Will Leitch Books in Order

Will Leitch was born on October 10, 1975, in Mattoon, Illinois, and grew up in the kind of small Midwestern town that stays with a writer. Mattoon later became the setting for Catch, his young adult novel about a teenager wondering whether the life he knows is enough.

He studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he worked at the student newspaper, the Daily Illini. Journalism gave him a practical start: meet deadlines, follow a story, and make the reader care before they reach the next paragraph.

Writing online became his next classroom.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Leitch wrote a personal column called “Life as a Loser” for an online magazine. The pieces drew on bad jobs, low-rent New York living, awkward setbacks, and the particular comedy of realizing adulthood has not gone to plan. They were eventually collected as Life as a Loser, a funny, candid book that shows the self-deprecating humor he would bring to much of his work.

In 2005, he became the founding editor of Deadspin and led it through 2008. The site gave him room to write about sports as fans actually experience them: with loyalty, irritation, inside jokes, strong opinions, and an occasional inability to keep things in perspective. His journalism has also appeared in outlets including New York, The New York Times, and MLB coverage.

Sports never stopped being part of the picture.

His nonfiction books God Save the Fan and Are We Winning? both begin with fandom but go further. The first is a pointed, often funny look at the money, media chatter, and inflated personalities that can drain joy from sports. The second follows a Cardinals-Cubs game at Wrigley Field with his father, using one long afternoon of baseball to talk about family, memory, and the things fathers and sons can say more easily while watching a game.

Leitch moved into adult fiction with How Lucky in 2021. Set in Athens, Georgia, it follows Daniel, a young man with spinal muscular atrophy who witnesses what may be a kidnapping. The book balances a tense mystery with friendship, independence, and Daniel’s stubbornly hopeful view of his own life. It received a 2022 Alex Award and an Edgar Award nomination.

His later novels keep returning to ordinary people under pressure. The Time Has Come brings several Athens residents together on a frightening day at a local pharmacy. In Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride, an Atlanta police officer facing a terminal diagnosis tries to secure his teenage son’s future, only to find his plan going very differently than expected. Both books mix suspense with humor and a close attention to community.

Leitch lives in Athens, Georgia, with his family and continues to write fiction and journalism. Across his books, he comes back to people trying to do right by one another, even when they are scared, embarrassed, grieving, or not quite sure what to say. There is usually a joke nearby, but the feeling underneath is sincere.