Roger Rosenblatt

Roger Rosenblatt
Rosenblatt at Pen America/Free Expression Literature, May 2014.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Writer and teacher

Roger Rosenblatt (born 1940) is an American writer. He was a long-time essayist for Time magazine and PBS NewsHour. He writes books, and is the Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at Stony Brook University.

Roger Rosenblatt began writing professionally in his mid-30s, when he became literary editor and a columnist for The New Republic. Before that, he taught at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. In 1965–66 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Ireland. At age 25, he became the director of Harvard's freshman writing department. At age 28, he held the Briggs–Copeland appointment in the teaching of writing, and was Allston–Burr Senior Tutor, and later, Master of Dunster House. At age 29 he was the youngest House Master in Harvard's history. At Harvard, apart from creative writing, he taught Irish drama, modern poetry, and the university's first course in African American literature. In 2005 he was the Edward R. Murrow visiting professor at Harvard. In 2008 he was appointed Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at Stony Brook University, where he currently teaches. In 2009 he was selected as one of three finalists for the Robert Cherry Award, given to the best university teacher in the country. Seven universities have awarded him honorary doctorates.

Before turning solely to literary work, he was a columnist on The Washington Post, during which time Washingtonian Magazine named him Best Columnist in Washington, and an essayist for the NewsHour on PBS. With Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, he created the first essays ever done on television. In 1979 he became an essayist for Time magazine, a post that he held on and off until 2006. He continued to do TV essays for the NewsHour until that same year. His essays for Time won two George Polk Awards, awards from the Overseas Press Club, the American Bar Association, and others. His NewsHour essays won the Peabody and the Emmy. His Time cover essay, "A Letter to the Year 2086" was chosen for the time capsule placed inside the Statue of Liberty at its centennial.

He is the author of 18 books, which have been published in 14 languages. They include the national bestseller Rules for Aging; three collections of essays; and Children of War, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has written six off-Broadway plays, including Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos, and The Oldsmobiles, both produced at the Flea Theater. His comic one-man show, Free Speech in America, which he performed at the American Place Theater, was cited by the New York Times as one of the 10 best plays of 1991.