Beth Greenfield

Beth Greenfield received her M.A. in journalism from New York University and has since written about travel, entertainment, gay culture, and parenting for publications including the New York Times, Lonely Planet guidebooks, Out, Time Out New York Kids, and Time Out New York, where she is currently a staff editor. She lives in New York City and Provincetown with her partner and their daughter.

From a Q & A about newly published memoir, Ten Minutes from Home:

Jill Dearman: When did you first start writing about the accident?

Beth Greenfield: I actually started writing about it shortly after it occurred, when I was 12 years old. I got it in my head that I was going to write a book about it, and did so, longhand, on a packet of loose-leaf notebook paper. It was 200 handwritten pages and took me almost a year. The adolescent writing makes me cringe a bit now, but it came in handy, with all of the details that I would've probably forgotten, when I began writing about the accident as an adult, maybe 15 years ago. It would be the topic I'd return to again and again in the many writing workshops I've been enrolled in over the years. But I'd say I became serious about finally turning all of those dribs and drabs into a cohesive book maybe six or so years ago.

JD: Your career as a journalist has thrived over the years. You're an editor at Time Out New York and have written for The New York Times. How has your "day job" helped and/ or hindered you as a creative writer?

BG: It's hindered me time-wise; having deadlines for work that I was getting paid for would always make it easy to justify putting my creative writing on the back burner. So it was crucial for me to actually nab that book deal in order to get it finished! Being a journalist has...[read on]

The Page 99 Test: Ten Minutes from Home.

--Marshal Zeringue