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Augusten Xon Burroughs (born Christopher Robison on October 23, 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American writer, known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors (2002), which spawned a feature film of the same name.
Burroughs is the son of poet and writer Margaret Robison and the late John G. Robison, head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His mother sent him to live with her psychiatrist's family in western Massachusetts.
Burroughs' books are published by St. Martin's Press (hardcover) and Picador (trade paperback). Some of his childhood experiences were
Augusten Xon Burroughs (born Christopher Robison on October 23, 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American writer, known for his New York Times bestselling memoir Running with Scissors (2002), which spawned a feature film of the same name.
Burroughs is the son of poet and writer Margaret Robison and the late John G. Robison, head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His mother sent him to live with her psychiatrist's family in western Massachusetts.
Burroughs' books are published by St. Martin's Press (hardcover) and Picador (trade paperback). Some of his childhood experiences were chronicled in Running with Scissors; the book spurred a June 2005 lawsuit in which the Turcotte family of Cambridge, Massachusetts claimed that various family members (particularly Dr. Rodolph Turcotte, Burroughs' former legal guardian) were defamed by the book's portrayal of the eccentric Finch family. The family recently settled with Sony. The film adaptation was written and directed by Ryan Murphy and stars Joseph Cross as Burroughs.
Burroughs dropped out of school after sixth grade, and obtained a GED at age 17. He claims to have worked his way up to a high-paying job in the advertising industry before leaving the field to become a writer. His written work blends the fantastic and the mundane, and is delivered in a matter-of-fact style. In addition to Scissors, Burroughs penned a second memoir, Dry (2003), about his experience during and after treatment for alcoholism. That was followed by two collections of short stories, Magical Thinking (2003) and Possible Side Effects (2006). His first book, the novel Sellevision (2000), is currently in production as a feature film.
Augusten's style is very modern and satirical, playing off of today's social and entertainment quirks, poking fun at subjects such as advertising, psychiatrists, religious families, and home shopping networks. His writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, House and Garden, Blackbook, New York, The Times, Bark, Attitude, and Out. Burroughs writes a monthly column for Details. Early in his career he was a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition.
Burroughs has been profiled in People, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly, where he ranked 15 on the 2005 list of "The 25 Funniest People in America" and was named to the magazine's "It List".
In 2005, Universal Studios and Red Wagon Productions bought the rights to a film based on a future memoir about Burroughs' relationship with his father. He is developing an original, hour-long weekly series for the Showtime network.
Burroughs lives in New York, New York, and Amherst, Massachusetts, with his partner of many years, Dennis Pilsits, and their French bulldogs, Bentley and The Cow.
In January 2007, Vanity Fair published an article ("Ruthless With Scissors") alleging that Burroughs had fabricated large parts of his memoirs, including details about his "electro-shock therapy". The Turcotte family asserts that the machine Burroughs claims to have used on himself was actually an "Electrolux" brand vacuum cleaner. The family's lawsuit states that the book "falsely portrays" them as "an unhygienic and mentally unstable cult engaged in bizarre, and, at times, criminal activity. In so doing, the author, with the full complicity of the publisher, may have fabricated events that never happened and manufactured conversations that never occurred."
Burroughs asserts that he kept numerous journals, beginning in early childhood, which substantiate the claims made in Running With Scissors. The Vanity Fair article states, "Neither the Turcotte family nor the lawyers representing them, [...] have seen Burroughs's journals. A request by letter to Burroughs from Vanity Fair urging him to produce the journals was never responded to." Burroughs has stated that he destroyed the journals during a period of alcohol abuse.
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Tags: Author (2), Gay (1), Writer (1), Black Humor (1), Lgbt (1), American (1), 23 (1), Novelist (1), Born 1965 (1), Writer Of Non-Fiction (1), Recovered Alcoholic (1), Movie About Them (1)
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