ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For author and journalist, Jeryl Brunner, a good interview is like a tango – complex, soulful, fiery, exciting and illuminating. And she's been dancing for years, contributing to a variety of publications including O, the Oprah Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Delta Sky, Elle.com, ForbesTraveler.com, Four Seasons, People, the Wall Street Journal, Brides, Parade, AOL and Huffington Post.

Jeryl joined In Style magazine in its infancy in 1994, and remained on staff for nine years. As a correspondent at the magazine, she wrote items for nearly every section. One of her regular columns was “On the Phone,” where she gave a celebrity a cell phone and called the star at random during the week. She also wrote “Lookback,” the magazine’s final page. Since beginning her freelance career, she has covered celebrities, travel, trends, food, fashion and entertainment.

“Freelancing offers such a delicious variety of experiences,” says Jeryl. Her work has taken her to the Lord of the Rings premiere in New Zealand; to a luxurious spa in Chiang Mai, Thailand; and to the hospital in St. Remy, France where Vincent Van Gogh painted The Starry Night. “I adore the reporting process,” she says. “It’s like peeling the layers of an onion until you get to the freshest and most pungent part. Always curious, I cannot think of a time when I was afraid to ask questions. As a child, I used to come up with subjects that interested me, but knew little about, and spent hours in the library investigating (that was long before computers and the internet! I miss the card catalog.) There was something so exciting about the quest. Now I get to and ask questions for a living. And with writing, there’s something liberating about having a blank screen and painting with words.”

Jeryl lives in New York City. She cherishes walking along the reservoir in Central Park, is absolutely mad for The Musée Rodin in Paris (especially the Camille Claudel room), will never walk out of a play (no matter how bad it is), wonders if you can say you’ve read a book if you only listen to it, gets a buzz from one sip of pink champagne, always leaves hotel rooms very neat, is gaga for her super cool nephews and has downloaded an embarrassing amount of show tunes on her iPod.

Jeryl Brunner, Author