Arts

Discussion to explore ‘inspiration, ambition, and the craft of writing’

Brattleboro journalist Leah McGrath Goodman will speak about her new biography of media entrepreneur Arianna Huffington

BRATTLEBORO — Everyone's Books will host a virtual book talk on Friday, April 16 at 6 p.m., featuring Leah McGrath Goodman's biography, Arianna Huffington: Media Visionary and Wellness Evangelist, released this month from Hachette.

The biography describes the life and career of Arianna Huffington, chronicling her seven-decade journey from Athens to London, New York, Washington, and California.

Goodman, of Brattleboro, will be joined by The Commons' award-winning reporter Olga Peters for the event, described in a news release as “an evening of unexpected stories and illuminating conversation about inspiration, ambition, and the craft of writing itself.”

As co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington built the first internet newspaper, which eclipsed the online traffic of The New York Times and won the Pulitzer Prize. Creating a digital media empire from an investment of just over $1 million, she sold HuffPost to AOL in 2011 for more than $300 million.

“From her earliest days, Huffington faced overwhelming odds to carve a bold path that brought her fame, power, and wealth,” said Goodman.

The book reveals Huffington's transformation “from a struggling author to a serial entrepreneur and, ultimately, reigning queen of media,” she said.

HuffPost went on to become the flagship publication for global telecommunications giant Verizon, before being acquired by BuzzFeed in 2020.

Huffington went on to establish Thrive Global, a wellness and technology startup that aims to end the stress and burnout epidemic.

An award-winning investigative journalist, author, and speaker, Goodman writes about money and politics from New York and London. She has written for Institutional Investor, CNN/Fortune, Bloomberg, Marie Claire, Forbes, the Financial Times, Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones Newswires, where she was a special writer, editor, and foreign correspondent.

As the finance editor for Newsweek, she was a finalist for the National Magazine Award.

“The fact that a detailed biography has yet to be written about Huffington - even as she approaches her 70th birthday at the helm of one of her most successful ventures yet - is a testament to how far we still have to come as a society in acknowledging the role of women in business,” Goodman writes in an author's note in Arianna Huffington. “This book seeks to rectify that.”

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