Nancy Rommelmann

I was born in New York City (RIP, St. Vincent's Hospital), raised in Brooklyn, and did an 18-year stint in Los Angeles, where I became a journalist. This, after the movie star thing did not work out. I am currently based in Portland and New York.

I write about people and how they do and do not fit themselves into the culture, their dreams, delusions, and sometimes criminal behavior.

My work has appeared in many publications offline and online, including the LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Magazine, Reason, Byliner and LA Observed. 

My most recent work includes the novel The Bad Mother (Dymaxicon 2011) and The Queens of Montague Street, a memoir of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. Forty Bucks and a Dream, a collection of journalism and essays, is coming from Dymaxicon in 2012. To the Bridge, a work of nonfiction about Amanda Stott-Smith, who dropped her two young children off a Portland bridge in 2009, is in progress.

My blog can be found here. Contact me at nancyromm (at) gmail (dot) com

LINKS

The Queens of Montague Street

The Bad Mother

Reason.tv Interview

Book Trailer

FAME

No Exit Plan: The Lies and Follies of Laura Albert, aka, JT Leroy. (LA Weekly)

Jena at 15: A Childhood in Hollywood. (LA Weekly)

40 Bucks and a Dream: The lives of a Hollywood Motel (LA Weekly)

CULTURE

Anatomy of a Child Pornographer: What happens when adults catch teenagers "sexting" photos of each other? The death of common sense (Reason Magazine)

Is Portland the New Neverland? Or do Portland's 20-somethings measure success by a new clock? Yes. (The Oregonian)

There Goes the Neighborhood: Race, real estate and gentrification on my block. (Willamette Week)

The Great Alaskan Morel Rush of '05: Guns, bears, cash in the woods. (Los Angeles Times Magazine)

HEARTBREAK

Grief's Gravity:  When Jessica Santillan died of a botched heart-lung transplant, Nancy Rommelmann was nearly swallowed by the story. (LA Weekly)

Who She Took With Her: ... the husband, the son, the boyfriend... a drunk's tale. (LA Weekly)

CRIME

Sacrificing Rebecca: Laurie Recht loved her 14-year-old daughter to death. Literally. (Willamette Week)

Going to Gacy: A Cross-Country Trip to Shake the Devil's Hand (LA Weekly)

To the Bridge: An Introduction

AUTHORS & REVIEWS

William Langewiesche on "The Atomic Bazaar"

Win McCormack on "The Rajneesh Chronicles"