Bethanne Patrick
Executive Editor, Book Riot

Website | @JustBethanne | Attendee Directory Profile

In 2010, Charlotte Abbott stated on Follow the Reader, “Bethanne Patrick is an avid bridge-builder between print journalism, online book programming and TV.”

Patrick has always been an enthusiastic and engaged reader of books, so when she started writing about authors and publishing in 1996, she brought her own interest to the stories she told and the writers she interviewed.

In 2001, after years of freelance writing, Patrick joined the team of PAGES Magazine as editor at large. While at PAGES, Patrick did something few book critics did; she looked beyond the borders of the United States, writing a regular column called “Global View,” focusing on international writers and publishing.

Three years later, in 2004 and long before the digital revolution, Patrick launched the AOL Books Channel, reaching more readers than ever before through the largest web portal in the world and where her book critic channel, “The Book Maven,” was born.

Under “The Book Maven,” Patrick started a blog for Publishers Weekly, became the moderator for Barnes & Noble’s first online book club, “Centerstage,” and began developing “Author, Author,” the first-ever Web-TV show with a book focus.

In April of this year, “Author, Author” relaunched as “The Book Studio,” now a product of WETA-PBS, the Washington D.C. PBS/NPR station. Through “The Book Studio,” Patrick interviews authors in video and audio podcasts, promoting these interviews via Twitter and her blog.

Patrick regularly writes for AARP, People Magazine, The Washington Post Book World, Barnes & Noble Review, and Bookreporter.com. She has also written a book for National Geographic entitled An Uncommon History of Common Things, out now.

Currently, Patrick is working on a memoir entitled Broken.

• Photo credit: Mark Thiessen, National Geographic