Betsy Rubiner

Yes, it’s true. I have written in a diary daily for 50 years (if you do the math, that means since I was 13) and have decided to donate my diaries posthumously to the Iowa Women’s Archives…You can read all about it some day in the nonfiction book — to be published by Beacon Press — that I’m working on about the value of diaries to their keepers and others. With the working title: Welcome to Diary-land: Why we write and why it matters, the book explores the diary as an enduring yet perpetually evolving and unique vehicle for narrating life as it happens on the day, for creating self, for discovering meaning and safeguarding memories.

Check out the interview I did during the early days of this project, in June 2020, with Iowa Public Radio’s Talk of Iowa program. Here’s the promo:

The Benefits Of A Diary

Charity Nebbe speaks with Des Moines based freelance writer Betsy Rubiner.

We are living through strange and difficult times. This is a period in history that will not be forgotten and you can contribute to the historical record by keeping a diary.

Betsy Rubiner has been keeping a diary for 47 years. She is working on a memoir that chronicles her journey of practicing daily writing and the process of donating her journals to the Iowa Women’s Archive. Rubiner also offers several tips for starting a diary and the value it can bring to your life.

Betsy Rubiner writes stories and essays on travel, parenting, families and other topics for many publications including: REAL SIMPLE, New York Times, TIME, Parenting, The Guardian, Rails-to-Trails magazine, FamilyFun, Better Homes & Gardens, Midwest Living, Delta Sky, Airbnb Magazine, WebMD, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Heart Healthy Living, Meredith Integrated Marketing and Special Interest Media as well as the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Detroit News, Austin Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Des Moines Register.

TakeBetsyWithYou, her blog, offers travel thoughts, tips, and tales. She is the author of Fun with the Family in Iowa (Globe Pequot Press) and three of her travel stories are included in The New York Times 36 Hours: 150 weekends in the USA & Canada (Taschen, 2nd & 1st editions, 2014 & 2011)

HOT OFF THE PRESS/WEB:

2019 REAL SIMPLE: 5 Ways to Make Someone’s Day
November, 2019 Minneapolis Star Tribune In Templeton, Iowa, Tasting the Historic Whiskey known as the Good Stuff /
The New York Times: BITES: A Restaurant in Michigan’s Vacation Region That Satisfies.
Rails-to-Trails Magazine 2017 cover story about Iowa’s Raccoon River Valley Trail. Click here
The Guardian 2017 Essay: Here’s the last two grafs, which were cut: For now, we’re in limbo, waiting to see what happens in Washington DC and at the Iowa State Capitol. If, for example, Obamacare is replaced by a law that lets states decide whether health insurers must still cover people with pre-existing conditions and if Iowa lawmakers opt not to make this coverage mandatory, we will leave. I know too well, from pre-Obamacare days, what it’s like to be rejected by insurers because of my bad back. If we leave, do we go to another, more progressive midwestern state? Do I drag my husband east? Or maybe it’s time to try something completely different. California, here we come?

MORE New York Times travel stories:

Bites Restaurant Report – Prairie Canary in Grinnell Iowa 2013
Cure for Urban Blight: Plant Lots of Sculpture By BETSY RUBINER October 30, 2009. This fall, a 4.4-acre site in downtown Des Moines will become a sculpture park, with works by Willem de Kooning and Louise Bourgeois.
Escapes > 36 Hours: In Oak Park, Ill. Some 10 miles from the Chicago Loop, Oak Park has galleries, boutiques, restaurants, live music and a world-class zoo, as well as the homes …April 22, 2005 – By BETSY RUBINER – Travel / Escapes
FRUGAL TRAVELER; Outside Tucson, A Family Goes Underground By BETSY RUBINER Published: May 21, 2000 .Kartchner Caverns was worth the price of $10 to drive into the remote 550-acre park in the Whetstone Mountains
Old Kansas, Still Growing Tall By BETSY RUBINER. Published: May 4, 2007. THINK all of Kansas is flat? Think again. The Flint Hills, in the eastern part of the state…
IF YOU GET ILL IN BRITAIN By Betsy Rubiner Published: November 22, 1981 For many years, foreign visitors to Britain have been covered by that country’s ..

MORE Real Simple Stories:

How to Survive Your High School Reunion
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/family/medium-dog-breeds
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/family/outie-belly-button
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/entertainment/scary-movies-for-kids
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/entertainment/best-kids-movies
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/entertainment/funny-kids-movies

Travel story in The Des Moines Register: Iowa farmers’ highlights from trip to sister state Yamanashi August 2, 2016

Iowa State Fair has much in common with Minnesota’s

Biking Through Lanesboro on the Root River State Trail

A Trip to Traverse City, Michigan

Exploring the birthplace of John Wayne in Winterset, Iowa

Midwest Traveler: Get Artsy and Sporty in Iowa City

Iowa City’s reborn Hancher Auditorium

Weekend away: Farm bounty in southwest Iowa 2013 Click here to read!

Fresh air, exercise and an art bridge 2012 On Iowa’s High Trestle Trail, bikers encounter not only cornfields and cows, but also a striking span over the Des Moines River.

In Iowa, sleeping with Wright 2011, In Mason City, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Historic Park Inn gets a multimillion-dollar face-lift. http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/135314803.html

Delta Sky magazine story: five pdf installments peru1 peru2 peru3 peru4 peru5 (To read, click first on peru1, then on peru2, etc…)

Peru Rising, by Betsy Rubiner, Delta Sky April 2013

Story and online video for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

A likely worker shortage sparked by retiring baby-boomers has lit a fire under Des Moines’s civic leaders. The city is working to lure back young Iowans and attracting global talent by developing its downtown and promoting the jobs available in the many industries that flourish there. Other big draws: low-cost housing, plus the city’s long-touted reputation for family-friendliness and a “19-minute commute.”

http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/best-cities-2010-des-moines-iowa.html#ixzz1JXmGrV88

A selection of Betsy’s stories for TIME and Time.com:

Royals: Will Wills and Kate Make Up for Charles and Di?

By Betsy Rubiner Apr 20, 2011

A reporter remembers the other wedding from three decades ago and how many women fretted for Diana Spencer. They seem to be rooting for Kate Middleton now

783 words

A Year After the Flood, Cedar Rapids Struggles

By Betsy Rubiner Jun 17, 2009

Huge amounts of money have been allocated to help victims of last year’s disastrous Iowa floods, but little has been dispersed

Hard Times: From Wall Street to Elm Street

By Betsy Rubiner Jan 07, 2009

Middle-class America is spooked by all the bad news from the rest of the world. The nightmare is creeping in and places like Des Moines are hunkering down

944 words

Iowa: What Happens When a Town Implodes

By Betsy Rubiner Jan 28, 2009

Eight months after one of the biggest immigration raids in U.S. history, the town of Postville has yet to recover from the collapse of its biggest employer

OTHER STORIES:

A Delta Sky magazine special section on Iowa, including a story by Betsy on what to see and do; where to eat and stay in Iowa. January 2013: All eyes are on Iowa, where unemployment is low, clean energy innovators are flourishing and a heartland work ethic pervades.

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