Pulitzer Prize winning humor columnist

"the funniest man in America" - New York Times

NYS Writers Institute, May 4, 2004
8:00 p.m. Reading | Page Hall, 135 Western Ave., Downtown Campus

PROFILE
Pulitzer Prize winning humor columnist Dave Barry has earned renown for his outrageous observations about work, parenting, home ownership, recreation, consumer fads, and other aspects of day-to-day American life. Currently syndicated in more than 500 newspapers nationwide, Barry is also the author of 25 humor collections and two novels. Almost all of them have landed on bestseller lists.

Though he makes his home in Florida, where he has written for the Miami Herald since 1983, Barry is a New Yorker, born and bred. The best-selling columnist spent his boyhood in Armonk, New York, where he "distinguished himself by not getting in nearly as much trouble as he would have if the authorities had been aware of everything."

"What makes Mr. Barry funny?" mused New York Times Book Review contributor Alison Teal, "Easy. He grew up in an all-WASP upper-middle-class neighborhood, played Little League baseball, mowed his parents’ lawn and attended the Episcopal Church…. He gets his humor from the blandest slice of American pie."

After graduating from Haverford College with a B.A. in English in 1969, Barry worked for four years at a small town newspaper, the West Chester, Pennsylvania Daily Local News. He also worked briefly for the Associated Press in Philadelphia. Finding journalism both dull and restrictive, he left the profession and spent eight years as a writing instructor with a business consulting firm. On the side, he contributed a regular humor column to the Daily Local News. A few other small town newspapers picked up the column. Finally, in 1983, Barry’s work caught the attention of the Miami Herald.

"[They] offered me a job and didn’t even ask me to move to Miami," Barry recalled in a Contemporary Authors interview, "[they] just said they would hire me. So I accepted and finally did move to Miami, possibly because of brain damage."

Pulitzer Prize winning humor columnist Dave Barry has earned renown for his outrageous observations about work, parenting, home ownership, recreation, consumer fads, and other aspects of day-to-day American life. Currently syndicated in more than 500 newspapers nationwide, Barry is also the author of 25 humor collections and two novels. Almost all of them have landed on bestseller lists.

Though he makes his home in Florida, where he has written for the Miami Herald since 1983, Barry is a New Yorker, born and bred. The best-selling columnist spent his boyhood in Armonk, New York, where he "distinguished himself by not getting in nearly as much trouble as he would have if the authorities had been aware of everything."

"What makes Mr. Barry funny?" mused New York Times Book Review contributor Alison Teal, "Easy. He grew up in an all-WASP upper-middle-class neighborhood, played Little League baseball, mowed his parents’ lawn and attended the Episcopal Church…. He gets his humor from the blandest slice of American pie."

After graduating from Haverford College with a B.A. in English in 1969, Barry worked for four years at a small town newspaper, the West Chester, Pennsylvania Daily Local News. He also worked briefly for the Associated Press in Philadelphia. Finding journalism both dull and restrictive, he left the profession and spent eight years as a writing instructor with a business consulting firm. On the side, he contributed a regular humor column to the Daily Local News. A few other small town newspapers picked up the column. Finally, in 1983, Barry’s work caught the attention of the Miami Herald.

"[They] offered me a job and didn’t even ask me to move to Miami," Barry recalled in a Contemporary Authors interview, "[they] just said they would hire me. So I accepted and finally did move to Miami, possibly because of brain damage."

Books by Dave Barry:

Additional Links:
Times Union Article
Sunday Gazette Article
Dave Barry at Page Hall TU Article

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.