Joel Samberg

Joel Samberg, a resident of Connecticut, is an author, journalist, and corporate communications writer. He began writing professionally at the age of 17 as a stringer for his hometown newspaper, and continued his on-the-job training as a student journalist at Hofstra University, from which he graduated in 1979 with a degree in communication arts. He began his career later that year as an assistant editor on a video industry trade magazine, followed by a similar position on a photo industry trade magazine. He then moved into marketing communications as an employee and corporate communications manager. In 2003 Joel became a full-time freelance marketing communications writer and a regional journalist. As a copywriter he has written many successful websites, direct mail brochures, ads, press releases and case studies. As a journalist his features, essays, columns, trade articles and theatre reviews have appeared in many print and online publications. Joel is the author of three nonfiction books, most recently "Some Kind of Lonely Clown: The Music, Memory, and Melancholy Lives of Karen Carpenter" (BearManor Media, 2016). He has also written a book about his grandfather, the noted novelty songwriter, Benny Bell, called "Grandpa Had a Long One: Personal Notes on the Life, Career and Legacy of Benny Bell." Several years ago he published a Kindle about his New Jersey-to-Connecticut relocation, called "I Would Rather Have Root Canal Once a Week for the Rest of My Life Than Ever Buy a House Again," a true story which he notes still gives him nightmares. Two of Joel's plays have been brought to life on stage: "Six Tens from a Fifty," a series of short comedies,, was performed by the Love Creek Theater Company in New York City in 2007, and "The Ballad of Bobby Blue," a one-act, debuted at the Phoenix Stage Company in Connecticut in 2013. He is currently working on a novel, "Almost Like Praying," and a screenplay, "Menagerie." Submitted on January 26, 2018