About

This is Ronan, the big-headed love of my life. Everyone calls me Betsy, though I was officially born an Elizabeth. I started my career as a 24-year-old journalist for the Associated Press in Athens, Greece, and I have been writing all sorts of things ever since.

My stories have appeared in The New York Times’ Modern Love column, The Boston Globe, Food & Wine, The Washington Post and New York Magazine. One of my personal essays about my ex-husband’s amazing recipe for “divorce potatoes” is responsible for most of my weight gain and was the third most popular food story in The Washington Post in 2019. I was also delighted to have actress/comedian Abbi Jacobson choose my Modern Love column for the podcast. I’ve recently completed a memoir and have been working on a novel.

My father is a Hungarian immigrant, and I grew up just outside Youngstown, Ohio, home of the best pizza you’ll ever have. In my spare time, I take care of injured songbirds and raptors at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science and give astrology readings. I wrote an essay for the LA Times about what it was like to do my mother’s chart, decades after she died.

A few years ago, I traded NYC for Vermont, where I live with my partner and our three dogs. (Cute pics available here.) Message me if you’d like to say hello. I love hearing from people.