Janice Kaplan
Encyclopedia
Janice Kaplan is an American novelist, magazine editor, and television producer
. As Editor-in-Chief of Parade
magazine (2007-2010), the Sunday newspaper supplement
with a circulation of 32 million, she was responsible for many important articles, including two cover stories by President Barack Obama
. His first piece, “A Letter To My Daughters,” ran two days before his inauguration and became the basis for his book Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
. She also published articles by Madeleine K. Albright, Senator John McCain
, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
, and Senator Jim Webb
. She wrote cover stories for the magazine on celebrities including Barbra Streisand
, Clint Eastwood
, Matt Damon
and Daniel Craig
.
and attended Yale University
. She began her career as a sports reporter at CBS Radio
and wrote a monthly sports column for Seventeen
magazine for five years. She graduated Yale magna cum laude and won the Murray Fellowship to research her first book, Women and Sports, which was published by Viking Press
. Her articles on women’s sports appeared in many popular magazines, and in his textbook On Writing Well, author William Zinsser
quoted extensively from two of Kaplan’s articles as breakthrough examples of sports writing.
book. Mine Are Spectacular (2005) was a national bestseller that People
magazine called “a funny, buoyant novel [with] whip-smart dialogue.” The Botox Diaries ( 2004) received attention as a breakthrough for “chick lit
.” Kaplan subsequently wrote two mysteries set in Los Angeles
featuring a heroine named Lacy Fields.
Kaplan published several novels early in her career, often using her experiences as a television producer as background. A Morning Affair (NAL, 1989) was set in a morning television show, and Kaplan had been a writer and producer at Good Morning America
on ABC network from 1982-1986. She later worked as a producer at the syndicated show A Current Affair and was Executive Producer of the TV Guide Television Group, where she created 30 network television programs, including The TV Guide Awards Show on Fox and the series Celebrity Dish
on Food Network
.
Kaplan has regularly appeared as a guest on television shows including Good Morning America, Today, CBS Early Show, Entertainment Tonight
and Access Hollywood
.
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
. As Editor-in-Chief of Parade
Parade (magazine)
Parade is an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. It was founded in 1941 and is owned by Advance Publications. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., Parade has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70...
magazine (2007-2010), the Sunday newspaper supplement
Sunday magazine
A Sunday magazine is a publication inserted into a Sunday newspaper. It also has been known as a Sunday supplement, Sunday newspaper magazine or Sunday magazine section...
with a circulation of 32 million, she was responsible for many important articles, including two cover stories by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. His first piece, “A Letter To My Daughters,” ran two days before his inauguration and became the basis for his book Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
Of Thee I Sing (book)
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters is a children's book by United States President Barack Obama, with illustrations by Loren Long. It is described by the publisher as "a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation." The stories of thirteen...
. She also published articles by Madeleine K. Albright, Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
, and Senator Jim Webb
Jim Webb
James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
. She wrote cover stories for the magazine on celebrities including Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
and Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
.
Early career
Kaplan grew up in Newton, MassachusettsNewton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
and attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. She began her career as a sports reporter at CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
and wrote a monthly sports column for Seventeen
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
magazine for five years. She graduated Yale magna cum laude and won the Murray Fellowship to research her first book, Women and Sports, which was published by Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
. Her articles on women’s sports appeared in many popular magazines, and in his textbook On Writing Well, author William Zinsser
William Zinsser
William Knowlton Zinsser is an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic, and editorial writer, and has been a longtime contributor to leading...
quoted extensively from two of Kaplan’s articles as breakthrough examples of sports writing.
Books and television
Kaplan is the author and co-author of ten novels and one non-fictionNon-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
book. Mine Are Spectacular (2005) was a national bestseller that People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine called “a funny, buoyant novel [with] whip-smart dialogue.” The Botox Diaries ( 2004) received attention as a breakthrough for “chick lit
Chick lit
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...
.” Kaplan subsequently wrote two mysteries set in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
featuring a heroine named Lacy Fields.
Kaplan published several novels early in her career, often using her experiences as a television producer as background. A Morning Affair (NAL, 1989) was set in a morning television show, and Kaplan had been a writer and producer at Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
on ABC network from 1982-1986. She later worked as a producer at the syndicated show A Current Affair and was Executive Producer of the TV Guide Television Group, where she created 30 network television programs, including The TV Guide Awards Show on Fox and the series Celebrity Dish
Celebrity Dish
Celebrity Dish also known asTV Guide's Celebrity Dish was a 2000 60 minuteAmerican Food Network Television cooking showwhich was hosted by TV personality Mark McEwen whichpremiered on June 22, 2000.-Description:...
on Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
.
Kaplan has regularly appeared as a guest on television shows including Good Morning America, Today, CBS Early Show, Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
and Access Hollywood
Access Hollywood
Access Hollywood is a weekday television entertainment news program covering events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was created by former Entertainment Tonight executive producer Jim Van Messel, and is currently directed by Robert Silverstein. In previous years, Doug Dougherty and...
.
Novels
- A Job to Kill For (2008, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)
- Looks to Die For (2007, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)
- The Men I Didn’t Marry (2006, Ballantine Books/Random House)
- Mine Are Spectacular (2005, Ballantine Books/Random House)
- The Botox Diaries (2004, Ballantine Books/Random House)
- The Whole Truth (1997, NAL paperback)
- Wild Nights (1991, St. Martin’s)
- A Morning Affair (1989, NAL)
- If You Believe in Me (1984, Avon Books)
- First Ride (1982, Avon Books)
Non-fiction
- Women and Sports (1979, Viking)
- 10 Journalists Talk About Writing (contributor)
Sources
- People, books section, July 2005.
- Zinsser, William. "On Writing Well: A Classic Guide to Non-Fiction Writing" Collins Publishing.
- Journal News newspaper, “Kaplan Leads Parade of Hope" by Heather Salerno, February 13, 2008.
- Journal News newspaper, "Spectacular’--Sex and Suburbs" by Barbara Nachman, July 1, 2005.