Hi there. I’m Alison Stein Wellner, and welcome to my bio. If you’d like to contact me, drop me a note at alisonstein at gmail.com.
My Published Work
I’m the culinary travel guide for About.com, and I’m also a blogger about luxury travel and more for AOL’s Luxist. I write a weekly essay on travel, culture and more for Perceptive Travel.
I’ve written for American Archaeology, American Style, The Atlantic Monthly’s Food Channel, Boston Magazine, Business Traveler, BusinessWeek, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Continental, Fast Company, Glamour, Huffington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, Men’s Journal, Money, Mother Jones, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Reason, Robb Report, Sierra Magazine, The Street.com, The Travel Channel’s World Hum, US Air magazine, USA Weekend, The Washington Post, Working Mother, Yankee, Yoga Journal, among other places.
I’ve been a a contributing editor at Inc. magazine and former editor-at-large at American Demographics magazine, a New York Times Professional Fellow and a National Press Foundation Fellow, and my articles have won awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the American Society of Business Press Editors. I’m a member of the Society of American Travel Writers.
I started my career writing books, and am the proud author of Americans at Play, which is about trends in outdoor recreation and travel (New Strategist 1997) and Best of Health, which is about trends in health. (New Strategist, 2000).
If you’d like to see a selection of my clips, I’ve got a lot of them here on this site, just click on the Alison’s Portfolio category. If you’re curious about my take on writing, check out this “Successful Freelancer Spotlight” interview that I gave to The Golden Pencil.
Some of my favorite stories recently include one I wrote for Inc. about a National Outdoor Leadership School backpacking trip in Wyoming, one I did for New York magazine about infomercials and a piece for Men’s Journal about how the island of Roatan on Honduras may be changing. Oh, and all of those links in this and the previous paragraph will lead you to clips, so allow your mouse to hover and click.
Where I Travel
Recently, I’ve tackled assignments that took me to Germany, China, Argentina, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, Honduras, South Africa, England and India, and flitted around North America quite a bit in between.
How I Got Started in Writing
This is a question I’m asked a lot, so I thought I’d just officially answer it here.
I was born and raised in Manhattan. Yes, people really do that! I
started freelancing in December 1995, just after I graduated from
college –that would be a semester early, not late, by the way. I had a
degree in Political Science and the idea that I would go to law school.
Thank all that is holy, and my dear friend Wendy, for pointing out to me
that I really was much more excited about the journalism internships
I’d done in high school (especially the one I did with the Daily News
during the Democratic Convention in 1992) than I was by the prospect of
going to law school.
So there I was in Ithaca NY, out of school, without a plan, and in need of money. I started looking for work, and
when I was offered a freelance job, I took it. And then I thought, hey, if I could get one freelance gig, maybe I could get another. And so it went. For a long time, I thought that there were maybe six freelancers in the entire country — so it was a huge shock when I attended the American Society of Journalist’s and Author’s conference, and saw all of those writers!
I still can’t believe how many of us there are out there.
I started out writing about demographics and agriculture, because American Demographics magazine and American Agriculturist magazine happened to be in the Ithaca, NY phone book. (Yup. An actual paper phone book.) I moved on to writing about business, and then I wrote a lot for the women’s magazines, and now, as you know, I’m writing a lot about culture, people, places and travel. Oh, and sometimes about art. And food. Well, I am a generalist, and really, if I have an opportunity to tell a good story, I won’t let the subject matter dissuade me.
Beyond my Writing
The next question is, do I have a life outside of work? Why, yes. After about eight years in various non-urban spots in the northeast, I moved back in Manhattan. When I’m not on the road, my time is spent either here in the city, or in a lovely little cottage in Salisbury, Connecticut.
In either place, I’m hanging out with my my husband Phil, a brilliant and tough and may I add, super-cute, lawyer, and our two fabulous cats, Buzz and Jack. I enjoy jogging, swimming, and bicycling, reading, exploring new places, and eating my husband’s fine fine cooking.
Contact me at alisonstein at gmail.com
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