Will Leitch
William F. Leitch (born October 10, 1975 in Mattoon, Illinois) is a writer and the founding editor of the Gawker Media former sports blog "Deadspin". Leitch is a national correspondent for MLB.com, a contributing editor at "New York", critic at "Grierson & Leitch", contributor to "The New York Times", "GQ", "The Washington Post" and "NBC News"; and has published five books: "Catch", a novel, "Life as a Loser", a memoir, "God Save the Fan", a book of sports essays, and "Are We Winning?", a book about fatherhood and baseball. His fifth book, "How Lucky," a novel, was published by  Harper in May 2021 and received an endorsement from author Stephen King. Background. Leitch was born and grew up in Mattoon, Illinois, which is also the setting of "Catch". He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. While there, he was an editor at the University's paper, the "Daily Illini". He now lives in Athens, Georgia. One of Leitch's first brushes with fame came when he appeared on one of the early episodes of "Win Ben Stein's Money". In an excerpt from "Life as a Loser", published on Blacktable.com, Leitch describes the experience of taping this  episode within hours of being dumped by his fiancée (a fact that co-host Jimmy Kimmel included in Leitch's introduction). Career. IronMinds.com. "Life as a Loser" appeared on Ironminds, an online magazine that existed from 1999-2002. The Black Table. In January 2003, Leitch became a founding editor of the website "The Black Table", with Eric Gillin, A.J. Daulerio and Aileen Gallagher. His "Life As A Loser" column ran online for five years and was ultimately compiled into a book of the same title, with a foreword written by Tom Perrotta. Deadspin. In September 2005, Leitch became the founding  editor of Deadspin. Deadspin quickly became one of the most popular independent sports blogs on the web, and has been profiled in "Sports Illustrated" and "The New York Times". Leitch announced on June 5, 2008 that he would be leaving Deadspin at the end of the month to become a contributing editor at "New York" magazine. Deadspin would later shut down after an ownership dispute, and the writers would create Defector. Other work. During the 2007 NCAA Tournament, Leitch wrote a daily column for TimesSelect, the paid section of The New York Times. During the 2007 baseball playoffs, Leitch wrote  a daily column for The New York Times' Web site. He was also the host of "The Will Leitch Show" for Sports Illustrated for two seasons. Guests included Guy Pearce, Lea Thompson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stephanie Beatriz, Andre Holland, Heidi Gardner and Sean Astin. Leitch also co-hosts the podcast 'Waitin' Since Last Saturday,' a podcast about Georgia Bulldog Football. He also co-hosts the movie review podcast 'Grierson & Leitch' with his lifelong friend and film critic Tim Grierson. The duo also write features for the entertainment website Vulture. Leitch also co-hosts the St. Louis Cardinals podcast 'Seeing Red ' with Bernie Miklasz. Personal life. Leitch lives in Athens, Georgia with his wife, designer Alexa Stevenson, and their two sons, William and Wynn.