With three critically acclaimed novels and a hit movie, journalist, author and screenwriter Michael Walsh has emerged as one of the brightest lights on the international literary and entertainment scene. With the 1998 publication of As Time Goes By -- his long-awaited and controversial prequel/sequel to everybody‘s favorite movie, Casablanca -- Walsh created a literary sensation that was translated into more than twenty languages, including Portuguese, Chinese and Hebrew, and landed on best-seller lists around the world.
Walsh’s first novel, the dark thriller Exchange Alley, was published by Warner Books in July 1997. Hailed by critics for its moody depiction of a crumbling Soviet Union – which Walsh covered first-hand as a correspondent for Time Magazine -- and a violent, dangerous New York City during the darkest days of the early 1990s, as well as its original insights into the assassination of President Kennedy, the novel was picked by the Book-of-the-Month Club as an alternate selection.
His most recent novel, the gripping gangster saga, And All the Saints, was recently named a winner at the 2004 American Book Awards; even before publication, the movie rights to this fictionalized “autobiography” of the legendary Prohibition-era gangster Owney Madden was bought by MGM, for which Mr. Walsh is writing the screenplay. He has just signed a two-book deal with Kensington Books for a new thriller series.
Walsh is also the author of Who's Afraid of Classical Music (1989) and Who's Afraid of Opera (1994) for Fireside Books, and Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works, a critical biography of the composer for Harry M. Abrams (U.S.) and Viking Penguin (U.K.), published in the fall of 1989; an updated and expanded edition appeared in 1997. With fellow TIME Contributor Richard Schickel, he is the co-author of Carnegie Hall: The First One Hundred Years, a cultural history of the great American concert hall published by Abrams in November 1987. His most recent book is So When Does the Fat Lady Sing?, published by Amadeus Press.
In the spring of 2002, the Disney Channel premiered Walsh’s original movie (co-written with Gail Parent), “Cadet Kelly,” starring teen idol Hilary Duff of “Lizzie McGuire.“ The two-hour film was the highest-rated original movie in Disney Channel history, as well as the Disney Channel’s highest-rated single program ever.
From 1997 to 2002 he was a Professor of Journalism and Visiting Fellow of the University Professors at Boston University.