Writer

BACK IN 1973, Ginny Ozark fired off a letter to the Daily News complaining about the criticism writer Bill Conlin was leveling at her husband, Danny, manager of the Phillies. "She came out swinging like a .350 hitter in defense of her husband," the Daily News wrote. However, in the midst of a flood of vitriol and threats of lawsuits, Ginny felt constrained to add, "But I love Irma. " It was not the only time that a sports figure, feeling the sting of Conlin's acerbic wit, would launch a tirade against him, but then temper the attack by expressing love for his wife, Irma - almost as if to say that a man with a near-saint of a wife ought to be better behaved.

I'm standing at a cocktail party in Wayne, eyeballing the dip, when a Junior League-ish young matron walks up with a conversation-opener: "I hear you're a writer. " I nod, but I'm chary. There's something about being a writer that seems to call for an explanation. This is especially so along the Main Line, where finding a writer in their midst merely verifies popular suspicions. "You guys," began a well-lubricated Devonite one evening not long ago, "You're always writing about the bland, soulless suburbs.

Novelist, story-writer and critic Ann Petry, 77, will be honored for her "lifetime achievements and her inspiration to contemporary writers" at ceremonies during the fifth annual Celebration of Black Writing, to be held in Philadelphia Feb. 4 and 5. The two-day series of panels, workshops and receptions has been organized by the nonprofit educational organization Moonstone Inc. and will be held at various locations. Petry, who is the author of a number of novels and story collections, including The Street (1946)

Writer of O, a literary doc about the woman behind the pseudonym of the once-scandalous erotic novel Story of O, features interviews with academic types, journalists, French publishing veterans, and the wonderfully sweet-looking octogenarian author, Dominique Aury. The film, by Pola Rapaport, also juices up this fairly dry business with "reenactments" from the book - supposedly penned by Pauline Reage and published in Paris in 1954. As a narrator reads naughty bits about a woman and her adventures in submission, voyeurism and multiple-partner sex, an attractive young actress dressed (and undressed)

Jeanmarie Dunn Coogan, 71, a writer and magazine editor, died Friday in Shelburne, Vt. A West Philadelphia native, Mrs. Coogan graduated from West Catholic School for Girls and Immaculata College. After graduating with honors in 1947, she joined the editorial staff of Ladies Home Journal. When she married her husband, Joseph, in 1950, she left full-time journalism but continued to maintain her ties to the Journal. Her "Kate's Girl" series of stories first appeared in the Journal in the early 1960s.

When Tim O'Brien started writing Tomcat in Love (Broadway Books, $26), he thought he was working on a memoir. For years he had been thinking of writing about a childhood incident in which he and a friend had built a plywood cross and nearly nailed the friend's sister to it. "We never did, of course. But we came damned close," he said during an interview while in Philadelphia recently. While working on his "memoir," he called his editor and asked if it would be "OK if I made up some dialogue and made up a few incidents" to cover the gaps of a faulty memory.

Jack Lloyd, 66, a writer and columnist for The Inquirer for more than 30 years, died Sunday of a heart attack at Pennsylvania Hospital. Mr. Lloyd, who wrote about popular culture, entertainment, jazz, and the Atlantic City performance scene, among other duties, had retired in 1997, but he continued to write for the paper up until his death. His last piece, an Atlantic City entertainment article on a show at the Tropicana called "Legends of the Catskills," was published May 19 in the Weekend section.

Shawna, 11, is a writer. She always has a pad and pencil in her hands so that every thought can be captured on paper before it escapes her. She writes stories and then writes letters to the characters in the stories. She writes routines and cheers for the cheerleading club, and she makes many entries in her diary. It's an outlet for her feelings of joy, sadness and anger. Therapy is helping her deal with abuse and neglect that she endured in the past. When Shawna reads, however, she prefers picture books.

Ellen Currie got off to the start a young writer dreams about. She was still in her 20s when her short stories began appearing in such magazines as the New Yorker - and today, at 55, her first novel is winning heady reviews. But in the interim, a nightmarish case of writer's block silenced her for more than 20 years. For the shy yet amiable writer, the worst is over. Critics have resoundingly praised her novel, Available Light, and it was selected as a Book of the Month Club alternate.

"I started writing poetry when I was a teenager because there was something inside me and I didn't know how to get it out. It was a gesture of release that scared me at first because I didn't know why I did it. " Playwright Charles Jenkins, 38, settles his lanky frame against the desk in his small office, the beginnings of a smile flirting with his face. He shrugs, spreading long, thin fingers - suitable for either much typing or much piano playing - along the desk's edge. "After a while, writing became so much a part of my life that I couldn't function not writing.

D EAR ABBY: A woman here at work constantly asks to borrow money. The first time she did it, she caught me off guard and I gave her $20. The second time she sent me an email asking for a loan, I replied that I only had a few dollars. I'm not the only person she asks. To be fair, she did return the $20 I loaned her, but isn't this akin to a hostile work environment? We all avoid her, but we also have to work with her every day. Times are tough for everyone, and it's irritating that she thinks she's the only one with money problems.

In January, Michelle Friedman of Mount Laurel celebrated her 46th birthday with more than 100 friends, many of them e-mail buddies who came from all over the country to wish her well. Afterward, she described the experience on her blog, "I'll Say It Once!": "Nine days ago I had people treat me like a big star. I know what it's like to be treated like a VIP. It rocks; I hope you all get to experience it, especially for something like a birthday. " To her family, said her husband, Ken, she was always "a rock star.

Digital publishing was barely on the horizon when Lauren Grodstein earned a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University a decade ago. But the publishing world has transformed so rapidly, said Grodstein, director of the M.F.A. program at Rutgers University's Camden campus, that she was beginning to feel uncomfortable offering only traditional writing and literature classes. Now, a new Rutgers program that merges disciplines for an innovative academic collaboration has eight M.F.A.

Mickey Rose, 77, a childhood friend of Woody Allen's who cowrote his movies Bananas and Take the Money and Run , died of cancer April 7 at his home in Beverly Hills, his daughter, Jennifer, told the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Rose and Allen met in high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., and became friends. They shared a love of jazz and baseball. Mr. Rose met his late wife, Judy, through a blind date arranged by Allen. Mr. Rose became a TV comedy writer. He wrote for Johnny Carson and Sid Caesar and for shows including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour , All in the Family , and The Odd Couple . Allen said Rose was one of the funniest people he has known - and a "wonderful first baseman.

Inquirer Eagles writer Jeff McLane finished in a tie for fourth place in the Associated Press Sports Editors' breaking news category, it was announced Thursday. Staff writer Mike Jensen received honorable mention in the explanatory category in the over-175,000 circulation division, which included national websites. Both had previously been named top 10 nationally. McLane broke the news that then-Eagles president Joe Banner was leaving the team, and Jensen wrote an article about the Philly tradition of sneaking into big sporting and other events.

D EAR ABBY: I am writing in response to your answer to "Bi in the Deep South," the woman who is happily married to a man, but who now realizes she is bisexual and wants to come out. My wife is an out bisexual woman. The notion that stating one's bisexuality is "advertising that one is available" is why my wife chose to come out - to combat this misconception. Bisexuals, are no more likely to act on this attraction than anyone else. "Bi" should just be herself, and she should tell her husband first.

Twenty years ago, Anne Lamott wrote Operating Instructions , a memoir about the first year of her son's life. She was single, 35, and a recovering alcoholic. Baby Sam came along and transformed everything, the way a baby does. That same year, Lamott's best friend died of cancer. Lamott captured the day-to-day details of both events in a timeless journal that is still popular today. So it seemed a bit stunning - even to Lamott - when last year she released a follow-up, Some Assembly Required , about that son's first son. But the shock of becoming a grandmother 10 years earlier than she expected gave way when she set eyes on Jax Jesse Lamott.

America's Coming Demographic Disaster By Jonathan V. Last Encounter Books. 237 pp. $23.99 Reviewed by Paul Jablow Nancy Willard, a poet and novelist best known as a children's author, is generally credited with the saying: "Sometimes questions are more important than answers. " Jonathan V. Last's book bears out the truth of that statement: His answers range from obvious to insightful to perhaps crackbrained. But there's no escaping his big question: Since the United States' "total fertility rate" - a better measure than crude birthrate - is sharply declining, what can we or should we do about it?

Stan Isaacs, 83, a storied sports columnist at Newsday from 1978 to 1992, died Tuesday, April 2, at home in Haverford, Pa., his daughter Ellen said. Mr. Isaacs, born in Brooklyn, took pride in being known for something he took: swiping the Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 world championship pennant from Los Angeles and bringing it back to what he considered its home. For readers and colleagues at Newsday, though, he is known for what he gave: a whole new way to view and appreciate sports and reporting.

LOS ANGELES - Don Payne, 48, an Emmy-winning writer and producer for The Simpsons who also wrote the hit movie Thor , has died. His friend and former writing partner, John Frink, tells the Los Angeles Times that Mr. Payne had bone cancer and died Tuesday at his Los Angeles home. Mr. Payne shared four Emmys won by The Simpsons . He also wrote the 2006 Uma Thurman comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend and 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer . - AP