About Robert Lipsyte

By Juan Herrera

Lipsyte grew up in Queens, New York.

After graduating from Columbia University in 1957, he began working for the New York Times as the copy boy in the paper’s sports department.

In 1964, Lipsyte became the boxing reporter for the New York Times.

Lipsyte left The Times in 1971 and began to focus more on writing novels.

Although he usually wrote about sports, Lipsyte also wrote several fiction books, including one about his struggles with his weight as a child in “One Fat Summer” and his battle with cancer in “The Chemo Kid.”

Lipsyte won an Emmy in 1990 for his work as host on “The Eleventh Hour,” a nightly public-affairs program on New York’s Channel 13.

In 1991, Lipsyte re-joined the New York Times starting his city-side column “Coping,” that he wrote along with a sports column.

Lipsyte won the Meyer Berger Award for Distinguished Reporting from Columbia University five years later for his work on the “Coping” column, his second, the first was 30 years earlier was for his sports column.

In 2001, the American Library Association also awarded Lipsyte the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature.