Ned Vizzini, Beloved Author, Dead At Age 32

    Ned Vizzini, the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and many others, has died.

    Isaac Fitzgerald
    by Isaac Fitzgerald

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Via nedvizzini.com

    Ned Vizzini was the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and many others. He also wrote for television, and had some wonderful pieces in The New York Times. You can learn more about his writing here.

    Last night, Shawn Ryan, the creator of The Shield and co-creater of Last Resort, the show Ned Vizzini had previously written for, tweeted this:

    Shawn Ryan @ShawnRyanTV

    Devastated to report that Last Resort (and many other things) writer @ned_vizzini has passed away. He had a way of making me smile.

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    Shawn Ryan

    @ShawnRyanTV

    Devastated to report that Last Resort (and many other things) writer @ned_vizzini has passed away. He had a way of making me smile.

    / Via

    Soon fans and friends alike began sharing their sorrow, as well as the joy Ned and his work brought into their lives:

    Melissa Walker @melissacwalker

    Ned Vizzini was a talented and generous writer and person. Huge love to his family. So much respect, and sadness.

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    Melissa Walker

    @melissacwalker

    Ned Vizzini was a talented and generous writer and person. Huge love to his family. So much respect, and sadness.

    / Via
    kelly p. bergin @kellybergin

    Absolutely heartbroken to hear Ned Vizzini has passed a way. The first writer I ever became friendly with, he will stay with me.

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    kelly p. bergin

    @kellybergin

    Absolutely heartbroken to hear Ned Vizzini has passed a way. The first writer I ever became friendly with, he will stay with me.

    / Via
    ♡ Alyssa ♡ @heart_lyssxoxo

    Ned vizzini is the honest reason that i'm still alive. It's kind of a funny story was more than just a book for me it opened my eyes+

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    ♡ Alyssa ♡

    @heart_lyssxoxo

    Ned vizzini is the honest reason that i'm still alive. It's kind of a funny story was more than just a book for me it opened my eyes+

    / Via
    Michael Schaub @michaelschaub

    Oh, God, no. Ned Vizzini, rest in peace. You helped so many people deal with depression. We'll miss you.

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    Michael Schaub

    @michaelschaub

    Oh, God, no. Ned Vizzini, rest in peace. You helped so many people deal with depression. We'll miss you.

    / Via
    Pam van Jingle Bells @BookaliciousPam

    "Rock on, be strong." -@ned_vizzini Best advice anyone has ever given me. He wrote it on the wall of Hicklebee's.

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    Pam van Jingle Bells

    @BookaliciousPam

    "Rock on, be strong." -@ned_vizzini Best advice anyone has ever given me. He wrote it on the wall of Hicklebee's.

    / Via

    In fact, one need only search "Ned Vizzini" on Twitter to watch the remembrances, condolences, and praise roll in.

    Some were hesitant to believe the news, but earlier this afternoon The LA Times confirmed the loss:

    Writer Ned Vizzini died Thursday at age 32 in New York, the city's medical examiner has confirmed. Vizzini committed suicide.

    Our own Alanna Okun was herself affected by Ned Vizzini's work, and she shares it with us here:

    Via nedvizzini.com

    "Before I read It's Kind of a Funny Story, it hadn't occurred to me that depression — along with hospitals, therapy, and the tiny everyday horrors of growing up — could make you laugh. I remember reading the book in one sitting and looking around nervously after an especially helpless burst of laughter, as though someone would demand to hear just what was so funny. I remember discovering that the book's author had written his (semi) autobiography when he was only 19, and I remember using my mother's Amazon account to order it myself. It was small enough to fit in the pocket of my winter coat.

    I loved Ned Vizzini's writing, but more than that, I loved that he showed what it was possible to do with writing. That you could hold this deep, snarling pain in one fist and humor, even wonder, in the other, and were allowed to live in this space between fiction and nonfiction in order to tell a story that was somehow truer than the truth. I'm a prolific (even pushy) lender of books but I never gave out any of his; partly, I'm sure, because I was afraid they'd be lost, but mostly because they felt somehow too intimate, too personal, even though I hadn't written them."

    —Alanna Okun

    I didn't know Ned Vizzini, but when we hear of one of our own's deaths we immediately think the worst. And far too often we are right. It's the holiday season, people. Be good to one another.

    "Things to do today:
    1) Breathe in.
    2) Breathe out."
    ― Ned Vizzini,     It's Kind of a Funny Story