William F. Leitch (born October 10, 1975 in

Mattoon, Illinois Mattoon ( ) is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 16,870 as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Lake Land College and has close ties with its neighbor, Charleston. Both are principal cities of the Charleston� ...

) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and the founding editor of the

Gawker Media Gawker Media LLC (formerly Blogwire, Inc. and Gawker Media, Inc.) was an American Online and offline, online Mass media, media company and Link farm#Blog network, blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was ba ...

former sports blog ''

Deadspin ''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media. ''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries of ...

''. Leitch is a national correspondent for MLB.com, a contributing editor at ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'',

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

at ''Grierson & Leitch'', contributor to ''

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 ...

'', '' GQ'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and ''

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'' and has published six books, including ''Catch'', a novel, ''Life as a Loser'', a memoir, ''God Save the Fan'', a book of sports essays and ''Are We Winning?'', a book about fatherhood and baseball. His fifth book, the novel ''How Lucky,'' was published by Harper in May 2021 and received an endorsement from author

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

. His sixth book, the novel ''The Time Has Come'', will be published by Harper in May 2023.

Background

Leitch was born and raised in Mattoon,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, which is also the setting of ''Catch''. He attended the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. While there, he was an editor at the university's paper, the ''

Daily Illini ''The Daily Illini'', commonly known as the ''DI'', is a student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 1871. Weekday circulation during fall and spring semesters is 7,000; co ...

''. He now lives in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

. One of Leitch's first brushes with fame came when he appeared on an early episode of ''

Win Ben Stein's Money ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' is an American television game show created by Al Burton and Donnie Brainard that aired first-run episodes from July 28, 1997, to January 31, 2003, on Comedy Central. The show featured three contestants who competed to an ...

''. In an excerpt from '' Life as a Loser'', published on Blacktable.com, Leitch describes the experience of taping this episode within hours of being dumped by his fiancée (a fact that co-host

Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...

included in Leitch's introduction).

Career

IronMinds.com

''Life as a Loser'' appeared on Ironminds, an online magazine that existed from 1999-2002.

The Black Table

In January 2003, Leitch became a founding editor of the website ''The Black Table'', with Eric Gillin, A.J. Daulerio and Aileen Gallagher. His ''Life As A Loser'' column ran online for five years and was ultimately compiled into a book of the same title, with a foreword written by

Tom Perrotta Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

Deadspin

In September 2005, Leitch became the founding editor of ''

'', which quickly became one of the most popular independent sports blogs on the web, and has been profiled in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' and ''

''. Leitch announced on June 5, 2008 that he would leave ''Deadspin'' at the end of the month to become a contributing editor at ''New York'' magazine. Deadspin would later shut down after an ownership dispute, and its writers would create ''

Defector Media ''Defector Media'' is a subscription-based sports blog and media company founded in September 2020 and based in Manhattan. The Defector blog is primarily written by former employees of the ''Deadspin'' sports blog. In October and November 2019 ...

''.

Other work

During the 2007 NCAA Tournament, Leitch wrote a daily column for TimesSelect, the paid section of ''

''. During the 2007 baseball playoffs, Leitch wrote a daily column for ''The New York Times''' web site. Leitch was also the host of ''The Will Leitch Show'' for

for two seasons. Guests included

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...

Lea Thompson Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as Lorraine Baines-McFly in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''Back to the Future'' film trilogy (1985–1990) and Beverly Switzl ...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, team owner, author, and an analyst for ''NASCAR on NBC''. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving t ...

Stephanie Beatriz Stephanie Beatriz Bischoff Alvizuri (born February 10, 1981) is an American actress, model and singer. She is known for playing Detective Rosa Diaz in the Fox/NBC comedy series ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' (2013–2021), and voicing protagonist Mira ...

, Andre Holland,

Heidi Gardner Heidi Lynn Gardner (born July 27, 1983) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She has been a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' since 2017, beginning in season 43. Early life Gardner was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. S ...

and

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in ''Rudy'' (1993), Doug ...

. Leitch also cohosts ''Waitin' Since Last Saturday'', a podcast about University of Georgia football. He also cohosts the movie review podcast ''Grierson & Leitch'' with his lifelong friend and film critic Tim Grierson. The duo also write features for the entertainment website ''Vulture''. Leitch also cohosts the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

podcast ''Seeing Red'' with

Bernie Miklasz Bernie Miklasz (born Bernard Joseph Miklasz February 15, 1959) is an American sportswriter and sports radio personality. He currently hosts the weekday afternoon show on 590 The Fan. He was the lead sports columnist at the St. Louis Post Dispatch ...

Personal life

Leitch lives in Athens, Georgia with his wife, designer Alexa Stevenson, and their two sons, William and Wynn.

Books authored

* * * * * *
The Time Has Come
'' Harper Books. 2023. .