Bio
Wade Rouse is a “laugh-out-loud-funny” (NBC’s Today Show), “wise, witty, wicked” (USA Today) writer whose humor “successfully imports a steady current of panic, a la Erma Bombeck” (The Onion). Rouse is a hilarious “David Sedaris meets Dave Barry” hybrid (Library Journal) who “beautifully combines humor and pathos” (Out Magazine), and has quickly established himself as “an original writer and impressive new voice” (The Washington Post) whose “combination of honest emotion and evocative prose is destined to be a hit!” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Wade Rouse is the author of three, critically-acclaimed memoirs, including America’s Boy (Dutton/2006), Confessions of A Prep School Mommy Handler (Harmony/2007), and his latest, the bestselling At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life (Harmony/2009).
At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream chronicles the misadventures of two neurotic urbanites who quit their jobs, and leave the city, cable, couture and consumerism behind in order to move to the Michigan woods and recreate a modern-day Walden. At Least in the City Somone Would Hear Me Scream was an IndieBound (Midwest and Great Lakes) bestseller, 2009 Best Book of the Year “Contributors Selection” by B&N, and named a Summer Must-Read by NBC’s Today Show, Detroit Free-Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Petersburg Times, Grand Rapids Press, Out Magazine, MetroSource Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Public Radio, Michigan Public Radio, St. Louis Magazine, Frontiers Magazine, among others.
Rouse’s first memoir, America’s Boy, which chronicles his life growing up gay in the Ozarks thanks to the unconditional love from an unconventional family, was named by Border’s as a Best Book (Literary Memoir) of 2006, “A Best Book of 2006” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as well as a 2006 BookSense selection by the nation’s independent booksellers.
His second memoir, Confessions of A Prep School Mommy Handler, about his tenure as PR director at an elite prep school where he quickly learns his “real job” is to cater to a Lilly Pulitzer-clad clique of “Mean Mommies,” was selected by both Barnes & Noble and Target as a Breakout Book/Bestseller, and hailed as “funny” by Entertainment Weekly. The memoir is about job discrimination and the incredible pressures facing faculty, students and parents today.
Rouse was a contributor to the humorous anthology on working in retail, The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles (Counterpoint-Soft Skull Press). Rouse’s essay on working at Sears after years of wearing Husky’s was selected to kick off the collection.
Rouse is a contributing humor columnist for Metrosource magazine, the largest gay magazine in NYC and LA, and the third largest in America. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous national magazines and online publications – including Forbes.com, the number one business site on the web which reaches nearly 10 million readers – as well as on CBC Radio One’s popular “Definitely Not the Opera” in Canada, Chicago Public Radio and Michigan Public Radio, and he has spoke, lectured and taught writing seminars around the country. Rouse is represented by the Random House Speakers Bureau – alongside such luminaries as Ken Burns, Jay McInerney, Richard Russo, Jane Smiley, Gay Talese, Roy Blount Jr., and Lisa See – and is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please visit www.rhspeakers.com or call 212-572-2013.
He earned his B.A. in communications (with honors) from Drury College (now University) and his master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where his emphasis was in magazine writing and publishing.
Rouse’s fourth book, It’s All Relative: A Memoir of Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays and 50 Boxes of Wine, will publish February 2011 from Harmony/Random House. The book deals with America’s obsession with picture-perfect holidays and looks at the evolution of family through the lens of different holidays.
He is also serving as editor of and contributor to a humorous dog anthology, I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship!, (NAL/Penguin) which will benefit The Humane Society of the United States and other local/national animal shelters/causes, and feature some of America’s favorite funny writers and comics, including Carol Leifer, Jen Lancaster, Laurie Notaro, Bruce Cameron, Merrill Markoe, Alec Mapa, Jeff Marx, Rita Mae Brown, Jill Conner Brown and many others. It will publish in summer or fall 2011.
Rouse lives on the coast of Michigan, where – in between beach weather and blizzards – he writes memoirs and battles for bed space with his partner, Gary, and their beloved mutts, Marge and Mabel.
Wade is represented by literary agent Wendy Sherman of Wendy Sherman Associates in Manhattan, and film agent Sarah Self of The Gersh Agency in Hollywood.
