Draut, Tamara 1971(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1971. Education: Ohio University, B.S.J.; Columbia University, M.P.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Demos, 220 5th Ave, 5th Fl., New York, 10001.E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Demos (public policy center), New York, NY, director of economic opportunity program.

WRITINGS:

Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005

Contributor of opinion-editorial articles to numerous newspapers, including Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, and San FranciscoChronicle. Coauthor of public policy reports.

SIDELIGHTS:

As a public policy researcher, Tamara Draut has reported in print and on television about the financial challenges faced by Americans, particularly those of increasing debt and higher education costs and decreasing salaries and available jobs. She couples up-to-date statistics and interviews with information on debt-plagued young adults in her first book, Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead.

In a 2006 interview with theAustinist, Draut stated that a key motivation for writing the book was dispelling some of the major misconceptions about the financial woes faced by young adults in the twenty-first century. She commented, "The finger wagging and simple explanations for why we aren't getting ahead have kept us from questioning the larger system.… If I accomplish anything with my book, I hope it is that I plant the seeds of questioning the status quo and hopefully connect the dots for people in a way that they haven't seen before."

A Publishers Weekly contributor describedStrapped as "incisive and revealing" and "a jarring wake-up call." In a review for Library Journal,Richard Drezen called the book "inescapable and eloquent," further adding: "This vital work should be read by anyone who cares about the future of this country." San FranciscoChronicle reviewer Mary D'Ambrosio found Strapped a "convincing, impressively researched call to arms" and commended Draut for her "fast-paced, informative prose, amply supported by statistics."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business Week, February 6, 2006, Susan Berfield, "Up against It at 25," review of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead, p. 100.

Library Journal, November 15, 2005, Richard Drezen, review ofStrapped, p. 75.

Publishers Weekly, October 31, 2005, review of Strapped, p. 45.

San Francisco Chronicle,January 15, 2006, Mary D'Ambrosio, review of Strapped, p. M1.

ONLINE

Austinist,http://www.austinist.com/ (February 27, 2006), "Austinist Interviews Tamara Draut, Author ofStrapped."

Pop Matters,http://www.popmatters.com/ (December 23, 2005), Jodie Janella Horn, review of Strapped.

Shepherd Express,http://www.shepherd-express.com/ (February 23, 2006), John Dicker, "Young Americans: Welcome to the Impermanent Generation," review of Strapped.

Straight.com,http://www.straight.com/ (March 2, 2006), Tom Snyders, review ofStrapped.

Strapped the Book Web site,http://www.strappedthebook.com (May 1, 2006).