Joel Samberg, a resident of Avon, Connecticut, is an author, journalist, and public relations/corporate communications copywriter. He began writing professionally at the age of 17 as a stringer for his hometown newspaper, The Westbury Times, and continued as a student journalist at Hofstra University, from which he graduated in 1979 with a degree in communication arts.

He began his career as an assistant editor on video and photo industry trade magazines, then moved into marketing communications for several large firms as an account executive, public relations manager; and employee communications writer.

As a full-time freelance marketing communications writer and a regional journalist, he has written many websites, direct mail brochures, ads, press releases and case studies, and his features, essays, columns, blogs, trade articles and theatre reviews have appeared in many print and online publications, including Hartford Magazine, New Jersey Monthly, Dramatics Magazine, Moment Magazine, the Daily News Magazine and others.

Joel is the author of four nonfiction books, the latest of which is Some Kind of Lonely Clown: The Music, Memory, and Melancholy Lives of Karen Carpenter (BearManor Media). This followed a report he wrote and recorded for NPR’s “All Things Considered” on the legacy of Ms. Carpenter, which became one of the most popular programs on the radio network in 2013.

Two of Joel’s plays have been brought to life on stage: Six Tens from a Fifty was performed by the Love Creek Theater Company in New York City in 2007, and The Bittersweet Ballad of Bobby Blu debuted at the Phoenix Stage Company in Naugatuck, CT in 2013.

Joel and his wife Bonnie have three grown children.