With new book that puts readers in his and her shoes, Weiner hits town

Best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner has never been to Emory University.

But she was determined to get Rachel Blum and Andy Landis there for their life-altering encounter early on in her new book, “Who Do You Love.”

“These are two people who change each other,” Weiner, 45, said about the teen duo who arrive from Florida and Philadelphia respectively for a summer volunteer project where they stay in the Emory dorms and fall for each other. “I wanted them each to have to symbolically search for each other somewhere in the middle. Neither one was on entirely familiar turf.”

She knows whereof she writes. Weiner, who'll headline an event at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta on Thursday night, ventured into new territory herself in crafting her latest entry in her signature genre: popular, smart fiction for and about grown-up women.

“Who Do You Love” opens with Rachel and Andy actually meeting briefly as 8-year-olds in a busy hospital ER waiting room, then quickly separates them for the first time — but not the last — in a story that spans three decades. Told in chapters that alternate between Rachel’s and Andy’s lives, it’s a first for Weiner in that the man essentially gets equal time in one of her books.

“I wanted to write a love story,” she explained by phone from her home base in Philadelphia, “so obviously I wanted to give Romeo equal time.”

Easier said than done. Romeo, er, Andy, eventually becomes a world-class runner who competes in the Olympics. “It was sort of a dual challenge,” said Weiner, who spent a lot of time observing how men talk and think, and even read “Once A Runner,” a 1978 novel that pops up in her book as a shorthand for friction that arises between Rachel and Andy. “You had to write as a guy, but also as an athlete, someone who lives intimately in his body more than most people do.”

Well, she really didn't have to do anything new or different. After all, Weiner's dozen or so previous books have spent a combined five years on the New York Times best-seller list, spawned a movie starring Shirley MacLaine and Cameron Diaz ("In Her Shoes"), and now account for some 11 million copies in print.

But she’s not the type to shrink from a challenge. Not when it comes to her own writing. Or sticking up for other female authors.

Weiner’s Twitter feed is a must-follow for its savvy, sassy play-by-play of “The Bachelor” (and its various spinoffs) alone. But she’s just as likely to use it to promote other women writers to her 120,000 followers. She’s also been a leader in an important, ongoing conversation about perceived “overcoverage” — book reviews, profiles, trend stories, etc. — of male writers compared to women. It’s made her a target of the likes of novelist Jonathan Franzen (“The Corrections”), who earlier this year said he knew of no one who said, “You’ve got to read Jennifer Weiner.”

Weiner’s response — “Not really pal” — sounds as funny as it does 11 million-copies-in-print-valid coming over the phone. But she also points with satisfaction to the fact that for the first time ever last year, the highly influential New York Times Book Review printed more reviews of women’s books than men’s.

Pretty much any topic’s fair game at Thursday’s event — a “conversation” with CNN’s Holly Firfer — that’s the sort of thing the personable Weiner relishes compared to a standard author talk or reading.

“I like doing those better than anything,” said Weiner. “I love telling stories, obviously, but I love having a real give and take of ideas.

“People always want to know what’s true and not (in her books),” she laughed. “But the more interesting question is, ‘How do you take truth and turn it into fiction?’”