's Fine Lines column, "the feature in which we give a wrinkled look at the books we loved as youth," which she wrote until 2009. ''Shelf Discovery'', her book on young adult fiction of her youth, appeared from
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
in 2009.
Her YA publishing imprint, Lizzie Skurnick Books, was founded in 2013. The press's classic YA reprints have been praised by ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', ''
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 ...
'' many other publications and organizations. The press's first original book, ''Isabel's War'', published in 2014, received praise from ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' and other critical outlets and the
Association of Jewish Libraries
The Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) is an international organization dedicated to the production, collection, organization and dissemination of Judaic resources and library/media/information service. AJL has members in the United States, Can ...
named it a Sydney Taylor Honor Book (second to the first prize winner).
Skurnick's "That Should Be a Word" column appeared weekly in ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
s One Page Magazine from 2011 to 2014. Her coinages have been praised and/or used by '' Bust Magazine'', ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
'', and ''ABC'' affiliates, among others. The
Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
'
Ron Darling
Ronald Maurice Darling Jr. (born August 19, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player and current television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher from to , most notably as a m ...
suggested his own addition to the series. Skurnick's ''That Should Be a Word: A Language Lover’s Guide to Choregasms, Povertunity, Brattling, and 250 Other Much-Needed Terms for the Modern World'', inspired by and expanding upon the column, was published by Workman in April 2015.
Skurnick first became known as the founder of a litblog.
Personal life
Skurnick identifies as black and Jewish. She has written that her parents' union was illegal in most of the United States when they married. She has also written about her reasons for giving birth to her son through a sperm donor. She was born in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
and grew up in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...