Our Team

Alina Tugend,
Writer

Alina Tugend

I listen to people talk about their lives and then write a book about them, so their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren can read their stories.

Favourite book
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Six-word memoir
Optimistic pessimist who never gave up

Chops

  • Started my journalism career with United Press International in Rhode Island, then moved on to various newspapers around the country as a staff reporter
  • Received a fellowship for journalists to study for a year at Yale Law School, culminating in a Master of Studies in Law
  • Worked as a correspondent in London writing about U.K. universities for the Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Wrote the award-winning biweekly column “Shortcuts” for the New York Times from 2005 to 2015
  • Wrote  Better by Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong. (Riverhead, 2011) and  contributed a chapter to Mistakes I Made at Work: 25 Influential Women Reflect on What They Got Out of Getting It Wrong

Deepest fear
Harm to one of my sons