeton's prestigious creative writing tradition.[2]

After college, Weiner entered journalism as a cub reporter for the i, Weiner continues to contribute to the paper occasionally while residing in the city of Philadelphia with her husband, daughter, and dog, Wendell. She believes strongly that her career in journalism was beneficial to her fiction writing, and is a proponent of aspiring writers getting a job rather than an Master of Fine Arts degree (a controversial position). [3]

Weiner is the author of four novels. In order of publication, they are i have also been optioned as films. Weiner's works, especially her first novel, are semi-autobiographical, often taking place in Philadelphia and focusing on female characters who must come to terms with their plus-size figures.

Weiner has spoken up in the debate over the term "chick lit," citing the elitism she perceives from women who throw the term around. She writes about such opinions, in additions to daily happenings in her life, in her blog, SnarkSpot

is the story of Candice "Cannie" Shapiro, a reporter-cum-screenwriter (similar to Weiner, who moved from reporting to fiction writing). Shapiro writes for the fictional i. Like Shapiro, Weiner is a child of divorce, with an absent father and a mother who comes out as lesbian later in life.

The plot of i focuses on two sisters, Rose and Maggie Feller, and borrows elements of Weiner's relationship with her real-life sister, Molly. Rose (the character more similar to Weiner) falls in love with and marries a lawyer. Weiner's husband is also a lawyer.

There is some overlap between the worlds of Weiner's novels. Cannie Shapiro of i