Beth Adelman has worked as a reporter for a local newspaper, as a lecturer in
writing at NYU, as an academic editor, and as a grants officer at Fordham
University. She has published stories in literary journals and early in her career,
won two BRIO awards for fiction from the Bronx Council on the Arts.

Beth lives in New York City with her husband, a lawyer and musician; they
have two adult children.


One of the best things about growing up near the Jerome Park Reservoir
in the Bronx was biking around that blue body of water. It was freeing
to pedal under the arching branches of the old trees on Sedgwick
Avenue--to speed away from disputes at home and on the streets.

Yet sometimes, my mother and I stood together and watched the
changing light on the reservoir from the picture window in our
apartment in the Amalgamated-Park Reservoir community, built by the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers and other unions. 

From that window, I also saw the park on Sedgwick Avenue, where
refugees and survivors of the war in Europe sat on sunny days. When
I walked there, I glimpsed blue numbers tatooed on an arm; I cannot
forget the subdued men and women on the benches, talking in
Yiddish--the language my parents used for secrets.  

Across the reservoir is the silver dome on the roof of the Bronx High
School of Science, from which I graduated. I earned degrees in
English literature from SUNY Binghamton and Teachers College/Columbia University.