Marian Betancourt

Marian Betancourt is an author and journalist who writes about food and travel, health and the human condition for a variety of publications. She is the author or co-author of more than a dozen nonfiction books and one mystery novel.

Marian has written more than 20 articles for Associated Press Features including profiles of chefs Daniel Boulud, Michael Lomonaco, Jimmy Bradley, and John Doherty. As a regular contributor to Sante, a restaurant industry magazine, she has written about the cuisines of Portugal and Germany, wild shrimp, and the search for the blue-footed chicken. For Chocolatier Magazine, she wrote the definitive description of the New York chocolate egg cream. Her travel articles for American Heritage online magazine featured the American connection in the Azores, tracing your roots in Germany, and the increasing number of St. Patrick’s Day parades in the United States. Her many stories for Irish America magazine included a profile of Chef Bobby Flay as well as the Moran Tugboat family and the Fighting Irish 69th Brigade. She has written for Woman’s Day, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Travel and Leisure, and Sports Illustrated among many others.

Marian’s travels inspired her to write two cookbooks. The latest one is The New Native American Cuisine: from Ancient Traditions to Modern Tastes, to be published in 2009 by Globe Pequot Press. She initiated this book with the chefs at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa in Phoenix. Their Kai restaurant is the only Triple A 5-diamond Native American restaurant in the nation. Marian’s previous food book, The Texas Hill Country Cookbook: A Taste of Provence, was published in 2007, also by Globe Pequot. She created and co-authored this book with Chef Scott Cohen and it was praised by Jacques Pepin among others. Adding to Marian’s long list of health books, is the 2007 Say Goodbye to Knee Pain written with Jo Hannafin, MD, PhD., and published by Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books division. This is the latest in a series of mass market paperbacks Marian initiated that includes Say Goodbye to Back Pain, (2005), and What’s in the Air: The Guide to Seasonal Allergies (2002).

Born in Staten Island, Marian grew up in Brooklyn. For brief periods of time, she lived in other places (Arizona, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia, even Los Angeles), but always returned to New York and now lives along The Narrows in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. In college Marian studied journalism and literature and she also studied fine arts at the School for Visual Arts in New York.

The first writing job Marian had was for a weekly newspaper in Brooklyn, where she wrote about crime, culture, community affairs, feminism, and personality profiles. Eventually, she became managing editor. From there she moved on to a series of writing jobs in public relations, and non-profit cultural development while freelancing for national magazines and raising her two children as a single mom. Her stories and later, books, have often been inspired by her life experiences, such as a candid and heartfelt story for Sports Illustrated about how her son’s recruitment by college basketball coaches affected the family. Her first book, What to Do When You Get Breast Cancer, published by Little, Brown in 1995 resulted from her own experience with this disease at a time when little was known about it. This led her to seek out appropriate doctors and develop other books about health that are designed to help others help themselves.

Marian is especially proud of her books, Playing Like a Girl: Transforming Our Lives Through Team Sports (Contemporary Books, 2001), and What to Do When Love Turns Violent, 1997, Harper Collins, both praised in The New York Times. The latter was also featured on the Oprah and Montel Williams TV shows.

Zebra in the Water, Marian’s only novel (so far) was inspired by an unusual animal rescue by the NYPD’s 68th precinct during her early years at the Brooklyn newspaper. She also published a short story, “In the Ferry’s Wake,” in Iris, a literary magazine published by the University of Virginia.

All of Marian Betancourt’s books are available online and in many bookstores.

When she is not traveling and writing Marian spends as much time as possible in her city’s art museums and theatres. She is also a volunteer with the Narrows Botanical Garden. She has a grown son and daughter and two granddaughters.