Eric Spitznagel – Editor

Worked with a team of junior editors to create six original stories every day for the website. I solicited pitches, gave assignments, made deadlines, collaborated on revisions, and eventually gave the final top edits before publication.

I worked primarily in features, assigning and editing longish essays and interviews (4000-plus words) by writers like Chuck Klosterman and Nick Hornby, among many others.

I also co-created the Sedaratives advice column with comedian Amy Sedaris. When Ms. Sedaris retired from the column, I edited a rotating cast of celebrity "guest" columnists like Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow, Lena Dunham, and Zach Galifianakis, among hundreds of others.

I also edited two humor anthologies with the Believer: You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You (Vintage, 2010) and Care To Make Love In That Gross Little Space Between Cars? (Vintage, 2012).

I've been a writing instructor at Chicago's Second City theater since 1997. During my first few years as a teacher, I helped design and implement a creative writing curriculum that the theater continues to use. Between 1997 and 2002, I taught everything from beginner classes ("Fundamentals of Comedy Writing") to the advanced levels, in which students write and produce an original sketch revue. Since leaving Chicago in 2002, I've continued to teach online writing classes.

My byline has appeared in dozens of magazines since 1994. I’ve covered entertainment and politics, sports and finance, health and parenting, sex and music, finance and grieving, American history and fringe culture. I’ve profiled celebrities and criminals, 90-year-old country legends and 7-year-old thespians, Bigfoot hunters and the ghost of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (via a medium), and everyday people who have done extraordinary things.