She’s sold over 13 MILLION BOOKS. She’s had a book turned into a movie starring Cameron Diaz. She has championed for women authors to receive the same attention as their male counterparts, and she’s stood for her beliefs, almost to the detriment of her young career. She is the New York Times #1 Bestselling Author Jennifer Weiner.
Jen came to Philly via a stop in central Pennsylvania, where she worked as a local journalist before getting a job at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She’s never left Philly since arriving and has no plans of doing so.
We sat with Jen at Queen Village’s Hungry Pigeon restaurant. In our time with her, she provided fabulous insight into her life, her thoughts about the world around her, the world of publishing, as well as her loves and struggles with social media. She shares a story of hating a cover of one her books because it looks like a “douche ad,” but because buyers at a retail outlet loved the cover they stuck with it. It went on to become her first #1 Bestseller.
Jen’s new book, Mrs. Everything, come out on June 11th. The book chronicles the lives of two sisters over the span of seventy years. She discussed the inspiration for the ambitious project and the historical research that went into the project.
In The Philly Blunt round, we learn Jen’s musical aspirations, her spitting pet peeve, and her favorite Hooters song, among other interesting tidbits.
Jen is a woman who is comfortable in her own skin and not afraid to speak her mind. That’s what makes this such a good interview. It’s so good we had to break it up into two parts.
With Reef still on tour in Europe, Danya Henninger sat in with us as a guest host.Â
We hope you enjoy Part 2.