Uncle Pirate

A new musical, with a book by me and music & lyrics by the terrific Drew Fornarola. The debut production, directed by Jeremy Dobrish, will be at Vital Theater on the Upper West Side, starting Jan. 16th. It's about a timid, shy fourth grader, whose uncle turns out to be a...well, you can probably guess.

A Great Big Miracle: The Story of Hanukkah

A show for the whole family, all about how a smart and curious shepherd kid named Judah grew up into a mighty Macabee and  whomped the Emperor Antiochus. Very silly, very fun, and very historically accurate except for the talking sheep. 

If you know a theater or Jewish group looking for a holiday show, let me know. Staged reading by The Mesaper Theatre, December 2008; staged reading by the Orlando Theater Project, December 2009.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

A (Tooth) Fairy Tale

A musical for kids about a bored boy named Oliver who changes places with the Tooth Fairy. Mayhem and considerable silliness ensue. Book by me, music & lyrics by Rick Hip-Flores. Here's a swell review from the New York Times, and a sample (from the cast recording) , in which the Tooth Fairy longs for the life of a normal lady.

Slut

Fame Forever

In the last few months I've written a bunch of incidental pieces online, including...

* An inside-baseball account of writing Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, for Slate.

* a recounting of my wrestling match with the plural of "octopus", for Visual Thesaurus.  

*  a virtual mix-tape of songs about the ocean and/or monstrousness, for the great Large-Hearted Boy blog.  

* and, on Huffington Post, a how-to guide, a call-to-arms, and an obituary.  

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

A New York Times  best-seller...Austen’s classic novel of love, heartache, and social distinction, except with nefarious pirates, primitive submarines, and rampaging giant mutant lobsters! 

Worst-Case Scenario Pocket Guide: New York 

Available in stores from Amazon or directly from Quirk Books. This is my first contribution to this best-selling series, which gives clear-eyed advice for handling dangerous and/or unlikely situations. In this volume, I cover how to survive being attacked by a swarm of pigeons.

Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook for Middle School

A (Tooth) Fairy Tale

The Jewish Comedy Thesaurus

Subtitled "3,102 Quips, Quotes and Kvetches," this was the first book I did, and was a really wonderful experience, with the one tiny exception that it was never actually published. Ba-DUM-bum.

Journalistic greatest hits

* A very nice review for Uncle Pirate appears in this week's Time Out New York. Arrrr!  

(Jan. 29) 

* And another one in the New York Times. Double-arrrr!

(Feb. 5)

* My second novel, Android Karenina, will be published on June 8 by Quirk Classics. More info here, here, and here.

(Jan. 26)  

 * Don't forget to go see Uncle Pirate at Vital Theater, running through the end of February!

* Don't forget to come see me be pseudo-erudite at a Jane Austen panel at the famous Morgan Library! (If you can't make it, get the gist in this piece I did for Time Out, or the accompanying interview! 

(Jan. 23)

* Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters jumps back on the Times list; we also made our first appearance on the Publishers Weekly list, and (to my great delight) this list of campus best-sellers. The list of colleges surveyed includes my dear alma mater. Thank you, and go Bears.  (Dec. 4)

* Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, which is busily blitzing movie theaters even as we speak, got a great shout-out in this week's New York Magazine. 

Brilliant and borderline highbrow! I'll take it.

* Also, two new theatrical events on the calendar: A Great Big Miracle at Orlando Theater Project in December; and Uncle Pirate at Vital in January.

(Dec. 1)

Two exciting upcoming appearances to report: On November 14th at 1:00 pm I will be appearing at the Miami Book Fair, and on November  17th at the National Press Club author night! (Nov. 3)

Meanwhile, in the great alternative universe of the internet, I made my debut on the Huffington Post and did a little guest-blogging at Largehearted Boy. (Nov. 6)

After an exciting couple weeks in print, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters just hit the New York Times best-seller list. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy -- enjoy!

(Sept. 25)

I'll be appearing on Fangoria Radio (on Sirius XM) tonight, September 18th, to plug Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Tune in around 11 to hear me talk monsters with the host, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister.

In other radio news, I just taped an interview for Morning Edition on NPR, and that will appear on Monday (September 21).

Update: You can listen to the NPR piece here. (September 23)

We had a terrific "launch" party for Sea Monsters e at Idlewild Books in Chelsea, on September 15 at 7.  You can see some great pictures at the site of novelist Hannah Tinti, who stood in for Jane at the event. (Sept. 

A couple non-Sea Monster related updates for a change...

Number one is that Breaking Up is Hard to Do has been slated for the Coverdale Theater in Cincannati next spring.

Number two is that the musical version of the swell kids book Uncle Pirate, with music and lyrics by Drew Fornarola, and script by me, has officially been announced by Vital Theatre for their March/April 2010 slot. (August 10)

Lots of excitement about Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, including from the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and the Guardian UK.

And the good ole New York Times!

Hey, maybe you should be a fan of the book on Facebook!

Fun news: I'm the author -- er, co-author, with Jane Austen -- of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the follow-up to the international best-seller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The release date is September 15, but copies are available today (July 15) for advance order.

Check out the delightful "trailer" on the Quirk Classics youtube page.(7/15/09)

I am so excited and delighted and elated (and many other enthusiastic adjectives) to announce that HarperCollins Children's Books will be publishing my middle-grade novel, The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, in the fall of next year. (6/22/09)

Here's the announcement from Publisher's Weekly. (7/6/09)

The Orlando Theater Project will be presenting A Great Big Miracle, my Hanukkah play, this December. (6/10/09)

Four (whew) new Worst-Case "pocket guides" are coming out in September: Meetings, San Francisco, Cats, and (the one that was the most fun to write), Cars. If you want to know how to drive down stairs, here's the answer: you just do it. (5/24/09).

It looks like I'll be working on another show for Vital Theatre, this one adapted from the charming new novel  for kids by Douglas Rees, Uncle Pirate. (4/30/09)

Worst-Case Scenario Pocket Guide: New York City is out; get yours today!  (4/15/09)

A multiplicity of new productions of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do are on the calendar, including Wisconsin this spring and Cincinatti in spring 2010.(4/2/09)

The Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts is going to add a copy of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, a fact which just tickles me pink. (2/25/09)

Worst Case: New York and Worst Case: Middle School will both be available within the next few weeks. (2/22/09)

The Ventura County Star has got Neil Sedaka saying some nice things about Breaking Up is Hard to Do, as well as a swell review. (1/16/09)

The next production of Breaking Up Is Hard to Do opens in Thousand Oaks, California on January 9; you can get tickets now. This production is the West Coast premiere, and the cast is terrific.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere will be leaving on its latest tour in late January 2009. To bring it to a school near you, contact TheatreWorks USA.

I've been named a Dramatists Guild Fellow for 2008-2009, in partnership with my frequent collaborator, the composer Stephen Sislen. 

As I have in the past, I wrote the script for the 2008 North Shore Animal League America Benefit Gala, which was at Capitale in Manhattan. Great gig, great cause.

Ben Allen H. Winters is a writer who lives in Brooklyn with all the other writers. 

Besides the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, I've written a whole bunch of plays and musicals for children and adults; all sorts of magazine and newspaper journalism; and books, including several in the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series. As an educator, I run creative writing programs at two elementary schools in Manhattan. 

I am represented as a playwright & librettist by Ron Gwiazda at the Abrams Agency; I am represented as a prose writer by Molly Lyons at Joelle Delbourgo Associates; I am represented at the United Nations, like all Americans, by Susan Rice.

Please send me an email, check out my Amazon page, or be my friend on Facebook.

For press copies of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters or Android Karenina, or to schedule an interview, please contact Melissa Monachello at melissa_m@quirkbooks.com or 215-627-3581, ext. 217

The H stands for "humanlike".

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