Colin McEnroe

Early life and education

McEnroe was born October 15, 1954 in Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut and then from Yale University. While a student at Yale College in 1974, he was a test subject in a controlled study on the addictive nature of computer games, which at that time were text-based. His father, Robert E. McEnroe was a playwright who had two shows produced on Broadway.

Career

McEnroe started writing newspaper columns in the 1980s and was syndicated for a while. It was also in the 1980s that he started writing for magazines.

In 1999, McEnroe wrote an often-cited essay for McSweeney's in which he claimed to be book critic Michiko Kakutani. The essay, "I Am Michiko Kakutani", is now included in an anthology of McSweeney's literary essays.

McEnroe has been a contributing editor at Best Life and Men's Health magazines and has been a frequent contributor to Mirabella, Mademoiselle and Verge. His writing has also appeared in Forbes FYI, Cosmopolitan, McSweeney's, Family Fun and Metropolitan Home. McEnroe is a weekly columnist for The Hartford Courant; he has been a reporter and columnist for The Courant for over 30 years. In addition, his columns have appeared in newspapers in America and abroad; he occasionally contributes to The New York Times op-ed page.

In 1994, McEnroe wrote a serialized novel in the pages of The Hartford Courant.

In May 2003, his play A Woman of a Certain Age, was produced at the Ivoryton Playhouse in Connecticut. The musical was done in collaboration with former Courant colleagues, Steve Metcalf and Lary Bloom.

In 2004, McEnroe's third book, My Father's Footprints, won the Connecticut Book Award for best biography or memoir.

In 2006, McEnroe was heavily involved in coverage of the Senate race between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont, especially after an exchange between Lieberman and McEnroe on the air. McEnroe also covered the race for Salon.

In Fall 2008 he resumed teaching duties at Trinity College in Hartford. His blog, [To Wit], appears on the Courant's website and offers a daily glimpse of his interests and opinions.

McEnroe hosted a weekday afternoon drive talk show on WTIC, but was laid off by the station in a cost-cutting move in December 2008. McEnroe started a weekly afternoon show on WNPR in 2009.

In 2009, McEnroe moderated the Connecticut Forum for a record-setting sixth time, this panel featuring Anthony Bourdain, Alice Waters and Duff Goldman. Since that time, he has moderated twice more. In 2013, under the auspices of the Mark Twain House, he interviewed Stephen King.

In the 2008–2009 season, McEnroe and Edward Cumming reformatted the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's Connections series. He has performed his own spoken word pieces twice with the orchestra under Carolyn Kuan.

In 2016, the Colin McEnroe Show won First Place in the Interview category of the Public Radio News Directors awards, for his hour-long conversation with Hal Holbrook. Also in 2016, Ira Glass, speaking to a national conference of public radio program directors, cited the Colin McEnroe Show as his example of a local program using humor and innovation effectively. A subsequent conversation between the two men became an episode of The Pub, a national podcast about public radio. In February 2011, McEnroe and his radio staff were featured on the cover of Hartford Magazine. In 2012, McEnroe's show was voted Best Radio Show by the Advocate newspapers.

In 2011, he became a contributor to Bicycling magazine, where he wrote a column about taking up the sport.

Marriage and children

McEnroe is divorced.

Published works