The Westport Library will celebrate the remarkable contributions of Sybil Steinberg with a reception and portrait dedication held in the Library’s Trefz Forum.
This event is open to the public. No registration is needed.
Steinberg passed away in 2024, leaving behind an incredible legacy as an editor, reader, and champion of books and authors. Her annual Sybil’s List, hosted regularly at the Library, was a staple for readers throughout the area.
Steinberg graduated in 1954 from Smith College, where she served as editor of the student newspaper. After two decades as a stay-at-home mom, raising her three children in Westport with her husband, Harold, her professional career ascended when she took a job in the 1970s with Publisher’s Weekly.
By 1979, she rose to editor of fiction reviews, and in 1983, she began overseeing Publisher Weekly’s author interview department. As the fiction reviews editor, Steinberg introduced the boxed review concept to highlight promising talent; she selected Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as the first boxed review. As authors interview editor, she held conversations with Annie Proulx, Salman Rushdie, John Updike, and Fay Weldon, among others. In addition, she edited three volumes of Writing for Your Life, a series of books that featured interviews compiled from the magazine.
Her work was nominated for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Steinberg also served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and made numerous television appearances on PBS, CBS, C-SPAN, and NBC.
Following her retirement in 2001, Steinberg continued to review books, maintaining her ties to the publishing industry. And she introduced her treasured Sybil’s List, in which she would introduce her favorite books of the year at a special event held at the Library. She would expand Sybil’s List to a biannual tradition, establishing it as the go-to guide for Westport’s community of writers and readers. She unveiled her final Sybil’s List in December 2023, in time for the holiday season.
