Meet
Gali Kronenberg
After earning my degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, I spent over 30 years as a journalist, ghostwriter, and writing coach, helping over 100 writers publish with major outlets like HarperCollins and Penguin Random House.
My work has let me bear witness to the breadth of human experience—ghostwriting for a European Prime Minister who fought Nazis, profiling a grandmother on crack, and editing a book about the socialites and scoundrels of a wealthy Shanghai family.
A conversation in Moscow with former Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panić and Russia’s first post-Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Kozyrev.
When I rescued a drowning woman from a Beijing lake, the press called me 'Foreign Lei Feng'—comparing me to a revolutionary icon a billion people were told to emulate.
Tap to read the English translation ⌃
Comrade Lei Feng — Maoist China's legendary model soldier
I've interviewed lepers in West Africa, students and soldiers in Tiananmen Square, and Silicon Valley moguls—people who'd lost everything and people who seemed to have it all.
Tiananmen Square, 1989.
Photo: Gali Kronenberg
Gulab Hadke, three months after cataract surgery — Tansa Valley, India.
Photo: Gali Kronenberg
One of my most affectionate interviews — Höchkönig Alps, Austria.
At the LA Times, I wrote about California's schemers, dreamers, and believers. What made those stories intriguing wasn't just the subject— but the contradictions: the self-deceptions and big hearts. The sorrow and humor. What Whitman called the multitudes within each of us.
That's what I teach:
HOW TO BRING CHARACTERS TO LIFE ON THE PAGE.
Mopti, Mali — first day of Ramadan.
Photo: Gali Kronenberg
I learned to see what people aren't saying by being an outsider early on. As a gay teen in the '70s, I learned to read rooms, to catch the shifts that signal danger or acceptance. A year on a kibbutz as a child showed me I felt more at home abroad—that discovery sent me to live as an adult in China, France, India, and Argentina.
Years of MINDFULNESS practice taught me to sit with discomfort without turning away—a skill essential for any writer willing to tell hard truths.
And years of reading taught me what James Baldwin knew: you think your pain is unprecedented, but then you read. Writing turns private anguish into shared recognition. It bridges solitude.
It's why I teach writers to face their deepest truths without flinching. To write with honesty instead of armor. To unearth the story only they can tell.
This studio is a home for writers—a space to experiment, grow, and write with courage.
Ready to work one-on-one?
Shape your memoir, book, or creative project with personalized guidance.