Bestselling editor Ruth Andrew Ellenson takes a wild ride: "I'm a case study for the haphazard road to a career in journalism," says Magazine Writing instructor Ruth Andrew Ellenson. She was working at a dot-com in L.A., fresh out of Columbia's MFA program, when she got the media bug. She doggedly pursued an editor at People for an assignment, and eventually "he succumbed -- tenacity is key."

She doesn't even remember what her first article was about. "I was just happy to take what I could get, and knew if I proved myself it could lead to better things." Soon she was interviewing rock stars and covering the red carpet scene. From there she moved on to more serious journalism at The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Forward, where she broke a story about The Wall Street Journal hiding Daniel Pearl's Israeli identity when he was kidnapped.

Journalism eventually brought Ruth back to publishing. While talking with an editor about a piece for Heeb, she came up with the idea for her best-selling anthology, The Modern Jewish Girls' Guide To Guilt, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2005. Now at work on a novel, she continues to freelance for The New York Times, The LA Times, and other publications.

Check out Ruth's Magazine Writing: Intermediate

-Amanda Barrett