Emily Prager is an American author and journalist. Prager grew up in Texas, Taiwan, and

Greenwich Village, New York City Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village a ...

. She is a graduate of the

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9 ...

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

and has a master's degree in Applied Linguistics. She has written for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

''.

Career

Prager starred in the daily TV soap opera ''

The Edge of Night ''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that networ ...

'' from 1968 to 1972. She was later a contributing editor of ''The National Lampoon'', a performer on ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' and worked and appeared in the High School Yearbook Parody. Her also work appeared in ''Titters, A Book of Humor by Women''. She was a writer for, and briefly a cast member of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' in 1981. Although she did not appear in the single episode for which she was credited as a featured player (the last episode of the 1980–1981 season, with Jr. Walker and the All-Stars as musical guests, but there was no definitive host, even though some sources claim that Chevy Chase hosted this episode), she appeared uncredited in five episodes, between 1977 and 1981. Prager is one in a handful of microscopically short-lived cast members, joining

Laurie Metcalf Laura Elizabeth Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress. Often described as a character actor, she's known for her complex and versitile roles across the stage and screen. She has received various accolades throughout her career sp ...

(who did appear on the episode Prager didn't, but only on Weekend Update), ''SCTV'' cast member Catherine O'Hara (who quit after being hired on ''SNL'' and didn't appear in the season six finale), and Shane Gillis (who was fired two weeks before he could appear in the season 45 premiere when evidence of him using racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-Asian language was uncovered). She was a writer-performer in the cult film '' Mr. Mike's Mondo Video'' and Robert Longo's ''Arena Brains''. Her works include a compendium of her humor writing, ''In the Missionary Position'', the acclaimed short story collection ''A Visit From the Footbinder and Other Stories'', the novels ''Eve's Tattoo'', ''Clea and Zeus Divorce'', and ''

Roger Fishbite ''Roger Fishbite'' is a novel by the American writer and journalist Emily Prager, which was published in 1999. Themes and literary connections The novel was written partly as a literary parody of Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich N ...

'', and a memoir, ''Wuhu Diary''. She has been a columnist for the ''

'', ''

'', and ''

''. She is a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and in the year 2000, she received the first online journalism award for commentary given by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She taught at the

Shanghai American School Shanghai American School (SAS) is an independent, Non-profit international school located in Shanghai, China. Founded in 1912, SAS has two campuses and over 2,800 students enrolled in Pre-K through 12th grade, making it China's largest internatio ...

(Pudong Campus) in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China.

Dana Elcar Ibsen Dana Elcar (October 10, 1927 – June 6, 2005) was an American television and film character actor. He appeared in about 40 films as well as on the 1980s and 1990s television series ''MacGyver'' as Peter Thornton, MacGyver's immediate ...

was her stepfather.

Writings

Novels

* ''Clea and Zeus Divorce'' (1987) * ''Eve's Tattoo'' (1991) * ''

'' (1999)

Collections

* ''A Visit From the Footbinder and Other Stories'' (1982) * ''In the Missionary Position: 25 Years of Humour Writing'' (1999)

Memoir

* ''Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China'' (2001)

Miscellaneous

* ''World War II Resistance Stories'' (1979, with Arthur Prager) * ''The Official I-Hate-Video Games Handbook'' (1982)

Contributor

* ''Titters, A Book of Humor by Women'' (1976) * '' The National Lampoon'' – Contributing Editor

Television and filmography

* ''Arena Brains'' * ''

'' * '' Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle'' * '' Mr. Mike's Mondo Video'' * ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' *''Saturday Night Live'' (Season 6; 1 episode; Uncredited extra between years of 1977 and 1981; credited as a featured player in 1981; however never physically appeared on air; likewise she never actually appeared; in any single given individually; skits.)

Awards

* 2000, Online Journalism Award for Commentary,

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

References

External links

*
Emily Prager's page at Random House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prager, Emily 1948 births 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American memoirists American comedy writers American women journalists American women novelists Barnard College alumni Brearley School alumni Living people