Dunn, Jancee 1966-

PERSONAL: Born 1966, in NJ; married. Education: Attended the University of Delaware.

ADDRESSES: Home— Brooklyn, NY. Agent— David McCormick, McCormick & Williams Literary Agents, 37 W. 20th St., New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Writer, journalist, columnist, and television show host. MTV2, veejay (music video presenter and host), 1996-2001;Good Morning America, entertainment correspondent. Worked as a fact-checker for an advertising agency.

WRITINGS

(Author of introduction) The Insomniac’s Handbook: A Companion for the Nocturnally Challenged, photographs by Ben Asen, Universe Publishing (New York, NY), 2001.

But Enough about Me: A Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures among the Absurdly Famous (memoir), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Rolling Stone, writer and editor, 1989—; author of sex advice column, GQ magazine.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York, GQ, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and the New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS: Jancee Dunn is a music journalist, columnist, and author who starred as one of the original veejays for MTV2, the all-video spin-off network of entertainment and music channel MTV. A writer for Rolling Stone and other magazines and newspapers, Dunn has long been both a participant and an observer in the popular entertainment industry. In But Enough about Me: A Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures among the Absurdly Famous, Dunn presents a memoir of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes stressful, but always interesting life as a music writer, reporter, and television host. In an interview with Jac Chebatoris in Newsweek, Dunn commented that she wrote the book in order to tell the “‘stories behind the stories.’ I just found myself in the most surreal situations and I thought, ‘Nobody would believe this stuff.’”

A New Jersey native, Dunn attended the University of Delaware and worked as a fact-checker at an advertising agency before landing a dream job as an editorial assistant at Rolling Stone. Her move to New York brought her into an unfamiliar world of parties, celebrities, men, and fame. Throughout her memoir, she “relays in self-deprecating, highly appealing fashion various autobiographical snippets as well as tricks of the trade,” observed Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist. She relates how, when interviewing celebrities and famous musicians, her inner geek would threaten to get the better of her, but how she managed to keep her interactions professional even when the interviewee misbehaved. She describes how Brad Pitt launched into an air guitar solo during an interview; how shopping with the Olsen twins made her feel like a beast lumbering along in pursuit of the nimble young actresses; and how she considers her interview with the singular Dolly Parton to be a high point of her career. Eventually, the appeal of the high-energy party life with celebrities and musicians dimmed, and Dunn retreated closer to her family and her roots. For this reason, a Kirkus Reviews contributor found Dunn’s memoir to be less about working in entertainment journalism and more “about becoming acquainted with, and accepting, your true self.”Entertainment Weekly reviewer Missy Schwartz called Dunn an “irresistible narrator.” A Publishers Weekly critic observed that the book is “tough to define, but a delight to read,” and concluded: “Amusing, clever and affable, Dunn shares a satisfying memoir-turned-celebrity dish.”

Dunn once told CA:“I have always loved to read and even when I was quite young, I thought that being a writer would be the best job in the world. I used to write books when I was around eight years old and sell them on a card table set up in my driveway. I didn’t have my buyers. I had a pretty big remainders table. It didn’t discourage me, though.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

BOOKS

But Enough about Me: A Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures among the Absurdly Famous (memoir), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of But Enough about Me, p. 16.

Entertainment Weekly, June 2, 2006, Missy Schwartz, review of But Enough about Me, p. 87.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2006, review of But Enough about Me, p. 332.

Newsweek, June 12, 2006, Jac Chebatoris, “Fast Chat: All-Star Journalist,” interview with Jancee Dunn, p. 9.

Publishers Weekly, April 3, 2006, review of But Enough about Me, p. 56.

ONLINE

Jancee Dunn Home Page, http://janceedunn.typepad.com (December 2, 2006).