Augusten Burroughs

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Augusten Xon Burroughs (born October 23, 1965) is an American writer. He is the author of the memoirs Running with Scissors (book) (2002) and Dry (2003), and the essay collection, Magical Thinking: True Stories (2004), all of which were instant bestsellers both in hardcover and paperback. Running with Scissors remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two-and-a-half consecutive years. He is also the author of the novel, Sellevision (2000). His books have been published in over 17 countries.

Contents

1 Biography
2 Lawsuit
3 Film and Television
4 Bibliography
5 See also
6 External links

Biography

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with the given name of Christopher Robison, Burroughs is the son of poet and writer Margaret Robison and the late John G. Robison, a former philosophy professor at the University of Massachusetts. He was raised in western Massachusetts, by his mother's psychiatrist's unorthodox family. He dropped out of school after sixth grade, but obtained a GED at age 17. He went on to a lucrative career in advertising, and subsequently became a successful writer after leaving advertising. Openly gay, his work centers around the fantastic and the mundane, which he delivers in a matter-of-fact style. He now lives in New York City and Amherst, Massachusetts with his partner of many years, Dennis Pilsits, and their two French Bulldogs, Bentley and The Cow.

Augusten's writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world including The New York Times, House and Garden, Blackbook, Paper Magazine, New York Magazine, The Guardian, The Times, Bark, Attitude and Out.

Augusten currently writes a monthly column for Details magazine, and early in his career was a regular commentator for NPR's Morning Edition. In March 2003, Augusten was named to Entertainment Weekly's annual list of "The 25 Funniest People in America" where he landed at #15. The author has also been named to that magazine's definitive "It List." Augusten himself has been extensively profiled, from multi-page features in People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly to the cover of The Guardian's Weekend Magazine in the United Kingdom. Newspapers and magazines around the world have profiled both the author and his works.

Lawsuit

In June 2005, the Turcotte family filed a lawsuit against Burroughs at the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Massachusetts, claiming various family members and particularly Dr. Rodolph Turcotte, Burroughs's former legal guardian, were defamed and grossly misrepresented in the bestseller Running with Scissors as the eccentric Finch family[link].

Film and Television

The film of Running with Scissors, written and directed by Ryan Murphy (creator of Nip/Tuck) and executive produced by Brad Pitt, is set for fall 2006 release. It stars Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Brian Cox, Jill Clayburgh, Joseph Fiennes, Gwenyth Paltrow, Evan Rachel Wood, with Joseph Cross portraying Augusten. Augusten himself is featured in the film, at the very end.

The rights to Sellevision have been optioned by former Home Shopping Network CEO Mark Bozek and is currently in production as a feature film. Some actresses mentioned as signing on with the project include Carrie Fisher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Kristin Davis [link], [link].

In 2005, film rights were secured by Universal Pictures and Red Wagon Productions, to a future memoir about Augusten's complex relationship with his father.

Also in 2005, he agreed to create an original, hour-long weekly series for the SHOWTIME network. This series is currently in development.

Bibliography

2000 - Sellevision (ISBN 031226772X) (fiction)
2002 - Running with Scissors (ISBN 0312283709)
2003 - Dry (ISBN 0312423799)
2004 - Magical Thinking (ISBN 0312315945)
2006 - Possible Side Effects (ISBN 0312315961)

External links