Helene Stapinski

Helene Stapinski is the author of three memoirs, including the national best seller, Five-Finger Discount. Stapinski previously wrote the Works in Progress column for The New York Times and currently is a regular contributor across all sections of the newspaper. She has taught journalism and creative writing at Fordham University and New York University and has lectured at Columbia University, where she received her MFA.

Stapinski recently worked as a writer and producer on the documentary of Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History which aired last spring on public television. Her most recent book, Murder in Matera, was released in May and traces a murder in her family in Southern Italy from the 1800s. It was chosen as one of the top summer picks by National Public Radio.

As a freelancer for The New York Times since 1996, she has written for every section of the newspaper, even Sports, where she recounted in a personal essay her college job as NYU’s mascot, the bobcat. Some of her recent high-profile articles for the paper include an op-ed about Italian immigration at the turn of the century, a story about aging punk rockers on the Lower East Side and a piece about lost footage of Marilyn Monroe.

Her work can also be found in Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Columbia Journalism Review, Salon and dozens of other newspapers, magazines and online publications. Stapinski has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, has performed with the Moth Mainstage and has also worked as a radio deejay and newscaster in Nome, Alaska and as a drummer in a New York City rock band.

She has two teenage children, an Australian shepherd and lives with her husband in Brooklyn.

Education

• Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Columbia University in the City of New York (1993 — 1996)
• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) New York University (1983 — 1987)
• Academy of St. Aloysius (1979 — 1983)

Companies

• Journalism Professor New York University (2022)
• Instructor The School of The New York Times (2017)
• Reporter.Writer New York Times/Simon & Schuster (1996)
• Metropolitan columnist The New York Times (2016 — 2018)
• Adjunct Professor, Creative Writing/Journalsim Fordham University (2009 — 2015)
• author Random House (2000 — 2009)
• freelancer Newark Star Ledger (2004 — 2008)
• Correspondent People Magazine (1994 — 1999)
• reporter The Jersey Journal (1989 — 1992)