David Goodwillie

Novelist | Memoirist | Journalist

David Goodwillie is a noted author of two novels and a memoir. His speaking engagements are a brilliantly delivered showcase of his experience writing in multiple genres, industry knowledge, and observations from a varied career in writing, auction houses, professional baseball, as a private investigator, and an internet entrepreneur. His talks are as varied and fascinating as his background.

book David

SPEAKER REEL

CHRIS VOSS SHOW PODCAST

David Goodwillie is the author of the novel American Subversive, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, his memoir, Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, and the novel Kings County, a New York Times Editors' Choice, Gotham Book Prize finalist, and soon to be television series. Kings County has been optioned for television by Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus and TV producer Jessie Creel. David will join Emmy and Peabody Award-winning writer Allison Silverman in adapting his novel for the screen. He has written for the New York Times, New York magazine, Newsweek, and Popular Science among other publications. A man of many talents, David was drafted to play professional baseball, worked as a private investigator, and was an expert at Sotheby’s auction house. He is graduate of Kenyon College and now lives in Brooklyn where he is writing his third novel, set in France in the 1940s,

Speech Topics

Music and Literature: An Interwoven HISTORY

Join David Goodwillie as he takes you into the worlds of music and literature. Using his novel, Kings County as a starting point, David explores how these seemingly separate constituents of the arts have historically intertwined. This talk fascinates and engages not only enthusiasts of music and literature, but audiences appreciative of a speech which takes you a journey delivered with enthusiasm and charm that is indicative of an award winning writer.

Writing about a Place: New York City as a Character

It goes without saying that well developed characters are essential to a novel, but what happens when one of those characters is New York City. There are very few cities that possess the history, energy, soul, diversity, and distinct personality enabling it to essentially have its own role within a story. American Subversive and Kings County both feature New York City as a central character and had the stories taken place elsewhere, they would have been missing an important leading character. Join David Goodwillie as he discusses recognizing a city as an integral story character and how that is woven in to the story.

publishing and hollywood: adapting your book for the screen

There is writing and there is writing for television. With the upcoming adaptation of Kings County from novel to screen, David is well versed in the nuances of turning manuscript to script. Join him as he delves into the complex world of Hollywood and screen adaptations.

writing a memoir: and how to sell it!

Join acclaimed novelist and memoirist David Goodwillie as he explains — and simplifies — the often daunting process of writing and selling a memoir. What are the rules of the genre? How “true” do memoirs have to be? How do you go about writing honestly about the people in your life? And what’s the best way to get started? We’ll talk about craft: balancing the vagaries of real life with the necessity of a narrative structure, the tricks of dialogue and exposition, and the ever-important role of revision.

Then we’ll unlock the secrets of selling your book. What are editors looking for? Do you really need an agent, and what’s the best way to find one? Can you write a proposal, or should you have a finished manuscript? And how do advances work? We’ll also touch on foreign sales and optioning your book to Hollywood. Finally, we’ll turn the discussion over to you, and David will answer any questions you may have about memoirs and the process of creating them.

"…[Goodwillie] conveys his wisdom via syntax that is simultaneously sobering, insightful and amusing.”

— The Louisville Courier-Journal

Previous Engagements

JP Morgan Chase Bank
First Republic
Conde Nast
The New Yorker
Soho House
David Yurman
The National Arts Club
NYU
The New School
Kenyon College
The Pratt Institute

Books

Kings County

It’s the early 2000s and like generations of ambitious young people before her, Audrey Benton arrives in New York City on a bus from nowhere. Broke but resourceful, she soon finds a home for herself amid the burgeoning music scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But the city’s freedom comes with risks, and Audrey makes compromises to survive. As she becomes a minor celebrity in indie rock circles, she finds an unlikely match in Theo Gorski, a shy but idealistic mill-town kid who’s struggling to establish himself in the still-patrician world of books. But then an old acquaintance of Audrey’s disappears under mysterious circumstances, sparking a series of escalating crises that force the couple to confront a dangerous secret from her past.

From the raucous heights of Occupy Wall Street to the comical lows of the publishing industry, from million-dollar art auctions to Bushwick drug dens, Kings County captures New York City at a moment of cultural reckoning. Grappling with the resonant issues and themes of our time—sex and violence, art and commerce, friendship and family—it is an epic coming-of-age tale about love, consequences, bravery, and fighting for one’s place in an ever-changing world.

“Dazzling writing, propulsive storytelling, relevant and timeless characters—that’s exactly what David Goodwillie has accomplished in Kings County. He’s created a true urban tableau, at once gritty and hopeful. Kings County crystallizes how it feels to be young and in love in New York City."
-- Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter

American Subversive

Aidan Cole and his friends are a band of savvy—if cynical—New York journalists and bloggers, thriving at the intersection of media and celebrity. They meet at loft parties and dive bars, talking of scoops and page views, sexual adventures and new restaurants. And then, without warning, a bomb rips through a deserted midtown office tower, and Aidan’s life will never be the same.

Four days later, with no arrests and a city on edge, an anonymous e-mail arrives in Aidan’s inbox. Attached is the photograph of an attractive young white woman, along with a chilling message: “This is Paige Roderick. She’s the one responsible.”

"[A] hip and quick-paced literary thriller . . . Goodwillie excels at jet-black social satire in a style reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis. . . [H]e has written a scathing and hilarious indictment of our bizarre moment in time.”
--The New York Times Book Review

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

From its NASDAQ-fuelled heyday to the tragic hours of 9/11, the provocative and mindblowing story of Manhattan in its most recent golden age comes to life in David Goodwillie’s acclaimed memoir, SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. With naive aspirations of literary renown, Goodwillie arrives in New York at the dawn of a decadent age that celebrates youth and rewards dreamers. But eight jobs later, he learns that success comes at a heavy price. After a failed attempt to make it in professional baseball, Goodwillie becomes a private investigator but has no talent for finding anyone; a writer for America’s leading sports auction house; and then a journalist who exposes the mafia, only to become their newest target. Even when he breaks through as the most unlikely of experts at Sotheby’s, he’s soon lured away by the promise of Internet millions…only to find that he’s missed the biggest party of all.

" In his breakout first book, Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, a breathless, humor-tinged account of post collegiate life in the fast lane, David Goodwill takes and unflinching look back at life in New York City during [the 90s]."
--Elle

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