Jane Leavy, author of THE LAST BOY

Jane Leavy is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Last Boy,  Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy and the comic novel Squeeze Play—all 3 books about baseball.

She was a staff writer at The Washington Post from 1979 to 1988, first in the sports section, then writing for the style section.

Before joining the The Washington Post, she was a staff writer at womenSports and Self magazines.

Jane has written for many publications, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, The Village Voice, and The New York Daily News.

She grew up on Long Island where she pitched briefly—and poorly—for the Blue Jays of the Roslyn Long Island Little League.

As a child, Jane worshipped Mickey Mantle from the second-floor ballroom in the Concourse Plaza Hotel where her grandmother’s synagogue held services on the High Holidays.

Jane attended Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she wrote her master’s essay (later published in The Village Voice) on Red Smith, the late sports columnist for The New York Times, who was her other childhood hero.

She has two adult children and she lives in Washington, DC, and Truro, Massachusetts.