Joie Davidow

Davidow grew up in the small town of Millville, New Jersey, where both her parents were lawyers. She has two siblings, Jacqueline and Julianne Davidow. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a major in music, then earned a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory. Aspiring to be an opera singer, she went to Rome, Italy to study with Maestro Luigi Ricci, at that time in his 90s, who was a coach at the Opera di Roma when Puccini premiered his operas there.

Davidow moved to Los Angeles, where she co-founded the alternative weekly newspaper, L.A. Weekly, with Jay Levin, a former investigative reporter for the New York Post whom she had known in New York. In 1985, on the heels of the success of the L.A. Weekly, she founded a spin-off magazine, L.A. Style, chronicling the aesthetic of Los Angeles. In 1988, L.A.Style was sold to American Express Publishing. Unhappy with the corporate conversion of what had been an independent publication, Davidow resigned her position as executive publisher and editor-in-chief in January, 1992. The magazine folded nine months later.

In 1995, with colleague Eileen Rosaly, Davidow founded Sí magazine, catering to English-speaking Americans of Latino descent. However, major advertisers remained unconvinced that the Latino market was significant, and the magazine folded in 1997. Davidow subsequently teamed with author Esmeralda Santiago to edit two volumes of memoir, Las Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Share Their Holiday Memories and Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember their Mothers (both published by Vintage), featuring the work of the many authors who were featured in Sí magazine.

Davidow spent part 2000–2001 in Rome, Italy, completing her memoir, Marked for Life, which was published by Harmony in 2003. In 2005, she moved to Rome, where, with colleague Vikki Ericks, she founded the weekly online magazine InRomeNow.com. She currently teaches creative writing workshops and works as a freelance book editor.

• Joie Davidow Anything But Yes Monkfish 2023 |ISBN 1-4363-1186-1
• Joie Davidiow, An Unofficial Marriage, Arcade 2021 {ISBN|978-1950691784}}
• Joie Davidow, I Wouldn't Leave Rome to Go to Heaven 2008 ISBN 1-4363-1186-1
• Joie Davidow, Marked for Life, Harmony 2003, ISBN 978-1-4000-4741-3
• Esmeralda Santiago and Joie Davidow, Las Mamis, Knopf 2000, ISBN 978-0-375-40879-3
• Joie Davidow, Infusions of Healing, Fireside 1999, ISBN 978-0-684-85416-8
• Esmeralda Santiago and Joie Davidow, Las Christmas, Knopf 1998, ISBN 978-0-375-40151-0

• Joie Davidow's official web-site