In 2014, I was neck deep in pink tulle, because my toddler was princess obsessed, a state of affairs I found perplexing and even worrying. Sometimes I write as a way to process, to vent, and to make fun of myself. In the spirit of the latter, I wrote a humor piece called Turn Your Princess Toddler Into a Feminist in 8 Easy Steps. The New York Times published it, and it went viral. This piece received more responses and feedback than anything else I had ever written, and I started researching the topic of princess obsessed girls. The research became a book – The Feminist’s Guide to Raising a Little Princess.
But long before any of that princess stuff happened, I worked as a writer, journalist, essayist and humorist. I wrote the ‘Coming to America’ column for The New York Times, which chronicled our family’s overseas move. I was the Jerusalem correspondent for The New York Daily News. Under the pen name Jasmine Schwartz, I wrote the Melissa Morris mystery series about a thirty-something New Yorker whose search for herself is constantly interrupted by the discovery of dead bodies.
My articles, essays and humor have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, The US News and World Report, The Forward, The Rumpus, Redbook, The Christian Science Monitor, Stir Journal, Good Housekeeping, Purple Clover, The Hairpin and other publications.
I love writing humor and I’m a proud and frequent contributor to McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, where my pieces sometimes go viral and then get mentioned on MSNBC and Boston public radio and tweeted by Patton Oswalt. It’s a hoot!
I grew up in the suburbs of NYC and have lived in Israel and Luxembourg – that’s where I am now, with my husband and two kids. If you want to work with or contact me, click the little envelope icon on my McSweeney’s page, and while you’re there, have a look around the site because laughter triggers the release of endorphins. There’s also an old school contact form below.
I’m represented by Jody Kahn of Brandt and Hochman Literary Agency. Contact: jkahn@bromasite.com.