Michaele’s writing is notable for its historical and psychological sophistication and its humor. This trio of abilities has long been evident:
— Her first book, published in 1978, “A History of Women in America,” written with her college bestie, Carol Hymowitz, a former Wall Street Journal editor and columnist, has sold a quarter of a million copies and is still in print.
— As to psychological insight: She has a long association with New Direction, a writing program for psychotherapists and scholars.
— Regarding humor: she began her freelance magazine career writing humor for Cosmopolitan and she has never stopped writing funny.
Her most recent book, “The Rye Bread Marriage,” (read or listen to an excerpt here) showcases all these capabilities in a narrative exploring the meaning of rye bread, the weight of history and the nature of long-term marriage.
Her coffee book, God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Cup (Wiley, 2008), for which she followed three young coffee buyers around the world, is credited by industry insiders with putting the specialty coffee industry on the map. Sprudge, the popular online coffee publication for which she writes, refers to her as, “the legendary Michaele Weissman.”
Among the publications where her writing has appeared: The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal (where she was a regular contributor); The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Crain’s Chicago Business, Working Mother Magazine (where she wrote and researched the annual cover story celebrating the nation’s “25 Most Influential Working Mothers,”) Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Redbook, The Ladies Home Journal, MS, Saveur, Salon.com and Sprudge.com.
You can read about her books here.
An accomplished home cook, Michaele Weissman is the stepmother of two grown daughters and birth mother of one grown son, all of whom cook, two of whom once owned restaurants. It pleases her to say that all four of her small grandchildren sit down to dinner with their parents.
Michaele Weissman is married to John Melngailis, an emeritus professor of electrical engineering, who owns Black Rooster Food, a small company that markets authentic Latvian rye bread. She lives, writes and cooks in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
She earned a B.A. in European history from Brandeis University where she studied with the medieval history. She is the only person she knows without a graduate degree.
With novelist Sarah Pleydell, she co-leads popular writing workshops sponsored by Politics and Prose, Washington, DC’s beloved independent bookstore.
Watch Michaele Weissman’s discuss her book God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest at Google’s Santa Monica, CA office.