William O'Sullivan

William O'Sullivan

William O'Sullivan is The Washingtonian's senior managing editor. From 1999 to 2007, he was a features editor. In another lifetime, he was assistant managing editor.

In between his two tenures at the magazine, he received a master's degree in creative writing; was managing editor of Common Boundary, a magazine that explored psychology and spirituality; and was senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity, where he helped edit the books The Buying of the Congress and Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species. 

He has a special interest in first-person writing. His own personal essays have been published in The Washingtonian, Common Boundary, the New York Times, Newsday, and the North American Review, among others. His work has been cited three times among the notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays. He teaches the personal essay at the Writer's Center in Bethesda.