About Me

  • Although I write quite a bit about travel, food, books, business, and the media, I still consider myself a general assignment reporter and writer. I went freelance so that I could cover the world--no use limiting myself now.

    I'm a contributing editor for American Way, the American Airlines magazine, co-write Flyover America, and have also written for loads of other travel, food, book, and general interest magazines. I've also contributed to guidebooks for Michelin, Mobil Travel Guide, and MapQuest.

    Ready to put my curiosity, strong reporting skills, and wordplay (or photography) to work for your publication? Send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

    (Oh, be sure to visit the haiku diaries where I'm living life 17 syllables at a time.)

American Way: Buffalo
June 15, 2009

June 15 A wee 40 square miles, Buffalo, NY bulges with a vibrant arts scene and a freakishly abundant collection of restaurants featuring both local favorites, such as wings, fish fries, and beef on weck, and imports--head straight to Kentucky Greg’s Hickory Pit for some really good BBQ. Also, and this is meant with love, the city has one of the most fanatical bunches of sports fans around. But don’t take our word for it; just listen to the locals.


Read their recommendations.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Travel |

American Way: Houston
March 15, 2009

Toss that guidebook, because we’ve checked in with a handful of loyal Houston locals [including Chandra Wilson of Grey's Anatomy] for a tour of some of the city's top to-dos. From the big flavors of Houston cuisine to cultural events that attract arts lovers nightly, you’ll quickly see why the city inspires extreme devotion among its residents.

Read their recommendations.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Travel |

World Hum's Flyover America:
Photographers Focus on the 50 States
March 10, 2009

The Works Progress Administration did it. Musician Sufjan Stevens has done a bit of it. Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey got a whole bunch of people to do it. And, um, [my co-writer] Sophia [Dembling] and I are deep into our own version of it.


The it in question? Exploring, one by one, what makes each of the 50 states unique—and looking for the threads that tie them together. Now it’s time to add another to the list: The 50 States Project. Every other month, 50 photos—one from each state—will be posted on the site. Flyover America checked in with Stuart Pilkington, the U.K.-based (we’ll get to that) creator and curator of the project to find out what it’s all about.

Read the interview.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Art, Culture, Travel |

American Way: Oklahoma City
February 1, 2009

The NBA may have lost its Sonic boom, but it's gained a more natural rumble. Following a lawsuit between the SuperSonics organization and its former host city, Seattle, the team's owners moved the franchise to Oklahoma City starting with the current 2008-'09 season. But the franchise didn't just change cities: It changed its identity. Now called the Thunder, the team gives Oklahoma City a permanent presence in the NBA.

In case you find yourself here come game day, check out our poll of the city's biggest boosters--its residents--on the best spots to eat at before and after the game as well as where, besides courtside, to cheer on the mighty Thunder. Since no one can live by basketball alone (okay, some can, but quite frankly, missing out on other Oklahoma City attractions would be a crime against fun and culture and steak), we also asked in-the-know residents for their locals-only knowledge of some of the city’s other must-see spots.

Find out who to see, do, and eat around OKC.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Travel |

American Way: Laugh Tracking
January 1, 2009

It was early 2004, and the heated November presidential election was inching closer by the day. Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon had just wrapped the PBS documentary series about the history of New York theater called Broadway: The American Musical, and they realized that America was tense. “There was something about the moment in time and the country being polarized that made me think, ‘We could use a good joke right now,’ ” Kantor says. Better yet, he thought, a century of good jokes. So Kantor and Maslon set about chronicling the history of humor in the United States for a new book, Make ’Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America (Twelve Books, $45), and its accompanying six-part documentary series of the same name, which will air on PBS in January. The duo gave us the scoop on their entertaining new project.

Read the article.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Books, Culture, Television |

American Way: It's a Hard Rock Life
December 15, 2008

There's no doubt that music fans enjoy telling tales of their favorite rock gods' outrageous behavior as much as they love listening to those artists' tunes. But flip open to almost any page of Lost Genius, a biography by Kevin Bazzana (recently released in paperback) about twentieth-century piano prodigy Ervin Nyiregyházi, and you’ll find that rockers didn’t invent the bad-boy thing. We take a look at Lost Genius as well as three other recent memoirs and biographies to see which musicians have really earned their reputations.

Read the chart(toppers).

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Books, Music |

American Way: (West) Coasting Along
December 1, 2008

Safari schmafari. There's a whole other side to South Africa that's just waiting to be explored.

It’s just cool enough for a light jacket at night. The South African winter is giving way to spring. Soon enough, summer will scorch the land again and the shimmering pink, deep purple, and fiery orange wildflowers that now coat the country’s west coast will disappear. Dry earth will rule. But on this night, that’s all far from the minds of the people gathered atop the roof of a salmon-colored guesthouse in the small town of Garies. Instead, the crowd is focused on a woman not even five feet tall.

Read the full article.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Travel |

Executive Travel: The Truffle Shuffle
December 2008

Katrina Wilhelm can't quite remember what sparked her interest in becoming a truffle farmer. "It was either an article, or some sort of news caption, or a dog show. It occurred to me: What could be better than digging in the dirt with your dog? I’m a gardener, love to garden, love digging in the dirt, and I love my dog. For me, this is bliss.”"

Wilhelm has plenty of dirt to dig in these days. This winter, she'll plant 2,000 inoculated hazelnut trees on her 10-acre farm in Santa Rosa, Calif. She expects her truffière—the French word for truffle orchard—to start producing Black Périgord truffles in three years.

Read the article.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Business, Food and Drink |

American Way: Columbus
November 15, 2008

Cover Ohio’s capital may be best known for going Buckeye wild for its Big Ten football team, but the locals are also ardent admirers of the city’s thriving art scene, the challenging hiking trails in the Hocking Hills, and the deep-fried pickles at the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern.

Get to-do, to-eat, and to-see recommendations from Columbus locals.

Posted by Jenna Schnuer |

AA.com/women:
Adventure Girl Tries Hang Gliding...Eventually
October 2008

Poker will never be my game. No matter how much I try to control them, my emotions play my face like an Etch A Sketch ® , redrawing my expression and giving my true thoughts away to anybody who cares to look. While, most days, it's not a problem, it does tend to bring on, "Are you okay?" questions when the adventure-of-the-moment gets delayed.


Posted by Jenna Schnuer in Sports, Travel |

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