Exciting news! My book about the value of diaries, to their keepers and many others, will be published by Beacon Press, of Boston. The working title: Welcome to Diary-land: Why we write and why others read what we wrote – or want to. 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. Blending history, cultural commentary and memoir, Our Diaries, Ourselves: delves into the historical and contemporary importance of diaries, especially with respect to women; introduces readers to archives that can help them preserve their own diaries (including national diary archives in Europe and a network of U.S. women’s archives); investigates the potential health/creative/memory benefits of diary keeping; and sheds new light on diarists both famous and not.
Here is my interview with Iowa Public Radio’s Talk of Iowa program about the benefits of keeping a diary during the pandemic (and beyond). The book was prompted by my decision to donate my diaries, which I have written in daily for almost 50 years, to a women’s archives. Click here to listen.
Now based in Chicago after many years in Iowa, I am represented by WME, William Morris Endeavor. I have over 40 years of experience in the Midwest and on the East Coast as an author, writer, editor and storyteller for newspapers and magazines, from The New York Times to The Guardian to The Wichita Eagle; and for progressive foundations and nonprofits from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore) to the Aspen Institute (Washington D.C.) and the Child & Family Policy Center (Des Moines).
I am the author of the travel book Fun with the Family in Iowa (Globe Pequot Press) and three of my many travel articles are included in The New York Times 36 Hours America (Taschen, 2014). Since 2009, I also have written the popular travel blog TakeBetsyWithYou.
Since 2000, I have written freelance articles on current events, travel and culture for many publications including: The New York Times, TIME, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens, WebMD and Delta Sky Magazine.Prior to this, I worked for 18 years for a succession of newspapers as a reporter, including nine years at the Des Moines Register. My journalism career began in 1981 at the New York Times London Bureau, where as a 22-year-old intern I found myself covering everything from the Royal Wedding (the ill-fated marriage of Charles & Diana) to race riots in Liverpool. My first story for the Times — about the first solar airplane to cross the English Channel — landed on the front page on July 8, 1981. I went on to pay my dues as a reporter at daily newspapers in Boston, Stamford, CT, Wichita, KS and Kansas City. A native of suburban Detroit, I graduated from Cornell University, with a history degree.
A passionate advocate for at-risk children, families and women, I focused as a reporter on issues including child care, workplace issues, juvenile justice and child welfare. As a freelance writer for 20 years, I have continued this work as a writer/editor, grant writer and communications consultant sharing the on-the-ground impact of anti-poverty work done and supported by foundations, nonprofits and the public sector. As a senior consultant with the Campaign for Grade Level Reading (2013-2016), I wrote about promising work across the country to increase the number of children from low-income families who read well by the end of third grade and helped redesign the Campaign’s website.
Other clients include: The Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore), The Aspen Institute (Washington D.C.), Attendance Works (San Francisco), Reading is Fundamental (Washington D.C.), Alliance for Children’s Rights (Los Angeles), Mid-Iowa Health Foundation (Des Moines), The Ounce of Prevention Fund (Chicago), The Commonwealth Fund (New York City), EMBARC/Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy & Resource Center (Des Moines), The Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Iowa Council of Foundations,Child and Family Policy Center (Des Moines), Drake University, Planned Parenthood (Des Moines)and Southern Bancorp/Southern Good Faith Fund (Little Rock).
I moved in spring 2022 to Chicago with my husband, an agriculture writer and editor, after raising a family in Des Moines. I have two children, one stepdaughter, a son-in-law and two grandsons. I currently tutor a 5th grader as a volunteer with Tutoring Chicago, a nonprofit learning program. My past community volunteer work includes serving as a Des Moines Art Center docent, preceded by ten years with Everybody Wins!, an elementary school literacy program. I also sang in the Drake University Community Chorus, before it was waylaid by the pandemic.
For those on smartphones and tablets, more information available by clicking here:
