A writer, editor and entrepreneur, I love to create pieces that capture the spirit of a place and time. From the Zagat books I've edited to the board game I invented, I'm always attuned to language and its evocative power.
I previously served as the editorial director for Rockefeller Center, as well as a senior editor at Zagat. I've also written about food, pop culture and the arts for publications including New York Magazine, Tin House and NPR’s The Salt, among others. In addition, I've conceived and launched a number of independent projects, including the food-themed board game Menu Mash-Up, published by Chronicle Books in 2013, and a museum exhibition about handmade Brooklyn shop signs for The City Reliquary in 2010.
A facet of my career that I’m now expanding is offering editorial services for individuals. In 2021, I began working with a team of three psychotherapists to help strengthen their book proposal, which they successfully sold. Later I provided feedback and editing as they shaped their manuscript for The Healing Power of Community, published by Routledge in 2024.
I earned my BA in Comparative Literature at Brown University, and an MFA in fiction writing at Hunter College, where I taught creative writing. I’ve also facilitated writing workshops at Fountain House in NYC, and in 2022 attended the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony as a writer in residence.
A longtime editor for Zagat, I worked as a senior editor for five years directing restaurant guides for cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans, and later served as a freelance contributor, editing the site’s blogs and reviews on a project basis. Before joining Zagat, I was the nightlife editor for Citysearch and wrote about restaurants and bars for New York Magazine. I've contributed to publications such as Extra Crispy and Bon Appétit as well.
Here's a selection of my work on food, restaurants and nightlife:
Extra Crispy
Japan's Smoked Tea Is Like a Cigarette in Drink Form
The Salt, NPR
Texas Baker Rekindles Interest in the Mysterious Mesquite Bean
New York Magazine
Bon Appétit
Emily Dickinson's "Cocoanut" Cake
Rockefeller Center
My pieces on pop culture, literature and the arts have included essays, reviews and interviews.
In 2022, I was a writer in residence at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock, NY, where I completed my personal essay, “Diode.” This piece has been highlighted by Mad in America and excerpted for a gallery show at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts.
Thomas Pynchon
Tin House
Epic Agent: The Great Candida Donadio
Rockefeller Center
Art Is Alive: Interview with Vanessa German
News on the Wire (editor)
New York Magazine
The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen
The New York Times
Out of a deep affection for the handmade shop signs that once marked my neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I curated an exhibition about them for the City Reliquary museum in 2010. In addition to conducting research through neighborhood organizations, newspapers and the New York Municipal Archives, I obtained vintage signs, photos and sculptural pieces, and wrote the complete text for the exhibit. The show was later picked up to run for several months at the Manhattan gallery Partners & Spade.
Below are links to the Reliquary page about the show, the text that appeared on-site, and a video in which I talk about the signs.
The idea for Menu Mash-Up sprang from a love of food, as well as a desire to work in the tactile medium of board games. I first designed the prototype using handwritten playing cards and tested it out with friends and family. (It was a hit!) After refining the game for several months, I sent a proposal to Chronicle Books, who picked it up for publication.
The game was released in 2013 to great reviews, and the following year, the Parents' Choice Foundation recognized Menu Mash-Up with a Silver Honor Award in its Toys & Games category. See other accolades on my Awards & Press page.
Menu Mash-Up has been praised as a fun, engaging and beautifully designed game by a number of top organizations and publications.
The Parents' Choice Foundation named it a 2014 Silver Honor Award winner.
The Major Fun site also gave the game a thumbs-up, calling it "silly, sumptuous and absolutely Major Fun."
Tom Vasel and his daughters did a video review of the game and awarded it the Dice Tower Seal of Approval.
In addition, Menu Mash-Up has been featured on sites including Organic Spa, Zagat, Noodle, The Dieline, Trend Hunter, Brooklyn Based and Brokelyn. As the creator, I've also partnered with the food journal Sweets & Bitters, the cooking competition series The Takedowns and Word Bookstore for a series of lively game nights. Finally, two of my biggest supporters have been the Twenty Sided Store and Brooklyn Game Lab, which hosted a blowout event devoted to Menu Mash-Up, with games running at eight tables and 50 copies flying off the shelves in four hours.
Along with Menu Mash-Up, I thought I’d note a few other projects in which I was delighted to participate:
I contributed to the 2019 anthology, Women on Food.
In 2017, a poem I wrote was featured in the public art installation Movie Marquee Poems, in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
I appeared as an extra in the fantastic music video for “Moves,” directed by Tom Scharpling.
