Jeryl Brunner Bio

Jeryl Brunner has worked as a professional journalist and writer for 15 years. She joined In Style in its infancy in 1994, and remained on staff for nine years. As a correspondent at the magazine, she wrote items for nearly every section of the magazine. One of her regular columns was “On the Phone,” where she gave a celebrity a cell phone and called the star at random during the week. She also wrote “Lookback,” the magazine’s final page. Since beginning her freelance career in 2003, she has covered travel, trends, celebrities, food, fashion, and entertainment.

In addition to her work at In Style, Jeryl has contributed to National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Delta Sky, Elle.com, ForbesTraveler.com, Four Seasons, People, Us Weekly, Brides, amNewYork, and other publications. Jeryl has written cover stories for Travel Savvy and Hamptons. She profiled notable New Yorkers for Gotham, including Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni, Anthony Bourdain, and writer Amy Fine Collins. For several years, she had a weekly advice column for Woman’s World magazine, in which she asked celebrities and other luminaries to answer readers’ questions.

Jeryl's first book, My City, My New York, was published in 2011. In her column for PW Booklife.com, the consumer publication from Publisher’s Weekly, Jeryl asked notable authors, actors, and directors (Frank McCourt, Wynton Marsalis, David Cronenberg) about the book that changed their life. She contributed to Henry Dunay: A Precious Life, a biography about the famed jewelry designer.

“Freelancing offers such a delicious variety of experiences,” she says. Her work has taken her to the Lord of the Rings premiere in New Zealand; to a luxurious spa in Chiang Mai, Thailand; and to the hospital in St. Remy, France where Vincent Van Gogh painted The Starry Night. “Working with Honeymoons.about.com not only allows me to travel, which is my great passion, I love uncovering interesting details about each property I review and sharing them with readers,” says Jeryl.

“I adore the fact-finding process; it’s like peeling the layers of an onion until you get to the freshest and most pungent part. Always curious, I cannot think of a time when I was afraid to ask questions. As a child, I used to come up with subjects that interested me, but knew little about, and spent hours in the library investigating (that was long before computers and the internet! I miss the card catalogue.) There was something so exciting about the quest. Now I get to and ask questions for a living. And with writing, there’s something liberating about having a blank screen and painting with words.”

A graduate of New York University where she studied drama and politics, Jeryl Brunner also holds a law degree from New York Law School.

Jeryl lives in New York City. She cherishes walking though Central Park, is absolutely mad for The Musée Rodin in Paris (especially the Camille Claudel room), will never walk out of a play (no matter how bad it is), loves the crackling sound of walking on snow, wonders if you can say you’ve read a book if you only listen to it, gets a buzz from one sip of pink champagne, always leaves hotel rooms very neat, and has downloaded an embarrassing amount of show tunes on her iPod.

Jeryl Brunner
jeryl@jerylbrunner.com