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Tom Junod

Biography

Tom Junod

Tom Junod is senior writer for ESPN Magazine, where his work has won an Emmy and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. He is a two-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and a winner of the James Beard Award for essay writing. Previously he was a staff writer at GQ and Esquire. The film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was based on his article in Esquire. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and daughter.

Tom Junod

Books by Tom Junod

In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir
by Tom Junod - Memoir, Nonfiction

Big Lou Junod dominated every room he entered. He was a successful traveling handbag salesman who carried himself like a celebrity. He’d return from the road with stories of going to nightclubs where the stars “couldn’t keep their eyes off...your father.” Lou could be cruel to Fran, his wife of 59 years, but he loved his youngest son. Tom was a nervous boy, devoted to his mother, but Lou sought to turn him into a version of himself. He showered him with advice about how to dress, how to be an alpha male, and especially, how to attract and bed women. Tom wrestled with Lou’s imposing presence all his life. When one of Lou’s mistresses stood up at his funeral and announced, “Can we all...just agree...that this...was a man,” Tom set off to learn the facts of his father’s life. The secrets he uncovered staggered Tom, but in the process allowed him, at last, to become his own man, by his own lights.