5/22/2009:
High-school graduation brings about a feeling of change and a time for new beginnings. Countless North Dakota graduates have been bitten by the "Adventure Bug," yearning for excitement, fame and fortune in the Big City.
One such teen was Sally Koslow. After graduating from Central High School in Fargo, in May of 1966, Sally pursued a degree in English from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. College graduation and her adventurous spirit took her to Europe, seeing the sights and soaking in the Old World atmosphere with friends.
With Europe still in her blood and a dream of working in publishing, Sally made the gutsy move from Fargo to Manhattan. No one bothered to tell Sally that one needed "connections" to land a job at a New York fashion magazine. With her North Dakota values and her own confessed "ignorance," Sally simply applied to Conde Nast Publications and garnered a job at Mademoiselle magazine.
Since those early days in Manhattan, Sally has earned the respect of the magazine world and worked her way to the top. Her credentials include Editor in Chief at the long-published McCall's magazine, Editor in Chief of Lifetime magazine, and contributing author to a long list of women's magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Health, Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal. Sally teaches at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, and is a faculty member at both the Algonkian Novel Workshop and the New York Writers Workshop. And in her free time, Sally managed to author a book called Little Pink Slips - a semi-auto biographical tale of a Fargo girl who makes her way to the big city of New York, and becomes Editor in Chief of one of the nation's leading women's magazines. The magazine is taken over by a plus-sized celebrity with zero job experience, and eventually runs the magazine into the ground. Little Pink Slips has been compared to The Devils Wears Prada - exposing the "behind-the-scenes" magazine world that most readers only dream about.
From editing the Fargo High School newspaper as a teen, to her internship at the Fargo Forum, to careers at countless women's magazines, Sally Koslow has proven one thing - fame and fortune can be found in the Big City, with a little help from her North Dakota roots.
Dakota Datebook written by Jill Whitcomb
Sources:
Personal e-mails from Caitlin Brown, Berkley/NAL Publicity, Penguin Group, NYC
SallyKoslow.com.-the Author-bio (http://www.sallykoslow.com/content/author.asp)
Bookreporter.com-Author profile-Sally Koslow (http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-koslow-sally.asp)
Suite101.com-Sally Koslow: Former McCall's Editor Pens Novel on Magazine Life (http://womensfiction.suite101.com/article.cfm.little_pink_slips)
Better Homes and Gardens -June 2008 issue, pages 125-128