Portrait of a Writer

Charles has been a professional writer for 25 years and is a wide-ranging author with diverse interests. He began his writing career in college, where he studied under the well-known writing teacher and author Clark Blaise, who had been one of Bernard Malumud’s top students. Mr. Blaise was also the director of the famous International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

After college Charles worked as a magazine editor in New York, starting out as a business journalist. He quickly rose to become founder and editor-in-chief of a physics magazine at the young age of 30, and several years later founded and became editor-in-chief of a computer magazine. From there Charles went on to be Senior Travel Editor at Skiing magazine, at the time one of the top special interest sports magazines in the world. He then left to pursue a freelance career, writing for NBC Sports, Outside Magazine, The LA Times, AOL and many other major media outlets.

When major changes in the media industry caused a full-blown job recession for journalists, Charles moved into advertising copywriting: writing slogans and full-page ads than ran in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other media. He has conceptualized and written assorted catalogs, brochures, web sites, video scripts and more for such diverse clients as Reuters, Environmental Defense Fund, Lavazza Coffee, ESPN, and others.

Charles’s wordsmith interests go beyond the printed word. He has written movie promos and radio ads for major motion pictures, and film reviews for the Hamptons Film Festival. In 2011 Lee was Executive Producer of Patriot Guard Riders, an award-winning full-length documentary about a group of motorcycle riders who use Ghandi-Like nonviolent methods to protect the funerals of fallen soldiers.

In 2010 Charles published his first book, Passage to Nirvana, about finding a path to happiness and wisdom after a traumatic life event.