Edie Jarolim has worn many hats, including a sombrero on a one-too-many-margaritas night. She earned a Ph.D. in American literature from New York University and was a guidebook editor at Fodor’s (Random House) and Frommer’s (Simon & Schuster) in New York and Rough Guides in London before moving to Tucson and becoming a freelance writer and editor.

She is the author of four travel guides, including Arizona for Dummies and Frommer’s San Antonio & Austin, and one dog guide, Am I Boring My Dog: And 99 Other Things Every Dog Wishes You Knew. Her articles about food and travel have appeared in Imbibe, National Geographic Traveler, Sunset, The Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, and USA Today, among other national outlets.

She also wrote a memoir about her on-the-road adventures, Getting Naked For Money: An Accidental Travel Writer Reveals All. Publisher’s Weekly said of the book: “Jarolim’s keen sense of humor, coupled with her insider’s perspective, add a fresh spin to this travel memoir.”

Food-related occupations run in her family: Her great-uncle was Sigmund Freud’s butcher in Vienna. As a result of exploring this meaty connection, she has become an expert in a rare Jewish deli specialty called rolled beef.