F e a t u r e : J ENNI F ER W EINER
Mrs. Queen Village Resident and writer Jennifer Weiner says all of her stories are Philadelphia stories by Regina Colantonio
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Jennifer Weiner
Queen Village Quarterly Crier \\ FALL 2019
ne of the many reasons to feel proud of living in Queen Village: we get to call bestselling author Jennifer Weiner one of our own. Since 2007, Weiner has lived in a historic Queen Village home that was once a four-room schoolhouse, where she has produced a mountain of published work. Weiner’s neighborhood roots pre-date her current home; she tells people she has spent “25 years moving around the same block.” Like many Philadelphians, Weiner knows how to hustle. She wrote her first book, Good in Bed, at night and on weekends while working as a features reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Weiner continued to work at the Inquirer even after that debut novel was published in 2001 and she had two additional books under contract. Over the next two decades, Weiner published another 15 books (all of which she wrote in Queen Village) and enjoyed massive success. Weiner’s books, one of which was made into a major film, have sold over 13 million copies and spent more than five years on The New York Times bestseller list. Not one to rest on prior triumphs, Weiner commits herself to writing in her Queen Village closet/office she dubbed her “cloffice” at a steady clip of about 2,000 words a day, but she makes time
for writing breaks with piano lessons at Settlement Music School. Weiner’s impact extends far beyond her published books. Over the past 10 years, Weiner has earned national notoriety for highlighting the underrepresentation of female writers in literary media, writers whose books were often ignored by major book review publications. Weiner also contributes sharp opinion pieces laced with her trademark humor to The New York Times. Throughout her career, Weiner has relentlessly pursued and achieved her lifelong dream of making a living as a writer. But the deeper mission behind Weiner’s work has always burned brightly: the telling of women’s stories and proclaiming to the world that those stories matter. Weiner has no intention of letting up on that commitment anytime soon. Weiner’s latest book, Mrs. Everything, was published in June and is available at Head House Books. QVC: You grew up in Connecticut and moved to Philadelphia in 1994 to work for the Inquirer. Why have you chosen to make Queen Village your home? JW: Living in Queen Village gives me access to everything that Philadelphia has to offer. I can walk to get great wood-oven pizza at Stella or top-notch sushi at Izakaya, or incredible pastries and pasta at
