I'm Alison Stein, thanks for stopping by! I write, I art and I teach.

I live and work in Manhattan, where —true story– I was born, raised and survived the 80s. I live with one man, one cat, and one dog, Maggie, who is famous because she is in the intro video to my Skillshare class.

(My cat Jack is a jealous guy -- so here is a drawing of him I made during The 100 Day Project a couple of years ago, for which I did a drawing a day of the people and creatures of New York. This was drawing #89, and the first time I allowed myself to draw my pets for the project, because otherwise that's all I'd have drawn.)

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Anyway, I've left New York City a few times to live other places -- urban, rural, the places in between. But I’ve always boomeranged back here. My plan now is to leave this town permanently only when I'm in a box. Or actually, an urn.

Hmmm, that seemed to take a wrong turn. Where were we? Oh right. Intros. Here comes the part where I impress you.

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I’ve been writing professionally since I graduated from college, which was (late) last century.

I’ve written tens of thousands of words of nonfiction, which were published in many different magazines, newspapers and websites. Many you’ve heard of, many you haven’t. A roughly alphabetical sample includes American Archaeology, Glamour, Inc., Mother Jones, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post, Yoga Journal, among other places.

I even wrote some books and contributed to some anthologies. Along the way, I won some awards and fellowships, and spent several years specializing in travel writing. These things didn't suck.

Wanna read some things I've written? I've collected some of it here.

The Art Part

I took a sabbatical from writing in 2013 and went a little nuts studying and committing various acts of drawing, painting and general art merry-making.

That led to me to start a company called Alison Wonderland Jewelry, which was best known for jewelry laced with profanity. It was a fun little ride, but I learned that I didn't like making the same things over and over again, which was what success looked like in that field. Lesson learned!

I now incorporate illustration and art commissions into my professional practice. I work in many media -- ink, watercolor and gouache-- because when you know how to pronounce that word, you're either really fancy or you're French. Collage, as you can see here, and I also like book making (as in creating books by hand, not gambling) embroidery and other textile arts, also printmaking. Maybe it's faster to say that the only thing I've found that I really DON'T like is pastels. I'm sure I'd love YOUR pastel artworks, but I don't like to touch chalk. Weird, I know.

Wanna see some of my art? Right this way.

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Teaching

I've been teaching for more than a decade, mostly writing, at places around New York including Gotham Writers' Workshop. Some people have said nice things about this experience.

I've taught both live and online. Live classes are fun because I get to give people candy, but online classes are great because they so easily fit into anyone's schedule and allow you to really focus. (And I encourage you to bring your own snacks to my online classes until the technology exists for me to give it to you through the internet. It's only a matter of time.)

I'm very excited to be teaching here too!

Alison Stein

Writer, Artist, and Teacher

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