Beth Macy

Beth Macy was born in Urbana, Ohio, to a factory-worker mother and a housepainter father. She studied journalism at Bowling Green State University and earned a creative writing MFA from Hollins University. From 1989 to 2014, she wrote for the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia. Her first book, Factory Man, was published in 2014. The book looked at the effects of globalization on a major furniture-maker based in a small town in Virginia. Macy is perhaps best-known for her most recent book, Dopesick, which looks at the causes and effects of the opioid crisis and which was adapted into a streaming mini-series in 2021. Currently, Macy writes essays and op-eds for the New York Times.