On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA April - May 2017 | Page 16

MEMBER PROFILE
Hall of Fame
J E A N S TA R R
Fashion Weaves Its Way
Through Prinzing’s Work
Debra Prinzing started
out in the fashion
industry with a B.A.
from Seattle Pacific
University in textiles
and clothing. She
changed her focus to
magazine journalism
in her senior year
and studied at the
Fashion Institute of
Technology in New York City, where she landed
an internship at Seventeen magazine. After
graduation she took a job with the magazine’s
marketing department and eventually was
named editor of one of Seventeen’s niche
publications.
“I was only 22 and I thought I had hit the
lottery,” Debra recalls. “That began my crash
course in reporting, writing, editing, editorial
planning and production. I’m so grateful for
that experience.”
It was back home on the West Coast that
she took a job she feels was a stepping-stone
to the career she has now. From 1988 to 1998,
Debra worked for the Puget Sound Business
Journal, a Seattle weekly where she held
reporting and editing positions. “I worked for
some amazing editors who trained me on the
job and gave me a chance to hone my inter-
viewing skills and the ability to write fast and
on deadline. I have never suffered writer’s block
because of that,” she said.
I MME R SED IN G AR D E N I N G
Debra discovered her second passion when
she and her husband became new home-
owners, and her interests drifted toward
landscaping. By the time they moved to their
second home, she was immersed in nursery
shopping and plant books. By then she had
moved from newspapers to non-profit public
relations. It wasn’t a good fit, and she remem-
bers sitting in her office thinking, “I want to
be a garden writer.”
She approached the movement toward
a new subject matter by becoming a King
County, Washington, Master Gardener in 1998
16
In 2016, Debra Prinzing was named to
GWA’s Hall of Fame, the highest honor
bestowed upon a member whose life
and career have reflected and advanced
the objectives of the organization. Hall
of Fame candidates are nominated by
the membership, recommended by the
Honors Committee and elected by the
Board of Directors. Members of the
Hall of Fame are excused from dues.
Former GWA President Debra Prinzing has parlayed interest in textiles and fashion into writing about
gardening, interior and exterior design and American-grown flowers. She founded Slow Flowers to promote
and support American-grown cut flowers for the floral and consumer trade.
and enrolling in the landscape horticulture
program at South Seattle Community College.
“The design series, plant ID and propagation
coursework really gave me the language and
confidence to write more knowledgably about
the topics I loved, or at least to know what
questions to ask,” Debra recalled.
She met Marianne Binetti—author, colum-
nist and Master Gardener teacher—while work-
ing at a nursery that had hired Binetti to teach.
“She became my mentor-cheerleader and she
introduced me to Garden Writers,” said Debra.
N E WS PAPERS A N D MAGA Z INES
For a while, Debra’s floral writing was a
subset of her home and garden writing. She
became a regular contributor to the Los Angeles
Times and magazines like Cottage Living, Better
Homes and Gardens, Fine Gardening and Sunset.
Her first four books (published between 2002
and 2005) focused on gardening in the Pacific
Northwest. She branched out in 2008 with
Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, which
featured more than 30 sheds from both sides
of the country. Debra’s breakthrough work,
The 50 Mile Bouquet, was published in 2012;
Slow Flowers came out the following year.
The floral theme began to evolve in 2006
when she met some local cut flower farmers
while on a garden scouting trip to Washing-
ton’s Skagit Valley. Debra credits best-selling
author Amy Stewart’s 2007 book, Flower
Confidential, as a major eye opener and the cat-
alyst for changing attitudes about the flower
industry.
TR A NS F ERRIN G KNOWL E DGE
Debra feels her professional success is based
on possessing crossover subject expertise that
allowed her to diversify. She took a solid foun-
dation in textiles and design and built a career
writing about interior design and architecture