Gwen Cooper is the author of the novel Diary of a South Beach Party Girl, which was published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment in April 2007 and received positive reviews/endorsements in numerous publications including People, Entertainment Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Gotham, OK!, the New York Daily News, the Boston Herald, the Toronto Star, the Washington Blade, The State, and the Sacramento Bee. Chauncey Mabe of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel hailed it as, “[A] novel of emotional grit, psychological depth, and narrative confidence. For pop fiction, this is as good as it gets.” Gwen made several national and regional television and radio appearances in support of the book, including CNN’s Showbiz Tonight, CBS News for Logo, Air America’s “Young Turks” morning show, and South Florida’s Deco Drive.

A Miami native, Gwen spent five years working in non-profit administration, marketing, and fundraising. She coordinated and led direct-service volunteer activities on behalf of organizations including Pet Rescue, the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, the Miami Rescue Mission, His House, Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, the Daily Bread Food Bank, and Family Resource Center (an organization providing emergency shelter for abused and neglected children). She also initiated Reading Pen Pals, an elementary school-based literacy program in Miami’s Little Haiti. Gwen was selected for membership in the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Miami program—and was nominated for Leadership Miami’s Carlos Arboleya Community Service Award—and also joined the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation.

Eventually making a career transition from non-profit administration to marketing communications, Gwen moved to Manhattan in 2001 and was Creative Services Manager for AOL Time Warner’s online marketing group. In 2003, Gwen was offered the position of Special Projects Manager at Wenner Media, publisher of Rolling Stone and Us Weekly, where she worked until the sale of her first book early in 2006. Her second book, the memoir Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life With a Blind Wonder Cat, will be published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, in Fall 2009.

Gwen currently lives in Manhattan with her husband, Laurence. She also lives with her three perfect cats—Scarlett, Vashti, and Homer—who aren’t impressed with any of it.