Dianne Jacob was born in Vancouver, Canada, the first-generation daughter of Iraqi Jews from Shanghai. Her dad, an amateur poet and songwriter, gave her writing assignments from a tender age. One of her first poems was about a frog with gastro-intestinal distress. She wrote about her parents in this essay, The Meaning of Mangoes: http://luckypeach.com/the-meaning-of-mangoes/In her 20s Dianne graduated from journalism school and became a newspaper reporter and editor. She later moved to the US to work on two international magazines and a city magazine as a top editor. Her last full-time position was as editor-in-chief of Books That Work, an interactive book publisher in the Silicon Valley.Since 1996 Dianne has been an author, writing coach, freelance editor and writer, teacher and speaker. She has led workshops around the world, including in London, Ireland, Australia, Dubai and Hawaii. She is a popular speaker at many conferences.Her first book, Will Write for Food, won the 2005 international Cordon D'Or Award for Literary Culinary Reference. Her second edition in 2010 won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in its category. The third edition of Will Write for Food came out in July, 2015. She has also authored two books with chef Craig Priebe: The United States of Pizza (September 2015) and Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas.Dianne started a blog on food writing in 2009, also called Will Write for Food, aimed at food bloggers, food writers, and cookbook authors. For more information, see her website at http://www.diannej.com.