Calvin Trillin (born Kansas City, Missouri, December 5, 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is perhaps known best for his writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction. Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating in 1957; he later served as a trustee of the university. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. He wrote the magazine's "U.S. Journal" series from 1967 to 1982, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States.
He has also written for The Nation magazine, contributing a column titled "Uncivil Liberties" from 1978 to 1985 and comic verse, mostly on political topics, since 1990.
Much of Trillin's nonfiction includes references to his life and family. He married the educator and writer Alice Stewart Trillin in 1965, who died in 2001; they had two daughters. The most autobiographical of his works are Messages from My Father, Family Man, and an essay in the March 27, 2006 New Yorker, "Alice, Off the Page." His 2001 novel Tepper Isn't Going Out, about a man who enjoys parking in New York City, was unusual among novels for exploring the subject of parking.
Trillin lives in the Greenwich Village area of New York City.
