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A native of White Plains, N.Y., Plotnik studied under Philip Roth and Vance Bourjaily in the Iowa Writers Workshop and served as a staff writer on the Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union. He wrote pulp novels for the Scott-Meredith Literary Agency while completing work on the second of two master's degrees (English, library service). In Washington he served the Librarian of Congress as press and public relations assistant and newsletter editor. He was later a magazine editor in New York.
As a publisher, Plotnik brough five national awards to the American Library Association's book imprint. He won numerous honors also as editor of American Libraries, ALA's flagship magazine.
Plotnik has written scores of magazine articles and columns, six nonfiction books (including his first writer's guide, The Elements of Authorship) and pseudonymous fiction. He has appeared in publications ranging from La Prensa (Bolivia) and Playboy to The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Formerly a contributing editor for The Writer Magazine (2000-2007) and now a member of its editorial board, he has also contributed to Britannica Book of English Usage and the "American English" column of American Way in-flight magazine.
A passionate observer of trees, he is author of The Urban Tree Book: An Uncommon Field Guide for City and Town, illustrated by his wife, the artist Mary H. Phelan. The New York Times Book Review called this work "indispensable." On July 4 of the Constitution's 200th birthday year (1987), the National rchives published his The Man Behind the Quill, a biography of the Constitution's calligrapher, Jacob Shallus. The award-winning book was highlighted in Time magazine and praised as "a small miracle of research."
A popular speaker, Plotnik taught in the journalism department at Columbia College in Chicago. Special honors include service as a charter board member, American Book Awards, and first place in the prestigious Verbatim national competition for essays on the English language. He is listed in Who's Who, Contemporary Authors, Journalists of the United States, and other directories of writers and journalists. He lives in Chicago and is represented by literary agent Ed Knappman of New England Publishing Associates. Hear Plotnik interviewed on the Writers on Writing radio show, hosted by Barbara DeMarco Barrett. (Scroll to Aug. 17, 2007, and click.)
Read the snappy interview on Barbara DeMarco Barrett's Oct. 12 (2007) blog.
Hear host Donna Seaman interview Plotnik on Open Books.
Review by British critic.
Oct. 2007 interview with Plotnik in the American Society of Journalists and Authors Monthly.
See Plotnik's "Writing Tips forTeens" (2008) on education.com.
Review and interview by Chip Scanlan, Poynter Online
See the interview with Plotnik on MediaBistro.com.
June '06 extended interview on Down the Writer's Path
Latest op-ed in the LA Times.
Plotnik humor in SWINK magazine
Poetry in Slow Trains Literary Journal
Suggested subject heading: "Response to Site". Additional biographical information, samples, on http://www.artplotnik.com/
