John Joseph Moehringer (born December 7, 1964), known by his pen name J. R. Moehringer, is an American novelist and journalist. In 2000 he won the Pulitzer Prize for newspaper feature writing.[1] He collaborated on the 2021 film adaptation of his memoir The Tender Bar (2005).

Biography

Moehringer was born in New York City and raised by a single mother in Manhasset, New York and Scottsdale, Arizona. He graduated from Saguaro High School in Scottsdale in 1982, and from Yale University in 1986.

He began his journalism career as a news assistant at The New York Times. In 1990 he moved to Breckenridge, Colorado where he worked at the Rocky Mountain News. In 1994 he became a reporter for the Orange County bureau of the Los Angeles Times.

In 1997, the Los Angeles Times sent him to Atlanta to report on the South as an on-the-scene reporter.[2] His journalism work later took him to Denver, Colorado.

While at the Los Angeles Times he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 1998[3] for his article "Resurrecting the Champ",[4][5] and received the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 2000[1] for his article "Crossing Over".[6][7]

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, book editor Shannon Welch, and their two children.

Works

Moehringer's memoir, The Tender Bar, was published in 2005. It recounts his childhood through his early twenties, and tells of his coming-of-age experiences at a local bar called Publicans (previously called Dickens, subsequently renamed Edison's, and now renamed Publicans[8][9][10]), which served as a sanctuary from his chaotic family life. A movie version of the memoir, The Tender Bar, directed by George Clooney and starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan and Daniel Ranieri, was released on Amazon Prime on January 7, 2022. After retired tennis star Andre Agassi read The Tender Bar, he asked Moehringer to collaborate with him on his own memoir.[11] The resulting book, Open: An Autobiography, was published in 2009.[12]

Moehringer wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times Magazine about a homeless man who claimed he was Bob Satterfield.[4] In 2007, it was adapted as the basis of the film Resurrecting the Champ, directed by Rod Lurie and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett and Alan Alda.

Moehringer's novel Sutton, based on the life of bank robber Willie Sutton, was published in 2012.

He ghostwrote Phil Knight's memoir, Shoe Dog, published in 2016.[13]

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex chose Moehringer to ghostwrite his memoir, Spare, which is planned for release in early 2023.[14]

Awards

• 1997, Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
• 2000, Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.[1]
• 2001, Nieman Fellowship.[15][16]

References

Bibliography

Wikiquote has quotations related to J. R. Moehringer.

• Moehringer, J.R. The Tender Bar: A Memoir. New York: Hyperion, 2005. ISBN 1-4013-0064-2, ISBN 978-1401300647.
• Moehringer, J.R. Sutton. New York: Hyperion, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4013-2314-1.

External links

• Interview with J. R. Moehringer regarding Sutton, on Fresh Air (39 mins., 2012)