Laura Fraser is the author, most recently, of All Over the Map (Harmony Books, 2010), which Booklist called “a winning coming-of-middle-age memoir.” Her previous book, An Italian Affair (Pantheon, 2001), was a New York Times best-selling travel memoir. Her first book, Losing It: America’s Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It(Dutton, 1995), was a ground-breaking and award-winning exposé of the diet industry.Laura has been a freelance writer since she graduated from Wesleyan University in 1982, and has never otherwise held a full-time job. She published her first piece in the Jerusalem Post while volunteering on an Israeli kibbutz, which led her to realize she could actually make a career of traveling and writing. Over the years, she has written on a wide range of topics, particularly focusing on women’s health issues, travel, personal essays, and food as a way in to the hearts of other cultures.