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Free
Reading Group/Discussion Guide available
Available in bookstores or at amazon.com or barnes&noble.com
Hear New Rabbi interviews on NPR’s national "All Things Considered" or local "Radio Times"
Stephen Fried is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author of three highly praised books: The New Rabbi, Bitter Pills and Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia.
An adjunct professor at Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism and a two-time winner of the National Magazine Award--the Pulitzer Prize of magazine writing--Fried has been a prolific writer of feature stories and personal essays for Vanity Fair, The Washington Post Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, Glamour and Philadelphia magazine. He also served for two years as editor-in-chief of Philadelphia, and does editorial consulting for national and regional publications.
Fried’s most recent book, The New Rabbi, was highly praised by the New York Times, Washington Post and the Boston Globe and featured on "All Things Considered." It was chosen as one of the best books of 2002 by Publishers Weekly, which said, "Stephen Fried took what many would consider a mundane topic—a Jewish congregation searching for a new rabbi—and turned it into a marvelous journalistic memoir that recorded his own spiritual development as well as a community's quest for leadership" And it was named one of the year’s top 10 books on religion and spirituality by beliefnet.com. The book has already become required reading in Jewish and Christian houses of worship and at seminaries, but also among management consultants and community leaders interested in the dynamics of executive searches and in managing transitions.
Fried's unique combination of investigative and personal essay writing skills has often been focussed on Jewish topics. His story "Just Visiting," about his family's experience putting their Nana in the Jewish Home she helped build, was chosen as a notable essay of the year by Best American Essays. His memoirs of fathers and sons shared a National Magazine Award and were honored in Best American Sports Stories. And his essay on his Pop-pop's latke-making rituals was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His investigative report on the prominent Jewish family that built—and then nearly destroyed—Rite Aid, America’s largest drug store chain, was one of the pieces that earned him the National Headliners Award for feature writing. Fried lectures widely to Jewish audiences on the subjects of his books and magazine articles.
His previous book was Bitter Pills: Inside the Hazardous World of Legal Drugs, an award-winning investigation of the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA and the entire "legal drug culture" that was prompted by a powerful event in Fried’s private life--his own wife's severe reaction to one pill of a new antibiotic, which he also wrote about. His original articles on drug safety won the 1994 National Magazine Award for Public Interest Reporting and set off an FDA inquiry into antibiotic safety. The 1998 book they grew into has been praised by publications as diverse as The New York Times Book Review, the Journal of the American Medical Association and People magazine and it was named one of the top 15 books in the genre started by All the President's Men by The American Journalism Review. The book has become required reading in the pharmaceutical industry, at the FDA, among physicians and pharmacists, and in medical consumer groups. And Fried lectures about drug safety to doctors, pharmacists and nurses--at hospital grand rounds and medical conferences—as well as to patients. (www.bitter-pills.com)
Fried’s first book was the cult classic Thing of Beauty, which has led to the creation of dozens of Internet sites and chatrooms devoted to its subject, the late model Gia Carangi. The Oxford English Dictionary also credits Fried with inventing the word "fashionista" for the book. The 1998 Emmy-winning HBO film "Gia," starring Angelina Jolie in the title role, was based on the book, which is also under option to be made into a feature film. (www.stephenfried.com)
Fried’s best-known magazine article is "Cradle to Grave," his investigation into the deaths of all ten children of Marie and Arthur Noe, which led police to reopen the 30-year-old Philadelphia case as a murder investigation. The day after the story was released to authorities, the Noes were taken in for questioning and Marie Noe confessed, and later pleaded guilty to multiple charges of murder. For his role in the case, Fried received a medal—he became the first journalist ever to receive the Medal of Honor from the Vidocq Society, the elite international group of criminologists, pathologists and police investigators. (http://www.phillymag.com/Archives/1998April/noes.html)
Fried, 45, lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Diane Ayres, author of Other Girls (www.othergirlsbook.com). He grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, not far (enough) from Three Mile Island, and is a 1979 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. In his free time, he serves as commissioner of the Sunday Morning Invitational half-court basketball game, fishes, plays with his nieces and nephews and, once a year, bowls.