Former attorney pursues dream of writing full-time in Greece When Jeff Siger ’66 left his career as a name partner at a New York City law firm to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time writer in Greece, he said his partners thought he was “crazy.” Now an internationally known author whom The Greek Press calls “prophetic,” Siger looks back at his decision with no regrets.
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“Once I realized I would not live forever, the rest of it was rather simple,” he said. “I always wanted to write and I always loved Greece and I finally saw the opportunity to enact my two loves.”
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This fall, for the first time since his graduation, Siger returned to his alma mater to speak with students, faculty and staff about his writing career. He credited Washington & Jefferson College with giving him the opportunity “to meet all kinds of different people,” an advantage for graduates in any field. “Academics, honestly, you can find in many different places,” he said. “I think it was the environment, the people of W&J, that helped best prepare me.”
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A political science and biology double major at W&J and graduate of Boston College Law School, Siger never received formal training as a writer. Instead, he said, he “learned to write by writing.”
Jeff Siger returns to W&J to speak to students about his writing career. He plans to teach an Intersession course in 2014.
An affirmation of his career change, Siger’s first novel, “Murder in Mykonos,” became the number-one best-selling English-language book in Greece. It also is the first book to be published simultaneously in English and Greek by a Greek publisher.
“I always wanted to write and I always loved Greece and I finally saw the opportunity to enact my two loves.”
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“I’m still smiling at that moment,” Siger – JEFF SIGER ’66 said. “I went to the website of this leading bookseller and I see my book listed as number one. It was all in Greek, so I went over to a friend and said, ‘Am I reading this right?’ He said, ‘Yes, you’re the number one selling book in Greece.’ It stayed that way the whole summer.” Since then, Siger has published three additional murder-mystery novels about Greece: “Assassins of Athens,” “Prey on Patmos,” and “Target: Tinos,” which was one of five titles chosen by The New York Times Book Review as a 2012 “Pick for the Beach.” Siger said he chose to write murder mysteries because it allowed him to tell the story of a culture. “I am discussing issues confronting Greece and, as it extends on a grander basis, the other islands,” he said. “Someone once said that the restoration of order to a fractured society is the basic premise of virtually all mystery writing.” The former Wall Street attorney, who said he has turned down bigger publishers in order to maintain a more spontaneous lifestyle, cherishes the freedom of his newfound career. “I love the fact that when I get up in the morning, that is all I have to do,” Siger said about being a writer. “I love when you get an idea and say, ‘Okay, I want to say something about it,’ and you have no idea what you’re going to say. Having been a writer now and having been involved in a lot of writing activities, I know that if I sit down and just start to write a little thing, just a small idea, something will come of it.” – ALLYSON GILMORE ’12
WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON COLLEGE
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